by Chloe Garner
“Yes. I am.”
“You’re the reason Ginger ended up off her nut, aren’t you?” Tina asked after another moment. Hunter laughed.
“I won’t go that far,” he said. “Ginger’s an awful lot too strong for me to get all the credit, though I doubt I helped much.”
“The woman that drank all the alcohol for you so that you could get drunk,” Tina said after another minute. “Did you sleep with her?”
Hunter looked at her with careful but warm eyes for several moments, then he shook his head.
“Was a guy,” he said. “And there are plenty who make no distinction, but I only dig girls.”
“You paid a guy to get himself blackout drunk so that you could feed on him and get drunk because you were that afraid of coming here and telling us what happened with Sophie?” Tina asked.
Hunter rolled onto his back to talk to the ceiling, now.
“Only way I was going to make it here,” he said. “Get rid of distractions.”
Tina got up and walked across the space between one end of the sectional to the other, laying down against the back of the couch there next to him so that her face could rest on his chest.
“I don’t want you to die,” she said. He laughed again.
“Aw, you’re sweet.”
The fountains were just leaving when Tell got back.
“The apartment smells like a movie theater,” he said, going to the fridge and pouring himself a glass of blood.
“We had a great night,” Hunter said, hopping up onto a stool. “How was yours?”
“Oh?” Tell asked. “You two kiss and make up again?”
“No,” Tina said. “But I sniped him in the head three times by accident.”
“Ah,” Tell said. “Oberon was hiding out downtown at a dive bar where they let him sleep during the day.”
“I called it, didn’t I?” Tina answered.
“Bored,” Tell answered. “I think I may take some time off of cases for a bit. They’re all getting predictable.”
Tina scratched her chin.
“You’re saying that you’ve gotten to be such a good detective that you’re going to quit being a detective?” Tina asked, and he grinned.
“More or less. What else did you guys do tonight?”
“Y’know,” Tina said with a shrug. “Not much.”
“Because Hunter needs to get settled in,” Tell said. “I counted six sentries on my way in today, and I doubt I caught them all.
Tina looked over at Hunter, who hung his head.
“I’ll put together a shopping list for my gear,” he said. “I need to be able to take meetings, if I’m going to have any hope of maintaining my empire after this.”
Tell nodded.
“I’ll do some digging tonight, see if I can figure out what’s really going on right now, but we all know it isn’t going away any time soon.”
“You’ve hunted bounties before,” Tina said.
“Only when it’s convenient,” Tell answered. “When it overlaps with something else I’m doing. Turning them in is a chore.”
“Head in a box and all that,” Tina said.
“Have to look up an address and make sure it’s packed in enough peanuts,” Hunter added.
“Is that how you do it?” Tina asked, and he laughed. “Anyway, you must know some of the tactics and what they’re thinking,” Tina went on.
“Same thing as you,” Tell said. “Looking at hiring a helicopter, buying directional explosives, like that.”
Tina felt her face drop just a fraction, and Tell nodded.
“Yeah, if you’re asleep in your room and hear explosions and shouting and guns and stuff, you should probably stay put.”
She gave him a dark look.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Actually,” Hunter said. “They might come in and stab you a few times for good measure. Hurts like hell, especially during the day, but they want to make sure you don’t come in after them when they come for me. Because I’m going to go down fighting. Worth keeping in mind that it isn’t going to kill you.”
“Even if they leave a sword sticking out of your chest,” Tell said.
“Even if they leave a sword sticking out of your chest,” Hunter agreed.
“That actually happened, didn’t it?” Tina asked.
“Free sword,” Hunter nodded.
Tina shuddered at the thought.
“She should carry something bigger than the prick sticker she’s got there in her boot, when she goes out,” Hunter observed, and Tell nodded.
“She’s got a concealed-carry license, so she can keep a gun on her, but that just doesn’t do enough damage.”
“What do you want, a chainsaw?” Tina asked. Tell grinned.
“Actually, the modern era ushered in a whole new class of were-killing gear, and the pole saw was immediately my favorite.”
Tina gagged.
“So what do you think she can get away with?” Hunter asked.
“Not a pole saw,” Tell said conversationally. “Bigger knife, maybe, but nothing hip-mounted, really. They’re touchy about that kind of thing, these days.”
“How would they come after me?” Tina asked.
“Taser is okay,” Tell said. “Clubs. Big knives. Crossbow. I saw a guy with a crossbow coming out of Partridge last week, and it was like, dude, when was the last time I saw one of those?”
“Crossbow,” Tina said. “Why? A bullet doesn’t do enough damage to me. Why would a crossbow be better?”
“Shaft stays in,” Hunter said. “Can’t heal around that sucker without pulling it out, which hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”
“I don’t even want to think about that,” Tina said. “You’ve done it?”
“Gunpowder wasn’t always everywhere,” Tell said. “The first time you get in a really big fight, your brain is going to forget you’re a vampire and it’s going to try to go into shock when you get wounded. You have to just overcome that. You don’t need to go into shock, you don’t want to go into shock, and you aren’t going to bleed out. Your internal organs are not irreparably damaged. Getting stabbed in the heart doesn’t change anything. It just hurts. Okay?”
Tina blinked at him.
“What century are we living in?” she asked.
“Says the chick who stabbed a fiend in the throat yesterday,” Hunter said, grinning. “Look, I don’t do that stuff. I’m a businessman and a playboy and a layabout. You’re the one who decided to take up with a guy who gets in fights for a living.”
“Layabout,” Tina said, amused.
“Your best bet is mostly to run,” Tell said. “If you’re cornered, you fight, and you fight like your life depends on it, but you’re going to be faster and more nimble than most of them are going to find it worth chasing down.”
Tina looked from one to the other of them, then rolled her eyes.
“Actually, what I’m going to do is go to bed, and tonight I’m going to get up and Tell is going to order room service. After that, we will figure out what all three of us plan on doing for employment and entertainment until this is done.”
Tell nodded.
“I like it,” he said.
Tina looked over her shoulder, as if she could see the breaking dawn outside, then she nodded.
“All right, my skin is crackling. I’m going to go lay down and pretend like any of this is normal.”
“Rest well,” Tell said.
“See you tonight,” Hunter added. She shook her head.
“And you two get to stay up for another hour,” she said. “Not fair.”
“You’ll get there,” Tell said. “You’re doing well.”
“Yeah,” she said. “You keep telling me that until I believe it.”
He grinned.
“You got it.”
They really did sit up and talk for another two hours, including Tina in the conversation as though she was sitting with them and simply otherwise occupied. It was charming and madd
ening at the same time, as she found time and again that she had things she wanted to say to them.
All the same, it made the first couple hours of the day pass more quickly, and the whole thing felt less burdensome to her. When she got up the next night, Tell had three fountains waiting downstairs, and she fed readily.
The young man that Kirsten sent this time reminded her of a guy from one of her classes in college that she’d had a crush on, and the way he looked at her from the moment she came into sight up on the balcony made her skin run electric. There was no small talk, no attempt to ingratiate himself to her. He took a knee and let his arms drop to the side, and he watched her every step as she approached him. There was nothing private about the moment. His eyes held hers, a sort of enchanted confidence that was different enough to shake Tina loose of all of her normal awkwardness about walking up to a man and biting him.
He put his hand on her knee as she fed, sliding it up her thigh as he breathed, and she found her own hand comfortably around the far side of his neck, her fingers in his hair. She breathed with him, and his fingers dug into her thigh.
She had her fill and her fangs retracted. She ran her tongue over the spot on his neck where the holes were already closing over, then she kissed the spot hard with an open mouth, and his fingers dug in harder. His breathing caught.
Power.
There was such power to it.
The flat fingers of his other hand were creeping up her other thigh when she turned her face away, straightening and almost remembering herself. The look he gave her from there on one knee on the floor… She almost went back again to kiss his mouth.
Almost.
She turned away and went into the kitchen, blinking fast as she tried to figure out what had happened. The elevator opened again and the humans got on, and Tina looked back at Tell and Hunter, who were both watching her from the entryway.
“I think we found her type, what do you think?” Hunter asked.
Tina ran the back of her wrist across her mouth, feeling for a blush in her cheeks that would never be there again.
“Shut up,” she said. He shrugged.
“If you want him, you ought to take him,” he said. “Doesn’t matter to me.”
She crossed her arms.
“Why would you think that what you think matters to me?” she asked. “You’ve made it clear that you don’t have any interest in being with me. Especially not now.”
Hunter looked at Tell.
“Did I say that?” he asked.
Tina was overreacting.
She felt it even as she did it, but she’d been so… out of control. Out of control in a way that she hadn’t ever let herself be, before. She’d never been drunk, never tried drugs, never had a one night stand. She was too measured, to intentional.
But that look.
It still sent sparks across her skin.
“I’m going to the office,” she said. “Someone needs to check on the mail and water the plants.”
“I don’t have any plants,” Tell said.
“Are you sure?” Tina asked. “When was the last time you were there?”
She went and got her coat out of the closet, pushing the button for the elevator and waiting an uncomfortably long time for the car to arrive, then she got on.
Neither man said anything to her as the doors closed.
The office was dusty.
She could smell it.
She could see it.
It was everywhere.
She spent two hours cleaning everything before she even touched the mail, finding mostly junk mailers and bills that Tell persisted in having sent by paper even as he paid them online through automated payments.
Old man.
There was a hand-written letter from an old client that Tina put into a desk drawer where he would find it, along with the file folder for that case, so that he could put it away after he read it.
And then there was the weird one.
It was postmarked from three days before, and it contained a folded, shaped piece of wire like a craft made out of a paperclip or like one of the hairpieces that Tina had never had enough hair to hold up. She held it up to the light, twisting it between her fingers with a sense of familiarity and contentment - she’d loved fidgeting with paperclips while she’d worked at her old job - and then she opened the letter.
Dear Mr. Tell,
I know I’m not supposed to contact you, but I wanted you to know that I’m doing well and I still think about you often. Everything you did for me. I must ask you one more favor, though. My brother is in trouble, and he doesn’t know anything about how to survive the kind of trouble you got me out of. Please. Please. Find him and send him to me.
All my love and gratitude,
X
Tell getting gratitude letters was hardly uncommon. He got two or three a month, on average, and his stack of Christmas cards was obscene.
He did things that mattered to people.
This, though, was different.
Tina frowned at it, going to check the postmark, and finding it came from Phoenix, Arizona.
An odd place for Tell to have a fan, Tina thought, though she knew that the desert wasn’t any more sunny than anything else at the same latitude.
She read it once more, then picked up her phone and called Tell.
She heard his phone ring out in the hallway, and she hung up as he opened the door to the office, holding up his phone. It stopped ringing and he put it away.
“That was quite a performance,” he said. “I think you may have actually hurt Hunter’s feelings. I wasn’t aware he still had any.”
Immediately the bitter came back and Tina shook her head.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
“Oh, but you need to,” Tell said. “That was not like you. And I don’t know if it’s because you’re having a bad day or if it’s because you’ve got to learn to cope with some new facet of your personality that wasn’t there before, but you can’t let that go past and just ignore it.”
She licked her lips, trying to find the point in the knot of anger and guilt and surprise that made the most promising beginning, then she just picked up the letter and held it up for him.
“You need to read this,” she said. He raised an eyebrow, as if to tell her that she wasn’t going to distract him into forgetting what he’d said, then he took the paper out of her hand and read it.
“Is that all?” he asked. She held up the metal piece and his shoulders dropped.
“Oh, no,” he said softly.
“What does it mean?” Tina asked. He took the twisted bit of metal from her and sat down, reading the letter again. Tina waited, then prompted him again. “It mailed from Phoenix.”
He glanced up.
“Hmm? Oh. Yes. She isn’t there, but that’s not a bad city for driving there to drop the letter.”
“Who?” Tina asked.
“An old client,” he said. “You’d have to go find it, but it’s been more than twenty years, now, since I put her out there.”
Tina was ready to go search the files when it occurred to her:
“You’ve been in this office for more than twenty years?”
He snorted.
“Almost seventy,” he said.
Tina left her hands resting on the desk, looking around for a moment.
“You were all over Europe, moving cities every few years, and then you just settled in here for almost a century?” she asked. He shrugged.
“I found a place I liked.”
“Was this where you met Helen?” Tina asked, and Tell nodded.
“Here in town, yes.”
“Viella isn’t that old,” Tina said, and he shook his head, looking over at the file cabinets.
“No. I’ve had several homes since I took this office, but this has been my office for a very long time.”
“Geez,” Tina said, standing. “All right, so you’re talking about the nineties. Can you narrow it down any more
for me?”
“Clinton was president,” Tell said, and Tina frowned.
“I was like five,” she said. “I don’t know that.”
Tell snorted.
“Um. Okay. Try ninety-six. Looking for Colette.”
Tina opened the drawer for ninety-four through ninety-six, pulling files forward to get to the ones at the back of the drawer. He’d been busy through ninety-four, then in ninety-five he’d only taken five or six cases, and in ninety-six there were only three.
One of them was the size of a dictionary, though.
Colette.
No last name.
Tina took it out carefully so that the folder didn’t slide from around all of the stuff crammed in there, and she sat it down on the desk. Tell nodded.
“Yeah, that’s what I remember.”
“What is it?” Tina asked. “What is this?”
“You can go through it if you want,” Tell said. “What I’m looking for is a picture in the back.”
Tina turned it over and opened it from the back, lifting news articles and printed sheets, forms and torn legal pad pages. Finally she found a photo of a woman with pretty, curly hair standing in front of a little cookie cutter house with a rock lawn.
She was smiling and waving.
Tina turned it to show Tell, and he nodded.
“That’s the one.”
Tina shrugged, turning it back to look at it when he didn’t take it from her fingers.
“That’s a street address,” she said, and he nodded.
“Good eye.”
The street name and number were printed on the house. From that, she could find that house online easily.
“All right, and the brother. See if I wrote anything down about her family, there in the front.”
He seemed dazed, somehow, still reading the letter over and over again.
“Was there something between you?” Tina asked and Tell glanced up.
“Hmm? No. Oh, no. She was just a client. I just… I spent the better part of a year, maybe even more, I don’t remember anymore, trying to keep her from getting herself killed over something she saw.”
“What did she see?” Tina asked, paging through notes.
“At first she thought it was just an ordinary murder that she came to me to solve, when the police told her that she’d imagined it. I… That was the first time I met the Order.”
