by Chloe Garner
“Because not dying is pretty cool, too,” Hunter said. Tell shrugged.
“I’m where I want to be,” he said, agreeing with Hunter. “I just want to do it the right way, be the person I want to be. But I’m okay with being a vampire. It’s who I’ve been for a long time, now.”
She shook her head, picking up her notebook from before and laying down on the couch with it propped against her knees, flipping through the pages and remembering.
Just remembering.
About thirty minutes later, she lifted her hand to turn the page and hesitated.
“Problem, darling?” Hunter asked without looking up.
“Shut up,” she answered, and he grinned, setting his computer aside and standing.
“Arm won’t go that high, will it?” he asked. She sighed, letting her head fall back against the armrest.
“Denial,” she said.
“Right on schedule,” Tell said, not looking over. “Rest well.”
She closed her eyes as Hunter closed her notebook and set it on the table, then lifted her easily and started for the stairs.
“One upside of a vampire boyfriend,” she murmured. “He never complains about how heavy you are when he tries to pick you up.”
Hunter kissed her forehead.
“I like your spunk,” he said. “Human, vampire, or otherwise.”
She spent three full days in, going through Tell’s notes about the Order and interspersing the time with going through her own work, getting to the point where she was ready to pick up where she’d left off.
Hunter cooked for her and called for fountains every day, even though he didn’t need them and they both knew it, and Tell went out early the first night to check in on Kyle again. He came back with news that he’d gotten to see Kyle walk into his apartment, but that he’d been with people from the Order - one of whom Tell had recognized - and that there was a different pair of men in the parking lot keeping watch.
“They’re hoping she turns up,” Tina said, and Tell nodded.
“There’s no telling how much time we have left,” he said, “but at least if she doesn’t turn up, there isn’t anything obvious to spring the trap around him.”
“Your boy really know what he’s into?” Hunter asked from the stove.
“Colette didn’t seem to think so,” Tell answered. “Still can’t figure out how she knew about it.”
“Did she have any other contacts here?” Tina asked, and Tell shrugged.
“She was an outgoing woman who liked people,” he said. “It’s why she wouldn’t let it drop when the police investigated, and how they found out who it was that saw them do it in the first place. She had lots of friends, and leaving them cold like that was really hard on her.”
“So she could be keeping in touch with some mutual acquaintance,” Tina said, and Tell shrugged.
“Possible. I guess it’s time to dig into his life, given that they already know he exists.”
Tina nodded.
“I can do it if you want,” she said, and he shook his head.
“No, when things start to get crazy, I want you to know as much as you can about those idiots, so that you can get yourself out by any means necessary.”
“They have to know that you’re still here, right?” Tina asked. “Where to find you? You aren’t exactly secretive.”
“Most people don’t know I live here,” Tell said. “I’m hard to follow without me noticing, though I suppose one of them could have followed you here. Even then, they’d have to make the leap that you’re not just working for me but living with me, as well. So Viella isn’t a sure thing. But the office? Certainly. The city? Absolutely. Any one of them who knew me back then would have the knowledge necessary to prove that I haven’t moved on.”
Tina nodded.
“So they remember vampires. And everything they did to try to kill you. Should assume that they passed that knowledge down to the new recruits, right?”
“Bellany will have,” Tell said, referring to one of the central officers by his surname. “That man was certain that part of the role of being a necromancer involved knowing how to kill anything. Truth is he was an artist at killing people - the rest of them were too impatient and wanted to get to the resurrecting part - but he studied how to kill vampires, too, and more of the knowledge than you might think crossed over.”
“So I need to assume that they know who I am, know what I am, and know more about how to kill me than I do,” Tina said.
“There’s no magic to it,” Hunter said. “You just have to kill us really hard for a long time. It’s awful and I promise you don’t want to hear about it.”
“Or leave us to bake,” Tell added. Hunter pointed with a spatula.
“Or that.”
“Is there anything else that helps us stand up under the sun?” Tina asked. Tell shook his head.
“You need a good thickness of metal to really get to the point that you can survive it comfortably, and full-sided shade is the bare minimum. Sunlight reflects really well and it will cook you through, even under a good big umbrella.”
Tina twisted her mouth to the side.
“Why doesn’t everyone do that?” she asked.
“Mostly the screaming,” Hunter said. Tell nodded.
“And it takes all day. A lot of us can make it through to night and you have to do it again the next day. There are faster ways.”
“But no specific defenses,” Tina said, and Tell shook his head.
“No, by the time they can do anything that’s really effective, you’re already completely at their mercy. You aren’t trying to wear armor to deflect a bullet. You’re just trying to make sure that they don’t get to keep you.”
“You think they think that you’ve forgotten about them?” Tina asked.
“I have no doubt that they’re hoping to operate under my nose,” he said. “But I was kind of an angry guy, back in those days, and I made some pretty specific threats at the time about what I was going to do if they ever came after me or Colette again.”
“Just wiping them out is still sounding better and better,” Tina said, and he shook his head.
“I’m going to have to re-map them. I can feel it coming.”
“What about just kidnapping the kid?” Hunter asked.
“Which?” Tell replied.
“The little brother.”
“Who is now almost fifty,” Tell said. “Right. I suppose we could just grab him and run off, but if he isn’t interested in my protection, there isn’t a lot I can do about it, right then, and the path back to Colette is still exposed. Possible they turn him against her, convince him that she’s the same loose end she’s always been, to them, and get him to try to find her for them.”
“If he’s the one we’re supposed to rescue and he doesn’t want it, I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do,” Tina said.
“Isn’t the first time we’ve gone looking for a human who fell in with paranormals,” Tell observed.
“Yeah, but this one is fully an adult, knows what he’s getting into, and chose it anyway,” Tina said. “This isn’t some college kid on a gap year agreeing to do con work for a thief. This is a man trying to pledge to a necromancer fraternity.”
“You saying we should keep our hands out of it?” Tell asked. “I mean, it’s my call, because I’m doing it for Colette, if I do it, but I’m willing to hear you out.”
She shrugged.
Considered the words of the letter, as she remembered them.
“She walked away from her brother and the entire rest of her life to try to keep them safe,” Tina said. “Would be a shame if her brother just went running into the arms of the organization that made her do that.”
“Point of order, the one who made her do that was Tell. The Order just tried to kill her,” Hunter said. Tina shot him a dark glance, and he shrugged. “Dinner’s up.”
The three of them walked over to one of the full-sized, regular tables where they’d been taking thei
r meals for the last day or so. The cafe tables were more their style than the family-style kitchen table setup, but they didn’t all fit when there was real food involved.
“So, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want your help,” Tina said.
“Disagree with that one too,” Hunter said. “You can tie them up somewhere else where they can’t get into trouble, and the fact that they don’t want to be there doesn’t change anything.”
“Are you doing this under the idea that you’re helping?” Tina asked.
“I’m bored,” he said. “Picking fights with you is the highlight of my entire night.”
“He may not see that he needs our help, at this point,” Tell said.
“What part of ‘necromancer’ do you suppose he doesn’t understand?” Tina asked. “Colette doesn’t want him to become one. I get that and I’m very sympathetic. But. You can’t just go tell him that you forbid it and expect anything to happen.”
“Could go tell him that they’re plotting to torture and kill him if they decide they don’t want to invite him into their club,” Hunter said. Tell pointed at him with a fork.
“That was actually useful, buddy.”
“Thanks, boss,” Hunter answered happily.
“Could work,” Tina said, and Tell nodded.
“Put it on the very short list of feasible options,” he said. “I’ve been taking a long game view of this, that if I’m going to deal with the Order again, I need to be prepared to deal with them if things go bad, if you follow.”
“I do,” Tina said. “I’m just afraid we’re going to walk in there one day and have been three hours late.”
“I hear you,” Tell answered. “I don’t want to have to write to her and tell her that I let them kill her brother and she needs to uproot again in case he gave them information that would let them find her.”
Tina hadn’t considered that the woman probably had an entirely new life, there in the desert.
“We don’t know that he hasn’t already,” Tina said.
Tell nodded.
“I need to get tapped back into the airlines. The Order is well-funded, but they fly commercial. I can at least watch the flights out of town, here and the ones around where they might land to go get her.”
“Is that traceable?” Tina asked, and he nodded.
“If you knew what you were doing, yes. And I wouldn’t do it if I thought that they’d think of it, but they’re really single-minded. They don’t really do computers, though that… That’s probably changed in the last twenty years, hasn’t it? I need to get back to basics with these guys and figure out what’s true and what isn’t. I’m running on too many assumptions.”
“So you need to look into Kyle’s friends,” Tina said. “And then flag flights with known members of the Order in case they go trying to find Colette.”
“And I need to go finish off the Kaija,” Tell said. “I still feel like there have to be more of them out there, and if I just let it go…”
“Let Ginger do it,” Tina said. Both men looked at her and she smiled at her plate. “This is really good, Hunter. I like it a lot. But I’m wondering how it would be if it came with Kaija sauce.”
Hunter blinked at her then slowly smiled.
“You little minx,” he said. “You think you can get vampires to hunt the Kaija back into extinction if you let them in on the secret.”
Tina shrugged.
“It’s enough of a threat to get Ginger to pay someone, isn’t it?”
Tell shook his head.
“I don’t want a repeat of what happened before,” he said. “I don’t want anyone knowing that they’re alive and coming to take a sample population for personal breeding purposes. Best case, we’re looking at this same problem in Cape Town in fifty years. Worst case, they get loose on the plane, escape after landing, and they start infesting other cities without me even knowing about it.”
Hunter shrugged.
“I liked it.”
“At some point, you’re going to have to get more feet on this,” Tina said. “I hear you and your concern is valid, but if you had just a couple people you trusted…”
“Rules out Ginger,” Hunter cut in.
“…who would be willing to hunt them to extinction for you…”
“I’ll think about it,” Tell said. “But for now, I’m going to take a couple of nights hunting them again, and let you get caught up on my notes. I’m watching the car that we tagged, and I can go back and tag a couple more, as they sit outside Kyle’s apartment, but that’s all I really know to do until I get my head around a better plan. And I want you up to speed before we do anything.”
Tina nodded.
“All right.”
And so it was that she spent three nights with Tell’s notes, cramming like she hadn’t done since college. She took plenty of notes of her own, finally getting a picture of how Tell had worked through them over various passes. The gross casualties pass, the assassin pass, the political manipulation pass.
Each had goals that she could see in how he’d chosen the targets, and it was the political manipulation pass that had finally done it.
She wrote out an essay of the whole thing, leaving it on the counter for Tell to find when he got in after the third night, then going up to her bedroom. Hunter had been reading an honest-to-goodness newspaper when she’d left, and she wasn’t sure he’d cared that she had gone up, which was fine.
When they occupied the same space for every waking minute, it was a lot easier when she didn’t have to make a big deal out of it.
She heard him come upstairs and pause, then there was a quiet knock on her door.
“Are you down already?” he asked.
“Just enjoying the dark before the sun gets too high,” Tina answered. “Come on in.”
He opened the door and slipped through, closing it behind him, then he came to sit on the end of her bed.
“My equipment came in this morning,” he said. “Tell just texted me to let me know that Vince is going to send it up once the day workers are here.”
“Is that safe?” Tina asked.
“If Tell says it is, I believe him,” Hunter answered.
“I don’t like them being here while we’re down,” Tina said, and Hunter shook his head.
“I shouldn’t be down, before they get here for the morning. It’s still dark pretty late, as far as a normal work day goes, and Tell ought to be here by then, too.”
“All right,” she said.
“I did have one of the fountains bring up the one thing that didn’t require a delivery man to tote it,” Hunter said. “And I’m not really sure how this whole dating thing works, since it was invented way after I started doing absolutely nothing but casual sex, but I saw this and I liked it because it made me think of you.”
He took out a jewelry box and put it out toward her with an open palm.
There was a part of her that wanted to reject it.
Certainly he would have spent too much money on it, and she wasn’t the kind of girl - girlfriend or otherwise - who wanted to be treated like a gilded lizard.
At the same time, she wanted to snatch it out of his hand and squeal at whatever it was, because with his budget and taste, it was going to be beautiful and sparkly and something the likes of which she had never hoped to wear.
And so she sat and looked at it for several seconds.
“Too soon?” he asked.
“Not specifically,” she answered, finally taking it. “I just don’t know how I feel about expensive presents.”
“Most girls like them,” Hunter said as she opened the box.
It was too dark for human eyes to have been able to see it, but Tina saw it clearly, the blue sapphire pendant with a clear-white streak running corner to corner across it.
She took it out carefully, feeling the weight of the chain on her hand.
“I had them upfit it to titanium, so that you wouldn’t have to worry so much about losing it,” he told her.
She nodded, letting the stone hang free in the air.
“I do love it,” she said.
It was beautiful, but not in the way that an expensive jewel should have been. A really expensive jewel should have been stark in a single color with an ornate setting to call attention to it. This was…
“It’s unique,” Hunter said. “And defiant. And, like I said, I thought of you when I saw it.”
“Why were you shopping for jewelry?” Tina asked. He grinned and lay down across the bottom of the bed, propping his head up on his palm.
“Like I said, most girls like it,” he said. “I can send it back if you want.”
There was a reflexive jerk as he put his hand out to take it, and a wide smile spread across his face as she put it on.
“I’m not interested in you decorating me,” she said. “But I love it and you can’t ever have it back.”
“Fair enough,” he said. She lay down to face him, putting her cheek on her fist.
“I don’t have any money,” she said. “Not enough to afford anything like this lifestyle. The fountains and the meals and the security… Tell just pays for it all like it’s no big deal, but I hate being his financial dependent like that.”
“You’re a vampire now,” Hunter said. “It opens some different doors, if you wanted. Most of them, you couldn’t keep working with Tell, but you could probably stay here, if you wanted to, and just do whatever it was you decided to do to start building up your personal fortune. If you want to keep working with Tell, though, I’d consider it all just a business expense for him to cover your needs as an employee, and I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I remember the vampires from under the overpass,” Tina said. “The ones you went to talk to when Tell went missing.”
He nodded.
“Mostly just rats,” he said.
“They barely get enough shelter to survive,” Tina said. “And I can’t imagine what they’re doing for blood. I mean, it’s all well and good, you guys going on about how all of your fountains are voluntary, consensual, but do they actually mange to do it?”
Hunter frowned, but he nodded.
“The food chain does go that low,” he said. “They’ve got some money, but they spend it mostly on blood, and they’re mostly buying from the humans down on that same end. Twenty bucks will feed you for a week, if you know what you’re doing with that kind of people.”
