“Report what?” She shakes away the last of her delirium, her eyes focusing on the gore before us. “Oh. Right. That just happened.”
“Looks like it happened yesterday at the earliest.”
Her eyes widen, and she finally faces me. “What? Before he even…I’m the one that sent her here, and he immediately killed her. Was he already watching me, or was he following her? Or maybe I was right, and it was a trap, and he killed her for failing.”
“Well, we know who broke in. Hopefully, that means he’s the only one we have to worry about, but…” I glance back at the bodies. “Could he touch crosses?”
Narrowing her eyes, she glares at the scene arranged by her old nemesis. “Yes.” She snarls, baring her fangs. “The rat bastard loved rubbing it in too. He wore my crucifix.”
Well, that answers that. “I’m sorry.”
“I’ll kill him.”
“There’s my soldier.” We don’t have the luxury to panic right now. “We’ll get him.”
“I will. I’m not letting him hurt anyone else to get to me.”
“Ollie, you know him better than I do, but I think it’s safe to assume he knows who I am. What do you think the chances are that I’ll be safer on my own?” I need to look after her. I can’t let her run off to deal with this. He’s already in her head.
She bares her teeth again. “He might not.”
“He might not know where I live. We can stay there if you think it’s all right, but he was in your house and knew when you were out, so he knows that I exist, maybe even who I am, and I’d rather have you with me. We can take him together a lot more easily than you can alone.” Especially if she freezes up again.
She nods. “You’re right. He’ll go through you. I have to be with you at all times.”
“Wait, what?”
“That’s how he operates. Well, I won’t give him the chance.”
I guess it’s what I wanted. Farewell, privacy. “Thank you.” I drag her to her feet, linking my arm with hers. She’s old-fashioned. I knew I had to be the damsel in distress if I wanted to look after her. “I feel safer already. Let’s get back to my place.”
* * *
After informing the owner of the hostel as to the demise of all of his customers—he didn’t take it well. I’m not sure if it was the money or the lives. It’s always tough to tell with some of the people here—we head back to my apartment. It is really nice getting to ride in her car. I could get used to having a rich vampire girlfriend. I can’t believe I just thought that. I don’t move that quickly, and it’s not happening.
We both collapse on the couch. Ollie is paler than usual, and she hasn’t said a single word the entire drive back. Granted, it’s not a very long drive, but it’s still clear how much this is weighing on her. That asshole really did a number on her. I’ll have to kill him. “Ollie,” I try.
She stares at the coffee table. I really need to clean it. There’re a bunch of rings on it because apparently, I’ve never heard of a coaster, and there’s even a bit of spilled beer that I’d never noticed sticking to it. In my defense, I don’t have company often, and I’m normally really high when I’m home. Hey, there’s an idea. I grab the bottles from my jacket. “Something to take the edge off?”
“Huh?” She stirs, staring back at me before her gaze falls to the bottles of pills in my hand. “No. I’m okay.”
“You don’t seem okay.”
Sighing, she leans back in the couch. “It’s nothing drugs will help with. I’ve tried that already with the pills Elizabeth suggested.” She shakes her head. “No, I should be clearheaded. We don’t know what he might try next, and I will not be impaired for it.”
“Honey, you’re already impaired. I’m not saying get wasted, just something to help you focus.”
She only shakes her head again.
Okay, I guess drugs aren’t the answer to all of life’s problems. I have a lot of trouble believing that, but I’m not going to force it on her. I pocket them again and take off my jacket, throwing an arm around her shoulders. She jumps but looks back at me and relaxes somewhat, leaning against me. “I’m sorry,” I say. I don’t know what else I can do.
A tear hits my collarbone. I ignore it. I know how proud she is. I won’t draw attention to her moment of weakness. “I really thought I was rid of him,” she mutters.
“I know.”
She shakes her head, a lock smacking the back of my neck. “I’m sorry. For freezing up like that.”
“It’s okay, Ollie.”
“I’m such a fucking coward.”
I pull away, gripping her hand as I stare into her eyes. “You think you’re a coward? No, you have PTSD. There’s nothing to be ashamed of there. You’ve gone through far too much for me to ever believe that you’re a coward.”
“What if we find him, and I freeze up again?”
“That wouldn’t change a thing. Your life has done a number on you, and you’ve gone through way more than you had any right to, including having it be extended infinitely, which sounds dreadful. I was worried about you when it happened, but I didn’t think less of you in any way. You’re not a coward, Ollie.”
A squawk from the kitchen interrupts us. I jump and turn around. I’d forgotten Harvey was here. He stares at me from his cage on the kitchen counter. “Is it okay if we let him out?” she asks.
Fuck it, if it’ll take her mind off things, he can ruin my whole apartment. Not like that would change much. “Yeah, sure.”
“Thank you,” she says, already at the cage and opening it. I’m never going to get used to how fast everyone around me is. I can barely even jog. “Hey, Harvey. You doing okay?”
He flaps indignantly and flutters out of his cage, making a quick loop around the kitchen and living room before landing on my shoulder. “Pretty,” he says.
“You’ve said,” she replies.
He cocks his head and looks between us. “Is your bird asking if we’re together?” I did not just say that. Goddamn it. Well, if we are, I certainly won’t be able to get away with saying Goddamn it anymore. Goddamn it. “Or is he perving on me again?” I say, trying to change the subject. We have been through too much today, and I’m not ready for that conversation. I tend to avoid it altogether. That’s a big part of why I don’t date.
“Probably a bit of both,” she replies, sitting beside me again with a sigh. “You want some food?” she asks him, just as comfortable avoiding the subject as I am.
“Carrot.”
“Do you have any carrots?” Her dark brown eyes turn from Harvey back to me. God…just damn it. I’m not even letting myself think any of the cliché bullshit those eyes make me feel. Not happening. Besides, it’s her creepy vampire powers. Not that I’m falling for her. That would be ridiculous. She’s like sixteen times my age.
“They weren’t any of the things we needed to cook, and that’s about the only time I’ve bothered grocery shopping in ages. There might be a can of mixed vegetables in a cupboard that’d have some carrots in it. My parents insist on giving me that shit.”
“He’s a little picky.” She bites her lip. It must be the adrenaline from earlier. I’m not a horny teenager anymore. “I’ll go look, if that’s okay.”
“Help yourself.”
She breezes into the kitchen and goes through my cabinets. “I see corn, some very rotten potatoes—”
“Shit, I forgot about that.”
The garbage can clunks as she tosses the bag in. “Vegetable medley,” she pulls a can out from the cabinet. “It’s barely expired. It still smells okay.” She hasn’t even opened it. Vampire senses are ridiculous. “Where’s your can opener?”
“Second drawer from the fridge.”
A few seconds later, she offers Harvey a plate with a few soggy carrots on it. He doesn’t seem to appreciate this, but after a long while of eyeing it, he gives in and takes a bite.
“I didn’t even think to bring his food. He’s almost out of the stuff in his cage.”
&nb
sp; “If you want, we could go over and get it.”
She glances at me for a moment, biting her lip again. “I’m not ready to go back there. Maybe when the sun’s up. Not that that would stop him.”
“All right.”
Finished with the first of his carrots, Harvey hops around my table, pausing to examine the still beer. “Moor.”
Olivia’s expression hardens, her teeth clenching as she stares very intently not at Harvey.
“Moor?” he asks again, turning toward her.
“So, Mia, I’m not sure you ever said, what prompted you to start working with my kind?”
“You’re gonna ignore him?”
“If he thinks he’ll get attention for saying it, he’ll say it all the more.”
“Othello,” Harvey adds.
I roll my eyes. She has a point. Parrots are contrary little bastards. “Well, I was walking home from work one night, and I heard a commotion over by the mall. Since it was both very closed down and late in the evening—I’d stayed past closing to tidy up and check on a dog that had gone through a pretty rough surgery—I assumed it was a drug deal. Personally, I love drug dealers, so I decided to go investigate.” Wow, I really sound like a junkie, don’t I? “Of course, when I got there, the people didn’t look that peopley.”
Olivia smirks. Glad I didn’t offend her with that.
“Since I am quite well versed in mythology, even if I was a bit rusty, I recognized one of them as a ghoul, and the other looked to be a banshee. Though she ended up being a mavka. I still have trouble with all those ethereal women. Instead of doing what any sensible person would do and running off, I took a closer look.”
“How’d that go?”
Groaning through my teeth, I reply, “Better than you’d expect. They didn’t throw me in the slave market or anything, but they didn’t appreciate it. When the ghoul bared his fangs, I noticed that he looked hurt. His left leg seemed weak when he adjusted to pounce. I held up my hands and said I was a doctor. I offered to help.”
“Huh.”
“Obviously, he was bothered by that, but it stopped him from attacking. The mavka said, through an incredibly thick Ukrainian accent, ‘Let her take a look. You can eat her if she tries anything.’ I remember the words exactly. I made sure that if I helped, they wouldn’t eat me, which they begrudgingly agreed to. I don’t think mavkas even eat, so I’m not sure what her problem was there, but I took them back to the clinic and examined the ghoul’s leg.”
“Othello!” Harvey insists. “Carrot.” He shuts up to nibble on one of the remaining carrots.
“And you had your first customer.”
“I did. They offered to pay, but I was a lot more curious than I was money grubbing. I said that I’d waive the fee this time if they’d refer me to other monsters—which they quickly corrected—and asked what was going on at the mall. Then they introduced me to that delightful market and way cheaper drugs than the dealer I was using.”
“Really? Things always seemed expensive there. I prefer Amazon.”
“When Amazon starts selling prescription narcotics, I’ll happily buy them there. Until then, it’s nice to have a black market within walking distance.”
“Well, I can say firsthand that my community appreciates you.” She pauses, her eyes meeting mine again. “I appreciate you. You saved Harvey’s life, and…well, I’m very much enjoying our courtship or whatever you would like to call it.”
I cannot believe that makes me blush. It’s the adrenaline, I swear. “I’m glad. So, yeah, that’s how I ended up as a black-market doctor. I still haven’t even found any mobsters who need my work. I could double my clientele!”
“I’ll keep an eye out for some.”
With a brief giggle, I adjust in my seat. I wish I had a drink. “What about you? How do you have all the money to invest and buy fancy cars? Do you use your vampiric powers to make people give you money? ’Cause that’s exactly what I would do and is the only reason I would ever consider being a vampire.”
“I used to.” She rests her arm on the back of the couch, staring behind us at the blank wall. “And I did worse for money as well. I was hardly concerned with human lives for quite a while there. Eventually, I saved up enough money that I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I didn’t need food, I’d already paid for my correspondence courses, and I certainly didn’t want to go shopping with humans if I could avoid it. There wasn’t a fiend friendly black market in town, nor was there online shopping, so I started investing. It took a while to work up the nerve to deal with the people that required, though I was able to use a phone for some of it. That helped a bit.” Her gaze falls on me, but she still seems to be looking off a million miles, or perhaps a hundred years. “My fortune accumulated as I made a few smart investments, and after a while, I didn’t need to worry about money anymore.”
“Teach me your secrets.”
“Time. A few decades and an easily refillable income makes it rather difficult to mess up. After the market crashed, I invested in everything and kept a lot of businesses afloat single-handedly. From there I gained enough power—enough freedom—that I could stop investing for money and instead do it for progress. I could find things I was interested in and make sure that they could afford to take off. It only grew easier once the internet was invented.”
“That sounds incredible,” I say, lightly squeezing her knee.
That seems to bring her back to me. “Immortality has its perks.”
Nope. Not saying it let me meet you. “I’m glad.”
Harvey jumps into her lap and looks up at her. “Scratch?”
“Fine.” Her soft chuckle fills the room as she gently scratches her parrot’s head. “I’m glad you’re behaving now.”
“You behave.”
She rolls her eyes. “I always do.”
“I’m glad that’s settled,” I say. He seems to make a lot fewer random annoying sounds than most parrots I’ve met. I guess she really is good with him. I hadn’t seen them interact outside of work before. It’s a little weird seeing her all tender. “He’s a good bird.”
“Good girl,” he replies.
“Did that bird call me a good girl?”
“He is older than you. Respect your elders.”
I glare. “I take it back. You’re both awful, and I hate you.”
“Really? And here I was growing so fond of you.”
My cheeks heat again, and I glare at the stupid bird. “I’m not used to animals being older than me.”
“He’s way worse at conversation than you are, if it makes you feel any better.”
I swear he looks offended. “I guess.” I’m surprised to find myself yawning. What time is it? I have to close the low battery warning on my phone to find out, but it’s apparently four a.m., and I’ve been up since six. “I’m exhausted. I should get some sleep.”
“Okay.” She pauses, hopefully wondering if she should join me. Now that would be worth putting off sleep for. “I should keep watch. I don’t want to risk him showing up while we’re both asleep.”
“Can’t he not enter without permission?”
“He could still burn the place down.”
I consider that for a moment. I’d rather not have my apartment burn down—I live in it—but it is insured. “From what you’ve said, that doesn’t sound like him. That could kill both of us, and he wants you alive to torture for some sick perverted reason.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” She swallows, her eyes unfocused. “He wants me at his side, serving him. He thinks he’s in love with me.”
“Really?” She’s said it before, but still. That hardly seems like love.
“Yes.” She clenches her eyes shut, likely trying to shake a particularly unpleasant memory. “I’m so sorry for dragging you into this. I swear I wasn’t expecting it.”
“This all just kind of happened.” I risk cupping her cheek and am pleasantly surprised when she leans into it. She did recoil for a second, but I’d expected th
at. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
“Yes, I do. This is all my fault. If I’d killed him instead of running off, or if I’d at least been looking for him…there were countless ways I could’ve stopped this.”
“You’re not responsible for the actions of your psychopathic stalker.”
“I am. All he wants to do is hurt me.” She pulls away, moving to the edge of the couch, tears glistening in her eyes. “If he finds out about you, he’ll put you through hell to remind me of my place.”
“Like I said earlier, he probably already knows, and he hasn’t done anything yet.”
“He will.” She stands up, causing Harvey to hop onto me, squawking and flapping in protest, his wing slapping my ear. “I can’t let it happen.”
“What are you talking about, Ollie?” I rise to join her, causing more irritated noises from the bird on my shoulder. “We already said we’d fight him together.”
“I’m not letting it happen again. I can’t. I’ll go find him myself. If I die or if I serve him again, he’ll leave you alone. I won’t sit here and wait for him to burn your apartment down or turn you into another vampire or whatever else he might come up with. You saw what he did to those people. He has a penchant for creativity.”
She tries to walk away, but I grab her hand. She spins on me, her eyes wide. “Does that sound like a coward?” I manage, blinking away tears of my own.
“What?”
“You call yourself a coward, but here you are, willing to give your life for me.” Maybe she is falling for me. That makes me feel better about how crazy I seem to be for her. And I’m not even manic right now. “Does that sound like a coward?”
“Mia—”
“What’s to say he won’t have you attack me as a sign of your newfound loyalty if you join him? Or that he won’t find some other reason to come after me?”
“Well—”
“Stay here. We’ll figure out what to do, and we’ll take him out together. He knows you, but he doesn’t know what to expect from me.”
She takes a step toward me, her gaze locking on mine, her hand squeezing mine a bit harder than it needs to. “Why are you willing to put yourself in danger for me?”
Olivia Page 14
