by Martha Woods
“At this rate? I’d say that you should have a finished cage in two hours, three if you want me to keep up the work and make sure that it’s flawless.”
I thought over our options, while it would be good to have the cage ready to go as soon as possible, an extra hour for a whole lot more protection seemed a very small price to pay. Really it was no choice at all. “Better go for the extra hour, we can’t afford to mess around with this guy. One shot is all we get.”
“Alright then, are you going to come to pick it up or am I going to have to bring it to you myself?”
“I can have someone come around for it.” I grimaced. “It’ll probably be a vampire, just thought I should warn you so you don’t blast them out the front door as soon as you see them.”
“Really? You’re going to send them here?” Faye ran a hand down her face, groaning lightly before nodding. “Fine, I don’t like them coming around here but… in the interest of your alliance, I won’t attack them on sight. They’re not touching anything though, they’re picking up the cage and then they’re leaving, that’s it.”
I nodded, clapping my hands together. “That’s fine, that’s totally fine, thank you so much for doing this!”
“She’s just doing the right thing, Amy.” I turned, my smile already turning into a frown as soon as I saw who had walked through the door. “More people should think of doing that these days.”
“Alexis,” I said through clenched teeth, “How are you?”
“Oh, I’m good, I’m very good. I’m so enjoying having to mop up the mess and to try and find some way to bring the tensions down after you insisted on dragging our most vulnerable into a fragile ‘alliance’ with the other beasts.” She walked up to Faye and me, leaning against the counter. “And now I’m here, to help finish off the last details for this cage that you insist needs to house a Kitsune. Why would I be anything except happy?”
“Wow,” I drawled, not breaking eye contact. “Do you always try and bite that hard or do you charge your clients extra for that?”
“Oh, very funny, but unlike some people I know, I don’t have to throw myself around for money. And unlike some others, they don’t have to rely on anyone else’s skills except their own to get what they want. Tell me, what are you offering again?”
I ran my hand through my hair, sheer will the only thing stopping me from ripping out a few strands. Looking back at her it was easy to see that she was far from being as calm as she looked, nostrils flared and her eyelid twitching every few seconds. Letting out a long, drawn out breath I said, “Alright, I don’t know who took a piss in your wine glass tonight, but what exactly is your problem? Is this about Damon because, Jesus lady, you need to move the hell on.”
“It’s not just about him, if you were content to be just with him then we wouldn’t have any problems. It’s the fact that you consistently refuse to learn anything to do with other people, that you keep insisting that Damon play second fiddle to your… blood bag boyfriend! That you feel that it’s a good idea to use this very fragile time we have to try and find a way to drag him out of the pit that he was banished to and back into your greedy arms!”
“What?” I asked, “How do you…”
“How do I know that you’re going to try and save him? Because that’s what you always do, regardless of what anyone else thinks or needs you just have to continuously put yourself and your selfish desires ahead of everyone else!”
“Selfish?” I said, taking a step closer to her. “I’m selfish for wanting to save someone’s life?”
“Guys please…” Faye groaned, “Can you please not do this in my store?”
“You’re selfish for the reason you want to do it!” Alexis growled, taking a step of her own until we were almost chest to chest. “You’re telling me that you would go to these lengths for any random person on the street? That you would put the security of not only yourself and Damon on the line, but the security of entire species just to save one more life? Are you that short sighted, or did Vincent’s dick scramble your brains?”
“If anything, it would be Damon’s dick that did that, not that you would know right?” I poked my finger into her chest, sending her off balance for a second. “Would you do any better? If there was someone on the line that you cared about wouldn’t you do everything you could to save them?”
“And that’s the problem Amy, you care about both of them because you’re too selfish to just hurry up and make a choice. You can’t even choose between caring for them and constantly martyring yourself, how could you possibly care about them that much?”
“Martyring?” I saw red, taking the last step forward and grabbing the lapels of her coat. “Martyring? Where the hell were you when your precious dancers were being killed by the people closest to them, what were you doing to make sure that they were safe at night when you knew something was going on?”
I shoved her back against the counter, pulling the bottom of my shirt to my chest and pointing at the scars on my abdomen. “I got these protecting the people you had promised to protect, while you just sat around with your thumb in your ass bitching and moaning about how there was nothing you could do! How long was it going to take until you did something? Six bodies? Seven? Maybe if they decided to just burn the whole club down maybe you would have finally seen the writing on the wall and done something!”
She stammered, trying to regain her composure. “Now you just wait a moment…”
“No! I’m not going to sit here and take abuse from a woman who let go of her own responsibilities just so she could try and suck my boyfriend’s cock!” I let my shirt drop back down, running my thumb over the largest scar. “Maybe if you did half the things you keep saying I should do you wouldn’t have as many problems that I needed to keep martyring myself to fix. Maybe if you lived up to the standard you set for me you’d be able to take down Alvin all on your lonesome, wouldn’t you? In fact, I bet you could do it right now huh? Why am I even in charge when you have such a good track record of saving lives?”
Alexis looked away, clenching her fists and remaining silent. I couldn’t resist the urge to push further, her passive aggressive bullshit having finally gotten on my last nerve. “What?” I asked, cupping my ear and leaning towards her. “No answer? Maybe you can just… leave me to do whatever it is I want until I finally save you and everything you care about for the thousandth time in a row, does that sound good?”
“Your overconfidence… and insistence on doing everything yourself…” She said, shaking with anger, “Is going to hurt not only you but the people that you claim to care about.”
“Well that’s the business of me and the people I care about isn’t it? All of which I’ve spoken to and know what the risks are, is that communication is something I’ve learned to value heavily.” I looked her up and down, not bothering to hide my sneer. “You, however, are not someone I care about, so you can take your advice and your snarky little barbs, rub them all over your lips and kiss my entire ass.”
I leaned across the counter, giving Faye my biggest smile and shaking her hand briefly. “Thank you so much for helping us out Faye, I really do appreciate it.”
Faye snorted, barely hiding her small smirk. “Don’t worry about it Amy, just doing what I can to help out a friend. Send whoever it is you need to, they’ll be in no danger from me.”
“Good, good. See you when I see you, Faye.” I turned on my heel, walking past Alexis without acknowledging her any more than I had to. I’d already said all I’d had to say to her, either she would take it to heart and get over herself or she would just double down on being a pain in my ass. Either way, she wasn’t my problem anymore, I’m done trying to explain myself to her.
Though it sounds immature, I can’t really help the thought that in some way I’ve won and she’s lost. I have Damon, I have one of the most incredible men in the world waking up next to me every morning and telling me how much he loved me, and on top of everything else, he was completely accepting of m
y love for Vincent. He didn’t believe that he was coming in second for my love, he just realized that… I had a lot of love to share, just because I wanted to give some to someone else that doesn’t mean that he was going to be robbed of his.
Honestly, I didn’t expect everyone else to accept it or understand it overnight, I had barely even worked it out for myself recently, but maybe they could all see it for what it was someday. When all of this madness was over and done with, we could go out, all three of us, and just show everyone that yes, this is real and this is wonderful. Though if I’m still being honest with myself, I’m going to have to work on them being able to stand in the same room for more than five minutes without trying to tear each other’s throats out.
The day that I could watch them have a conversation without me having to moderate for them would be the greatest victory in the world. I snorted, thinking about the… plans that we’d made regarding the three of us and how much work there was to do before we could even think about doing something like that.
“I’ll have to be comfortable not getting between them,” I said, “Before I can be comfortable being between them.”
I laughed, making my way down the street towards Joseph’s mansion, eager to both check and make sure everything was on schedule and to tell him my joke. “Man,” I said, “He’s going to get a real kick out of that one.”
Chapter 5
“And then I thought, ‘I’m going to have to be comfortable not getting between them before I can be comfortable being between them!”
Ivanka tilted her head back and laughed, chest heaving while she tried to wipe the tears away from her eyes. Mika had a more subdued reaction, though it was obvious that she too was having a hard time keeping herself under control. And it turned out, much to my late realization, that she was also trying to restrain herself from thinking too much about what I was describing.
Oops, I really should have thought about that before walking through the front door of the… vampire sex commune.
Joseph, however, he just smiled and poured me another drink from that same bottle of bourbon that was older than my grandfather, placing it in my hands before taking a seat opposite me. “You really do have a quick wit Amy, I admire that. It’s so much more interesting talking to someone like you than… half the stuffy vampires that we mingle with day to day. It’s for that reason alone that I would have confidence in this alliance.”
“Well you never know,” I said, “Maybe I’m just using the alliance as an excuse to get free vintage alcohol from you.”
He scoffed, “Come now if you want some all you have to do is ask. You can take that entire bottle home with you for all we care, it’s not as though we can drink it.”
“Mm,” I took a sip, “The only way you can drink it is through drinking from someone who… oohhhh I see, you sneaky dogs!”
Mika laughed, Joseph only looking at me from the corner of his eye. “What? You think we want to open you up like a bottle of aged whiskey and drink until we can’t see?”
“Joseph… I’ve been to your parties.”
“True, very true. I won’t deny that the thought is very tempting, you are a beautiful woman and I’ve been told that you have truly beautiful blood, but I don’t like to do things that way.”
“You don’t like to… mix business with pleasure?”
“Oh, dear sweet Amy,” He said, smiling like a shark. “Business is pleasure, I just don’t much like taking blood from someone I care about dishonestly. That’s not my style.”
I nodded my head over to his two companions. “They don’t mind.”
To their credit, they didn’t look offended, though they were noticeably unapologetic too. Again, I guess it was just one of those things I didn’t understand yet.
“I’ve reprimanded them several times, and I suspect that I will have to do it several times more.” He stretched his hand out behind him, running his thumb across Ivanka’s cheek and dipping it lightly between her lips. “They are just so stubborn, always refusing to learn until they are given a very thorough lesson.”
Mika nodded, draping herself across Ivanka’s legs and laying her head on his lap. “You do give the best lessons after all.”
“Which brings me to you,” Joseph said, looking back at me. “Why are you here again so soon? I assumed that we had already worked everything out and were making progress towards our plan? Unless of course… you desired a lesson of your own?”
I sighed, my reasons unbelievably stupid now that I really thought about them. “Not that, I’m still faithful to my boyfriend… ‘s, that hasn’t changed in the few hours since we last talked.”
“Then why come here again so soon? It cannot be just the liquor or the alliance, what could it be?” He frowned, Mika and Ivanka picking up on his intuition. “Do you really not trust us to hold our end of the bargain?”
“No, of course not!” I put my hands out, placing my drink down so I didn’t make a mess. “I just… this sounds so stupid…”
“I would rather you say something stupid than think to be insulted.” He gestured for me to continue. “Come on then, out with it.”
“I… wanted to see how you three were, as strange as that is. Because even if you don’t think so, after everything that we’ve done and everything that we’re putting together here… I was worried about you.”
“Worried? About us?” Ivanka sat up, staring at me in confusion. “Are you certain that’s what it is? You do realize who we are, no?”
“I know how powerful you are, I’ve seen what the three of you can do separately, I know that together you would be a force to be reckoned with,” I sighed, looking down. “But so was Vincent and look where we are now. I just don’t want to have to look at anymore of my friends and think that they were in danger or that they got hurt because of me.”
“Vincent did not get hurt because of you,” Joseph said, “He got hurt fighting for a future for all of us, a future that you personally pushed for certainly, but you didn’t place the stake in his attacker’s hand, you did not escalate the situation on purpose. They did that all themselves.”
Mika nodded. “A less merciful woman would have demanded his attackers head, I would have taken it myself if you had asked. But you didn’t, that creature is alive because of you, because of a choice you made. You weren’t given a choice with Vincent.”
I shook my head, laughing gently to myself, “Since when do vampires act like therapists?”
“Are you serious?” Joseph asked, “Amy we live for centuries, millennia if we are really careful, of course, that would come with its own issues of insanity. We may operate on a different system than you do, but we still have a functioning brain. Functioning things can break or become stressed, no matter who possesses them.”
I picked up my drink, taking another generous sip while I tried to process the idea of vampire therapy. “So, does this mean that you have vampire, Dr Phil?”
“Perhaps Dr. Phil is the vampire Dr. Phil, did you ever think about that?”
“Alright now I know that you’re bullshitting me, I know enough to be sure of that.”
“Well,” He said, “You can’t blame me for trying, can you? As for your worries I assure you, myself and everyone who lives in this house is more than safe, we have our training and we have each other. That is more than anyone else in the world could possibly need.”
“And thanks to you we have more backup than we’ve ever had before.” Ivanka thought to herself for a second before shrugging. “Maybe not right now with how high tensions still are, but soon we will be able to call on the werewolves for aid, or on the witches, neither of which were ever going to be possible without your help.”
“Rest easy Amy,” Mika said, “Take a break, unwind, maybe spend a few weeks in between those two men you love, you’ve earned some time to yourself after all that you’ve done.”
“Thank you,” I said, “You know you can be much more comforting than you look like you would be at first.”
/> Mika laughed, looking up at Ivanka. “We’re impulsive, not mindless. We know when the right time is to be comforting and when to be intimidating. You don’t get far in this world if you don’t realize that quickly.”
Even with a mind that I considered to be fairly open, I was struck by how often I was surprised by the things I learned about people that I had known for months now, some of them for years. The idea that Mika and Ivanka could be capable of sympathy, it flew in the face of everything that I’d thought about them before, every act from their giddy sex lives involving whoever they could get their hands on to their casual manipulation of me to find them a new source of blood… it just seemed to me to be a stock standard case of sociopathy, one that I’d come across numerous times in my career as an investigator.
But then you fast forward to tonight, and if you were to put the Mika of three months ago alongside the Mika from tonight I wouldn’t be able to see any similarity between the two. Sure, her previous actions indicated sociopathy, but they didn’t really have genuine friends, and they certainly didn’t make it a priority to comfort someone and take you out of a position to be easily manipulated. Yet here she was, laying my problems clear on the table and trying to convince me that none of them was my fault when it would be much more beneficial to push me deeper into despair and potentially into their arms.
But that was the thing that I was discovering, wasn’t it? Expectations are seldom right nowadays, and with vampires especially it seemed they were dedicated to shattering them like the fragile glass that they were. One minute they could potentially carve through an entire room of people, harvesting blood and leaving hollowed out men and women for other people to discover without a care in the world, and one minute later they could take one of their wards out for a drink to try and get their mind out of whatever dark place it had travelled to.
In a lot of ways vampires were just like human beings, things were not so black and white as I thought, a mindset that I’d tried hard to resist since going into law enforcement but the years had pushed it through to some degree. I tried not to take things at face value in my day to day job, that was how I’d fallen into this case in the first place. These men killed their loved ones, they’re guilty, who cares why? But that one-word question was the entire reason or our job, how could we just focus on arresting and punishing people when the question of ‘why?’ was so much more important?
