by Aya DeAniege
My stock had been very clear, that if something happened to him, they’d take matters into their own hands. Lawyers, law makers, and those dirty little titles no one wanted to talk about but were oh so helpful, would come down with the full force of their positions on whoever was stupid enough to try them.
“About Helen’s apartment?” I asked.
“No, that case was closed and is done with. They wanted to talk to you about your involvement in the murder of a mortal woman a week ago.”
“Margaret wasn’t mortal,” I said.
“From what they said, it sounds like they consider turning a mortal murder,” Kevin said.
Which was both warning and an indication of what they had been there about. The police had arrived asking questions about Helen. They would have used her real name but her being connected to the interviewers was already erased. Unless Erin broke her word and told the police who showed up at her apartment all about Helen.
Or unless the officers who had showed up at her apartment remembered, which would have been impossible given the fact that Lucrecia had visited them and then the reports had been wiped of identifying marks.
The burglary still happened and to those people. Animals had still been killed, but vampires and interviewers had never been involved.
“Did you tell them where I was?” I asked.
Just because the police had been asking about Helen and claiming she was dead, didn’t mean that they knew she was a vampire. They were simply looking for her, or had, for some reason, decided that she was dead and that I was the one to have killed her.
Given the fact that Margaret’s house hadn’t exploded as I had left it, I had a nagging suspicion that I knew where the police had gotten their information from.
Should have burned it to the ground.
“I said that you were with Balor preparing for your interview,” Kevin said. “I tried you earlier, then called Balor. He said they showed up at his door with a warrant, but he had Troy there who was clearly living and breathing still.”
Poor Troy. To pull off that sort of thing, a vampire had to be drained almost entirely. It was a painful process, but Balor would fix the problem almost immediately.
Unless they hadn’t asked and just cared about the living and breathing portion of Troy’s response. Balor wasn’t one to take a risk, however, he’d have drained Troy just to make certain. Just in case, because he knew better than to leave it to chance.
I looked at Helen, who blinked back at me several times.
“Phone calls later,” she said.
“They would know your next of kin,” I said.
She was quiet a moment, then she pulled out her phone and sent off a text. After a moment there was a response.
“They haven’t contacted my next of kin,” she said. “And now my mother knows my place was burglarized, but I didn’t contact her then. So I’m in trouble for that too.”
I made a small shrugging motion and pulled out of the parking spot.
“Kevin, why don’t you go home to your mother? Send my love.”
“Yes, sir.”
The call was dropped as Helen frowned at me.
“You just got him,” she said.
“Code, Helen.”
“Right,” she said. “What’s that mean, exactly?”
“We assume spy tactics, that he will be followed,” I said. “He will go to a nearby cafe and call his mother, tell her that he’s going to stay in a hotel for the night and then head out in the morning. He’ll then check into a hotel as mother sweeps into my apartment, removing all the art and books through the back door. It’s now been compromised. If the police return, they will find nothing. It takes fifteen minutes to clear that all out. We run drills.”
It would be suspicious as could be, for police to arrive there again and find it completely empty. But what were they going to do? Shake a finger at me? Fine me? They’d have to find me first and everything in that apartment was completely replaceable. Or, could be lost to keep myself safe, but that wouldn’t be necessary.
“What about Fluffy and Scruffy?” she asked.
“He takes his cats. I added yours to the list of necessary artefacts four days ago. They will be kept safe until our return.”
“Okay,” she said.
I jabbed a button on the dashboard. “Call Balor.”
The phone rang several times before he picked up with a sound, not a proper greeting. There was only one time that Balor wasn’t talking, even if it was to threaten the caller.
“Get yourself out of my stock and talk to me, Balor.”
He swore. I heard sounds in the background that I will not comment on.
“Seems they are going to hold us accountable,” Balor said. “Manslaughter plain and simple. In your case it was premeditated. Don’t know what they plan on doing with us, considering all in all. Unless they have the tool.”
“Impossible,” I said. “I placed it somewhere for safe keeping. It still kills the mortal who handles it, and there are two vampires who might survive it.”
“They could intend to box us,” he responded.
“I sent Kevin home,” I responded.
“I’m on the Council, Quin,” he growled. “It’s not like I can up and leave the city.”
“Unless we move the archives,” I responded. “How long has it been, Balor? Perhaps Canada isn’t as welcoming to all peoples as it claims. Maybe it’s time we went back to Germany. No Lu this time around.”
“Russia?”
“Russia?” Helen protested. “Are you going for calm, or are you trying to place it somewhere that if you kill a mortal, they’ll either not report it, or blame the government?”
I’m not entirely certain what she meant, it may have been something to do with the current events.
Is the cold war still going on?
Frankly, I was too embarrassed to ask, and didn’t want to request the information be looked up and sent to my email with Helen in the car. That would give away the fact that I couldn’t remember what was going on in the world at large.
“We could buy a little island someplace,” I said.
“An island with an airport,” Balor said. “Great idea. I’ll call you back once I’m in contact with the others. Wraith’s vote will be the hardest to get.”
“I’m sure we know he’ll vote to move. He always thought Canada was cold.”
“You’ll miss the artisanal revolution, Quin.”
“Oh well,” I said. “I’d rather breathe free air.”
“Fair enough. I’ll get back to you.”
The line cut out and I glanced at Helen. She was looking out the window, but I could tell that she was tense.
“We knew cleanup would be difficult,” I said. “And we’ve had to get out of worse.”
“Going tonight, the interviewers, this all is a huge risk that we shouldn’t take,” she said. “We’re going to get caught. Locked in a box and experimented on.”
“I don’t think your government has any intention of doing that,” I said.
“No, but we’re within a hundred miles of the border, and I hear there’s a law that allows the border guard from America to come here and take us for whatever reason they can come up with.”
“I don’t think that’s a thing,” I said, jabbing another button. “Look up border crossing laws including reach of American military into Canada and send to updates.”
That was important to know. Especially right then. The Canadian government might not attempt to take us, but I could very well see the Americans getting overly eager in their desire to get their claws into a vampire. Our blood and venom could be weaponized, a fact that the Council well knew before they announced our existence to the world.
“That’s the second time I’ve seen you do that,” she said.
“It’s a smart emailing program much like the voice on your phone, but entirely private. My data isn’t collected and sold to the highest bidder.”
“I’ve never used one of th
ose programs before,” she said.
“I’ll help you set it up tomorrow night.”
“When we have new phones and yet another new identity and a new background and a new home and all the rest,” she muttered.
“Exactly,” I said, turning where she motioned. “Helen, movement is a part of what we are. We often move, typically. And yes, we knew that coming public might mean this sort of thing would happen. We have contingency plans on top of contingency plans. One of them involves Sasha eating an entire city. We’ll be fine.”
“Except Sasha is dead and, unless Anna has an update, Bau is still alive and drawing closer every day.”
Anna did not have an update. In fact, Anna was frustrated and annoyed at the same time. It seemed something about being a witch made Bau almost invisible to the Great Maker, which meant that there was no update to pass on.
Because no, Anna was not the Great Maker. Just a very good friend of Sasha’s.
“That one there,” she said with a vague motion.
I pulled to a stop in front of the house and looked at her as she sullenly played with her ring. Over the week that I had known her, I had hurt her, watched her handle difficult and impossible situations, but I had never seen her behave so.
I reached out and set a hand on her arm, which drew her attention to me.
“I don’t want to,” she said. “I can’t get paid from this anyhow.”
“Let’s finish what we started. It’s only a couple hours you said. Maybe it’ll take your mind off things while Kevin calls his mother,” I said with a little smile.
“And then we live in hiding?” she asked.
“Vampires in hiding are less visible to mortals,” I said. “I need to head to a dreary country for a little work anyhow.”
“What’s that mean?” she asked.
“I asked for work in a war-torn country because I’ve seen the look in your eyes. It’s time, Helen.”
“Most vampires wait months, you said. And I ripped Death a new one, shouldn’t that count?”
“It may have accelerated the process. That’s not a bad thing. We just have to go someplace a little more private for that. Somewhere that no one knows you and will never recognize you later on. Where you can walk away from and just be you again. But that murderous rage has to come out of you before you explode on a mortal who took too long paying his bill. Or looked at you the wrong way at a stop light.”
“He was leering at me!”
“And if I hadn’t stopped you, you would have ripped his eyes out so that he couldn’t look at anyone like that again. That’s why it’s time.”
“We’re supposed to stay by Troy.”
“They could very well go with us. Balor needs to scout new areas for the Archives. We have made some countries calmer to keep the archives in a new location, so we know how to do that.”
“Yeah, but—”
“You forget that Troy is going through much the same things you are.”
“Except Balor is having sex with him near constantly,” she said.
“Balor has several children and knows what they can take. He says each one is different.”
“Did you know Troy was gay?”
“Troy isn’t gay. He’s a heterosexual who found a man who does something for him that no woman can do. It’s not that he likes men. He likes Balor. He likes the attention Balor gives him, the feelings both physical and emotional. One day you might find yourself wrapped up in a woman in the same way.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“The only thing holding Troy back is the fact that he’s embarrassed. It’s a mortal sentiment that we will break both of you of.”
“What’s that mean?” she asked, frowning at me.
Mortal women do not like you commanding them to have a threesome.
I bit back my words, knowing that I had to choose them carefully.
A foursome would be better. Bring Lucrecia in. She loves dicks in her face.
“Quin?” she asked.
“He’s yammering on,” I said to buy myself some time, any time at all. “We should go in. Get this over with.”
“Are you planning on lending me out?” she demanded.
Rape is a kind of pain. Will you show her how to resist that as well?
I clamped down on my mind, trying not to let the voice rise to my consciousness. No, I would not subject Helen to that, nor would I allow anyone else to do so.
“Not lend, just let him seduce you.”
“I can’t be with you? Just fifty freaking years, come on.”
“Fifty years?” I asked. “No, Helen, the point is that we will both sleep with others. By allowing him to seduce you, I’m showing you that I’m not going to be jealous about your partners.”
“Uh huh.”
“Why are you getting like this? Do you want me to throw you down in your parents’ driveway and have my way with you?”
“No, but I don’t feel like I’m a part of anything or that anything has changed besides you being overbearing. I still have all the complications of before, but I can’t eat a burger, and you make me sit there while you eat it. Do you know how rude that is? Balor at least isn’t pretending, and Troy feels right at home and completely comfortable with him, but you’re just like sitting there talking about his sexuality being thrown out the window with complete disregard of what he wanted before while you—”
“Helen.”
“—sit there with your big puppy dog eyes like ‘please don’t judge me,’ or something and you just don’t care how I feel about anything at all. I’d like to have more sex. I would have liked to jump your bones in the parking lot of the restaurant, but no. You need to whine and moan about consent like you’re some big hero or something for keeping your hands to yourself.”
Just hit her.
“And what? Why? Why are we doing this or going through with this? Why are we here right now? What is the point of making me go into that house when cops are probably going to show up and arrest us both for homicide because let’s face it, Quin, we both killed people according to their laws.”
“Helen!” I roared.
In the close confines of the car, my voice sounded larger than it was. The sound of it reverberated through my seat and into my bones as I glared at her.
She did not cower in her seat at the sound of my voice. The look in her eyes was very much one of defiance as we stared at one another.
Much like the look one of her cats had gotten the night before when I had shouted at it to get off the kitchen counter. The bugger had a paw in my dinner, glaring at me like I had just told it that its mother was a fat whore.
“That is enough,” I snapped. “Get out of the car, put on your best mortal face and get your ass into that house!”
“Fine,” she snapped, jabbing the seat belt release button.
Before I could say another word, she was out of the car and marching towards the house. I swore and collected the keys before stepping out of the car and following after her. By the time I caught up to her, she had her hand on the doorbell, jabbing it in annoyance.
As I pulled her against me, the door opened.
The look Helen gave me a moment before facing her mother? Was that of smug, self-assured brat. She managed to put on a smile as she greeted her mother. I missed the introductions. I was at such a loss for words.
Baby vampires experienced moods wings for the first decade or so. Something about the body settling into blood made them vicious little predators one moment and sobbing their eyes out the next. It was as if Helen’s body was trying to determine just where the breaking point was for her emotionally.
But I simply couldn’t allow that behaviour to stand unquestioned.
I slipped into the house, shaking her father’s hand.
He was a gruff man, balding and fat. There was a hardness to his palm that spoke of work with his hands.
His name was Zane, and he was the one to introduce his ex-wife, Lea.
Lea was a tiny
little woman with glasses and that same wild mass of hair that Helen had. Hers, however, had been dyed some unnaturally brown shade and very recently from the vibrancy of it. She wore no jewellery but for a gold cross around her neck.
Her brothers Peter and Harry were also present. The two brothers looked nothing alike. One had the wild mass of hair that Helen and her mother had. The other had thinner hair.
Neither of them looked happy to see me.
Judgemental little pricks.
“Come in, come in, sit,” Lea said.
“I don’t understand why Mary couldn’t come,” Zane grumbled in annoyance.
“She’s not family,” Lea said.
The family was giving a lump sum split by the number of people who attended. Somehow I got the feeling from the tone of voice that Zane had been hoping someone else wouldn’t show up so that ‘Mary’ could have attended instead, claiming up their portion.
I decided I didn’t like Zane and settled on the couch beside Helen.
Lea brought tea and cookies out. She set them before us and fussed until Helen poured a cup for herself. I leaned forward and did the same, selecting a cookie for myself. I even went so far as to nibble the corner.
Terrible stuff. I had to resist the urge to spit it back out as I looked at Helen.
“We don’t need every detail,” she whispered to me, then looked pointedly downward.
I shrugged and set the cookie on the plate beside my tea.
“Helen, you haven’t eaten anything,” Lea said.
“I can’t,” she said.
“Why not?” Zane demanded. “Your mother went to the effort of putting together a little tea party for you. The least you could do is participate.”
“I am participating,” she said.
Except she sounded so small and hollowed out. I had to wonder what Zane had said in the past to make a grown woman sound like that after not being around him for nearly a decade.
I set my arm around her shoulders and felt her tremble.
“Like a bandage,” I whispered.
“Hey, yeah, so,” she said about as awkwardly as a mortal could. “Mum, dad, Peter and Harry. I’m a vampire.”
Her family just stared at her. Peter was the first one to react. He laughed and hit his leg as if it were a good joke.