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Chapter 10

Iwasn”t expecting much as I approached the small apartment Kallista had been calling home. Between the comment made by Syn and Kallista herself telling me she didn”t have many belongings, I figured there would be maybe a couple of drawers full of clothing. Maybe a few of the momentos that humans liked to collect. What I hadn”t been prepared for at all was seeing her door practically hanging off the hinges.

I shoved the door open wider to gain access. The broken door creaked ominously, and I waited for it to fall to the ground as I stepped around it. Surprisingly, the flimsy wood held on. Inside was a mess of broken furniture and ripped fabric. It was difficult to tell what was what from the way it was all tangled together in scraps of colors.

”Hey, bitch! You need to pay for this damage!”

The sound of someone stomping down the hallway outside the second floor apartment had me reaching for the gun in the holster at my back. I stood to the side of the doorway out of sight, waiting for him to walk through.

”Hey! Did you hear me, cu-”

My hand was wrapped around his meaty throat before he could get another insult out. ”Who the fuck are you?” I growled into his round, shiny face. He smelled of sweat and beer, and the stains on his Hawaiin shirt told of his penchant for Cheetos and lack of hygiene.

”I”m Bob, I-I own the place,” he garbled out from the pressure I was putting on his windpipe.

”Did you see who did this?”

He tried to shake his head, his sagging jowls wobbling back and forth with his jerky movements. ”No. Someone called down a complaint of noise. When I saw the broken door, I waited until she got home,” he wheezed out. I let him go and wiped my hand on my jeans, needing to get the sticky feel of sweat off me.

”Someone has to pay for the damages,” he whined as he coughed while leaning his heavy weight against the wall. He eyed me warily as he rubbed at his reddened neck.

I pulled the wallet out of my back pocket and opened it. His greedy eyes lit up at the sight of cold, hard cash in front of him. I peeled two one hundred dollar bills off the stack and held them out toward him with the bills between two fingers. As he reached for the money, I pulled my hand back.

”No one saw who it was?”

He swallowed hard, his eyes not leaving the bills as I slowly waved the cash in front of his face. ”I might have looked outside and seen two guys dressed a lot like you. It was still dark, but I”m pretty sure one was blond. The other had short dark hair. Neither one was as big as you, though. You”re pretty fuckin” big, ya know?”

His description matched that of the vamps from the night before. I held my hand out and let him snatch the money before quickly tucking it away in his pocket.

”I don”t want any trouble around here.” He squared back his shoulders, suddenly full of bravado again now that he”d made some cash. “Tell the girl she ain”t welcome back here.” His sudden bravery almost made me smile. Guys like this were so predictable. He owned the place, so he liked to throw his weight around, making demands and trying to make his tenants feel inferior.

”She won”t be back.” I turned my back to him, taking another look around at the tiny, trashed apartment. There was a small kitchenette, a bed in the corner, and an open door next to the kitchen, which was likely the bathroom. From what I could see, nothing was salvageable.

”She still owes rent for this month.” I turned back to see the short, paunchy man with double chins staring around the apartment. I could almost see him sizing up everything inside that he might be able to sell for even the smallest profit.

”How much does she owe?” I asked, not giving a shit but not wanting this greedy asshole to have a single extra penny he didn”t deserve. He obviously provided the bare minimum to his renters. The flimsy door that was hardly more than cardboard was proof of that. At any time, someone could have easily kicked it in and robbed Kallista blind. If she had been at home, she would have been virtually defenseless against a home invasion.

”Three hundred.” He paused. ”If you don”t clean this up, it”s going to cost a cleaning fee, too.”

I pulled my wallet back out of my pocket and picked off another five crisp one hundred dollar bills. ”You can have this and one more if you can tell me anything else about the guys who trashed her place.”

His wide eyes darted toward the door, and his gulp was audible. When he looked back at the money, it seemed he had made up his mind. ”I hear they are a gang that lives on the other side of town. A whole bunch of them live in a big fancy house. Kinda like a big frat house or something. I”ve never seen their leader. I hear he”s a real ugly son of a bitch, though.” His laugh was obnoxious, nervous, and high-pitched.

”Where, exactly, is this frat house?”

I allowed him to snatch the money and stuff it into his drooping trousers, which were hanging dangerously low on his non-existent hips. I averted my eyes, not wanting to see what would be exposed if they managed to slide down his flat ass.

”I hear it”s over on Buchanon, about a block from the high school.”

I nodded once and peeled off two more bills before tucking them into the pocket of his stained floral shirt. I patted his chest roughly. ”No one knows I was here, and no one knows anything about the girl.” I patted him harder, hard enough to make him wince. ”Do we have an understanding, Bob?” He nodded emphatically. ”Good. You can come back in ten minutes to start cleaning.”

With that settled, I turned back once again, internally sighing. I had no idea where to even begin trying to figure out if there was anything salvageable in the mess. As soon as I heard his footsteps retreating, I stepped forward and began picking up different scraps of material before tossing them to the side. It seemed the vampires did a good job destroying everything they touched. If their goal was to send a message, they succeeded. I wouldn”t allow this to serve the other intended purpose, though. She wouldn”t be frightened because I would make sure she knew she was safe. With me.

It took me less than the allotted ten minutes to figure out that pretty much nothing was left intact. Instead of gathering the cut-up clothing, I looked at the tags of the destroyed garments, committing the sizes to memory. I was down the metal stairs and straddling my bike before the owner stuck his head out of his office.

The ride across the city was short and I took notice of the different boutiques as I passed the more upscale shopping district. As I got closer to the side of town where the vampire nest was, I noticed it continued to grow more dilapidated. The buildings showed more neglect and offices closed completely with boarded up windows. Entire strips of store fronts were empty.

Once I hit the street where the nest was said to be, I slowed down, looking for the fancy house that Bob, the scum-lord, had described. It didn”t take long. If the house was indeed the one he said they lived in, it was the only decent house on the entire street. The Master obviously had money, but that wasn”t unusual. Supernaturals with longevity tended to have plenty of expendable money. Throughout the years we saved, invested, or the less scrutable ones stole their way into a hefty portfolio. Not that we kept our money in banks. At least, not much of it, even if we managed to get our hands on fake identity papers that would allow us to do such a thing. We also learned how to hide our funds from any government entities.

The house itself was nice enough to be considered a mansion, but the Master didn”t seem to care much about the land around it. Weeds were growing untended. The grass, what there was of it, was scraggly, even for the season. I snorted in disgust. If you didn”t give a shit to take care of what you owned, you didn”t deserve it. The man who was the vampire Master of this shitty nest wasn”t someone I would ever be able to respect.

I revved my engine and sped down the street, leaving the mansion behind with the row of shiny cars and motorcycles sitting at the curb. It seemed physical objects were the only things that mattered to these assholes.

With the sizes I had gathered from Kallista”s apartment in the back of my mind, I headed back to the boutiques I had passed earlier. I had to swallow back the dread of having to walk inside those stores, knowing that I would stand out like a three-legged mutt at a dog show.

The experience was just as bad as I had feared. When I was done, I tucked the multiple shopping bags away on my bike, thankful as fuck that the whole ordeal was over. I had gained just as much attention as I thought I would. The first store I had stepped into nearly landed me in a squad car when the employee”s eyes went wide with terror. I was sure I heard a whimper as the young brunette stepped closer to the phone the moment she saw me.

I had tried to give her a smile and nod, attempting to act casual, but she hadn”t been reassured in the least. Before I even had a chance to do more than look around at the shiny, smooth materials covering the anorexic looking mannequins, I turned around and walked back out the door. I offered her a departing greeting, but at the sound of my deep, gravely tone, she looked like she was on the verge of peeing herself.

I walked to the next shop, pleased to see the display in the big window at the storefront looked more realistic with mannequins that had curves. I paused in front of a pretty white sundress with big yellow sunflowers across the skirt. I could easily envision Kallista wearing it while walking along the lakeshore, her hair flowing in the breeze. I had to shake my head to clear it of the scene and pushed the door open.

An older woman with dark hair wrapped in some type of updo on her head walked toward me with one eyebrow raised. She had a small smile on her lips and a glint of amusement in her eyes.

”Can I help you find something, sir?”

It was the first time I could ever remember being called sir. I couldn”t help the chuckle that escaped. I cleared my throat to cover the sound. ”I want to get that dress in the front window, the one with the yellow flowers. I”ll want more clothes, too.” I finally looked around the small shop and nodded.

”Your wife will be thrilled. We don”t get many men coming in here looking to do the shopping for their ladies.”

I opened my mouth to deny our connection, but snapped it shut. Something kept me from correcting her. A part of me warmed at the thought of having a woman to call my own. I had always been alone, never trusting myself around others for longer than a few minutes. That didn”t mean I never felt lonely, or even wistful at times. There had been moments when I saw young families together looking happy and wondered what it was like.

”Yes, I want her to have a little of everything.” I couldn”t deny the truth of those simple words.

I would always be grateful to that woman for her helpfulness and for not throwing me out of the shop at first glance. I would make sure I paid her back for the kindness she didn”t have to show. In my very long existence, I had learned how rare it was.

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