Chapter 19

She pushed the trash cans and bags all into a corner. We couldn’t exactly put them in the Dumpster now. Reggie hadn’t been thinking when she did that.

“Yeah, I was looking for some excitement,” I said sarcastically. “Because running a city hardly gives me any.”

She smirked.

The backdoor swung open. Asire tensed and then cursed. “Vampires… This day just keeps on going, doesn’t it?”

I didn’t understand her reaction until I saw the vampires walk in like they owned the place. Their attitudes were similar to the werewolves’. And we all know how that one ended.

“Asire,” one of the vampires said, with a step forward, making it clear that she was the leader. She was pale like not only did she avoid sunlight, but any kind of light. And then, before leaving the house, she always put on some colorless foundation to make the effect even worse. Her eyes were sharp and green. Cold calculation in their depths. Her hair was black and curly and fell down to her thighs. She had left it to hang loose, so that it swayed back and forth whenever she moved. She wore a dress that barely reached the length of her hair. It was tight and black. The front came all the way up to her throat and the bottom covered her ass completely, though. And she was wearing thigh-high black boots. Only her arms were exposed. The woman was tall, but not quite Asire’s height. Yet, the way she looked around the room made it seem like she owned the place.

To make her appearance stranger, she wasn’t beautiful. She walked in like she was, but that was the air of power that she brought into the room. Her nose was just slightly hooked and when she smiled it made her nostrils appear bigger. It didn’t make her ugly, per se, but it kept her from being more than pretty.

Of course, standing next to Asire, anyone looked average. Or perhaps, that was just my opinion. Not that I should be having any opinion on how Asire looked.

“Debienne,” Asire said calmly. “What brings you here?”

The vampire had brought two others with her. One was tall and lanky with average features. The other was short, compared to the rest of us, but effeminate in a way that made him stand out.

Debienne smiled and looked around the room casually. “Just thought I’d come check on you guys. A little wolf told me that something might have happened.”

Yep. Didn’t like her.

“Oh?” Asire said. “Since when are you and Basil best buds?”

Debienne looked over and dropped the smile. Her eyes got bigger, making her look sympathetic. But everything about the expression was strangely off. Like she had slid a realistic mask on over her face.

“Basil and I love each other,” the woman said. “You should know that. Besides, how can we not keep in contact with so many bad things happening in the city lately? I sincerely hope that all the legions are safe and sound.” With the last sentence, some of the fake sympathy leaked out of her.

Asire didn’t react.

“I hope that you can get everything together soon,” Debienne said. “I’d hate for our races to have some problems. It’s so unfortunate the way this city is run. Don’t you think?” She hit the ‘K’ in ‘think’ with extra emphasis, as if it were a separate syllable.

For the first time the vampire’s green eyes shifted over to me. And I felt like my skin was crawling. Both of her black eyebrows went up and she sucked her lower lip in between her teeth. “Well, what is this? I didn’t know there was a new Orphan in the city. Why would you keep him, hidden?”

She stalked forward and I held my place mostly by force of will. Vampires and legions can have a tense relationship. I couldn’t imagine either races’ exiled citizens got along. Especially since some of our Orphans were here for suspicion of selling blood to their race. Vampires could drink any races’ blood. Depending on the race, the effects were different. Legion’s blood was great for them, because it was like drinking pure energy. But that wasn’t all our blood could do.

If mixed with drugs and given to vampires, our blood became deadly. It was illegal to sell legion blood in the Dens that sold to vampires. That didn’t stop it from getting sold altogether, of course. And I started to feel like she was sizing me up for a tourniquet.

“Debienne,” Asire said calmly. “If you continue approaching him, I will gladly find the nearest set of chains and hogtie you outside until the sun makes another appearance.”

The vampire’s smile froze as did her body. “Of course,” she said. “How silly of me. I forget how protective over their own your kind can be,” she whispered. “But fear not. If you wish to get in contact all you have to do is ask.” She dropped something on the ground and spun on her heel, marching back to her boys.

I glanced at the ground a saw a business card.

“I was merely making sure that everything was okay,” Debienne said. “I didn’t mean to bother you. I shall be going.”

Before she took another step, the elevator dinged. Reggie and Lixa walked out and both froze upon seeing the other woman.

Reggie’s fingers bent in and caressed her palm. I could hear the air popping from where I stood. Clearly there were things that I had missed when arriving in the city. Like how werewolves and vampires get along with legions. But I was starting to understand. Seattle was a free for all.

“Relax,” Debienne said. “I was just leaving. As you can see. Everything is as it was when you left it. Unguarded.” The vampire smiled then fearlessly turned her back and marched out the door. Not like she was retreating, but like she was showing mercy.

“Goodbye,” Reggie called after her. “Best to stay away.”

The second the door shut, all the tension drained from the room. Feeling like I missed something I glanced at the women and said, “Care to explain?”

Asire shrugged. “Same shit.”

“Same day,” Reggie continued. “Let’s head to the safe house.”

Once at the house we all split up. Asire and Reggie went into the dining room with Lixa. I could see Henrik in there as well, with the parents of the missing girl. My Family and I convened in the living room. The house was fairly empty still and all the children were watching television in a separate room.

“Why are you covered in dust?” Dovie asked me.

I explained what happened with the werewolves and the vampires. All of them looked as confused as I felt over the whole thing.

“Is Asire okay?” Regory asked, looking toward the dining room. Like he wanted to barge in there and demand to know if she had been hurt. Somehow, I didn’t think Asire would take too kindly to that.

“She’s fine,” I assured him, “She didn’t even take a hit.”

His big shoulders relaxed.

“So, are we supposed to be worried over the vampires and the werewolves now, too?” Sunbeam asked. Her ice blue eyes were filled with worry. “That’s a lot of enemies when we were just supposed to find a child.”

I shrugged. “We’re steps away from utter chaos, but if we walk away now, things are only going to get worse.”

“You say that like walking away is an option,” Billy commented, eyes narrowed at me. She still hadn’t refueled, so they were dark enough to make the glaring almost creepy.

“It’s not an option,” I assured her. It wasn’t even a lie. I couldn’t imagine leaving Asire in this chaos. I certainly couldn’t imagine leaving a toddler to suffer through it until she was back in her parents’ hands.

“So what do we do?” Sunbeam asked.

I shrugged. “Keep going. I think we need to start searching the perimeter around the city. We’ll start close to the edge and work our way around, starting tomorrow. I believe the Orphans are still looking in every nook and cranny within the city. And I believe they’ll continue doing that.”

Shade rubbed his eyes. “If the vampires are in a clan and their master is corrupt, then we’ll have bigger problems. The underlings will do whatever the master wants.” His voice was that of experience.

Sunbeam looked up at him, her eyes wide in an attempt not to cry. She hated all the abuse our Family had been through.

“We’ll just have to work around it,” I said. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving, yet.”

Billy and Regory relaxed and I saw Dovie look at me closely from the corner of my eye. When I looked directly at her, she diverted her gaze, but I wasn’t fooled. There was something brewing behind her green eyes. I opened my mouth to ask her what it was, exactly, but before I could say anything the dining room door was shoved open.

Reggie came out with the map in her hands. Her legions following behind her.

“We’re so stupid!” she said, dropping the map onto the coffee table. It had an extra pin in it, from today’s attack, but otherwise I didn’t see anything different.

“How are we stupid?” I asked.

“For not seeing it earlier!” she shouted in frustration. “They’re boxing us in.”

“What?” Billy asked.

“They’re limiting where we can go,” Asire explained. “They pushed us all out of our houses, which are now compromised, they burned down the pawnshop where I work and now Reggie’s business is off limits. They’re making it so that more of us are in the same spot at the same time.”

I looked down at the map and saw what they finally did. Reggie and Asire were stuck in this house all day, along with my Family, the children, and the parents of the girl they kidnapped. If they continued assaulting businesses, not only would they probably be successful in killing their enemy, but they’d close us all into this house.

“What are the chances they know of the safe house?” I asked.

“Very good,” Reggie said. “They seem to know everything else. They had to have someone watching us for a long time.” She sounded annoyed. Understandably.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Nothing I hated more than a smart enemy.

“So, what do we do?” Billy asked.

“Nothing,” Asire said. “We never planned for that scenario. It’s too difficult to plan for. We can’t have all the Orphans quit their jobs. Several of them wouldn’t be able to get a new one. We can’t send them back home because the Annihilists know where their houses are. We definitely can’t let the children leave.”

“Because they’ve already kidnapped one,” Billy said, trailing off. “I like defending my city better. It’s not this difficult.”

Asire smirked. “Well, goodie for you.”

Billy stuck her tongue out.

“Can we make the safe house more secure?” Henrik asked.

“We’ll look into that,” I volunteered. I already knew how to do that. It was my job back home, after all.

Reggie nodded her thanks. “Get to it, if you don’t mind. Personally… I’m ordering dinner. Because today has been too long.”

She turned on her heel and walked away.

I came up the stairs and paused by Asire’s door. We had just finished eating after going over every inch of the house and making a list of ways to improve safety. There wasn’t much we could do. The big ass gate would keep almost anyone out and in order to get in, one had to punch in a certain code. All the legions currently had it and after they dispersed, Reggie would change the code.

If they didn’t move into another safe house altogether.

Anyone else who wanted in had to ring and the message went directly to Asire’s phone, which was hooked up to the camera, so she got the image of the person before letting them in. She wasn’t dumb enough to blindly trust a stranger.

My pausing at her door was because I was still covered in dust, but I had little doubt that she showered all the crap off. I didn’t want to barge in while she was getting dressed or something. Even though seeing her without clothes—

Nope. Not going there.

I honed my ears and heard the distinct sound of someone brushing their teeth. I didn’t think Asire was the kind to do that naked, so I walked into the room. The bathroom door was cracked, but I couldn’t see anything going on in there. Just in case, I still said, “Asire?”

“Yeah?” she called back, the sound muffled by toothpaste.

“Just checking,” I said. Now she definitely wouldn’t walk out naked.

I almost sat on the bed, but I didn’t want to get dust all over it. So instead, I grabbed a change of clothes from my bag. My sleep clothes. An undershirt and pajama bottoms.

Asire came out of the bathroom a second later and shuffled over to her cot. She was in an oversized shirt and shorts once more. The scar on her leg stood out in stark relief to the dark clothing and the paleness of her skin. Curiosity poked at me, but I decided not to ask. I already went too far when we were talking last night and this morning.

Instead, I just went into the bathroom and started getting ready for bed. The room was still warm from Asire’s shower and the water took no time to heat up. After my shower, I brushed my teeth and combed my hair.

Out in the room, Asire was already lying down in her cot and the room was dark. I didn’t bother hitting the light. Just climbed into her bed as well. For about an hour. Wide awake. Again.

I sighed and rolled over, trying to find an even more comfortable position, though her bed wasn’t uncomfortable. I missed being able to sleep without any problems.