It was a long day. As I was adding a new position on the floor, that meant that everyone else’s projects were to be referred directly to me instead of the general system. I spent a lot of time talking to people and teaching them how to send their work to me so I could work my magic.

  Repeatedly.

  It was probably the most I’ve talked in a day in a very long time. Michael and I walked back to the apartment in silence, my voice and my brain needing a rest. I unlocked the apartment and Husker shot under the bed, but his shaking had gotten less and less as the days went on.

  I went to the kitchen to prepare his food before getting out of my work clothes. Michael went to his bag to grab a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom. Husker heard the pop of the can opening and meowed, knowing that I was getting out the good stuff. I scooped it into his bowl, scraping every last bit of juices and gravy out of the can on top of the cubed pieces of meat.

  I set it down and Husker meowed louder as if asking me to move out of the way faster so he could eat. As soon as I was away from the kitchen, he dashed to his dish, hungrily chowing down.

  “Little fatty. Mama loves you,” I said. I felt that my talking to Husker regularly was helping him to adjust to our new life.

  I went into my bedroom and straight to the closet to change. Michael came out of the bathroom a minute later in sweats, pulling a tee over his head. I wasn’t sure what his hurry was, but it gave me a glimpse of his bare chest and abdomen. No one just happens to have abs like that unless they’re secretly training for a superhero role.

  The shirt covered them up before I could gawk further. I looked away quickly, pretending the remote in my hand was fascinating.

  “How was the new floor?” he asked conversationally before sitting down.

  “It’s fine. A little quieter than the old floor, actually. I didn’t get very much done though since everyone needed basic training on how to send their documents to me directly.”

  Michael nodded his understanding, his mouth quirking up at the corner with a sympathetic grin. He knew that talking to a lot of people was draining for me.

  “I’m sorry you had to do all that. Hopefully tomorrow is better.”

  I gave him a small smile and nodded, not all that confident that it would be. There were a couple of people who, no matter what I said or did, just could not wrap their brains around the simple process.

  I wanted to get the work day out of my head. “You want some mana?” I asked, our more polite way of saying that we’d go out and hunt for creeps.

  He looked at me with surprised curiosity. “Wanting to get all your powers in or something?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I’ve got my mind reading down. The senses thing is what it is, seems to be growing a little stronger. No flying yet. There hasn’t been a reason for quick healing yet, and I haven’t tried hypnosis on anyone yet. I had a question on that one, actually.”

  “Shoot. Don’t know how helpful I’ll be, but go ahead.” Michael crossed his arms, giving me his full attention.

  “When I first saw you using hypnosis, you said that you needed to be around a person for a period of time. Nikola managed to hypnotize me without having met me at all. Is it a power thing? Like if you have more mana or energy or something? What do you think?”

  A hand went to his chin, rubbing his face. “I think that’s a question for our older vampires. I haven’t used it in a while, maybe I can test it out tonight? See if I can hypnotize people faster.”

  With that plan in mind, we grabbed our coats and put on our shoes before heading out the door, locking it behind us.

  Seattle evenings were a lot less busy, but much darker and easier to hide. We decided to split up for a bit, knowing that being a small person by myself made me an easier target. That way, I could lure my dinner to me while Michael went somewhere to practice hypnosis.

  I walked, pausing to check my phone under a street lamp. 10:27 PM. No one had followed me for several minutes. But for whatever reason, my small, feminine stature usually made the awful people come out of the woodwork.

  Tonight was no exception. I read the minds of those around me briefly, just long enough to see if anyone had targeted me. A man walking in my direction had a sudden change of thought as he saw me.

  “Eh, that one looks easy,” I heard in my head. “She’s small, probably lightweight. Plus she’s got long hair. Mmm, I love playing with long hair while…”

  Ew, found one.

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  I pretended not to notice him as I continued to walk and pretend to mess around on my phone. I turned down a side street, needing him to follow me to a less populated area. And wouldn’t you know it, he did. I texted Michael to tell him I had one almost ready and asked him if he had any luck yet.

  I turned into an alley with an overfilled recycle receptacle and hid behind it, waiting for him to go past. As he turned the corner and saw me gone, he walked a little faster, as if he’d catch up to me that way. He passed my position, then I stepped out behind him, sneaking up. I jumped onto his back, that being my preferred method of attack, and bit where his artery scrawled up the side of his neck.

  At least disgusting people like this finally had some use this way. They deserved worse, especially men like this one. But I wouldn’t stoop to their level of filth to kill them, as much as I wanted to.

  I could be like a vampiric avenging angel, going around Seattle and getting rid of the molesters and rapists.

  But could I actually go through with it, killing someone? I’d need to be if I was going to stop Nikola. But not this man. This man would wake up, dazed and confused, but probably wouldn’t even remember me. And if he did, he’d just remember that I got away.

  I left his body on the damp ground. Maybe he’d catch something nasty. He deserved worse, but it was something. I checked to see if Michael had responded to my message yet.

  Michael: No luck hypnotizing people faster. Going to get more mana and try again.

  Drew: Where are you? Want company?

  Michael: I’ve been sitting in a cafe with other people, hoping I could tether someone faster being stationary. Gonna head to a different cafe and hunt on the way.

  Drew: Let me know where you end up, I’ll meet up with you.

  I looked up and all of me froze. Not ten yards in front of me, Nikola walked past the side street, not noticing me in the shadows. At least I was in the dark; he couldn’t see my face even if he had looked in my direction. I didn’t move for another minute or so, frozen in place. I could almost hear his voice again, melodic and venomous, curling into my skull like smoke.

  When I finally snapped out of it, I looked out of the alley and down the sidewalk in the direction he had gone. No sign of him. I got on the sidewalk and ran the other direction as fast as I could. I stopped under the pavilion of a store, catching my breath. I pulled out my phone:

  Drew: Just saw Nikola. He did not see me. I did not follow.

  Michael: WHAT! Get back to the apartment, now. I’m on my way there too.

  I ran home, my legs pumping underneath me, propelling me forward. I had a stitch in my side but I couldn’t stop. I got to my building and slammed the elevator button, waiting for the slow thing, then deciding to take the stairs. I kept going until I got to my floor, bursting out of the stairwell door and bolting for home.

  My keys shook in my hands as I tried to unlock the door. A presence came up behind me and I froze, waiting to hear that awful voice.

  “Drew, what are you doing? Get inside!” Michael grabbed the keys out of my shaking hands and unlocked the door, swinging it open. He ushered me inside, closing and locking the door before bothering to take off anything or turn on the light. In my own home, my legs buckled and gave out. I sank to the floor, holding myself up with my hands. Michael rushed to me. “Are you alright? Hey, hey,”

  He grabbed my face, my eyes were frantic. Nikola was here! He was going to get me again!

  “Hey, focus on me. Breathe. One, two, three…” He began counting and on reflex I tried to steady my breathing with the count. We did three rounds of breaths, calming my terrible shaking to a slight tremor. “You’re at home, you are safe. I am here with you, you are not alone.” Those statements were so obvious but they comforted me all the same and brought my mind more fully to the present.

  “Nikola passed by on the sidewalk perpendicular to the side street I was on. He didn’t notice me, just kept walking on by. He’s still here in Seattle.” None of our group had any idea where he had gone after stealing my energy. His plans were a complete mystery, but knowing him, it wouldn’t be sunshine and daisies.

  “Okay, that’s one mystery solved, at least. We know he’s still here. Why is he being so quiet… It's unsettling.”

  No kidding, really?! God, sometimes he’s just so obvious.

  “We have to figure out his plan so we know how to stop him. And the only clue Selene gave was that yew is the only thing that will kill him now. Where can we even get yew wood from?” I asked. “It’s probably not sold at home improvement stores if it’s as toxic as you say.”

  “Yeah, no. Definitely not. Let me see what I can find.” He pulled out his phone, typing something into the search bar. Scrolling, he started, “Looks like people sell it for crafters.” He looked from his phone. “I’ll need to do a little more research, see if we can find any yew, and maybe if we’re lucky, somebody who knows anything about woodcraft who’s willing to work with it.”

  He went to his bag, pulling out his laptop and charger. He plugged it in and started it up at the kitchen table.

  I went to the kitchen for a snack, knowing this might take a while. I grabbed a few different things to munch on – salty, sweet, savory, – as we looked up what we could. As I was setting up my laptop, a thought came to mind. “Hey, we should see if Antun knows any woodworkers. He seems to know all kinds of people, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew someone, or knows someone who knows someone.”

  Michael nodded, “Text him. Also, ask him if he knows the best place to get yew wood. If we don’t need to spend hours doing research, that’d be awesome.” I did, and we waited for a reply. When it came in, we were half lucky; Antun did know a wood craftsman but he did not know where to get yew wood. He texted that he’d message his friend in the morning to ask him if he’d be willing to help with a project and if he knew where to get yew wood.

  Michael and I were left with two options: research anyway just in case, or try to relax and not think about Nikola and all that shit. While we could have been responsible adults, we tried to make a third option: Netflix and research at the same time.

  I got the remote and gave it to Michael. “You pick tonight.” I got my laptop booted up while Michael looked through the myriad of choices for entertainment. He decided on a show about weaponry of various kinds and all kinds of details, from origins of different weapons to how they are used and even made.

  I’ll admit that I got sucked into the show pretty quickly, laptop and research forgotten.

  Nikola was close. We were running out of time. But for the first time, we might actually have a way to stop him.

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