lives in that one.”
“Why is it so important that we see this guy right now?”
“Because he does a lot of good work for us, and you should be introduced before Ace and Stephanie hand him over to some asshole from New York.” Slapping the Cav into Park and cutting the engine, Paige added, “Plus he’s got the Blood Blade. If we’re going to KC, we’re gonna need that. He’s been using it to put together a nice little surprise that should also come in handy.”
“What surprise?”
“You remember that project I had him working on after we chased Henry out of Wisconsin?”
Cole furrowed his brow and rolled his eyes toward the roof of the car. If he’d stashed any notes around, that wasn’t the spot. Finally, he said, “No. I don’t remember.”
She sighed and pushed open the car door. “You’ll just have to wait, then. Look out for any Nymar lurking in the parking lot.”
“Will we be able to spot them?”
Rather than say anything else as she walked to the narrow sidewalk cutting across a well-tended lawn, Paige simply tapped the palm of her hand. The cuts from his weapon’s thorns had long since healed. He’d sat and watched the gashes close up once, but found it more disturbing than interesting. Since he didn’t feel the prickly itch caused by the reaction of the venom in the weapon’s varnish with the Nymar that produced it, Cole knew there weren’t any of them nearby.
“Take this,” Paige whispered as she placed a syringe of the Nymar antidote in his hand. “I’ve got more if you need it, but try wearing them down before you inject them. Remember, aim for the biggest, fattest tendril you can find. The gun’s already loaded with the special rounds, so don’t be afraid to use it. If there are Nymar watching this place and they’re taking orders from Steph, I doubt they’ve been told to go easy on us.”
The apartment complex was pleasantly quiet. There were no dogs barking, no loud music, and, Cole noticed, no drunken idiots screaming at three in the morning—more advantages of this place over his old apartment. He could hear traffic from the nearby interstate, but it was more like the tide of a mechanized ocean. Following the sidewalk to the third building, he looked up to see nothing but windows and porches framed by thick wooden beams. A cool breeze rolled in from the north to brush past a set of chimes hung by a resident on the top floor.
Paige walked up to the main entrance of the building and tried opening the double doors. They rattled a bit in their frame but didn’t budge. Shifting her attention to the row of buttons beside the entrance, she pushed the one marked 303.
Almost immediately a squeaky voice came through the little speaker set into the wall above the buttons. “Yes?”
“It’s Paige.”
“Who else is with you?”
“My partner, Cole.”
“The delivery guy left a package down there. Bring it in.”
Paige found a parcel near her feet that was about the size and shape of a brick and wrapped in plain brown paper. Just as she picked it up, the door buzzed. She tried pulling it open but wasn’t quick enough to get there before the buzzing stopped. “For Christ’s sake,” she muttered. “Every damn time.” Keeping her hand on the door, she waited for the next quick buzz and finally got the door open.
Cole watched the parking lot for a few more seconds. He felt a slight reaction in his palms, so he checked to make sure his spear was in its harness as he followed Paige inside.
After climbing the first set of stairs, they turned the corner on the second floor landing to continue up. Suddenly, the door to apartment 203 opened. “Hey. Stop.”
Paige glanced toward the door the way she glanced at anyone who tried to bug her with stupid questions like, “Where are you going with those sticks?” or “Why are you chasing that big, wild dog?” But instead of a curious bystander, she spotted a familiar face peeking through the crack of a partially opened door.
“Daniels?” she said as she stopped with one foot perched on the next set of stairs. “I thought you were on the third floor.”
The door swung open, but the man inside stepped away from the opening. Peeking around the door like a cartoon mouse sticking its nose out for a big triangle of cheese, he waved frantically for them to come inside. Paige turned while smoothly drawing one of the batons from her boot holster and walked in. Cole followed her lead by taking the spear from where it was strapped across his back. No matter how many times he’d practiced to make that look good, he still got the forked end snagged before the snap on that loop popped open.
The apartment was sparsely furnished but stuffed to the rafters. Boxes of all sizes were piled into neat pyramids, and bookcases reached as close to the ceiling as the little owner of the place could reach. Daniels stood just under six feet tall, but his posture was so bad that it made him seem smaller in every way. Not only was his back stooped, but he held his head low and twitched at every sound Paige or Cole made as they tried to find a place to stand where they wouldn’t knock something over.
“When did you move in here?” Paige asked. “What happened to the old place?”
“I still live upstairs, but I rent this apartment too,” Daniels said. “And one of the apartments beneath this one.”
“Why?”
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” Cole mused. “Fewer neighbors.”
Daniels had walked up to Cole and extended a hand to be shaken. His friendly grin and rounded face looked like they’d been taken from the kindly malt shop owner of any 1950s sitcom. Long arms sprouted from a lumpy body that came complete with a spare tire. He wore a pair of khaki pants that might have been tailor-made to fit a buoy, and a sweat-stained navy blue dress shirt with sleeves that were rolled up past his elbows. Daniels’s skin fit poorly on his skull, but not because of anything supernatural. His Nymar spore had probably just changed him from an ugly, lumpy human to an ugly, lumpy vampire.
Just when Cole thought he’d adjusted to the strange man in front of him, he noticed something even stranger. At first glance Daniels’s stringy, light brown hair seemed to be capped by a toupee that was several shades too dark. Now that he was closer, Cole could tell the narrow band around the back of his scalp was actually hair and the toupee was really a solid cluster of Nymar tendrils gathered at the top of his head and the base of his neck. He had seen other Nymar with tendrils clustered on their heads, but those seemed more like prison tattoos. Daniels’s tendrils, like almost everything else on him, just didn’t fit.
“Go on and shake his hand, Cole,” Paige urged. “He won’t bite.”
As Cole finally completed the awkward greeting, Daniels’s feeding fangs drooped halfway from his gums. It was difficult to tell if that was a warning or the Nymar equivalent of leaving his fly down. The fumbled attempt at a smile didn’t help much.
“Howdy,” Daniels said.
At least that cleared things up. Not even cowboys said that when they were trying to scare someone off. Cole nodded and shook the other man’s hand just to get it over with. “Hi.”
“So what’s the deal with all the apartments?” Paige asked as she strolled through the cluttered living room and into what was supposed to be a dining area.
Daniels’s head snapped around and he rushed ahead of her to protect one of the stacks of boxes. “Watch your step. There’s a lot of delicate equipment around here.”
“This is where you do your work? How come I’ve never been here? Is that a hole burnt into the ceiling?”
Craning his neck to look up into the closet that Paige had found, Daniels replied, “Yes. I used a torch to burn through the ceiling just as I did to put a hole in the floor of the bedroom. That way I can climb freely between all three apartments.”
“Kiss that deposit goodbye,” Cole chuckled.
“For your information, when I leave this place there will be no need to settle any contracts. I have made arrangements to clear my path and have set aside any funds needed to compensate the management for damages.”
“He’s just flapping his lips again, Daniels,” Paige said as she moved around to get in front of the Nymar inventor. “Tell me, though. Why haven’t I ever been down here? You’ve obviously had this set up for a while.”
“It wouldn’t be secret if I told everyone.”
“Why bother with it at all?”
