22. Ren
ren
. . .
The seats I’d bought for Vi and Danny were close enough to the field that I hardly looked at the big screens hanging around the stadium, using my own heightened vision to watch the players as they ran around the diamond.
When I was younger, I’d become enamored with baseball. The games were long, the tickets fairly cheap, and there was a seemingly never-ending supply of bodies to use as a top-up.
Now, I favoured the inhuman league. The sports themselves were more interesting—the players faster and stronger, the stakes slightly higher as vampires’ heightened constitution gave way to more options for full contact.
Danny and I sat on either side of Vi, the three of us passing around a bag of overly salted popcorn.
Vi threw up a piece and caught it in her mouth, showing off her blue-dyed tongue from her violently coloured slush before shooting me a little grin. “Cool, right?”
“Vi is the champ; she can catch almost anything if she tries,” Danny said, reaching across my girlfriend’s lap to grab a handful of popcorn. “I threw her a skittle from the balcony of our mom’s place, and she caught it like it was nothing. First try and everything!”
“You left out that we were rancidly drunk and throwing a house party we absolutely got grounded for six months over,” Vi added, cringing with embarrassment. “So not worth it.”
“Aw, come on, it was fine!” Danny chided. “We didn’t have a ton of money, so we made do with what we had to keep ourselves occupied. Popcorn throwing was always a big hit. What’s your family like?”
I handed the popcorn to Danny, collecting Vi’s hand to rest in my lap, playing with her fingers as her bracelet glinted in the bright lights above. She leaned into my side, prompting me to slide an arm around the back of her chair with a definitive puff to my chest.
Not even talking to talk about my family would ruin this moment for me, not with Vi so close.
“My parents are… intense,” I offered, thoughtfully. Trying to think about how to convey a relationship with people who had infinite years to find new reasons why you’ve disappointed them. “Vampires who are born instead of made, like Elsie, often have large families. I have lots of siblings, but we aren’t close. Once you find your coven, they become the most important relationships in your life. More like family than the one you were born into, you know?”
Vi nodded sagely. “I get it; found family.”
“Exactly. It’s why we’re all so close,” Ren said with a shrug. “We understand each other. Share everything, emotional and physical.” I grinned, casting Vi a little wink that made her cheeks pink.
“I could get behind that. Dad isn’t worth shit any—LET’S FUCKING GO!” Danny shouted, their thought interrupted as they leapt from their seat to cheer as our second baseman put the opposing team’s runner out with a tap of the ball.
“Do you ever see your siblings?” Vi asked curiously.
I laughed and brought the back of her hand to my lips, kissing the soft skin. “I see my younger sister a couple of times a year and my older siblings when it's convenient for them.”
“Danny would shrivel up into a raisin if I didn’t call five times a day.”
Their chest puffed proudly. I found their unapologetic codependence charming. It sort of made me wonder if I was missing out with my own family.
“I hope you like being a third wheel,” they joked. “Honestly, I’m just stoked I finally get to meet someone she’s dating.”
“They have to be worth meeting you,” Vi quipped.
“It’s not so bad,”I interrupted, smiling as Vi’s eyes met mine. “Being a third wheel, I mean.”
“Don’t worry, it's only three times a day usually, and we mostly text now.”
Her purse, resting between us between the seats, began to buzz. She dropped my hand to dig into it, pulling out her phone and silencing it before stowing it again.
“Aren’t you going to get that?” I asked.
“Nah, it’s just the bank. I’ll call them back later.”
“I’ve been getting them too,” Danny complained. “Dad had me as an emergency contact on some stuff, I guess? I don’t know what they want me to do about his unpaid credit card bills. Man is on the lam.”
“The lam?” My eyebrow rose. “He’s on the run?”
“Not like, from the cops,” Vi clarified. “But he skipped out when our mom got sick, and neither of us has seen him since.”
“That’s horrible,” I muttered. “Was she upset?”
Danny nodded. “Yeah, it was… pretty rough for a while. We all hear the statistics, but you never think it’ll be your family. If Vi hadn’t stepped up, I think Mom would’ve lost the house.”
She sighed. “I’ll be sending him a fucking bill for all of it, cowardly dickbag.”
My stomach churned with anxiety thinking about Garrett’s self-imposed taxation on the club, my eyes finding the diamond as the teams switched, the Nightwalkers coming up to bat in their purple and silver uniforms.
Vi’s bag began to buzz again, and she blushed, reaching for her phone once more.
“Sorry. Let me just turn this off,” she said, a little frown on her face as she looked at the screen before connecting the call and putting the phone to her ear. “Kayl? Is everything okay?”
I didn’t need heightened hearing to make out Babydoll crying on the other end of the line, her words coming out in a choppy mess between sobs.
“Vi, the apartment’s flooded!” she gasped, having to take several deep breaths to calm down enough to keep speaking. “There’s water fucking everywhere!”
Vi cursed, Danny already standing to pull on their jacket. “I’ll go grab the car.”
“Okay,” Vi said to her sibling, waving them off to go grab the little red Mustang we’d piled into to carpool to the match at the far end of the parking lot, safe from there it could be dinged by careless drivers. “We’re coming, okay? Did you call maintenance?”
“Yes,” she wailed. “No one’s picking up!”
I stood, helping Vi into her jacket as she tried to placate her friend on the other end of the line. “I’ll call Dana,” I said to Vi in an undertone. “She’s close, she’ll go help.”
Vi squeezed my arm appreciatively, letting me lead her up the concrete steps.
“Hang on, Kayls, we’re coming. Help is on the way!”
As we pulled up to the curb in Danny’s Mustang—the car they’d rebuilt with Babydoll and her brother before she’d even begun racing—the scene outside of the apartment was best categorised as complete chaos.
They parked half a block up from the building, thanks to the firetrucks blocking the street parking. The carved black door leading to the five floors of walk-ups above The Drip hanging wide open as people came in and out quickly, leaving wet footprints on the dry sidewalk. Boxes, suitcases, large plastic bins, and just about anything they could manage to shove full of belongings waited on the curb alongside electronics and even houseplants. Whatever could be salvaged from the irrefutable deluge that was waiting just beyond the doorway.
Vi hopped out, slamming the door to elbow past the small, anxious crowd with Danny and me close behind, and took the stairs two at a time until she reached her floor.
Her groan drifted to us where we followed a couple of flights behind, delayed by several maintenance men with industrial fans going into a unit on the second floor.
A bright yellow suitcase had been set just outside the door that had to be Vi’s. I guessed that the benefit of her living situation was that she was fairly mobile—she didn’t have to worry about packing her things.
She left the door open, and water puddled in the seams of the cracked tile covering the landing.
“My shoes are ruined!” Kaylee wailed, her arms around Vi as she stood in a ludicrous pair of sparkly knee-high platforms over her sweatpants on the soaked carpet, the water making a little squishy noise with every shift of their weight.
“What the hell are those?” I asked, earning a dirty look from Vi.
“The closest thing to rain boots she had,” she hissed from the corner of her mouth.
Dana chuckled where she crouched, taking photos of the contents of Kaylee’s entertainment unit with her cellphone. “Classic Babydoll.”
“It’ll be okay, Kayls,” Vi said, patting her friend's back as Dana straightened, stepping backwards to take a larger shot. “What happened?”
“I-I-” Babydoll sniffled, bending down so her forehead connected with Vi’s shoulder heavily. If we ignored the circumstances, it was a smidge comical, given that Babydoll towered over the little brunette in her platforms.
Picking up on her distress, Dana jumped in to provide an explanation.
“A toilet water main broke one floor up. It ran continuously, spilling water everywhere until it had no place to go. It started coming through the light fixtures and electrical to dump into here before moving to the floors below. Entire building is fucked.”
“Fucking hell,” Danny whistled low, surveying the mess. About an inch and a half of water everywhere I could see, along the walls and covering anything within a five-foot radius of a light fixture. Fucking hell was an understatement. “Where’d it start?”
“M-m-master bedroom,” Kaylee stammered. “I was taking a n-nap before work.”
Vi patted her back consolingly, sighing. “Let’s pack you a bag… We’ll go to… um…”
“Mine is okay; don’t worry, Kayl,” Danny offered.
Dana and I shared a look, my covenmate looking at Vi pointedly behind her back as if to say, Invite her to stay with us. I wanted to. But at the same time, I kept thinking it was too early to introduce her to coven life. To share her fully that way. And, even worse, there was the sickening chance she’d say no.
That she’d reject me—us—and the chance for more will be gone.
So I shook my head and leaned casually against the island just as Vi turned to speak to me.
“Sorry about all this. Do you want to get a ride home with Dana? I’ll try and salvage a couple of things here and wait around for the super and in case someone needs?—”
“I’ll do that,” Dana interrupted quickly, adding a pointed, “Our place is within walking distance.”
“Dana, it’s okay,” Kaylee argued. “I’ll take care of it, then I’ll go settle in at Danny’s…”
Dana looked at me pointedly, and I sighed.
Seems like I’ll have to risk it.
Here goes nothing.
“Vi, if you want… you can stay with us,” I offered, rubbing the back of my neck, carefully avoiding her eyes and staring to the left of her shoulder.
Vi looked at me for a second and stopped. She’s going to say no. She’ll prefer to go with her best friend and sibling and not come with someone she’s been dating for only ? —
“I’d love to,” she finally said with a relieved sigh, and I’m pretty sure I looked relieved myself as Babydoll smacked her shoulder over and over excitedly. “Sharing the sofa with Kaylee was going to murder my back, anyway.”
Danny shrugged. “We could have gotten you an air mattress.”
“Gross,” Dana muttered. “No need when we have a perfectly good bed for her.”
Interesting how she neglected to mention the aforementioned available beds were mine, hers, Elsie’s, or Juniper’s.
Technically, we had a guest room, but I had a feeling that Vi would never see the inside of it.
She released Babydoll, using her thumbs to wipe away her friend’s streaked mascara. “Let me help you with your bag, okay? Ren won’t mind waiting, right?”
“Not at all, Pet,” I said as I looked up to find that the interesting—albeit a little ugly—painting that hung in the living room appeared to be undamaged. “Take your time. Is that your bag in the hall?”
Babydoll laughed through a heavy sniff. “I tossed it out there to try and save your stuff. You’re lucky you’re pretty tidy. I just had to put your laptop in your backpack… you may want to put that in a bit of rice.”
Vi groaned, leading Babydoll into the bedroom. “It’s fine... It was ancient anyway.”
“Insurance should replace it,” Dana called after them as the girls left her, Danny, and me alone in the main living area.
“This is fucked,” Danny muttered, their eyes curious on Dana’s back as she continued to catalog the damage. “Thanks for coming. Kayls freezes up in a crisis.”
“No problem,” she said, deep brown shoulders shrugging, one visible where her cropped sports top slid off it. “I was on the way to the gym when Ren called.”
“Be good to my sister, or I’ll tell Riley to beat you up for real,” Danny blurted, slightly red. Their eyes flicked up to mine. “That goes for you too. Keep her safe.”
Dana chuckled. “Noted. I’ll treat her nice, Danny, don’t worry. You won’t have to sic Riley on me yet.”
“You know each other?” I asked, Dana’s joking tone making my ears prick.
“Danny works at the gym I go to. They’ve been helping me with my right hook for a couple of months.”
The human in question broke into a round of shadow boxing, bouncing from foot to foot and throwing punches they had no intention of landing.
“Meaning, if you mess with my baby sister, I’ll take you out. Garlic bread, holy water, and fists of fury!”
Dana and I laughed.
It was ludicrous; a human wouldn’t stand a chance against a vampire. Plus, the whole garlic and holy water thing was a myth—even though, if you tossed a water bottle at Juniper, she’d act like she was dying. That wasn’t why we were laughing, though. It was the idea that we’d willingly do anything but spend our time worshipping Vi.
Adding to our coven wasn’t a priority outside the needy thrum of my instincts, but given a little more time… Yeah, I could see it. Vi with bright ruby eyes, freshly turned and never-changing as she lounged in bed, getting used to controlling her thirst. Hours spent enjoying each other's company while she learned her new strength.
Yeah, there was absolutely something there.
Knowing it was too soon to share my private hopes with my covenmates, much less with Vi or her sibling, I touched my knuckles to Danny’s. “Heard. I’ll treat her right, don’t worry.”
“I’ll take care of things here. Maybe you can head to ours and get Vi settled?” Dana winced, nodding at Vi’s suitcase in the hall. “I’m not sure how dry that is; maybe Els can lend her some clothes?”
“Oh no, she’ll hate that,” I teased.
If Elsie got to turn Vi into her very own life-sized Barbie, I’d never see either of them again.
The girls came out of the bedroom, a hot pink duffle bag hanging over Kaylee’s shoulder by its rhinestone strap.
“Not much was dry.” Vi sighed. “So you’ll have to let her hang some stuff up at yours.”
“No worries,” Danny said. “C’mon, Kayl. Dana has this under control. We’ll stop for ice cream or something.”
“Okay, okay, fine. Dana, are you su—” Babydoll started to ask again.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she assured, waving her phone at her as if to illustrate that she was on top of things. “I’ll call you when I have this sorted out, okay? If you remember anything else in particular you want me to pull out, just text.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” she said, blonde hair bobbing in her ponytail as she stopped to wrap the vampire in a hug. “Thank you.”
Dana patted her back awkwardly until Babydoll released her.
“I’ll see you at work?” Babydoll asked.
“For sure, and I’ll call you later?” Vi offered.
Babydoll nodded, letting Danny lead her out, leaving Vi to turn to us with a heavy sigh.
“God, this is fucked. You’re sure I can stay with you?”
“Absolutely,” Dana chirped. “It’ll be our pleasure, right, Ren?”
“Dana is just happy to have a problem she can fix,” I explained to Vi’s anxious expression. “She’s not actually a U-Haul lesbian.”
“Cruel,” Dana said with a sigh. “But accurate. So don’t protest too much, okay, Mozinho ?”
“Okay, boss,” Vi conceded, kissing her quickly. “I’ll see you at yours then?”
Dana caught Vi’s hip, drawing her in for another, longer kiss. “Can’t wait.”
“Dibs on her sleeping in my room,” I called to Dana, pulling her attention to me with a scowl.
“You can’t call dibs on people.”
“Can so.” Vi shrugged. “And Ren just did. You snooze, you lose, boss.”
“All this effort and this is the thanks I get?” she teased playfully, nipping Vi’s jaw. “Fine. Tomorrow then.”
“Absolutely,” Vi said, pulling away to pick up a pair of soggy sneakers from the floor with a sigh. “Let’s go?”
She turned to meet my eyes, making my stomach do excited somersaults.
Though the circumstances were disappointing, it’d be nice to have Vi close for a while. Like a trial run confirming what I knew already: that she’d fit with the rest of my family as effortlessly as fireworks, champagne, and strawberries.
I picked up her suitcase on the way, offering Dana a wave, and we started down the stairs, pausing to let some men in coveralls go by.
Vi looked up at me from where she stood several steps down, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “I can’t wait to see your room. I bet you keep it as tidy as the bar.”
I chuckled. “Worse, I fear.”
“Ah,” Vi said thoughtfully, mischief in her dark eyes. “Guess I better make a mess of it then.”
I nudged her so she’d keep walking down the stairs.
Something told me that there would be very, very little sleep going on tonight.