Chapter 11
Vie
The worst thing I’d ever experienced was watching Willow’s devastated expression and knowing there was nothing I could do to immediately alleviate it. She hadn’t even seen the inside of the apartment yet, only Jina waiting outside.
When we pulled up, Jina was sitting on a concrete bench covered in graffiti and decals. She was hunched over, her head hanging down and her forearms resting on her thighs. She was dressed in a military uniform, her hair pulled back in a severe bun, with a duffle bag at her feet.
Willow screeched to a halt, bumping one wheel over the curb in her haste to park.
“Jina!” Willow yelled the moment she was out of the car. The door hadn’t even swung shut before she was rounding the car.
Other than looking up and mouthing “Willow,” Jina didn’t move.
In broad daylight and with so many humans around, I was forced to act human and wrestle with the car door to follow her. By the time I caught up, Willow had pulled Jina to her feet and the two were hugging tightly.
“It’s so bad,” Jina said with a choked back sob.
“Whoever did it will pay,” Willow swore. “I’ll fucking hunt them down and break every bone in their body.”
“It won’t bring back my quilt,” Jina whispered.
It was strange. I’d spent all my life hunting violent people that I’d forgotten about the victims of violence. In my world, they were faceless individuals who suffered or died, not anyone I wanted to care about.
Watching Willow mourn with Jina made me understand that the repercussions of violent action reached so much further. Because Willow cared about Jina, I cared about Jina. It felt odd, but not bad. It made me consider how many individual people I could care about.
“I can’t go back up there,” Jina said. I’d missed some of their conversation, and I stepped closer to make sure I caught everything.
“You stay here,” Willow said. “I’m going up to see if there’s anything to salvage. Then I’ll find us a place to stay.”
“I can arrange that,” I said, ready to do anything I could to ease their suffering.
My words brought Jina’s attention to me. Her eyes went wide for a moment as she took in my pale skin and white hair. I let her look. Usually I’d scowl at anyone with the strength to stare at me for too long, but Jina was an exception.
Anyone Willow loved would be an exception to all my normal rules.
“Who are you?” Jina asked. Her red, swollen eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“He’s my boyfriend, Vie,” Willow said, jumping to stand at my side. “Vie, this is my best friend in the entire damn world, Jina. You two don’t have to love each other, but you better get along.”
Jina’s response to Willow’s little speech was a watery chuckle. “Sir, yes sir!” she said with a crisp salute. Dropping her hand, she held it out to me. “It’s nice to meet you, Vie.”
Although I didn’t want to, I shook Jina’s hand. “If you’re precious to Willow, then you’re important to me.”
As I expected, Jina grimaced and quickly pulled her hand away from mine. It seemed only Willow was immune to the way my magic made everyone uncomfortable around me.
“Right, so I guess we need to find a motel room or something,” she said, then nudged the duffle at her feet. “At least I have a few uniforms.”
“You can have anything out of my shop you want,” Willow said. “I’ve got a blouse that would look great with your uniform pants.”
Jina gave Willow a fond smile. “Very funny.”
“I’m hilarious,” Willow agreed with a cheeky grin that didn’t entirely hide the sadness in her eyes.
“But seriously, do you remember that outfit you tried on a few weeks ago that you refused to take when I offered? I put it aside for your birthday, so take it now or wait for another month. Oh, and I think I have one more of those dresses you bought from me last month.” Willow shook her head.
“You know what, I’ll grab one of everything in your size and you keep what you want. ”
“I wouldn’t normally say yes to that offer, but it’s dire circumstances. I used up all my last paycheck to pay off my credit card bill. I’m fucked for a while.”
“I can replace everything.” At my words, both women turned their attention to me. Willow had a grateful smile, but Jina’s expression was suspicious.
“That’s nice of you,” she said. “But I’m sure we can figure it out.”
She wasn’t used to trusting others, I could understand that. Instead of insisting, I gave a sharp nod. “Of course you can. You’re smart and capable, like Willow.”
The distrust melted away and a hint of a real smile appeared. “You speak 100% truth.”
“I’m going upstairs,” Willow said.
Jina shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “I can’t.”
“You stay here,” Willow said, giving her another hug. “I’ll grab anything salvageable and then we’ll figure out what we’re doing.”
Jina nodded and tightened her hold on Willow for a moment, then let go. “Don’t take too long. I need to get away from here.”
Willow nodded. “Let me guess, you’ve been awake for at least a day.”
Jina snorted and rubbed her hands over her face. “Try almost thirty-six hours. I need a shower and bed.”
“Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll be back.”
Jina sighed and slumped back down on the bench. “Okay.”
Without another word, Willow turned and hurried to the staircase. I followed closely behind. We got to her apartment to find the door frame splintered. Willow gasped when she stepped inside. If anything, Jina hadn’t done the damage justice.
Not a single thing had escaped the intruder's attention. The walls were all spray painted with crude insults, the couch was in shambles, and every pillow was ripped apart. There wasn’t a single shelf or table that stood upright, and anything that could be smashed or broken lay ruined on the floor.
All the cabinets in the kitchen were open.
Shattered crockery littered the floor and the stink of food from the fridge and pantry filled the space.
Gingerly stepping through the rubble, Willow moved deeper into the apartment. She was silent, but I could smell distress radiating off of her.
“I can replace or repair everything,” I said, hoping to ease her suffering.
“I’m sad I lost so many things,” she said, moving into Jina’s room. “But the fact that someone deliberately targeted me is the biggest problem. Who would want to hurt me like this?”
“Maybe they’re after Jina.”
She turned to look at me. “Do you really think that?”
I shook my head. I needed to be honest with Willow. “I can smell a hint of their rage. The people who did this were focused on you. I can feel it.”
I expected that to upset her, but she only looked resigned.
“It had to be me. I have way more enemies than Jina does. For all her big talk and cussing, she’s got a mild personality.
She hates it when people are upset and would much rather stay quiet than cause waves.
I’ve never backed down from a fight.” She waved at the mess. “This had to be because of me.”
She made her way to Jina’s room. The quilt was in one piece, but it had been badly ripped in several places and there was spray paint on it. Willow gently gathered it and held it tightly in her arms, then turned to her room. She stopped in the doorway and gagged.
If I hadn’t scented the intentions of the intruders, the special attention they paid to destroying her room would’ve told me Willow was the target.
Not only was it given the same destructive treatment as the rest of the apartment, but they’d gone a step further and pissed on everything.
I could smell it from where I was standing behind her.
“Leave it,” I commanded. I refused to let her even walk into that defiled place. “I’ll replace everything, but don’t touch it. Don’t let them soil you also.”
Willow turned in place and pressed her head against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and held tight. We stood like that for a little while before she pulled away.
“You don’t need to replace my stuff,” she murmured, looking up at me with tears swimming in her eyes. “But make the people who did this pay!”
“That will happen,” I promised.
Willow
Hours later, the police finally showed up.
They took our statement, gave us a website we could check for a case number, and left.
We weren’t under any illusion that the cops would catch the people who did all the damage.
The only thing the police would do was create a record.
Unless whoever did this to our place kept doing it to others or went after a home in a more affluent neighborhood, it was unlikely they’d ever be caught.
A manager from the company that ran the building showed up as the cops were finishing. He stood there, making impatient sounds waiting to talk to us. He was brusque, rude, and unsympathetic. If Jina wasn’t already struggling to keep from crying, I might’ve picked a fight with the manager.
At least he said he’d have the door fixed by the end of the day. Not that we were ever coming back, but for some reason, it helped to know that our space wasn’t going to be desecrated by randos wandering in through an open door.
When it was all finally done, I loaded Jina into the back seat of the car. She was dazed from the whole thing so she didn’t notice at first. She seemed to “wake up” after we hit the freeway and couldn’t stop talking about the vehicle.
“You bought her this car,” Jina said for the hundredth time as I drove us to Vie’s place. “But you guys have only been dating for, what, a week? And you bought her this?”
“Yes, he bought me this car,” I said. “Now drop it.”
Jina ignored me and kept talking to Vie. “You must be loaded. Are you like rich, rich-rich, or fucking rich?”
I snorted. “That made no sense.”
Jina finally turned her attention to me. “It does. Rich is like people with pools in their backyards. Rich-rich are people with a couple of houses that have pools in their backyards. Fucking rich is when you have vacation homes on islands.”
It felt good to have the old Jina back. “That’s all the levels of rich?”