CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The café didn’t look like anything special, but its location was fantastic.
Shoved between two bigger buildings, I had to recognize that it was certainly a magic situation.
I could see the spell shimmer, revealing for a second what the humans with no magic or supernatural origin saw.
Just a terrifying dark alleyway with a chain-link fence blocking it off on each end, and no access doors from the buildings.
There was nothing too fantastical in Savannah outside of the tree that I had only recently seen, and the tree seemed… down to Earth.
This café didn’t.
I went inside, finally seeing who was inside, and my nose did the counting for me.
One fae sitting at the window, staring out with a drink in front of him. Two werewolves chatting at a side table, nearly in the corner. A couple of witches looking over books together, a hushed conversation going on. Two fae, in the back behind the counter. The main culprits. Three of the big five.
Multiple of the supernatural looked at me, and the witches seemed like they didn’t like me and couldn’t fix their faces in time.
I went to the counter, trying not to be weird.
“Hello. I’m visiting Los Angeles. Is there possibly anything for vampires on the menu? I know it’s a crazy ask.”
“Yeah, doesn’t your menu like… walk past all the time?” the closer fae replied, grinning.
“Sure, if I liked having to catch my meals,” I said, making a face. “And I don’t.”
“He’s fucking with you,” the other fae said with a flat expression. “Yeah, we serve donated. Sounds like that’s something you’d like. Warm or hot?”
“Hot,” I answered, even more thrown off that they could serve me.
“Normally, vampires go to the blood club,” a werewolf said, looking over. “You must be that little vampire Lucas’ girl has drama with now. He said you had fire red hair down to your ass.”
“Not really drama,” I said, shrugging at the wolf.
“Though I didn’t realize my hair was that long.
” I pulled my curly ponytail forward, and it wasn’t.
It was longer than when I became a vampire, but it wasn’t extreme.
I didn’t comment on the blood club thing.
There was no reason to. If the fae here served human blood, then they saw enough vampires to maintain that business decision.
I sniffed the hot blood when it was put in front of me.
A lidded coffee cup of blood. The absurdity of it was funny, but I wasn’t in the mood to laugh.
I took it with me to a table in front of the windows and started sipping as I watched the street.
Humans out late, laughing and talking together or stalking to mug someone.
It didn’t really matter. I just liked to watch them.
“Don’t mind the werewolves or the witches,” the fae at the other window seat said. “We have vampire regulars. Some of them will probably be in soon. Blood clubs have a… vibe that a lot of vampires will only tolerate out of necessity.”
“And you are?”
“The owner of this fine establishment,” the fae answered. “Name unimportant. You are Everly Abbott, the vampire under Alexius the Hunter. He certainly doesn’t go to blood clubs. He actually stopped in here earlier, had questions. Are you here for the same?”
“Actually, no. I had no idea he was here,” I answered, frowning. “He’s here on work. I’m on vacation.”
“She’s not lying,” one of the werewolves called out.
“Thank you,” the owner said, smiling back at the werewolves. “So, you’re on vacation taking in the sights of Los Angeles.”
I was amazed and deeply uncomfortable. This was my second full night in the city. It wasn’t close to done, yet random supernaturals, in a café I hadn’t heard of until tonight, knew about me.
“If it’s not rude to ask… how do you know all that about me?” I asked softly. “I’m from Savannah, and while I know rumors get around…”
“Oh.” The fae frowned. “Yeah, you aren’t being trained in a full nest or in a city with anything worth talking about. Savannah has two important things. A witch coven and Alexius. Fae are really only getting a foothold in the city.”
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“Then I’ll be nice. Let me educate you about why places like this exist and how I know everything. Why Alexius came by earlier.” He got up and waved me to follow him. I looked at the werewolves, oddly enough, almost asking if I should.
“No one wants that smoke with Alexius,” the werewolf said simply. “No one is going to harm you here. It’s neutral ground, and the owner is honor bound and magically bound to protect his guests, even from himself unless his life is actively in danger.”
“Ah. Thanks.”
“No problem,” the helpful werewolf replied. As I went behind the counter, I heard the werewolf huff. “Can’t believe no one has brought her to a place like this before.”
“No, she’s more just rubbing elbows with ancient vampires if the rumors are true,” the other werewolf said, shooting me a look that I caught before going into the back.
I knew the signs of an information broker when I saw them.
“Wow,” I said softly, seeing the computer set up and the board of important things he was either showing or tracking himself. One of them was news on vampires, recent events he picked up and could then tell the people he wanted or needed to tell.
“There are fae like me all over Los Angeles and other cities. We also manage some of the more underground things of the supernatural world, like bounties. Which, if you didn’t know, are legal.
But they’re not allowed in my establishment.
We fae know when and where people’s business should take place.
You might be interested in this,” he said, pointing out something on his board for me.
“A freebie for coming to my establishment on your vacation. For trusting a new supernatural place site unseen.”
“So, normally someone has to pay you to get back here and get intel,” I said, smiling a little. It was a good business plan. An easy one.
“Or become my friend,” he said with a casual shrug and turned to look at me. I hadn’t really taken him in out in the main area, but in the closer space, I could see he was beautiful. He probably had a lot of friends. He made no move on me, so I pointed out something obvious.
“I need to know someone’s name to be their friend.”
“Ah. Fine. Beautiful women, my weakness. It’s Wren. Yes, a songbird in the information game. Now, get to reading.”
I leaned forward to read what he pointed out, smiling that I had gotten his name out of him.
“Alexius the Hunter and Everly Abbott spotted at LAX,” I read aloud.
I laughed softly. “Fair enough. Spotted right out in the open.” I read further.
“Alexius the Hunter at Court of Coffee, asking about vampires that won’t present themselves to Maria’s nest.” It was timed and dated for earlier in the night.
He’d stopped in really quick after leaving me with Declan.
“Hm-hm.” The fae was smiling. “And now I get to add to it.” He grabbed a pen and wrote ‘Everly Abbott on vacation, exploring Los Angeles scene, spotted at Court of Coffee’. He then timed and dated the little entry.
“Sorry. It was going to be added no matter what. And I’m taking you at your word that you are on vacation while your boss works. Not that anyone really cares what he’s doing if they aren’t vampires. Though, if another vampire pays me for intel, you and he will be part of it.”
“Can I pay you for intel on the vampires he’s looking for? To one-up him?”
“He already has. He’s old enough that even if he’s a friend, he gets nothing for free.” Wren motioned for me to step out of his office now, and we headed through the small kitchen and back into the main space.
“I pay people for information as well, if you need to earn some quick cash,” he said as I went back to my seat.
“Alexius pays me really well,” I said, smiling, knowing I had no reason to sell anything.
Los Angeles was proving to be a real education, though. I went back to people watching, making sure to finish the blood before it grew cool, nasty, and bad for me. I didn’t throw the cup away, and eventually one of the fae grabbed it and threw it in a red bag.
“For incineration,” he said softly. “Thanks for not making me fish it out of the other trash.”
“Oh! No problem, I guess,” I said, then went back to staring out the window.
For two hours, I watched as other supernaturals came and went. It felt like time well spent. I had my phone on silent to ignore anything from my brother, but I eventually checked it to make sure Alexius didn’t reach out.
He didn’t, and I didn’t speak to anyone until vampires walked through the door.
“Can you believe she called in fucking Alexius?” one was hissing as the door swung open. “Hey, Wren. How much intel about what the fuck the Mistress of Nest is doing?” They were so loud, and I tried not to react to their words.
“Ah, well…” Wren made some dismissive gesture. “No one has really told me. For a fee, I can tell you what actually happened tonight.”
“It’s not that important. I don’t break the rules. You?” He looked at his friend, who shook his head.
“No reason to. Crazy to piss off the old ones. He’s not here for us. You’re just being ridiculous and annoyed for no reason.”
“Calling in Alexius is meant to scare people,” the first said, making an exasperated face at his friend. “She’s trying to scare people.”
“She’s trying to scare people breaking the rules or going against her, not everyone.
You are just enough of a troublemaker sometimes that I get why you would be a little scared.
But you’ve never done anything that would involve him, and she’s gotten on your ass for a century about them.
You didn’t get away with shit. Past all of that, you know he only comes in for the nasty things. The bad ones.”
“But then you have to wonder… What's going on that she hasn’t told anyone about? Isn’t that also a bit terrifying?”
Surprisingly, Wren didn’t point me out. He let the vampires talk and talk.
They found a seat in the corner where the werewolves had been earlier.
They started talking about when their friends would get there.
And in ten or so minutes, other vampires came in, and they moved tables and chairs to sit together.
Well, I don’t want to be too outnumbered. If they eventually figure out who I am, I’ll be questioned or something.
I got up and waved to Wren.
“You have a wonderful café,” I said.
“Thank you!” Wren smiled, enigmatic, a little seductive. He was a good-looking man. I was certain that many men and women had shrines set up for him, hoping they would be the ones who locked him down.
Just not my type. I was more into the brooding, dark, unobtainable introvert type than the unobtainable social butterfly type.
I left, nearly running into another vampire on the sidewalk. I hurried around him with a mumbled apology and started to get to my car.
“Everly?”
I turned quickly, and I wasn’t sure if it was how fast I turned or the face I saw that made me so lightheaded. I staggered, leaning against the window of the café as I took it in. He stood, holding the door half open, looking just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
“By the gods, it’s you,” he said, but didn’t move.
I was having a hard time with reality. There was no way, but it was him.
It was my uncle. The vampire, Henry Abbott.
“Everly!” He finally let go of the door, letting it swing closed, and came closer to me. He seemed jubilant, excited, amazed. His niece was there, right in front of him after so many years.
I took a step back.
I could feel every single eye in the café on us now, staring through the front window just as I had been doing to people for hours. We just became the most interesting thing of the night.
“Henry,” I said, aiming to sound calm, reserved, or even cautious.
“How are you? By the gods, look at you. All grown up. Beautiful. And a vampire at that. Here in Los Angeles. Pretty far from Portland, Maine…” He looked at the café, then back at me, less excited and more confused. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” I countered, not able to keep some venom out of my words as everything flooded back to me about how complicated things were with this man. So many things I had wanted to say to him. So many things I had wanted to scream and yell and cry.
He noticed. By the expression on his face, he very much noticed.
He didn’t call it out. He started patting his pockets until he found something and pulled out a notepad with a small attached pencil. He wrote quickly, then tore it off, holding it out to me.
“Here. Please take it. If you’d like to talk… we’ll talk.” He looked me in the eye as he held it out, his hand not shaking. No sign of nerves from him. No sign of anything except wanting to reconnect with me.
Have you been here the entire time? Did you ignore that I became a vampire and stayed away? Did you ignore what was happening in Jacob’s nest after he died? Where were you? You just left us. We needed you. I needed you.
I wasn’t in a good place to ask any of those questions.
“I’ll call tomorrow,” I said softly. “Maybe. If I do, we’ll… schedule something.” I turned on my heel with the note in hand, crushing it as emotions rocked me.
“Call anytime,” he called out, not quite a yell.
I got back to my car and took several deep breaths.
I was ready to go home. I started the car and drove fast. It couldn’t get me home, but it could get me somewhere.
By the time I was in the driveway of the loaned home, I felt better.
Los Angeles was proving to be exhausting, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. It was a vacation for me. I could deal with all of this on my own time.
I looked at the note as I stood alone in the living room. Alexius wasn’t home yet. He’d written his name and number. That was all. Not even Uncle Henry, though that was probably because he was in a hurry. Or perhaps Uncle Henry was reserved for children, not grown adults who became vampires.
I didn’t need this tonight. Not after the drama with Declan and Lexi and how fucking awkward things are getting with Alexius. I didn’t need the long-lost uncle to be fucking here.
I rubbed my forehead, wondering if I really felt a headache coming on or if it was phantom pain, just the memory of a headache.