Never

Chapter 6: Trapped

Thaddeus's POV:

"You can't kill her."

"Why?" I groaned, slamming my hands on the desk.

"Thaddeus," Kristoff said, glancing up from the book in front of him. "Don't kill my people, or I'll go after yours. I'll start with Elias."

"You wouldn't," I said, narrowing my eyes.

"Wouldn't I?" He challenged. We glared at each other.

He and Elias shared mutual dislike, but Elias was possibly my favorite person in the world. That was saying a lot. I hated everyone.

"She's a pest," I hissed. I wasn't happy with what went down in the basement. That stupid little human put me out and I woke up with a massive headache. I wasn't sure what the hell her concoction was but I wanted nothing more than to give her a lethal dose of her own medicine. "She threatened to kill me."

"Yes, and you threatened to kill her," Kristoff said, his gaze returning to his book.

"She's insane," I said flatly, resting my palms on the desk. "You cannot possibly tell me you don't see how insane she is."

Kristoff shrugged. "Not as bad as some of yours and so what?" He turned the page, eyes skimming the words. "So she's insane. As long as she does what I need her to, I couldn't care less."

I plopped down on the chair and put my feet up on his desk, ignoring the scowl he sent me. "How did this even come about between you two?"

"How did yours?" He countered. "You've got plenty of friends. You know how these arrangements come about. Usually they have something you want and you have something they want. It's a job, an exchange. Simple as that. Winter is a vampire hunter, and I occasionally need to deal with vampires."

"She's a vampire hunter?" I repeated. He nodded. "What family?"

"Don't know."

"You don't know?"

"That is what I said," he sighed, looking up from the book. "How long are you going to bother me about this? I have things to do."

"How do you not know?"

"She doesn't disclose anything personal."

"Wonderful," I said, narrowing my eyes. "So you're working with a vampire hunter who won't disclose her identity and is completely insane. This doesn't strike you as a dangerous combination considering, you know, you are a vampire?"

"Winter doesn't hunt for fun, Deus," Kristoff said, turning the page again. "She hunts specific vampires. Not all."

"Except the ones you ask her to," I pointed out. He shrugged and nodded. "And you what, pay her with the loads of money you've accumulated over the centuries?"

"Sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

"Sometimes she doesn't want money. Like last night," he said, nodding to the envelope resting on his desk.

"Then what does she want?"

"Locations and information. Is the interrogation almost finished?" He asked, marking the page with a scrap of paper before closing the book and standing. "I'm meeting Titas."

"Locations and information about what?"

"Vampires, Deus, keep up," he sighed, moving to the exit.

I followed after him. "What vampires and why?"

"As I said." He put on a jacket and turned to me with an annoyed expression. "She doesn't share personal information. I don't know why she's after the vampires she is, she just is. She gives me a list of names, I find them for her, and return the list with locations or at least the last places they were seen along with anything else I can find out. In return, she does just about anything I ask her to and always does it well so let me reiterate something you may not conveniently forget when she shows up for the party tonight."