Fur the Record Excerpt

Chapter Twenty-One

I ended up at the top of Reseda. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to come there. So much bad had happened, but then there was good too. Memories of my sister floated through my head. Scenes from the battle flashed as well. It was one of those moments where you need a little reminder that you’ve survived worse and you will again. My fingers rubbed at the small scar. The one from the battle, there was no way to pinpoint the one my sister’s death had left on me. A sad smile crept onto my lips.

“Sometimes life really fucking sucks.” I said to the beautiful view of a city I knew better when I was kid then I did know as a grown up.

I just sat there trying to figure out what to do next. I felt like my world was slipping away. Yeah, it was awesome that my home and car would be there when I got back, if I got back, but right now, I had nowhere to go. My phone sat heavy in my pocket. I knew I could call John or Henry, but I didn’t want to drag them into the middle of this mess.

Is the Depot even open right now? I’m not a big social person when I don’t have to be. I like it that way. People can let you down or die and I don’t like either of those options, so my choices of those that I could call on in this moment of need was very limited. I could always go sleep in the office. But I knew that wasn’t a choice. I was avoiding Harkins. He would lock me up if he knew what I was planning.

I headed down to Ventura Boulevard. I’d take the Red Line to Universal and catch the damn subway to the Depot. The worse that Rex could tell me would be no and the thought of sitting up on the hill all night didn’t please me.

The ride was smooth and I caught the last train out of North Hollywood toward Los Angeles. Nope, still not giving you guys the exact locations of where I got off. Come the end of this, the Depot might be my only link to the supe community if P.N.I. fired my ass.

As I approached the Depot I noticed it was really busy. Of course, it would be the only time for vamps to get there, but I felt like it was more than that. Rex was by the door waiting for me, like he knew I’d be coming.

“Couldn’t resist coming back to see me?” He cocked a brow at me.

“We’ll call it that for now. Can I, eh, stay with you tonight?” My cheeks flamed red.

“Of course. Wanna help me with the stall tonight? We’ve got a lot of business.” He sounded cheerful.

“If it won’t cause problems.” I smiled.

“Nah, Jaram is manning his and mine right now. As soon as we get your stuff squared away you can come to it with me. Unless you’d rather stay in?” He was concerned I wouldn’t want to do something like sell gear.

“No, it will help distract me.” My mind was a rough sea.

“We can talk about it if you want?” He offered.

“Not right now. Maybe later. Right now, I’d like to help you.” I smiled, locking away all the chaos going on inside me for later.

“Great, come on.” He escorted me through the Depot.

Instead of the usual stares, this time I had hostile ones. The vampires knew me as Andrew’s. Maybe helping at Rex’s stall wasn’t the best idea.

“Um, Rex. Do you often get vampire business?” I asked as casually as I could.

“I get a fair amount on nights like this, why?” He looked at me.

“Then perhaps I’ll just walk around the orc area. Am I allowed to do that?” I hated all the damn rules.

“It would seem a little strange, but not amazingly so. Why don’t you want to help?” His voice was concerned.

“You’ll lose business.” I said it calmly.