Dead Before Dawn: The Vampire Curse

Chapter 33 - The Big Apple

Max looked up at the orange brick structure and wondered if anything looked really normal anymore. The building was like many others in Queens, an apartment structure the same as all over the city, but of course he knew it hid people from the darker side of New York. Hunters weren't the bad guys, but it wasn't as if they were law abiding citizens either.

Shaking his head, he made a mental note not to be so damn morbid and walked towards the entrance. It made sense that the hunters had not given Yulia the address of their main base, but an apartment building just seemed so ordinary. For all Max knew it was just a place they used to meet people they weren't sure of. That idea made him feel all warm inside, not!

According to Yulia, New York had a hierarchy of hunters who watched over the city and the surrounding areas, including New Jersey. Max was on his way to see someone near the top of that tree to get everything out in the open. The last thing he needed was hunters knocking down his door in the wee hours of the morning because some idiot had tailed him back home.

He was pretty sure he'd got all the vampires in what his supernatural side identified as his territory, but he wanted to be free to tackle any others that might wander in.

He walked up to the doorman with the address he had printed out in his hand.

"Hi," he said, "I'm going up to the eighth floor to see Philip Drayton. We're business associates."

"Would you like me to call up for you, sir?" the doorman asked him.

"No thanks, that's okay, I'll find my own way up."

He headed to the elevators, giving the man another smile, and pushed the button, settling in to wait for the car to arrive. Glancing around he could see three CCTV cameras and he felt like he'd stepped into one of his spy movies or something. They were probably just normal security, but he was feeling just a little bit paranoid. Talking some sense into the Russian hunters had been one thing, but now he had to make sure the Americans were on side too.

He was used to being paranoid about paparazzi, but CCTV was a whole new thing for him.

Dressed in black and beige, he had made himself as nondescript as possible. It was cold out, so the baseball cap, sunglasses and scarf helped with the disguise and to keep him warm, which was a bonus. He didn't usually try and sneak around much in New York; it was so big he could just disappear anyway, but today he was being careful.

When the elevator pinged and the doors opened he stepped aboard and chose the button for the correct floor. A harried looking mother with a covered stroller dashed for the car just as the doors were closing, so he held it open for her.

"Thanks," she said and he smiled, leaning back against the wall of the elevator as the doors slid closed, properly this time.

"Fall's come early this year," she said.

"Yeah," he replied, keeping the bottom of his face tucked in his scarf.

The last thing he wanted was to be recognised.

"Do you live here?" the woman asked a moment later.

Just what he needed; a talkative New Yorker. Clearly she thought they had bonded when he held the door.

"No, just visiting, you?"

"My sister lives on the eighth floor," she said. "Oh I see that's where you're going too."

She smiled at him brightly, but something felt off. He was probably being paranoid, but he let his vampire senses rise slightly without letting any of the more obvious traits show. The first thing he smelled was gun oil. It took a lot of control not to react to that.