She had no money to buy any of those things and really no inclination to as she clutched her new uniform shirts to her chest. She was merely passing time, putting off the inevitable: that she had to return to the one-room apartment she was renting on the edge of the Nowa Huta district. Her belly grumbled, signaling it was time to leave. She didn’t have cash to eat out and had already bought food that was waiting for her at the apartment.
Reluctantly leaving the market, Thea jumped on a tram and less than forty minutes later, she got off at her apartment complex. It was one of many gray, industrial-looking apartment blocks in this part of Kraków. Despite the square of grass and trees in the middle, nothing could pretty-up her new neighborhood. The windows on the ground floor had decorative iron bars. Thea glowered, steering clear. Not even their floral motifs could detract from the prison-like appearance.
Someone had broken the lock on the door of her apartment block, probably ages ago, and Thea felt her mood plummet as she stepped inside the dank entry hall, the smell of cannabis trickling out from one of the apartments. The building reminded her of the one she’d stayed at in Budapest, but it was nothing new to her. For the last six years, this was all she’d been able to afford. It was all many people could afford, which meant like everywhere she’d stayed, Thea’s neighbors would be a mix of the good and not-so-good kind.
On the third floor, inside her dark apartment, she ignored the smell of damp and set about heating the can of soup she’d bought yesterday. Just as she was settling down to watch a television show on the crappy television that came with the apartment, the hairs all over Thea’s body rose.
She froze, turning away from the American comedy she was watching. As a shiver skated down her spine, Thea reached for the remote and switched off the television. This feeling, this awareness, differed from the one she’d experienced back in Budapest with the gunman. There was no thudding heart or feeling of dread.
But it was still her body’s way of warning her.
There was another supernatural near.
Putting down the bowl on the old scuffed coffee table in front of her, Thea’s footsteps on bare feet were barely audible to a human ear. But a supernatural would hear them, so she masked the sounds of her movements as she used a talent she’d labeled her cloaking gift. Pressing against the door of the apartment, she peered out through the spyglass. A man and a woman who seemed farther away than they were in real life stumbled down the hall kissing. They fell against the wall in their passion, the young woman giggling as the tall man broke away from her and walked toward Thea’s end of the hall.
“Come back,” the girl whined in accented English.
The man looked over his shoulder at her and then turned toward Thea, grinning. As his head turned, the light from the bare bulb overhead caught in his eyes and they flashed silver, like liquid mercury, before returning to normal.
Vampire.
Well, that explained all the hair on her body rising in warning.
The vampire stopped at the door next to hers and stuck a key into the keyhole.
She’d moved in next to a freaking vampire!
Of course, she had.
Thea groaned to herself and rested her forehead against the door. She’d have to move. Find somewhere else to stay. It was too dangerous living in proximity to another supernatural.
“What are you doing?” The girl’s voice brought Thea’s head up and a cry caught in her throat when her eye looked into a blue one.
She froze, cloaking herself in silence.
“Abram?”
Finally, the eye began to retreat until Thea could see the vampire’s whole face, and then finally his body. His eyes narrowed on Thea’s door.
“Abram.” The girl snuggled into his side. “You’re being strange.”
“More so than normal?” he asked in a British accent.
Thea watched him focus his attention on the girl’s neck and forced herself to remain still, silent. The girl’s fate was no business of hers. The last time she’d stepped in to help a human, she’d had to go on the run again.
She couldn’t take on a vampire for a stranger.
She just couldn’t.
An emotion Thea would not label as guilt swept through her.
“Take me inside,” the girl whispered, but Thea could hear every word. “Take me inside and bite me again. I love when you sink your teeth into me.”
Oh.
Well then.
No need to feel guilty about a lack of a rescue effort.
The vampire and his … whatever … disappeared into the apartment but not before he threw Thea’s door one last curious look.
She sagged with relief when he was finally out of sight.
And then Thea immediately threw everything into her backpack and got the hell out of there before the vampire decided to satisfy his own curiosity.