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Three days later, Kade and I leave the house for the first time after not having any more incidents at the house.
Kade paid for the damage to my apartment even after I told him I would pay for it. We take a long walk down to a restaurant eight blocks away and enjoy lunch before walking back to the apartment and playing a game of cards. We haven’t spoken much about either incident but Kade has decided that although he’s saved my life twice, he’s also put my life in danger twice, so he thinks we should call it even. I’m not so sure, though.
“You’ve been alive a long time and you seem to have money, have you travelled the world?” I ask him while flipping through a travel magazine that was at my door this morning. The subscriber must’ve forgotten to change their address when they moved.
Kade peaks over my shoulder while drying a dish with a tea towel. “Nope. I’ve been a few places, but I wouldn’t say I’ve travelled the world. I’m not much of a traveler. I go back to England now and again but that’s about it.” He tosses the towel over his shoulder and turns back to put the dish away. “It’s been a while since I’ve even been there. A long while actually. Do you like to travel?” he asks flippantly while tossing a cracker in the air and catching it flawlessly with his mouth.
I shrug. “I’ve never left America. I’d like to one day, but I’m not sure where I’d go. I’ll never have the money to travel the entire world,” I inform him and flip the page. A stunning view of the Canadian Rockies takes up both pages.
“You know, I have lots of money. I could help you travel...” he mutters, probably knowing I’d never accept the far too generous offer.
I chuckle. “I’m already indebted to you enough,” I remind him. “How would I ever pay you back for something like that?”
“You wouldn’t have to pay me back, but if you really wanted to do something in return, you could let me tag along with you,” he offers, sounding unsure.
“You just said you weren’t interested in travelling,” I scoff and flip another page. A splendid picture of Mayan ruins.
Kade takes a seat across the table from me and rests his arms at his chest. “It’s not the travelling I’m interested in. It’s spending time with you.”
I can’t help but grin. The more time I spend with Kade, the more he seems to become comfortable with me and open. “I have to work to pay for my apartment and bills.” I can’t tell if he’s serious or not about his offer. At first, I thought he was joking but the way he’s looking at me now. I think he might just be serious.
“I’ll cover it. I have a lot of money that I’ll never be able to use in my lifetime. Let’s do something crazy.” He seems way too excited, like he’s seriously considering this. “Let’s do it, May. What do we have to lose? We’re both basically without family, we don’t have much going for us right now. You just told me this morning how much you loathe your job. Let’s go.”
“I can’t just drop everything and take off travelling,” I argue. “That’s crazy.”
“Exactly! It’s crazy! It’ll be fun. An adventure. I’d like to get to know you better, and I think this would be a fun way to go about it. Let’s do it,” he urges and jumps up from his spot at the table. “Tomorrow you can hand in your notice, and we will go.”
I gape. I can’t just take off like that...can I? I’m not going to lie; the thought is enticing. I’d love to travel, and travelling with Kade doesn’t seem so bad. I feel safe and comfortable with him, maybe even a bit attracted to him if I’m being honest. Then again, who wouldn’t be attracted to him? I can’t help but imagine Jane’s expression when she opened the door to him at her apartment. He’s the type she’d swoon over, boyfriend or not. Don’t get me wrong, she loves Darrel, but she still likes to look.
“You’re thinking about it,” he observes and bites his bottom lip. “Come on. Live a little. Your human life is too short to spend working a job you hate, being broke, alone, and not being happy with your life. Don’t you want to travel?”
I nod. “Of course, I do. I just told you that.”
“And you don’t seem to mind spending time with me.” It’s a statement but it sounds more like a question.
“I like you. You’re good company,” I reply easily.
His slight smile turns into a wicked grin. “You like me? I like you, too,” he says in a strange tone I can’t place, one that makes my heart flutter for no apparent reason at all. He sits back down at the table and rests an elbow on it, his chin in his palm. “How much do you like me? Enough that you’ll drop everything and travel with me?”
I eye him dubiously. “I’ve only spent a few days with you, so I can’t be sure. Can we do a trial? I’ll take five days off work and maybe we can start with a trial run,” I say slyly, teasing him. “I’m not sure I like you enough to travel the whole world with you yet. I think we should take it a day at a time. You never know when I might get sick of you.”
This only humors him further and his grin becomes impossibly larger before turning into an arrogant smirk. “I’m kind of hurt. Here I thought we were becoming the best of friends.”
I shy away from his steady gaze and look down at my travel magazine. I flip back to the page with the beautiful mountain range and then slide it across the table to him. “How do you feel about going here?”
“Sweden?” Kade asks and pulls the magazine closer.
“No, Canada. It’s only a day's drive or so away. It’ll be our test trip. I’ll take a few days off and we will give it a shot,” I suggest.
He looks from the magazine to me then back to the magazine before resting against the back of his chair. “Alright, sure. A test trip. If this works out and we don’t get sick of each other, we keep travelling. Deal?”
I nod. “Deal.”
“I bet you don’t have a passport though, May.” he rises and pulls out his phone, punching in a number.
“No, I don’t. How long do you think it will take to get one?” I wonder, having no idea.
“Hey, Tyson, it’s Kade here. I need a US passport done up for a friend as soon as possible.” He smiles at me and waggles his brows before he walks from the room.
Is he getting me a forged passport? I’m no genius, but last I checked, you couldn’t just call and order a passport over the phone. My eyes widen and my heart slams against my ribs. You can get in serious trouble for that kind of stuff. I follow him into my bedroom where he pulls my driver’s license from my wallet and begins rambling off information to the guy on the phone. I motion for him to stop by slicing a finger across my throat. He just grins and continues his conversation before hanging up and replacing my license.
“What?” he asks incredulously.
“Do you even know how illegal that is?” I blurt. “You can get major jail time for that!”
Kade rolls his eyes. “If anyone suspects it’s fake I’ll charm them with my compulsion. It’s just for show so the other passengers and the cameras see us use it. I can’t charm an entire airport.”
He can’t be serious. “You sound like you’ve done this before.”
He nods briefly. “Bryxx communities don’t exist to humans. We aren’t registered. We don’t pay taxes or insurance or anything like that. We’re undocumented. If we need something we forge it. Tyson is a Bryxx from another community, one near Seattle. I used him for some other documents when I got kicked out of my community and needed documents to blend into the human world better. He is unaware that I’m banished since it takes quite the time for news to travel between communities due to lack of modern technology. The older Bryxx, including the council and anyone of status disregard most technology.”
“Oh my god, I’m a criminal,” I groan and rest my head in my palm.
Kade ignores me and returns to the kitchen. I follow. “It’ll be ready this afternoon. I’ll meet him in a nearby cafe and pick it up. You have to stay here or he’ll know you’re not Bryxx and he won’t give me it.”
“Doesn’t he need a picture of me?” I ask.
“Yes. He will use a fake one. They don’t look much at the pictures anyway and if they do, well, we already discussed this. When I’m gone to fetch it, don’t answer the door and keep it locked. Hopefully you can stay out of trouble for ten minutes or so.”
Being alone after what happened last time, doesn’t exactly sound like a good idea.
“I’ll just be a block away and I’ll sense if anything is off, alright?” he asks and lounges on the couch. “You’ll be safe.”
I’m not so sure but I keep my mouth shut because I don’t know how to respond.
That afternoon when Kade takes off to the cafe to meet up with Tyson, I lock the doorknob, dead bolt, and put the chain on the door, though I’m not so sure that this will keep a super strong supernatural from breaking it down. Why did I go along with this? Surely, he can’t sense a supernatural from a whole block away, can he? I realize that I don’t know the extent of his special abilities. Maybe he can. I peek out the blinds and look out at the street. Everyone out there seems normal enough to me, but what do I know? I close the blinds and use the washroom before opening the search engine on my phone and searching ‘Bryxx’. Nothing of use comes up. So, I instead search ‘vampire’ which brings up lots of results but after sorting through them, I come to the conclusion that most are useless. I only find a handful of promising ones. I click on the first, but it tells me nothing I don’t already know from movies and tv, so I click the second, then third. By the time I open then fourth page, I hear Kade call through the heavily locked door.
“I’m back, May!” he shouts, and I race to the door and let him in. He hands me my forged passport. I open it and can’t believe how real it appears. The picture is a bit off, but Kade claims that’s not a big deal so I shrug it off. I better not get arrested for this or something.
Kade flicks the tv off and points to my bedroom. “You packed? We’re leaving for the airport in an hour. Flights are booked. We’re flying into Calgary, Alberta late tonight.”
Tonight? I freeze for a moment. I haven’t even taken off work. I’m supposed to work a night shift tonight. “I have work,” I inform him. “I can’t just up and leave.”
He rolls his eyes. “We’ll stop by your work and I’ll tell the guy that he gave you the week off.”
“But then he will be short staffed,” I argue.
Kade shrugs. “It’s a gas station. What’s the worst that can happen? Live a little. You deserve it. Do you want to see the mountains or not? Plus, you told me that the guy’s a complete dick.”
I give in. I hate my job, I hate my boss, and I really do want to go on vacation. “Fine.”
We head to my bedroom and I pull out my suitcase and place it on my bed. He sits on my bed and watches as I throw things into it as fast as I can. I pack the bare minimum as it’s all I need and then I zip it up and lift it to the ground, it’s quite heavy despite only packing the essentials, so I’m more than glad that it has wheels. Just as we’re about to leave the bedroom, a loud smash and the sound of breaking glass hitting the floor comes from the living room. Wide eyed, I look to Kade for explanation, but he’s no longer beside me or even in the room. What the hell?
I race into the living room, leaving my suitcase behind. Kade tackles a white man dressed in all black as a second man springs through the window and his gaze lands directly on me. Before I have the chance to react, I’m pinned against a wall, unable to move as the second man, looking bored, holds a knife to my neck. I can’t breathe. My mind and my lungs seemingly refuse to communicate with each other.
“Kade!” I choke out.
“He’s a little busy, love,” the man in front of me says, his hot, disgusting breath invading my nostrils. I cringe away, and an unintelligible whining sound escapes me. I’m going to freaking die here. Just as I think that, the man is ripped away from me and I slump to the floor, limp with pure fright. I can’t help but recall my encounter with the vampire. Are these men vampires, too?
I watch as Kade slashes the second man’s throat. The disturbing sight causes me to dry heave as the man’s blood pours onto my living room floor. My gaze flicks to the first man who is being held to my wall next to the busted window with five knives stuck through his body and into the drywall. He, too is still alive and staring right at me. I wish I could do something other than cower in fear, but I can’t. I refuse to look back at the man with the cut throat in fear I’ll faint or vomit.
“Tell me why you’re here and I’ll think about letting you live,” Kade shouts in a disgusted tone.
The man with the bleeding throat attempts to speak but all I can hear is the gurgle of his blood in his throat and then a disturbing coughing as he drowns in his own blood. The other man, the one pinned to the wall, snarls, “You can kill us, but more will come for you. You’re a dead man. You don’t deserve to live.”
I glance to Kade who stands between the two men. His expression confuses me. He appears not angry, but saddened, like the man’s words hurt him, though I can’t understand why or how. Then, his sadness is replaced by rage as he lunges at the man speaking and I look away, knowing what’s coming. I hear the most sickening sound I’ve ever heard, and I begin to cry uncontrollably.
I don’t know how much time passes but I awaken tucked in in my bed. Did I faint?
“You’re awake,” Kade mutters sounding emotionless. “How do you feel?”
I don’t even know how I feel. There are too many emotions flooding me. I see him sitting on the other side of the bed, dressed in new, clean, unripped, bloodless clothes. He reaches toward me, but I instinctively cower away. He quickly returns his hand to his side. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to see that. I can’t believe I’ve brought all this to you.”
I don’t respond. I can’t.
“No human should ever have to witness anything like that. They should never have to be involved in anything like that,” he mutters, I almost think he’s speaking to himself.
I notice I’m shivering and I bite my lip, hoping the pain will overwhelm me enough to take away the fear and disgust I feel. I know that Kade did what he had to to keep him and myself safe, but the fact that he is capable of such terrible, disturbing acts is gut wrenching. I suddenly feel nauseated again. I can’t help hearing that terrible sound of him killing that man just before I fainted.
“I’m so sorry, May. I should’ve never come to you after I was banished. I really fucked up.” He drops his head into his hands. “And now I’ve dragged you into my mess, put you in danger. They know who you are and where you live and what you are to me, so I can’t leave. You’re stuck with me, an asshole who deserves hell, indefinitely, because I’m an idiot.” He shakes his head and rubs his eyes with the palms of his hands. He’s so disgruntled that it pains me to watch him. He really does feel terrible for coming into my life.
The thing is, although I have to admit that watching him do those things to those men disturbed me greatly, it also made me feel protected in some weird way. Although he’s the reason they were here in the first place, he’s also the reason I’m still alive. I just don’t know how to feel at all. The rush of emotions causes me to begin to cry. I try to hide it from Kade, though I don’t know why. He’s already seen me cry, faint, scream.
“May...” he murmurs as a sob escapes me. His eyes meet mine and I swear I see pain in his gaze, like he’s in pain because he knows he’s a large part of the reason I am crying now. He starts to reach out a hand to me, but then recoils, unsure.
I instinctively reach and grab his hand, grasping it in mine. He’s the only person who knows what I’m going through, understands where I come from, and what I’ve come understand in the last few weeks, he’s the only one who can comfort me, even if he’s part of the reason I need comforting.
He squeezes my hand in his and lets me cry, without saying a single word for hours. When he finally speaks, the sun is coming up, it’s already the beginning of a new day. I’ve run out of tears and instead I lay in silence. “I know you know that I can’t leave you, it wouldn’t be safe, but I can give you space I can rent that open apartment down the hall if you want.”
I swallow and sigh. I don’t fear Kade. I fear those supernaturals that keep coming after us. I know I need his protection and after staying up all night and morning thinking about the situation, I’ve come to a conclusion. Kade did what he had to. Kade is not human. This is his life, and my brother’s life. I can either accept this or I can be uncomfortable with the only friend who gets my life right now, the man who’s saved my life a handful of times even if some of those times were his fault. The truth is, I trust Kade. He did those terrible things to protect me. I really have no reason to not trust him or to be scared of him. I know he’d never hurt me. Those men were going to hurt us. He was defending us.
“Please stay,” I say through a sob. “I need you to stay here. I don’t want to be alone.” I take a deep breath. “I trust you. I just...it was a lot, you know?”
After a pause he says, “I know. It’s not something you see every day. As a human, you shouldn’t have to ever experience anything like that.”
“You’re right, but I think we both know that although I am human, my circumstances are not ordinary. My life is involved in the supernatural no matter what. My brother is Bryxx, you’re Bryxx and now there are other...things after me and you. It’s too late to be an ordinary human, Kade. It’s too late. This is my life and I have to get used to it,” I decide with a sigh and finally sit up. It’s true. I have to get used to it. This is my life now. If Kade has killed over one hundred vampires, then how many more must be pissed off enough to kill us? There’s already be more than a few in the last few days alone and they seem to want me dead as much as they want him dead, maybe even more so. Even if they did stop coming one day, how am I supposed to sleep knowing that one could literally kill me before I even have the chance to blink?
We stare at each other without saying anything for what feels like an hour before he finally nods. “I dragged you into this, and I promise you that I will protect you with my life... Daniel is going to kill me and skin me alive.” Kade doesn’t appear worried when he mutters the last remark, but he does sound apologetic.
Maybe it’s just who I am, but I immediately begin feeling bad that he has to protect me like I’m some fragile piece of glass even if it is his fault. This isn’t just shit for me, but shit for him too. I’m sure he has better things to do with his life than babysit my helpless ass.
“So much for our vacation,” I murmur to myself, rubbing my sore eyes.
Kade appears deep in thought, not paying attention to me. Part of me fears that his super hearing is picking up something and I begin to panic.
“What?” I demand and clutch his hand. “More?”
“More?... No, no,” he answers swiftly and jumps from the bed slowly. “Sorry, I was just uh...daydreaming. There’s a lot on my mind.”
I relax back into the bed.
“Me, too. I feel like a livewire. I’m all flinchy and agitated, alert,” I confess and get out of bed, stretching my stiff limbs. “And hungry.”
He moves away from the bed faster than my slow senses can take in. “Let me make you something. You relax.”
“No, no I have to do something or I’m going to go crazy.” I pull on a purple sweater from my dresser. “I need to take my mind off of this. Will you come with me to Jane’s today? I’ll introduce you two formally and we can bring lunch to her place. I need to get my mind off this or I’ll think about it all day.”
“Of course.” He answers nearly before I’ve even finished speaking.
I look at him funny but brush it off and pour myself a glass of milk before microwaving some instant oatmeal.
Later that afternoon, after Jane hasn’t responded to my texts and calls for hours, we decide to just head over there, figuring she has been lost in her books studying for her master’s degree or busy at work or school. When we get to her apartment, though, it’s clear that isn’t the case. Police tape is stretched across her door which is in shambles. It looks as though a bull has ran through it. I stop dead in my tracks, but Kade approaches the door and knocks. To my surprise it opens to reveal a bald officer with a badge that says ‘Arnold’.
Kade takes the lead as I can’t even muster a word. “What happened here?”
“I can’t share any information with you at this time, sir,” the officer says, sounding bored. Kade clearly isn’t the first person to have asked this question.
“What happened here?” Kade demands in an ‘I’m out of patience tone’, very clearly using his persuasion ability.
The officers face changes from impatient to relaxed. “A young lady was murdered here last night. We’re still investigating but the body was in pretty rough shape. Looked as though a wild animal got ahold of it.”
I stand frozen in place, not believing a word I’m hearing. Jane, my best friend, was murdered last night?
“Has her boyfriend been notified, her family?” I ask quickly, and the officer turns to me, his mouth turning into a thin-lipped frown.
“Has her boyfriend or her family been notified?” Kade asks using his persuasion.
Officer Arnold’s frown becomes an unemotional line and he answers, “Her boyfriend has been notified but we were unable to locate any family members. In fact, her name is untraceable. We only found her boyfriend’s number through the call history on her cell phone. Not a single contact programmed into her phone, just three numbers on the recently dialed page.”
This strikes me as strange. Jane always talked about her younger sister and brother and why wouldn’t she have names on her phone contacts? Was someone stalking her or something?
Kade grimaces before turning to me. “Do you have her boyfriend’s phone number?”
I nod. “Yeah, of course.”
“Bring me her phone,” Kade demands and the officer leaves our sight for a moment before returning with a phone in plastic bag. Kade takes it from him. “We were never here. Have a nice day.”
The officer nods and turns to get back to work.
“You can’t just take that!” I whisper harshly to Kade in shock.
“I just did. Do you recognize this phone?” he asks, changing the subject. He pulls it from the bag and looks it over.
It’s a black flip phone. One of those things no one has used in over a decade. Janes phone was far more modern than that dinosaur. She wouldn’t be caught dead with that thing. I shake my head. “I’ve never seen that phone.”
Kade opens it and pushes a few buttons before pressing it to his ear.
“What are you doing?” I wail and try to jerk the phone from him, thawing from my frozen position of shock. Tampering with crime scene evidence is far from a smart idea.
He presses a finger to his lips to shush me. He’s far too tall and far too strong for me to snatch the phone from, and I definitely don’t want my finger print on that thing, so I give in and listen when he answers someone on the other line.
“Good evening. This is officer Brennon. From my understanding you’ve spoken to another officer recently, correct?” A beat of silence. “No, nothing further in the investigation. I just wanted to clear a few things up for our records. What was the relation of you and the deceased?”
I wait eagerly, not able to hear the person on the other line.
“Right. That’s what I have written down here. So, you didn’t know her well then?”
Kade continues to chat with the person on the other line before continuing with the next two numbers, giving them the same grilling. I tune it out as a bazillion thoughts race through my mind. Is Jane’s death my fault? Did a vampire track Kade to her doorstep?
“May, are you ready to head home? You need to rest,” Kade urges, startling me. When I don’t move from the bench I sit on outside the apartment complex, he lifts me up into his arms as if I’m a small child. I don’t fight him. For heaven sakes my best friend is dead, and my life is in shambles. If he wants to carry me, so be it.
When we get home I finally fish out my phone and search through my contacts. I press Darrel, Jane’s boyfriend and hover over his number. Kade watches me.
“The third number was Darrel’s,” Kade tells me. “He said Jane had no family. No brothers, sisters, aunts, parents, uncles, cousins, nothing.”
“She always talked about her brother and sister. I know she had family,” I reply in confusion. Darrel would know that. He had to have.
“What reason would Darrel have to lie?” Kade asks.
I shrug. “I don’t know I’m really confused.”
Kade seems to be in the same boat.
“I have to call him,” I whisper. “He’s a good friend and I owe it to Jane to make sure he’s alright.”
Kade nods and I hesitate over his contact on my phone before counting to three and pressing it with my thumb. I wait a second before moving my phone’s speaker up to my ear.
“Hello,” Darrel mutters into the phone.
“Hey, Darrel, it’s May. I just got the news,” I inform him and now I feel the waterworks coming on. Apparently, my shock decided not to last too long. Maybe I’m shocked out after everything that has happened lately.
Darrel takes a moment before replying, “Oh, May. I’m sorry, I should’ve called you, but I’ve been...I’ve been at the police station and the coroners, and I just haven’t been able to work up the courage.”
Something in Darrel’s tone is off, but I can’t place what it is.
“I’m so sorry. I know she was my friend, but you were her boyfriend,” I say through a sniffle.
He sighs. “I just can’t believe it, you know?”
“Me neither.” I sigh and wipe a tear from my cheek. “Has her family been informed?” I mutter. “The officer I ran into at her apartment wouldn’t tell me much.” Not a lie technically.
“Yeah, I got ahold of them. They don’t want to have a funeral or anything elaborate.”
I can’t help but think that Jane would’ve loved to have a fancy funeral, but I keep my mouth shut. If her family and her boyfriend think it’s best, then they’re probably right.
We sit in silence over the phone for what must be nearly five minutes before he says, “Look, I have to get going. I have a doctor’s appointment.”
“Oh, yeah, okay, right,” I ramble. “Uh, keep me updated and again, I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, me too, bye, May,” he murmurs before hanging up.
Kade stares at me appearing dumbfounded which is exactly how I feel. With Kade having super hearing he’s probably heard the entirety of the conversation. “Did he just say he had a doctor’s appointment?” Kade asks skeptically as if he doesn’t trust his own ears.
I nod slowly.
Kade cocks a brow. “The day after his girlfriend was murdered?”
I continue nodding slowly.
Kade seems as confused by this as I am.
“Maybe he’s in denial?” I suggest with a shrug.
Kade scowls. “That’s just plain strange. He also mentioned that she does have family.” He purses his lips and looks at me straight in the eyes.
“What?” I ask.
“How well do you know this guy?”
I shrug. “Fairly well he’s been with Jane as long as I’ve known her, basically since senior year I guess.”
“Do you trust him?” Kade wonders next.
I nod. “Yeah, He’s a good friend but I have to admit that he’s acting strange.”
Kade continues to eye me but it’s as if he’s staring straight through me, thinking about something else.
“You don’t think he had something to do with it, do you?” I ask, but if I’m being honest, I’m actually asking myself this. As soon as I say it out loud, I gape at my own words. I know how deeply in love they were. He’d never hurt her.
“I don’t know what to think, but I think something about the guy is off. I have access to police records and shit. Can you write down his and Jane’s first and last names as well as anything you know about them that could help me search for them like birth places, birthdates, anything like that?” he asks of me and pulls out a laptop from small, slowly growing number of things to his name.
“You have access to police records? How? Isn’t that illegal?” I ask as I watch him open his laptop and take a seat at the table.
“Yeah. Comes in handy for us immortals sometimes. It’s a good skill to have so I got one of my dad’s computer guys to teach me in exchange for sparring lessons.”
I decide to brush this off. This is one of the least biggest concerns on my mind right now. “What do you think you’ll find?”
“Maybe nothing. Maybe something. I don’t know but it can’t hurt to look. Write that stuff down and try to get some sleep. You’ve had a rough couple of days and barely any sleep.”
“I can’t sleep after all this,” I argue. “Why are you doing all this work? Why don’t you get some rest too?”
“I don’t need much rest. Anyway, I’m doing this so we can figure out what happened to Jane. Those human officers are next to useless. They’re incompetent.”
“Why do you care what happened to Jane?”
He appears confused. “She was your friend.”
“So?”
“I care about you,” Kade says as if it’s obvious. “So, I want to help you find closure.”
I turn my attention to the paper