“What did you find, Alexander?” Ansuya asked staring at him as he strode through his front door.
She had lost all pretense of posturing or being the submissive wife with the vampire. It had been several days since she had been to see Jason. Alexander had seemed to be working hard on finding Brian and Kenneth. She suspected that whatever support he had gathered was starting to wane.
“I didn’t find anything. Those idiots have no idea what they’re doing, or why they’re doing it.” Alexander paced the room nervously full of pent-up anger and frustration. “One more of my guys decided that he didn’t want to watch an empty house anymore and walked off. He WALKED OFF!” Alexander screamed.
“Sit down,” Ansuya commanded softly. The vampire immediately obeyed and sat down quickly on the couch looking up at her. “You are tired Alexander, go to sleep now.” Alexander closed his heavy eye lids and drifted off into his daily death state.
She watched his body stiffen and cool itself in death. One day she would be able to send him to his true death, but he was still of some use, for now, or at least she hoped so.
She walked into the office and dialed a number on the phone.
After a few rings a male voice answered, “Hello?”
“Jason,” she replied warmly, “Have you had any luck with what we talked about?”
There was a shuffling noise from the other end of the phone, eventually the noise settled and a calm voice replied, “Yes, Miss Das actually I have,” Jason replied happily.
“Yes?” she asked keeping the hope and excitement from her voice.
“I talked to one my buddy’s downstairs Zack, I don’t know if you met him or not, and I asked him to look into that guy, Brian. Once I told him he had connections with Kenneth Pacifico he was all about looking for this guy.”
Ansuya smiled; Kenneth had made a few enemies from his time in Los Angeles. That was good to know, mutual animosity made for very powerful and loyal comrades. “And what did he find?” she asked casually.
“Nothing, unfortunately,” Jason replied sounding a bit let down himself.
Ansuya pursed her lips and looked at nothing for a moment, “So what is the good news, Jason?”
“Taking your word, that two other fires were related to the one you had me look into,” he replied growing more excited. “I looked through our files into what had been going on and I found two other warehouse, or storehouse fires. The fires were almost exactly the same, the buildings were empty and there was very little equipment in any of them.”
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“How does that help?” Ansuya asked.
“It lets me put together a dossier on the arsonist. I can maybe track him and find out what he may want to hit before he does it.”
“Ok, and does that help find Kenneth?”
“Well, no,” replied Jason, “But for me it’s great, I mean, fires are never great, but this might help me put a finger on this guy and be able to maybe stop him before he does any more damage.”
“Jason,” Ansuya said trying to not sound annoyed, “I hope you do. If there is any information on Brain or Kenneth, please let me know.”
“Will do, Miss Das.”
“Thank you,” she said as she hung up the phone.
This Brian, whoever he was, was good. She didn’t know who Zack was but she would be sure to introduce herself to him in time. The Mountain always needed and was always looking for new allies. Then again, he may be working for the vampires already and Jason may not have seen it. It was a common thing to miss. To be misjudged, or underestimated, by friends was a great attribute the vampires looked for in all their compatriots.
She sat down heavily in the office chair and stared at the wall. There was nothing else for her to do. She didn’t let despair take her though, she hadn’t survived Kenneth’s basement for a year by giving into despair and hopelessness. Still, she felt so useless just sitting here.
Perhaps it was time to leave Alexander.
Had he served his purpose? Was there anything more she could learn from him? He was more junior than she had originally would have thought, which is precisely why Kenneth would have chosen him to pawn her off on.
Kenneth had to know that she was strong enough to bend Alexander’s will to her own eventually. Unless he really didn’t believe that she was capable of doing that. That the year in his basement had broken her will and resolve. If Kenneth believed that, he was a greater fool than she gave him credit for.
No, she knew she couldn’t go back to the Mountain, not yet. She hadn’t completed her task. She had to learn how the vampires knew when a new Shape shifter was going to be reborn before the Mountain did. She also needed to know how Kenneth and possibly the other two Houses knew who the City Elders were.
Surely, they couldn’t know about the City under the Mountain. The sloping peaks of the dormant volcano had kept their secret for centuries. No one had even hinted that the vampires might have come close to guessing where the city was.
Still, the fact that Kenneth, and now Brian it seemed, had disappeared without a trace that not even Alexander’s people had seen Brian visit Kenneth’s house in the last few days was troubling.
Could it be possible that Kenneth had left L.A.? Nothing was beyond the realms of possibility.
She had regained much of her strength and she ate freely now. Alexander saw what she wanted him to see and for some reason forgot everything that she didn’t want him to see, it was very strange how that happened.
For now, she would wait and place her faith in this Zack person and Jason who she had known for almost five years, the man was dedicated and loyal. She couldn’t trust Alexander’s people to get anything done. Their incompetence was palpable. But what did she expect from a bunch of low level soldiers in one of the primary vampire Houses in North America.
I expect competence if not intelligence, she thought bitterly. Kenneth must have seen this possible outcome. She couldn’t go back to the mountain, but staying here was a waste of time. She would give her vampire host two more days then she would go back to the Mountain.
The next night Ansuya was going through her dance forms and working out as best she could in the apartment. A thin layer of sweat covered her whole body and her muscles burned with a warm glow. She hadn’t felt this good in a long time. Her muscles were growing and gaining strength every day. Soon it would be as if she had never been in Kenneth’s basement, at least physically.