So sleep would be at a premium, at least she could work on improving her strength in peace. And as long as she could get solid animal proteins like chicken and lamb, her body would be able to rebuild her muscles.
She took a quick shower and redressed herself. Communication was still going to be a problem. She could wait for daylight and for Alexander to sleep. Then she could take his key and move about the city freely, all except for the countless number of people who could see her and possibly recognize her. Still, if she was going to get information to the people that needed it, going outside was a risk that she was going to have to take.
The recent attacks on House Himura were irksome. If it was the Mountain that had directed the hits that would be one thing, but why would Huan Li send out a pack to burn down an empty warehouse? It was obvious to her that that warehouse hadn’t always been empty. It could have been used for anything, but most probably illegal goods, weapons, human slaves, or drugs. It still would have been a waste for the Mountain to hit an empty holding warehouse.
That left only two other options, a random act of vandalism, which was highly unlikely, or someone else had decided to make a play. That would be very dangerous for Los Angles in general and would upset the balance that the vampires had in the city. If there was another player on scene than that would make the three Houses very nervous and very paranoid. That could be used to her advantage, if she could find the right leverage against one of the Houses. Maybe Alexander could be of help in multiple ways?
She began searching the house, for anything. She had studied chemistry and a whole other slew of topics and subjects in her sixty-two-year life span and she was pretty confident she could use some of that in her current situation.
She went through every cupboard, every closet, in every room. After a short amount of time, on the kitchen table, she had gathered a nice array of cleaning supplies, to include some ammonia, simple green, Windex, and bath and tile cleaner. In the wash room she found some bleach, fabric softener sheets, cotton balls and Brillo pads.
She could definitely make some weapons with all that she had found. She smiled at the collection; Alexander had given her something, if not what she had wanted initially, she had a way to defend herself until her strength returned. She was still far too weak and emaciated to even try to shift to her werewolf form, so she would have to rely on chemistry and manmade “deterrents”. After she had made some preparations she returned all that she hadn’t used back to their original places.
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She then carefully cleaned the kitchen. When she was done, she took out some of her butter chicken and ate a few small bites, just as slowly and carefully as she had done a few hours before. The food rested a little easier in the pit of her stomach and she found that she had a bit of an appetite, which was good. Her stomach was full after those first few bites though and she returned the chicken to the refrigerator. She wasn’t going to rush her journey back to normalcy in eating, even though time was truly against her, this was one thing that could not be rushed.
All too soon after that she heard the front door pad beep, the small light lit up green, the dead bolt slid back, and the door swung inward as Alexander strode into the room. His face was unreadable, but his steps betrayed his impatience and irritation.
Ansuya tried to look as deeply concerned as she could, “What’s wrong, baby?”
Alexander didn’t answer her at all but grabbed her and kissed her roughly forcing his tongue down her throat. Ansuya forced herself to relax once again and accept the harsh treatment. Eventually Alexander let her go and stalked off into the back of the apartment.
Ansuya hesitantly followed after him, just like a good little house wife should. She found him going through his closet throwing things to the side as he dug deeper into his belongings. Ansuya had made a pretty through check of the walk-in closet and hadn’t found anything that she was looking for. What could he be doing?
Alexander came back out of the closet with a medium sized gym bag that was stuffed half full, with what she could only guess was clothes.
“Where are you going, Alexander?” Ansuya asked meekly.
The vampire looked at her and put a finger in her face, “If I don’t tell you, then you don’t need to know.”
“When will you be back?” she asked sounding a little frightened.
He stalked past her toward the front of the condo. He called back over his shoulder, “I’ll be back sometime tonight, or tomorrow,” he stopped as he opened the front door, “Don’t wait up for me, Honey,” he said cruelly as he exited. He slammed the door shut behind him. The key pad light turned red and the dead bolt slammed into the locked position, and she was alone again.
So, Alexander was not as high up the hierarchy as he would like, he still needed to jump when the right master demanded it. She smiled. Although she had already surmised that was the case with the egomaniac, it was nice to have concrete proof of it. That was her leverage against him, now the only thing would be for him to give her what she needed against House Dukart and Kenneth.
The sun would rise within the hour. It would not be possible for Alexander to come back and get wherever he was going before sunrise. She went back to her bedroom. She still locked the door and put on the stripper clothes to sleep in. She pulled the covers over her tired body and fell asleep almost instantly.