Chapter 12

It was mid-morning by the time I was heading down to check on my car. Making my way outside, I couldn't help but notice how… normal everything was. Men and women in worn suits and rumbled skirts were leaving my apartment complex to head to work. A few kids in hand-me-down clothes clutching ragged backpacks were saying goodbye to parents, then making their way down the pitted sidewalk to the nearby school. Pretty much another normal morning in our rundown section of the city. Except I knew the truth. That this was one of the last normal mornings for humanity.

I just didn't know how many were left.

Setting aside such thoughts for now, I made my way over to my car, exchanging a few greetings and nods with other residents that I knew as I did so. Though it was largely known from the beginning by everyone that lived here that I was a criminal of some sort, it hadn't taken long until I became accepted. I would like to think this was in large part due to how I was as a person. Quiet and unobtrusive, but friendly and willing to lend a hand when needed. I tried to be a source of solutions and not problems. I also was skilled at lending a sympathetic ear to those wanting to vent about a not so great day in our collective life on the periphery of society.

That being said I knew the other, perhaps more important reason, was how I behaved as a criminal. I had no inclination, nor had anyone in the Night Wolves, to engage in drugs, prostitution, or really any activities that would threaten the lives or livelihoods of innocents. Especially children. And when those who had these inclinations continued pressuring the community that I had moved into, well, lets just say I hadn't taken that lying down.

A few busted kneecaps, and a mouth emptied of teeth later, and I effectively isolated my small apartment complex and its residents from the human predators that laired around us in this part of the city. So long as the Night Wolves had backed me up, these actions had been enough to preserve the peace between me and them.

Sadly that was another concern I would have to deal with in the days ahead, as without a large portion of the Night Wolves strength, it was likely some other group would soon make a move against my apartment complex. Hopefully my meeting with Karl would spark some ideas to head of the worst happening here.

My car was in pretty good shape, considering how hard I had driven it to get away from the aftermath of the fight and the fire last night. Seen from the outside, there were no issues apart from some small stains from the blood we had been collectively leaking last night, the worst of it in the back seat. I'd have to see what I could do about cleaning that up later.

Opening the door, I got behind the wheel and started it up. The fuel dial spun up to just over two-thirds of a tank of gas left. More than enough to make it out to Karl's place and back again today.

Remembering my promise, I let the car idle while I waited for Natasha to come down. Staring across the parking lot at the last few kids making their way to school, I attempted to get my thoughts in order about my new… partner I guess. I still didn't know what to make of her. She seemed a willing partner given the threats she faced among her own race since coming to Earth. The mechanics of the Blood Bond helped ease my worries as well. But in my life of crime, I had more than a little experience with people that were skilled at presenting themselves as trustworthy while at the same time they were anything but. I resolved to keep an eye on her until I knew the dark elf better.

Which, naturally, was when Natasha spoke to me from the backseat.

"For someone who has but recently survived a knife fight with dark elves you sure aren't paying attention to your surroundings."

"Fuck!!" I swore, jerking sideways in my seat to look back at her. My heart was going a hundred beats a second while she stared back at me with a fanged filled smile.

"Don't worry," she responded with a laugh, "our terms still hold. But I really will have to start training you to pay attention to the world around you."

I nodded in response, still trying to get a handle on my racing heart. She sat relaxed, hood up but her face exposed. Sitting down, her clothes covered most feminine aspects of her figure, and with her long ears tucked away she could pass for a darker skinned human quite easily. So long as she kept her grinning mouth closed that was.

"How did you get into the car so quietly? I didn't even hear the door handle turn."

"Training and skill," she said, shrugging slightly. "Neither of which I have the time to teach you right now," seeing my questioning look, she continued, "Yes, I will be training you at some point. Your movements are sloppy and your senses too dull for survival in the world we are heading into. If I want to survive you will have to be better. Much better."

While what she said made a lot of sense to me, her justification that it was purely self-interest as to why she would be training me in these things rang a little false to me. Call me a bit conceited, but the way she had been looking at me since she had gotten in the car spoke of more interest than a simple business partnership.

I could feel the back of my neck heat at the thought. No. I had to admit it to myself, I hoped it was more interest than she had stated. But that was not something I could deal with now. First, and more important than me locking lips with the fanged beauty behind me, was to check in with Karl and start the process of tracking down a group of Natasha's kin that have the antidote for Max and Franz.

"I'll try to be a good student then, but you are right, we have to get going," I turned back to the front of the car and put on my seatbelt. "Buckle up and lets go check-in with Karl."

As soon as I heard the click of her seatbelt behind me, I put the car in gear and pulled out of my parking spot. With most of the other residents already gone for the day, I had little trouble making my way out. Only one of my older neighbors heading back inside caused my to brake briefly. Long white hair waved gently behind him as the old man went back inside. I knew without looking closely that Robert had forgotten his briefcase again.

Like normal, Robert politely nodded to me for stopping, but atypically he hesitated in his steps briefly before continuing on his way, but only after shooting me a wide grin topped by bobbing eyebrows. I couldn't help but smile in turn, knowing exactly what he had seen in my car to cause him to react like that.

I'd have to agree with him, the face of the dark elven woman sitting behind me really was quite attractive.