Cutthroat negotiations

"Oh, I was merely examining the debts of your ruthlessness, Avarice," JJ said, relaxing again. He took the hand from my shoulder—finally!—and stepped towards the lady vamp. "I see you like your money. Would you be inclined to sell this place to me, then?"

"Sell?" Avarice raised her brows, then inspected her surroundings. She didn't seem at all impressed with what she saw, and grit my teeth in anger. That bitch. My shop was perfect! Cozy! Homely! What there was to not like?

"I certainly can sell this territory to you, even with surrounding streets, but even as decrepit as it is, I don't think you can afford it, Dragonslayer. In the past, surely, but now?" Avarice gave JJ a superior look.

If she tried to wound him with this, she failed, because he only smirked at her in return. "Don't underestimate me, Avarice. Name your price."

"Ten millions."

I whistled. JJ just nodded, not perturbed in the least. He certainly had researched info on inflation rates in the past century. If this sum was named a hundred years ago, I'd be puking blood right now like people in Chinese novels.

Or maybe not, because in my head, this place was my and not Avarice's anyway. Neither it was JJ's, and wouldn't be even if he bought it from her. Because, again, she didn't own it in the first place. My dad did—how the hell he got to borrowing money from her, I wondered now—and I did, but not the vampires.

Whatever they thought about it. I knew just when to leave people to their own delusions, nod at appropriate times and do whatever the hell I planned to. My grandpa taught me that. He was stubborn as a mule and didn't take well to anything that went against his weird view of life, starting with me not marrying whoever he picked at eighteen.

He was more past century than JJ. Good thing even his wife was against that particular idea.

"So." Avarice gave JJ a smug smile. "Do you have this money? If you don't, then we can discuss payment in instalments. How about… a twenty years mortgage? You will only need to pay around seven hundred thousands each month."

I gasped. "No way! Are you trying to get JJ into this credit hole too?" I turned to him in almost panic. "Don't agree with her!"

JJ chuckled and gave me a playful look. "I didn't know you cared, ma chèrie. Though, I'm a little estranged there. I do need to live somewhere, after all."

I bit my lip, then gave smug Avarice a dirty look. She met it with a flash of her fangs. "Yes, girl. Money rule the world. Even mighty Dragonslayer is no one when they are involved." She chuckled and looked back at him. 

"You don't even have enough to pay the fine for trespassing, don't you? Then, I guess, there's only one thing you can do. Unless you want to a word about you returning to the streets to spread. Modern technologies are so convenient there. In less than a five minutes, everyone will know."

JJ sighed and lowered his head in a mockery of defeat. "You won, Avarice. The mighty Dragonslayer, as you say, had fallen. Now," he straightened up, a flirty smile on his face like he wasn't just pushed into a corner. "Let's make it all official, shall we?"

⠀

Avarice was quick with her calculations. Her bodyguard brought all the necessary documents from her car and they finished the negotiations in a mere hour. Now JJ needed to bring her seven hundred thousands before the end of the month. As a bonus, JJ arranged for my own debt to be due at the same time as his, which I was immensely thankful for, because Avarice put another percent to his credit rate for that.

I watched them at first, then grow bored and went to do other things, only to return soon enough, if only to listen to JJ arguing over conditions. I could listen to his voice forever, and had no shame about it. It was just very nice. I also had so many questions to ask, but that was going to wait. What did "Bearer of the True Vision" mean? Did JJ really killed a dragon? Did dragons exist? These and many more, and they all had to wait.

When everything was finalised, Avarice tore a piece of paper out of her notepad and scribbled something on it.

"Consider this a new client gift," Avarice said, passing it to JJ. "You will find it useful… As soon as you understand what it means." She chuckled to herself at that and left, her bodyguard in tow.

JJ stared at the note in confusion. "This looks like… a piece of a chain?"

I leaned over his shoulder to look. "You must mean a link, because that's what it is. I think… I think Avarice just gave you an address for some supernatural dark net site! I don't know what's that code below about, though."

He turned towards me, bringing our faces way too close to my liking. "Ma chèrie, would you be so kind to explain what it means? I understand separate words, but not the full meaning behind them."

I leaned away from him. "I meant a piece of Internet that contains less legal sites. Pages." I took the note from him and went towards the office. "We should check it out right now! And while we do, you will tell me why the hell Avarice thinks that this shop is HER territory!"

I rushed towards the office's computer, pressed the power button, and waited impatiently for the machine to turn on. While it booted and hummed and did the whole Windows's 'good morning' routine, JJ came over and pulled a second chair to sit next to me, his head propped on his elbow.

"You see, ma chèrie, vampires are creatures solitary by nature. We don't mix well, it's an instinctual thing. So, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, we keep to our own territories and hunting grounds. Trespassing on someone else's territory can easily mean a fight with its owner, so Avarice was being quite polite and restrained by just asking for a fine."

"More like opportunistic." I snorted. "She bled you dry, and you are awfully calm about it."

JJ grinned. "Yes, ma chèrie, she certainly seems like a materialistic sort. But don't worry. It doesn't matter much for humans in it, whose territory they live in. We need to keep ourselves secret, after all."

I nodded, calming down about that part. I made sense. Until today, I didn't even know Avarice existed. She certainly didn't come to my shop to buy anything. So the separation was for vampires' sake, not for humans'.

"As for my calm… Let me tell you a secret." JJ leaned towards me with a conspiratory smile. "I'm not planning to pay her a single kopeck."