Chapter 79 - Surrounded From All Sides

"Avarice? How is SHE involved in this entire mess?"

As I asked the question, my mind recalled the opportunistic lady vamp with love for cyan and a very telling name. At the first time we met, my opinion of her was clear as glass—I was very sour at her for the way she handled the debt to her I inherited from my father.

Really, who rises rates from nowhere like this? Robbers and debt sharks, that's who. Plus, the way her thugs almost trashed my shop… If not for JJ, I would be without the shop and without money.

Our last personal meeting, though, left me much more confused. Not only was it peaceful, I found out that Avarice had a living family of at least one member—a particularly useless nephew who tried and failed miserably to con me. She seemed much more tolerable then, though still bitchy.

In addition, well, compared to Christina, even Avarice was an angel.

JJ moved his chair closer to the computer, which had long ago begun to show a screensaver with a swimming Windows logo. I wiggled closer too and watched him wake the computer up and open Google Maps. He moved the map around until it centred on a very familiar part of the city.

"This is your store." He pointed at the map with his finger, mercilessly stabbing it right in the screen. "And—"

"Don't do that." I pulled his finger away before he could leave any more greasy fingerprints on it.

JJ turned to me with a confused frown, what was left of his bangs after the bomb falling on his forehead. "Huh? Don't do what? Pointing fingers?"

"Touching the screen with anything. You will dirty it, or even worse, scratch it. This isn't like your smartphone, these screens are much gentler. You can't wipe them with just anything, too. It's just like antiquities. One must be careful in handling them."

I stared at JJ sternly until I was assured that he would heed my warning, but the flickers of humour and something else in his cat-like eyes made me feel awkward about the speech I just gave. I coughed. "So, what were you saying?"

With one last grin in my direction, JJ turned to the map, pointing at it again. This time, though, his finger just hovered near it. "As I was going to say, this block and this street are my territory."

I leaned a little closer to see without a glare of the office lamp blocking my vision, and my arm bumped JJ's. Again, I was way too aware of his proximity. The floral and spicy scent of his cologne filled my nostrils when I took another breath. Some ink black strands of my hair, unbound by any hairbands today, fell on his shoulder.

Could he feel them on his skin? If his hair still was longer, it would have been tickling my neck by now.

I forcefully steered my thoughts toward the map, peering at the area JJ's finger just circled.

"That's… Way too little, isn't it, JJ? I mean, if you are confined to it by vampire law."

He hummed in confirmation. "Not a law, just a custom, but yes. This area would be enough for a vampire to feed, with how packed the city is with people, but to live? No one would submit themselves to something like that."

"You don't," I noted. "You get out all the time, and I'm pretty sure that's not just with me. Just your cologne alone. There are no perfume shops on your territory, and I don't remember any deliveries coming for you. You had to buy it somewhere outside."

Because JJ just was the kind of man to wear a cologne, have more hair balms than I do, and be sad that he can't have a manicure. If I didn't know better than to apply stereotypes left and right, I'd think he was gay.

Maybe he was a bisexual. It was… certainly possible…

"I wish I knew what was going on inside your head, ma chèrie, when you look at me this way." JJ's voice jolted me out of my musings. I immediately looked away from him and to the screen, not willing to share my thoughts. Not for a penny, and not for a billion of pennies…

Well, for a billion pennies I might change my mind. JJ didn't offer, though, so I kept silent, and eventually he moved on.

"As you noted, ma chèrie, yes—I don't stay confined in this small patch of land. You know my abilities well enough, and thanks to them, it never had been a problem for me to avoid the eyes of other vampires." He chuckled. "In fact, no one, except for Christina and now you, ever knew."

My jaw fell open as the depths of JJ's nerve. "So you just… waltz around everywhere… like it's free real estate?"

He confirmed it with a silent nod and a bright grin.

I shook my head in disbelief. "Really, cheek brings success. Alright, then." I returned my attention to the map, some ideas folding together in my head, "if this was formerly Avarice's territory, then hers should be around, right?"

JJ nodded. "Exactly. From Neva to this river and to this railroad, it's all hers," he pointed at a part of the city separated from its surroundings from river Neva and one of of the many rivers that joined it, with a railroad line finishing the end of this uneven triangle. My shop was almost in the middle of it.

"Not bad. This is a good couple dozen blocks…"

"Not bad indeed, ma chèrie, especially for a vampire of her youth, in a city as packed with our kind as that one, and so close to the middle of it."

"Though, it still doesn't sit right with me that a vampire can't just go to the rest of the city."

"She can, it's just more problematic for her than for me. Just like it would be a problem for any vampire to take a stroll outside of their territory without proper arrangements. If another vampire or their servant would notice, a conflict is imminent. Which is why, ma chèrie, our current placement is so convenient for us."

As the understanding dawned on me, a wave of judgement rose in my chest.. I recoiled from JJ and let him feel the force of my glare for a second before telling him what I thought about all this.