When she went downstairs the next morning, Victor had just put on his cloak.
"You´re leaving ?" she asked in surprise. "Without breakfast ?" she added amused. "You´ll have to have yours on your own today, darling", he answered lightly. He reached out to touch her cheek gently for a moment – the movement that unexpected that she flinched. "Sorry", she muttered lowly. "I wasn´t prepared for that." "You should really have let at least one of the guys fuck you from time to time, you know", he stated with a dark grin. "Would have kept you a little bit more relaxed around men." "Go ahead and I´ll probably decide to skip dinner today", she answered, quick at repartee. "When will you be back ?" "In the late afternoon", he answered.
She stared for a moment at the handgun he checked before he let it disappear somewhere under the coat. "Am I safe here ?" she asked finally. He nodded with a low growl. "Completely. You´re not going to kiss me goodbye ?" he asked teasingly, aware of her thoughtful look. To his surprise, she got really on her tiptoes – placing a gentle kiss on his cheek. He was barely able to feel her touch.
She turned quickly after that, heading to the kitchen. He stared at her back, surprised. "Do me a favour and get back in one piece", she muttered on her way. "You´re worried about me, darling ?" "No", she told him sarcastically, "only afraid I´ll have to walk to the next town if you don´t come back."
* * *
He returned in the late afternoon as he had told her.
She sat with a cup of tea and a book besides the fireplace when he entered. He noticed contentedly that she looked quite relaxed right now. The fire crackled lowly. She had lit a candle she had found somewhere. He smelled the flavour of some fresh cake.
It had the same astonishing effect on him as the breakfast she had served him the last three days.
Victor had always felt that employing a housekeeper was just a polite euphemism for keeping oneself a girl to sleep with straight at hand – with the nice side effect that somebody took care of the dirty clothes and the dishes.
He was used to live alone for decades now and he had always mused that having somebody permanently around would only annoy him.
The more surprising had it been for himself when he had realized a while ago that he was planning to have her around 24 hours a day – at least, as a main part of the plan.
He had never felt like missing something when he had returned to one or another hideout. He had sneered at Danny for the show he put on when he or she had returned home.
Right now, though maybe prematurely, he mused that he could get used to a not so lonely home.
"Everything done ?" she asked, getting up. He only nodded. "You´re hungry ?" "Always, darling", he answered with a grin. "As I didn´t know when you would exactly return, I haven't prepared something, but I thought you would be contended with a steak ?" He chuckled, exposing his fangs. "Again - always!" She shook her head, muttering a disapproving "Felidae!" under her breath.
Dinner was quickly prepared. Afterwards, he went upstairs for a shower. She made herself a cup of tea and reclined with a book on the couch near the fireplace.
The fact that coldness didn´t bother her as much as most ordinary people around didn´t make her like it. And with the wind howling around the house and the snow highly piled on the windowsills out there, a fireplace was something very comfortable.
Victor returned from the bathroom, his hair and beard still damp from the shower, contended to find her at the living room.
"You´re comfortable there ?" he asked. She looked up to him, irritated by his polite tone. For once, she couldn´t decide if this was mockery or for real. She nodded slowly.
He raised his eyebrows and looked suddenly quite amused. "Fine", he answered grumpily, throwing her the wet towel he had brought with him. "Then take care of the fuckin´ towel and get me a beer!"
She returned with the beer and handed it to him over his shoulder, pausing for a moment behind him. "You could have brought some peanuts or something, too, you know." She caught clearly up with his little show. "Just be yourself, Victor", she advised him, rounding the couch he had settled down to return to her place at the opposites to him. She waved the bag of peanuts around for a moment, then threw it to him. "It needs a lot of practice to become as grumpy and whiney at the same time as Danny – and you´re already bad tempered enough!"
She settled down again and reached out for her cup of tea. She brought her legs up to the couch and found herself a position that looked more than uncomfortable to him. "I didn´t know that you don´t eat meat", he suddenly stated, referring to their dinner. She threw him an amused look. "Does that mean there are still things left you don´t know ?" She watched him thoughtfully for a moment. "I think I actually remember you eating meat", he mused lightly. Her expression didn´t change. "I do if I have to", she answered calmly. Then she bent forward a little. If he could change topic as quickly as that, she could do that, too.
"You made Sam fire me, didn't you", she accused him. He answered that with a low chuckle. "I did." She clicked her tongue disapprovingly. The bastard didn´t even try to deny it. "Actually, the old son of a bitch even dared to tell me no, first", he added amused. "Said he couldn´t manage without you. But it needed not too much threatening to convince him." "You know", she said, still sounding thoughtfully, "you could have asked me!" "And you would have agreed ?" he asked her back. "Maybe. Maybe not. But it would surely have been more polite than blackmailing me!" "How the hell did you get into trouble with Ian Malloy of all people ?" he asked, referring to the criminal she owed all that money too. "How the hell did you find me ?" she shot back.
For a moment, the only sound to be heard was the crackling of the fire. "I told you I would", he answered finally. The words sounded peculiar in his own ears. "And it took you almost a decade and a half ?" she continued. "I succeeded, didn´t I ?" "By accident ?" she mused.
He wrinkled his nose for a moment. It was the only visible reaction to her words. But an emotional wave of disapproval coming off from him confirmed her suspicions. She smiled weakly. "Thought so", she commented. "Xavier would better have trained you to use your feral talents instead of this empathic crap, you know", he remarked. "I remember times where you thought less disparagingly of that." "And you picked Daniel as a human guinea pig to practice on ?" She put her cup down. He was trying to annoy her, but she wasn´t going to do him the favour, though the conversation was taking a turn she didn´t like.
"He helped me, I helped him", she answered resolutely. "He urgently needed it." "A pity that you couldn´t help him out with other things he might have urgently needed!" he hissed. "You know, I think I did worse things - to survive." She believed to find a short sting of anger in him. He chuckled after a moment, though it sounded not that amused anymore. The moth tried to turn the tables. And she was good.
"So what about Malloy ?" he enquired. "Those debts were not yours if I got things right." "You already know, don´t you ?" she asked. He remained silent for a moment. He knew the main facts –but had possibly missed some relevant details. "I got involved with the wrong guy", she answered finally. "I didn´t know anything about his debts until he disappeared." "He didn´t told you ? Contacted you ?" She shook her head. "No. Never." So it was true, Victor mused. The guy had fled and they had made her pay instead. "You would never have been able to pay all the money back with these jobs out here", he mused. She grimaced. "Well, I figured that I would probably outlive Malloy and his gang. And they were contended with what they got." Letting her just enough to survive.
He knew she had been paying back money to them for years. Money her missing lover had maybe never really borrowed or lost – as he had maybe never really received it before. She had been blackmailed for years - most probably, for nothing. "What should I have done ?" she asked as if she had read his thoughts.
He considered things for a moment. Another guy blackmailing her had given him the opportunity to blackmail her into accompanying him.
"You could have returned to Xavier", he suggested. She let her head rest against the couch. "I could have", she confirmed. "Xavier is a fine men. I learned a lot from him." She shrugged. "But I think I didn´t fit in there as nicely as the others did."