Chapter 14
Another person I never planned on thinking about again was Abe Mazur. So, imagine my surprise when I opened the front door to my apartment only to find him standing there.
"Hello, Miss Sage."
"What are you doing here?" I was too shocked to be polite.
"Why, that's no way to greet an old friend." I just stared at him in response. "Are you not going to invite me in?"
The last thing I wanted was to let Abe into my apartment.
"Do you want to risk the alchemists seeing me standing out here talking to you?"
I took a deep breath before stepping aside to allow him into my apartment.
I bit my tongue as I watched him walk inside with a smirk. He paused in front of my couch and took a glance around the living room.
I closed the doors and crossed my arms as I turned to face him.
"Now will you tell me what you're doing here?"
He had been staring at the "Art & Architecture" book on my coffee table but turned to face me.
"Can't an old friend just stop by to say hi?" I raised an eyebrow in response, to which he chuckled. "I'm in the area to meet up with a contact at a nearby military base and figured I'd make a quick stop to see how you were doing."
I know Abe. Either he wants something, or he's here just to show that he knows exactly where I live.
'Restricted' is a word that has no meaning to him.
Wait. Did he say- "Military base?"
"I have friends in all sorts of places." He winked.
"Right." Including the alchemists, clearly.
"How have you been enjoying this post? It seems dreadfully boring."
I tried not to roll my eyes. "It's been fine."
"Of course, not all posts can be as exciting as Palm Springs." I tried not to react. "I hear that group misses you. You must've been an exceptional alchemist for a princess, a royal moroi and a dhampir to have such great things to say about you."
I shifted on my feet. "I'm effective at my job."
"Which is why I like keeping you in my circle." He smiled.
"I don't owe you any debts anymore."
"No, no, nothing of the sort. However, that doesn't mean that I couldn't one day find myself in need of your specific and very useful set of skills. Who knows, maybe I'll be in your debt one day."
I could rarely make sense of what Abe was trying to say when he got cryptic like that, and I didn't know how to respond.
Thankfully, I didn't need to.
"Well, I'm sorry for such a short visit but my other friend awaits. As always, it was a pleasure to see you Miss Sage." He walked over to the door and opened it. "I'll be in touch."
He closed the door and left before I could respond.
Abe's visit haunted me for a few days. Two days after his visit, there was an unexpected surge of strigoi in the area.
Well, a 'surge' for Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Which meant I had to deal with 2 strigoi bodies in one night. Both were outside a nightclub and were taken care of by a dhampir. They hid the strigoi bodies and had left the scene by the time I arrived.
I briefly wondered if Abe had anything to do with it. Maybe he was at the nightclub those nights, and that's why there were strigoi in the area.
Is he still here? If so, why?
"What time did you say you received the notification of the first strigoi?" The north side alchemist asked, on the phone.
We were having our monthly meeting earlier this time, since he also saw an increase in strigoi activity during the weekend.
"Contact was made 32 minutes before midnight." I responded, as I finished proof-reading the report before sharing it with the team.
For the tenth time in the last hour, I wished I could go to sleep. Coffee was always an option, but it was currently 2 hours past midnight and I expected to be able to go to bed within the next two hours. If I drank coffee now, sleeping would be completely out of the question.
"I read your report, and you mentioned that it was a female dhampir that reached out to report the first strigoi?" I asked.
"Yes, it was a female dhampir all three times. Why?"
"I received notification from a male dhampir. I originally speculated that it may have been the same moroi at both nightclubs but maybe that wasn't the case." I thought out loud.
"Maybe they were traveling with more than one dhampir."
Unlikely, with how limited dhampir numbers seem to be.
"I don't see how that matters, anyway." He continued. "Management will handle the investigation into our cases. Our job is simply to dispose of the bodies, write the reports and continue to protect the humans of Sioux Falls."
I rolled my eyes. "I just sent you my report. Let me know if you have any questions."
He did have questions, but thankfully only two that I was able to answer quickly. We soon ended our call and I was able to go to sleep by 3:30 in the morning.
I woke up 4 hours later, feeling a lot more rested than I expected. I knew I needed stronger coffee than what I was capable of making at home, though. So, I decided to walk to a nearby coffee shop for espresso. The walk was short, although as cold as expected for a mid-February morning.
As soon as I walked into the shop, I was surprised to find all sorts of pink and red decor. There were cheap, cardboard hearts plastered on every wall.
I ordered my drink to go and made the 10 minute walk back to my apartment.
The coffee was great but I had finished it before I was even done reading my first work email. Maybe I'd make myself a second cup.
There was a knock on the door. I frowned and stood up. Looking through the peephole in my front door, I saw a delivery man.
Strange. I hadn't ordered anything. Maybe it was something from the alchemists?
Before opening the door, I grabbed a component that had similar effects to pepper spray and put it in my pocket. You could never be too safe.
"Good morning. Miss…" The man looked down at his phone. "Sage?"
"Yes?"
He nodded and bent down to pick up a box he had set on the floor. He handed it to me with a smile.
"Have a nice day." Was all he said before walking away.
I stared at him for a few seconds then looked down at the box in my hands. It was larger than a shoe box but somehow weighed close to nothing.
I stepped back into my apartment, closed the door and set the box on my coffee table.
I grabbed a box cutter and carefully opened the box.
Flowers?
There was a bouquet of white flowers with splashes of deep red in the center. They looked like a type of carnation or white hibiscus.
There was no return address on the box, so I was confused as to who would've sent these.
I carefully picked them up out of the box and noticed they were contained within a white, round box. I set the flowers on the coffee table and inspected them in confusion.
They were beautiful but there was something different about these flowers. I touched one of the petals.
Is that what I think it is?
I touched another petal.
A surprised laugh escaped me. These flowers were made from coffee filters! They were painted and shaped in a way that made them look like fresh flowers, but upon closer inspection they were not.
I glanced back at the box and noticed there was a small gold envelope. I picked it up and turned it around. There was no writing on it.
I opened it and pulled out a gift card to a coffee shop, along with another card that had simple writing only on one side.
For the most caffeinated woman I know
Flowers that can last you more than just one Valentine's Day.
P.S. - The Mustang still needs a name
