“Probably. Whoever took her was here, and I’m guessing that she put up a fight.”
“You know,” Lex said carefully. “When I was human, my neighbors were constantly giving me shit.”
“I can understand that,” I said dryly. Lex could be annoying at times and wildly sweet at others. There was rarely an in-between with him.
He glared, narrowing his eyes, but then he shook his head.
“Let’s go talk to the downstairs neighbors,” he said. “Maybe they’ll have heard something.”
It seemed like a good idea, so we went downstairs, made our way down the narrow apartment building hallway, and arrived at the door. I knocked loudly, rapping on the door, and almost immediately, it opened.
There in front of us stood the tiniest little old woman I’d ever seen. She looked up at Lex and I. We were huge compared to her, and we filled her entire doorway. There wasn’t a single chance she wasn’t scared out of her mind. Obviously, she could tell we were both vampires, as well.
We weren’t exactly discreet about that.
“Hello boys,” the woman said. “How can I help you?”
“Excuse me,” I said. “Our friend lives upstairs, but she’s not home right now. Do you know if she had any visitors tonight?” I wondered if I’d have to read her mind or if she’d give us what we needed easily. That would work better for me. Reading minds was something I could do, but it wasn’t always a simple process. The person had to have strong emotions, and I needed to be in a good space. Right now, neither one was happening.
The woman’s eyes narrowed.
“I’ve never seen you around,” she said.
“We’re friends from work.”
“Bullshit,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. The old woman stared at us like she’d just caught us with our hands in the cookie jar.
“Excuse me?” Lex asked.
“You heard me. That’s a lie. Kimberly is a hunter, and you’re vampires. Now you tell me what you want with that girl,” she said.
We exchanged looks. I hadn’t expected that.
“She told you she’s a hunter?” It seemed a little out of character. Usually, she was discreet and quiet about who she was and what she did.
“Of course not,” the old lady said. “She’s not a fool.” The woman sighed and shook her head. “But neither am I.”
“So, was she here today?”
“She’s been gone a week,” the woman said.
“She was here this morning, though.”
So, Raven had been right. Kimberly had been there, just as we thought. There had been a tiny sliver of hope that the syringe we found was for a drug user or something like that. Part of me hoped it had belonged to someone else and not the girl I loved.
It had been for her, though.
“Was she alone?” Lex asked.
“No,” the old woman said. “Her asshole of a boyfriend was there.”
Boyfriend?
As far as I knew, Kimberly and Hank had broken up weeks ago. Then again, maybe this woman didn’t know that.
Was he the one behind all of this?
“Did you talk to him?” Lex asked.