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“You… kept her room?” I asked, surprised.
“Couldn’t forever, but sometimes… Well, you never know. And if they do come back, they’re worse off than ever. A place to stay can be the leg up they need to get back on their feet.”
Worse off than ever?
What kind of trouble did this woman expect Vex to get involved with?
“She was always sweet,” Tammy said over the horrendous creak of the stairs as she led us to the second floor. “Hurrying in and out of here all day with Aisha. She was full of adventure, that one. Always meant for better than this.”
There was no elevator, just sticky carpets and a musk in the air, that I would be willing to bet never went away.
As the door to the next floor opened, I was met by a jumble of noise. Thin walls did little to smother ongoing music from a number of rooms. There was a loud thud from upstairs, then the sound of someone smashing on a door with a yell. As we filed onto the landing, an aura split the air. It was from upstairs, I’d guess, just reaching down onto this floor, but it was huge and unstable.
“Now… let me see,” Tammy said. “Vex’s was just down there to the right.” She pointed. “Suite eleven. Hope you find what you’re looking for, and she…” Tammy seemed uncomfortable. “I tidied up a little, but it looked like there was a fight in there when I went in.”
I knew the blood had drained from my face, but the old lady was already on the first step down.
“Tammy.” I caught her before she vanished. She looked up at me curiously. “How much was Vex paying? We’ll cover the missing months.” I’d double it for what she’d done for us.
She considered me for a long moment, eyes calculating, then she shrugged. “I won’t say no if you’ve got the money.” She tugged out a pencil and a scrap of paper from her pocket and held it against the wall. I could see the faint tremor in her hand as she wrote, then she folded it and handed it back to me. She gave me a quick smile and then began down the stairs. I glanced down at the paper for a second, then frowned, deciding I’d be more than doubling it if that’s all she’d been asking, and I’d do it for every month Vex had ever lived here.
I hurried after the others as they began making their way down the hall.
A door to our right creaked open, and tinny metal music leaked out. A slender male omega with shaggy red hair stepped from the room, booted foot barely creaking against the floorboards before he caught sight of us. He froze, cigarette between his lips, lighter halfway from his hoodie pocket. Golden eyes darted across all of us, then he was back through the door before any of us could blink. It slammed, and I heard the click of locks and a chain.
I frowned.
Was heafraidof us?
But Drake was already pushing past me, checking the numbers until he found eleven.
This was it.
Vex’s place.
Her room was much too small for the amount of character it packed. It was smaller than I’d ever seen a living space, and my first instinct was to search for a door to a second room that didn’t exist.
There was a long silence as we all stared in disbelief.
It was taking me a moment to process what I was looking at. There was a bed, a cramped desk, an old TV. An overflowing set of drawers was crammed beside a little vanity.
It was decorated floor to ceiling with… well, Vex.
“Fuck.” Rook muttered. “How is this possible?” He was striding across the tiny space, peering out the murky window as if it might give him some answers. “What about the bathroom?”
“Shared,” Drake muttered, nodding to the door. “Community kitchen too, I’d guess.”
“I don’t… understand.” Rook sounded floored. “She was supposed to be from… I don’t know, like a rich family.”
“Her whole application was forged,” I muttered.
I felt sick as I stared around at the chaos of the space. There were posters everywhere, some of which reflected our pack back at us.
There were a lot of DVDs, a photo board, and a—
“Oh…” Drake trailed off, hurrying to the corner where he crouched down.
“What?” Ebony asked, still at the entryway, brows furrowed. So far, he’d been as stunned as me.
