26. Amber Hart
Velo is, all things considered, an exhilarating friend to have. After seeing a movie - a horror picture called 13 Watershed Lane about a haunted house that Velo mostly took as an opportunity to squeeze Amber's thigh and chuckle at the overdone effects - Velo insisted they go to a 24-hour shopping mall to do, as she put it, "hot girl shit." Despite managing to dodge a few offers of coffee or energy drinks (Velo's blood must be 50% taurine by now), Amber wasn't able to avoid coming out of the experience with a few new pairs of shorts that could be charitably described as "micro" and a loose tank top designed to billow and provide plenty of circulation during exercise. Amber doesn't know what she'll do with the breezy top - not her style, nor does she exercise, but the shorts she'll be perfectly happy to put to good use. Carissa's eyes will probably pop out of her head.
The two find themselves outside, Amber enjoying the infectious energy of just being around her friend, who chats companionably about whatever comes to mind. But Amber finds her attention sharpening at one comment in particular. "-all kinds of crazy places in my job, y'know? I got a delivery to this hotel downtown one time, the Grand Win...some? Win-something. Marble floors, all kinds of art on the walls, place looked like a sculpture from the 20s. I thought everyone there was going to break out in hives when they saw my tattoos." She snorts in derision at the fragile constitutions of the rich.
"The Wyndham?" Amber asks, a bit incredulously. "What are you delivering there?" She mirrors the snort at the description of everyone breaking out in hives - they're probably a bit more open-minded than she gives them credit for.
"Wyndham! That's the bitch." Velo snaps her fingers. "I don't know what was in the package, but when I got there, the... I guess owner? He signed for it himself. And, y'know, goddamn." She fake fans herself, which looks especially ridiculous in a frigid New York Winter. "I thought I was gonna melt my fucking clothes off." She grins at the memory, but focuses back on the conversation. "Spooky client, though. Picked up the package from a basement apartment in, like, Brooklyn. You get all kinds, I guess, doing business in this city."
"Lord Wyndam was trying to melt my clothes off with a smile last time I spoke with him too," Amber laughs at that description. "Not really my type though. Might have been wine. He has some unusual and expensive tastes. Fancy stuff like you'd hire a courier for," she speculates a little, bragging about her associations a little as she does so.
Velo gives Amber an arched eyebrow and draws out a long 'ooooo' sound. "Lord Wyndham? You must be into some freaky shit, Amber." She teases playfully.
"Theo, then, if you prefer," Amber answers, lifting her chin up with mock primness. "Old money. Does some business with the firm I work for. Client introduces themselves with a title, you use it."
"Oh my God." Velo cackles. "You know someone called Lord and you use his first name? Shit, if I'd known I was talking to nobility maybe I would have fetched my best slutty maid dress and charged by the hour. Fuck all this courier business!" She laughs louder. "What in the hell do you even do, Amber?"
Amber laughs and half-stands so she can give a little maid-curtsy to Velo. "I haven't said? Personal assistant to a rich bastard. I meet all sorts of interesting people that way. He's not bad though," she adds the qualifier as an afterthought, unable to let a simple disparaging comment about Siveri stand without qualification. "I'm a gopher just like you, but with a suit instead of bike," she grins.
"Solidarity, babe." Velo lifts a fist into the air with mock solemnity. "Solidarity. Just two stupid hot twenty-somethings slaving away for The Man." She grins and wraps an arm around Amber's shoulders, squeezing once. "Alright, tell me about this rich fucking bastard of yours. He's got you putting your ass on the line with crazies like Hernan, must be special. Or a complete asshole."
"Hm, I probably won't be dealing with Hernan anymore," Amber gets a bit distracted by the mention of the name. It's also a convenient dodge to avoid talking too much about her regnant. Her voice gets a little more serious as she goes on. "Don't mention me if you see him again, alright? He probably thinks I'm dead, and it's better for both of us that way."
"Thinks you're dead? Jesus, babe, what happened?"
"I kinda set him up. Whole big mess," she waves it away with one hand, hoping Velo will take the hint not to ask too many details, "I ended up playing victim, led him into a trap. I'm done with that deal now though, washed my hands of it," she makes the matching gesture, returning to a more casual tone as if the whole thing is just a day in the life, nothing special. "Anyway, Hernan is an asshole and I don't want anything more to do with him if I can help it."
"God, you and me both. But those sugar deliveries are just way too lucrative." Velo nods along with Amber. "If it comes up, I haven't heard anything about you since that party."
"Lucrative, yeah. But I think one rich guy getting handsy with me is enough," Amber chuckles.
Velo opens her mouth, reconsiders, closes it, then tries again. "You seem... remarkably cool about that. I know I love flaunting it, babe, but I'm not exactly a fan of anything other than eyes wandering. Y'know?"
"But the sex is fantastic," Amber responds immediately. "Goddamn is it good. No one touches me unless I want them to," she taps Velo's nose, a little reminder that she was alone with Hernan and came away with him wrapped around her finger.
"I mean - yeah, alright. You're tough, I know. But yeah, like... just kind of a weird sign, y'know what I mean?" Velo shrugs. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all about getting fucked so good I forget how to use my legs the next day. Just..." she shrugs again, obviously trying to edge around what she really wants to say.
Amber nods, understanding the unsaid anxiety. "Not supposed to sleep with the boss, right?" She shrugs. "I'm kind of a weird gal, in case you hadn't noticed. There are perks and downsides." She pauses, carefully considering how she wants to put this, what to say without giving the game away. "Money. I get to tell people like Herman to go fuck themselves, and I get to actually help people in very real ways, sometimes. The sort of confidence that only comes from having real, actual power." She gives Velo the sort of look with which she stared down Mrs. Mendoza on their first meeting. Very few people can meet her eyes when she gives them the look. "Downsides are, yeah, I work weird hours. I do shit like sleep with my boss and get involved in drug wars." She shrugs. "I think it's worth it." Not that, in all honesty, she has much choice. But that's besides the point.
Velo gives it a good college try, but eventually she looks away and shrugs again. "Alright, babe." When she looks back, she's back to her grinning, active self. "That good, huh?" She asks, teasing and punching Amber's arm. It would probably sting a bit if she was alive.
She rubs her arm as if the punch stung. Gestures like that are important. "Where I learned the tricks I use on you," Amber cocks one eyebrow. "But he's got more practice."
"Shit, maybe I'll come and take your job." Velo smiles companionably.
"Heh. Maybe I'll hire you instead," Amber gives her back a little rub with one hand.
Neela has still been having nightmares, waking up standing sometimes as if she were sleepwalking. And Carissa is still feeling watched at night. Amber can only come to one conclusion - Liam hasn't been honoring their agreement. And Amber won't have it. She made her stance clear - these two are off limits. If Liam can't keep his side of the deal, then she'll make him. A consultation with Theo reveals no easy way to determine if Neela is still being fed on, at least not without involving more people than Amber is comfortable pointing in Carissa's direction. She'll have to verify it herself.
God above, staying awake during the day was miserable though. Even for the brief time that Amber experienced this morning, the sun drove her into paradoxical spasms of lethargy and paranoid panic. Still. She managed to make it to the building manager's office and collapse back into slumber., regretting every minute of her plan to arrive during the daytime, so that Liam won't know she's present.
Now, sun having sunk below the horizon, she arises and carefully disentangles herself from cleaning supplies and a surprisingly classy stash of pornographic magazines from the 80s and 90s forgotten in a corner under a layer of dust a finger-width thick. Amber shakes her head at the magazines. Seriously, who doesn't pick up their stash when they leave a job? The office is empty, and as good a place as any to pass a couple of hours, so she pulls her laptop out of her bag and tries to get some work done. While her position in Siveri's company is largely for show, she still does have some responsibilities, and they've grown a bit larger since she now manages her own small company (though lacking any real employees).
Someone else's office isn't a good place to focus though, especially distracted as she is thinking about Liam, and eventually she gives up attempting to be productive. With a sigh she closes her laptop, stows it back in her backpack, and heads for Carissa's apartment. Hopefully one of the two women are home.
Luckily for her, as Amber approaches the door to their apartment, Neela arrives from the other direction down the hall, wearing an unzipped hoodie over a sports bra and black leggings. She's still sweaty from presumably a workout of some kind, and she waves to Amber. "Hey. You looking for Carissa?"
"Yeah. Is she around?" Amber waves, taking her hands out of her pockets and returning the wave. Hoodie isn't her usual look, but at the moment she matches Neela, which is hardly a bad thing.
"Nah. She's studying late tonight. Said something about it being distracting at home. Want to come in?" There's a little moment of smug awareness to her words. Amber, of course, already knew about Carissa's long-held lust for her roommate - it must be hard to focus indeed with Neela walking around dressed like that, glistening with sweat.
"Thanks," Amber accepts the invitation. "I'm a bit distracted at home myself," she offers an excuse for why she's here. "But far less pleasantly. I won't be in your way?" She glances at the kitchen, trying not to linger within line of sight of the window.
"Nah. I'm just gonna grab a shower and maybe a nap." She yawns. "Can't sleep right lately. Maybe I'm too hot or too cold or something." She shrugs. "Anyway, make yourself at home. Grab something from the kitchen, lay down, peek on me in the shower, whatever." Neela winks at Amber playfully, shucking her hoodie and tossing it into her room.
"I'm sure it'd be quite a view, but I think it'd make Carissa jealous I took advantage of her absence," Amber laughs at that. "You could join me on the couch when you're done and we can make her head explode when she walks in. I brought booty shorts."
"Only if that's all you bring." Neela chuckles along, stripping down on her way to the bathroom.
After doing a tiny bit of snooping, Amber kicks back on the couch, slipping out of her pants to wear the promised booty shorts - though she leaves her hoodie on for contrast with long bare legs and feet on the coffee table. It's still not exactly easy to concentrate on work, but she's at least much more comfortable here than she was uninvited in someone else's office. She mostly ends up browsing the internet and daydreaming, while keeping her ears open for any other motion in the apartment. Or outside it.
Neela emerges from the shower a bit later, not bothering to cover more than her bottom half with a towel. She looks over Amber's legs appreciatively. "Damn, those really work for you." She comments, before yawning again.
"Carissa said you'd been having trouble sleeping," Amber pats the couch next to her, reiterating the invitation. "I'll be quiet if you want to nap a bit. Can wake you up if you start sleepwalking."
Neela considers the offer, weighing her trouble sleeping against Amber's enticing display of thigh. "Maybe... a quick nap. And then we blow Carissa's mind after." She finally concedes, walking into her room and emerging with her own pair of tiny shorts barely covering her toned ass before sitting next to Amber with a deep, exhausted sigh.
After flicking out the light, Amber is true to her word, remaining silent and still as only one of the dead can, nothing more than the light from her laptop screen to illuminate her face as she waits for something to happen. Neela falls asleep fast next to Amber, the warmth of her bare skin a pleasant little susurration of life. And given Amber's exceptional night vision, not a bad view either.
She's silent for some time, about fifteen minutes or so by her computer's clock, until Neela suddenly sits up and stands, walking to the door without a word, any concern for her toplessness - or any seeming problem avoiding furniture in the darkness.
Amber watches the process in fascination. She wonders, now, if Liam is violating the spirit of the agreement and not the word - a sleepwalking Neela in the hallway would be easy prey, and perhaps fall under the 'rest of the building' clause in his mind. Well. Only one way to find out. She feels a little bad letting Neela wander around naked like this, but there's not much more she can learn without letting it go on. She sets aside her laptop without closing it and stands up, ready to follow the sleepwalked into the hallway if that's where she goes.
Neela walks to the door and opens it, moving out into the hallway and heading with mechanical precision to the stairs, unconcerned - or just unaware - that Amber is following her. They descend down the stairs, all the way to the basement maintenance floor, where one of the normally locked doors is ajar. Neela opens it and walks down a dark hallway, festooned with pipes and wiring sheaths, lit intermittently by red emergency lighting. Her eyes are open, but she's obviously not conscious.
Amber is less and less certain she wants to be here with each step she takes. But she can't very well wake up Neela at this point, not after letting her wander this far. The thought also occurs to her that perhaps she shouldn't have left her laptop unattended - perhaps that's the target, if Liam spotted her? Her nerves are starting to get the better of her, she has to admit to herself, but there's no option but to press on at this point. She followed the Dona's people to a pseudo-catholic blood sacrifice without flinching. She can follow Neela into the basement, no matter how creepy it is, or how much she doesn't want to meet a shark-toothed vampire alone in the darkness.
Neela turns a corner and Amber, guided by some sudden instinct, holds back right before it. She hears metal creak and... Liam's voice. "Good evening, Neela." He sounds unsurprised and... strangely... pleasant? What was going on here? "Hello, sir." Neela replies, her voice inflectionless and dreamy. Amber creeps forward, just enough to see around the corner without exposing herself. Through the open metal door is a... the first word that comes to mind is nest. A sleeping bag laid out on the floor, scattered but neat piles of belongings, books, clothes, so on... and sitting on a steel folding chair is Liam, his too-wide sharktooth mouth bared in what must be a pleased smile for him. Another chair is empty across from him, and he gestures for Neela to sit. She does so mechanically.
Well that's fucked up, is Amber's immediate reaction, followed shortly by I should save her. But... should she? The coldly practical part of her mind kicks in. No wonder Liam was so protective of the building - no wonder he was so upset when she waltzed in and took it over. It's not just his feeding grounds, but his haven as well. And he'll react violently to an intrusion. She probably would, and she's a far more stable and grounded person than Liam. She pulls her head back around the corner and leans against the wall for a moment. I can't do anything right now, is the final decision. And though it leaves a cold lump in the pit of her stomach, she can't really argue with it.
She leaves. What were those words she told Velo just the other day - "sometimes I can even help people in very real ways." Those words taste like ash. Now isn't one of those times. She heads back up the stairs.
A short time later, the door opens and Neela enters just as mechanically as she left. She settles down on the couch, and tries to cuddle with Amber in the exact same position she was in before she got up, seemingly drifting back to true sleep.
Amber knows how to fix this, now. It'll be rough coming up with a plausible lie. But she's going to fix it. She stares into the dark room and waits, resting a protective hand on Neela's shoulder.