Season Content Notes: violence, sex

Victor

The Maple Tree Suites was a fairly standard apartment block. Seven floors, six apartments to a floor, just enough security to make a civilian feel safe while not actually doing anything.

Victor hated it on sight.

From the top of the building, he’d have some decent sightlines — if he was a sniper and if he could get up there. Victor was good, he wasn’t sniper-good.

The apartment itself was a second-floor three bedroom, corner apartment. Also standard, if on the small side. Fitting for their cover story — college kids needing emergency housing wouldn’t be getting a big fancy place.

As they carried their stuff in, making multiple trips to the van and back, Victor accessed the place from a security standpoint.

The second floor was both good and bad as far as Victor was concerned. Better sightlines than on the ground floor. In an emergency, they could exist through the windows, probably easier with the new vamp abilities they were all getting. But the enemy could also get in through those windows. And the corner location meant more sightlines but also more ways the enemy could attack them.

On the other hand, being a corner apartment meant they were at the end of the hall. The door opened perfectly for Victor to get a sight straight down the hall and put down fire even with the door only open a crack. If they stayed long, they’d need to reinforce the door, but it could work. Overall, Victor was happy with it.

And running out of ways to distract himself from his upcoming conversation with Nastasia. Which wouldn’t happen for a while yet, because they had to get fully settled first. Victor wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Once everything was in, they split up. Marcus and Leyla went to check out the building and grounds, while Victor and the rest started unpacking.

Victor and Karen started on the armory first. The weapons, of course, but there weren’t all that many of those. More importantly, the workspace and tools to clean, repair, and modify.

Working alongside Karen was always nice. She didn’t say much, which was nice. They both liked the quiet. But he was aware of her presence in a way he’d always tried to ignore before.

“So,” he cleared his throat. “You’re really okay with this… sotii thing?”

She looked up at him and frowned. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well,” he hmm’d, trying to decide how just how much foot he was willing to eat if he screwed up here. Her black eyes were soft and shining in the light from the window and for a moment it felt like he was falling into them. Damn, this woman got him good and didn’t even know it.

Yeah, he was willing to risk a hell of a lot more than making a fool of himself. “Just… it’s plural, sotii. Spouse/s/. Lotta folks wouldn’t be happy with that.”

“Oh.” Karen blinked. “I hadn’t really thought of that?”

He bit his tongue, hard, and focused on organizing the tools the way he knew Karen liked them. After a minute, she said, “It seems strange. But we shared everything else when we were on assignment. And we’re on permanent assignment now, sort of. So… Okay?”

“Okay, then.”

He didn’t know what else he might have said, because a moment later Benj popped in to ask Victor’s take on permanent gun rests in the living room and master bedroom.

Not long after, Marcus and Leyla were back and they were all gathering in the living room to compare notes. Their exploration confirmed Victor’s initial assessment — the security here was shit. The good news was Leyla had been able to plant several bugs and thought she could patch them into the CCTV cameras throughout the building.

As safe houses went, it wasn’t perfect — among other things, way too high a chance of civilians being caught in the crossfire if they got discovered here — but it was a decent setup while they figured out a long-term plan.

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Nastasia

I knew the theory of securing a location very well but had little chance to practice it. Watching the calm and competent way her team went about the work, well… Let’s say I was getting hungry again. So I had a competence kink. Who knew?

I stayed out of the discussion for the most part, other than insisting they include me in the watch rotations. When things started winding down I was hungry for actual food, as well as other things.was safe. I knew by then what they all liked for pizza, and there was a place with good reviews right around the corner.

When I got off the phone, everyone was looking at me.

“Um… hi?”

“We were talking bedrooms, vamp-lady,” Leyla said with a smile that didn’t help my… other… hungers, “Do you have a preference how we set things up?”

Yeah, of course, I did. But I wasn’t going to just say it.

“With the armory, we’ve got two bedrooms, it’ll be tight, but three and three makes sense.

I smiled at Karen, who was sitting on the floor next to me checking the edge on one of her knives. “I think it makes sense for Karen and I to share.”

“Damn right,” Karen said, making me giggle.

Marcus grunted and I looked at him, worried. But no, he wasn’t upset, more… oh. Oh, I knew that look. Yeah, I’m young, especially for a vampire. But you don’t spend a couple of years in the club scene without learning to recognize every variation of /that/ look.

I hid a grin. Seducing Marcus was going to be a lot easier than I’d expected.

“That,” I cleared my throat, “that aside, it’s pretty normal for sotii to sleep together if that’s what everyone wants.”

“Alright,” Marcus nodded, “then we’ll-“

“How about we rotate?” Benj cut him off. “Keep it loose, no one has a set bedroom, just where ever we’re comfortable and there’s a space.

He gestured to the couch I was sitting on. “Anyone who isn’t comfortable can grab the couch or rack out on the floor. God knows we’ve done it often enough. And shared beds a time or two as well.”

“I like that idea,” Leyla said. “We’re all supposed to be getting to know Nastasia better, this way everyone will have a chance for late-night confessions, and she isn’t left alone because Karen and whoever is on watch.”

I think Marcus wanted to argue, but when Victor nodded his agreement and Karen shrugged, he let it go.

“I can live with that. So sotii commonly sleep together? That’s some new info.

“Maybe while we wait for the pizza you can give us some info on the whole vampire thing we’ve signed on for.”

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