me nearly tear up right there in front of everybody. It was so tantalizing. I could almost taste it, the freedom, the control. My own life.
My parents had always told me that landlords would never rent to me. My work history was spread out across several family-owned businesses simultaneously, making my resume a nightmare. My references were limited to family members. I had no rental history. And it was just too hard for werewolves to try to assimilate into town, they’d insisted. I’d never even considered looking at apartment listings. No one my age had ever moved off of the compound unless it was to get married and move onto some other pack’s lands. What I wanted had always seemed impossible, until now.
“How much is the rent?” I squeaked. I took a quick sip of coffee to wet my throat and then immediately regretted it because cough drop syrup.
Dick checked under the coffee bar and pulled out a piece of paper with all of the specs for the apartment. One bedroom, one bath, kitchen, breakfast nook, a balcony overlooking Millard Street. It wasn’t exactly huge, but it would be more space than I was used to having on my own. And I had more than enough in my savings to cover rent for the first year on my own, plus utilities and Internet. It was pretty reasonable considering it was right in the middle of town. I could work from home! I could take on jobs I had been turning down because I would have hours of uninterrupted time! Which would mean I could afford things like furniture and sheets and toothpaste!
Was this real?
Andrea seemed unnerved by my losing the ability to speak. “Do you want an application? We’ll waive the references.”
My mouth opened to say ‘yes, please!’ but then Jane’s cell phone jangled in her back pocket. She pulled it out, grinning at the screen. “Iris? What’s up?”
I could only hear a distressed jumble of words, muffled by Jane’s ear being pressed to the phone. Jane gasped. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. I’ll come on by right now. No, it’s no trouble. Does Cal think I need to send the UERT guys? No, that’s not an overreaction! Okay, okay, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
“Why would Iris need the Undead Emergency Response Team?” Dick demanded.
Jane blew out a long breath as she hung up. “Meadow, I’m going to need a bunch of that Calm Your Ass Down Blend to go. Iris will appreciate it.”
“What’s going on?” Andrea asked as Meadow started frantically looking through her box of teas.
“Somebody threw bricks through all of the windows at Cal and Iris’s place. Spray painted some nasty stuff on the porch. Threw bleach on her rose beds. She’s beside herself,” Jane said. “That was her parents’ house. You know how she feels about it. I’m going to head over there and talk to her with my Council hat on, take a report. Which means a meeting with the local sheriff, Lord help me.”
“I thought people had pretty much accepted vampires around here!” I exclaimed. “I haven’t seen any sort anti-vampire stuff since the first few years after the Coming Out.”
Except for the anti-vampire stuff my family said on occasion. But I didn’t think that would be a helpful contribution to the conversation right now.
Jane nodded. “That’s what Dick and I have been working toward during our whole tenure. We’ve worked to encourage vampires to pay taxes at unprecedented rates, recycle, participate in Neighborhood Watch programs, volunteer. Hell, Libby’s an officer in the PTA, now. People are comfortable with us being here. Why would that suddenly change?”
I thought about my parents, and the way they muttered angrily under their breath any time they saw positive vampire news on TV. But I didn’t think it was a good idea to bring that up here and now.
“I thought Cal and Iris had all those fancy security systems,” Dick mused.
“She said it must have happened just after dark. They only keep the steel shutters down during the day,” Jane said as Meadow handed her a package containing a lot of dried tea. “They woke up at sundown. Everything was normal. Cal went into his home office. Iris was down in the basement, something about seedlings and grow lights. She was talking super-fast and it was about gardening, and you know I don’t do well with that particular subject. Anyway, they’re settling into their day and bam, broken glass and anti-vampire slurs painted on their porch.”
“Poor