Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,104
and the garden had to be perfect for when she arrived. How she’d seemed to begrudge the garden the more it flourished. Had she been killing her plants on purpose?
“It wasn’t your fault, Mrs Hannah.”
She didn’t agree, I could see it in her face.
“Plants everywhere at the crash scene,” she said. “There were pictures in the paper and the stories all mentioned my name. Driving to see her sister, Mrs Hannah Gaughton, in Bluff City.”
When loved ones died tragically, the self-blame game was no small thing. “Have I ever told you my parents died when I was nine?”
She wiped her face again and stretched out a hand to take mine. “That’s terrible.”
“For years after, when I got old enough to process such things, I was certain their death was my fault. Maybe if I’d behaved better, they’d have taken me on holiday, and then they wouldn’t be dead. Or maybe if I didn’t play up all the time, maybe they wouldn’t have needed a holiday and wouldn’t be dead. Why did they need a holiday without me? Even now, when I’m feeling low, the self-destructive thoughts come back. With my grandmother’s death, it’s the same.” Just involving vampires.
“She wouldn’t have been out in the storm—”
I straightened. “Your sister was a grown woman and she had a choice to drive in those conditions or not.”
Mrs Gaughton glared at me.
“You don’t control the decisions of others,” I told her. “You’re not responsible for her death. What would she say if she could see you now, lying about her visits?”
Her eyes dropped to her lap. “She’d say I was a fucking moron.”
I snorted. “Sounds like she was a hoot.”
The older woman swallowed hard. “She was something alright.”
I squeezed her hand. “Thank you for making your garden perfect for my grandmother. For me. Especially when it held such scars for you.”
“I always said that when the garden was done, I’d pack up and leave. But I just couldn’t do it. Not when I shared so many memories with my sister here.”
“You don’t ever have to leave.”
A shadow fell across her vision. “I hate these halls. If I’d left straight away, the memories might have been preserved. Now, all that’s left is pain. Still, I’m afraid of what’s next. The garden is ready and I was meant to be ready too.”
I studied the woman. I didn’t see her as different from me—some wise elderly stranger. I could see my own struggles within this woman—a fellow soul who’d lost her way. She’d just misplaced her fire for the time being.
“The garden’s ready,” I told her. “And you are too. You just don’t know it yet.”
“What shit are you talking, dear?”
This was either an idiotic or ingenious move.
“Mrs Hannah,” I said. “My real name is Basilia Le Spyre. Would you like to move in with me?”
“Foremost got 77 Bard Boulevard,” Angelica hissed as we rode the elevator up to Level 66.
I pretended to think.
“Mrs Gaughton,” she said.
I let my jaw drop. “I’ve been buttering her up for two months. She sold to them?”
“They landed on Orange yesterday and her property is registered as sold though the details are yet to be processed.”
“Damn, I wonder how they got her. I tried everything.” Including inviting her to live with me. Which she accepted. There had been the option to settle her in one of my many rentals in the city. But there was a greater chance the realtors at Live Right would recognise her when they went door knocking than for Kyros—who thought of humans as addresses anyway—to recognise her on the estate.
Angelica sighed. “Sometimes owners click better with another realtor. I’ll look into it to ensure she wasn’t coerced. Foremost do try upon occasion.”
Good to know.
She rubbed her temples. “Private sale rates are up by 0.5 percent.”
I shoved back my satisfaction. “Any idea why?”
“Kyros thinks the properties refusing to sell to Live Right and Foremost value local business and a social cause. He’s considering a rebranding of the business as we focus on the last available properties.”
I blew out a breath. “Drastic stuff. Surely half a percent can’t make too much difference? We can just approach the new buyers.”
“Not if they’re overseas investors. Which a growing number are. For starters, they’re not regular spenders in the city, and in addition, it makes them incredibly hard to track down to secure their homes.”
I looked at her. “I never thought about that. You’re right. That’s not good. Is there anything we can do about it?”