The builder looked at the pictures with dismay. Anzide remained unseen, pacing the floor behind the man. The greeting and initial discussion were longer than necessary while Anzide checked this guy over. He'd given the all clear.

There were no thoughts or memories of Drakkus, no knowledge of vampires.

Brad used his phone to take the photos so that he could show this guy the level of destruction and how much we'd done since the incident.

We were getting there slowly. I'd like to put in a solid effort, but the issues that were hanging around were proving to be a problem. Hopefully making this agreement with Harlwood will give us a little relief.

"You say that it was a gas explosion?"

"Yeah," Brad said softly.

"That's an awful shame. Such a lovely house. Never knew the original owner. Some say he was a bad man, but that doesn't mean the house shouldn't be restored to the way that it was. Better than some modern monstrosity."

The added bonus of Anzide was that he was adding a little acceptance to this. There were no scorch marks, no fire. It looked like the house had exploded, but that's all that there was that was similar.

"Well, it's possible to use some of the wood and bricks. I'd have to inspect them to make sure they're solid. To be honest, you'd be better off ordering brand new. Get a truck in, clear the site and start fresh."

Brad looked at me, and I shrugged. I was desperate to find Niko and ask what he wanted but I was told to leave him be. To stay away and let him approach us. It was frustrating, to say the least.

"It will be cheaper too. The amount of time I'd spend searching through the rubble, it would be hours. You could clear the site, pull the nails from the wood and make neat piles, but I'd still have to go through every single piece to make sure it's viable. This is an old house, it probably had good bones, but that may not be the case now that it's suffered a blow like this."

The builder handed Brad his phone back, then pushed a pen and paper across the desk.

"Tell you what, I'll get the plans for that place. I'll do up two quotes for you. One, exactly as you want. An estimate of time to go through the wood, select the good pieces, and then to rebuild. It will be an open quote because I don't know what you've got out there and what I won't be able to save. The other quote is to rebuild exactly to the original plans with all new items. That one will not be an open quote because I won't use a single item from the original house. How's that?"

"Sounds great."

"Good, write your details there, and I'll get back to you. Probably about a week, alright?"

"Sure."

Scanning the street, I saw a familiar face across the road. It was one of the women, one of the vampires that taunted us. Pulling out my phone, I discreetly snapped a picture and then looked at the image. It was a fuzzy blur, like a static-filled television screen.

Thinking it was an odd, one-off occurrence, I took another picture. The result was the same. When Brad opened the door, the woman walked away with her friend, and I'd lost the chance.

Anzide looked at the screen, then at the woman that walked away. He turned and waited for the door to swing shut.

"You can't take pictures of them with a phone. Sorry, I should have told you that. Between what Harlwood's doing and the efforts of the demon Drakkus has working for him, they're useless for vampires. You need an older camera, something that is not connected to towers like that one."

He pointed to the horizon where there was a cell tower, small and unassuming from here but monstrously large close-up.

"There's a pawn shop down the street. I'll see you two later. I've got a yard to clean up. Ring me if you're being lazy and want a lift home."

Anzide and I wandered down the street after waiting for Brad to leave. Finding the pawn shop was easy, and as luck would have it, they had an old camera that the man was all too eager to get rid of.

Anzide shot me a smirk as the door clunked shut behind us.

"Was spending a hundred dollars on that ancient piece of technology worth it?"

"Absolutely. Come on, let's take a walking tour of Hades so I can test the camera out."

The camera was hanging from my neck. I trusted the strap, but then, I didn't really. My hand was on it as if I feared that the strap would break and this essential tool in my war against my enemies would be lost.

Anzide took the camera bag, lifting it over his shoulder. Hand in hand, we walked down the main street, venturing further than I had in my time in this weird place.

We took a slow path around the streets, stopping by the information outlet to grab a map. Hades was bigger than I thought it was. Though, to be fair, I hadn't ventured far from home or school.

I took photos of flowers, trees, and random people that also included a few vampires. The pictures worked, so we kept going. All images of people would be at a reasonable distance. I also tried to make it appear as if they were in the way of something else that I was taking a picture of. Humans and vampires alike, I kept them all on the memory card so that if a vampire saw me and took the camera from me, they'd think nothing of it. Just a coincidence, that's all.

When we reached the school, Anzide and I crossed the road. Brad was outside the real estate office talking to a woman. Well, to be honest, it looked like he was hitting on her, and she was lapping it up.

"That's some suave moves," Anzide said with a mighty grin. "Maybe we should get some supplies before returning home."

"Like?"

"A tent, earplugs."

I giggled, which made Brad turn. He tipped his head as a greeting.

"Need that lift?"

"Nah, we're cool. You go back to,"

Brad frowned at me.

"Your conversation," I said sweetly.

His eyes narrowed. Fluttering my eyelashes, I moved around my uncle and continued down the path.

"It's sweet, right?"

"Sure," I said as I wrapped my arms around his waist. "Until you realize that he totally fibbed about what he was really doing. That does not look like he's cleaning the yard."

"Maybe he's searching for helpers."

I rolled my eyes, scoffing. Yeah, that's exactly what Brad was doing. I didn't care. It gave us a moment alone.

We didn't have long, so our footsteps quickened. I think Anzide might have intervened a little.

By the time we reached the caravan, I was out of breath. It didn't bother me, not when I was hungry for a bit of fun.

Our time was limited, but it was perfect. The caravan was our little cramped cavern of love. Rather than risk falling off the top bunk, Anzide pulled the mattress down and put it on the space for the larger bed. Because everything was packed neatly from the back wall, there was still space but it was limited.

Sweat peppered our skin like little droplets of passion escaping us. Anzide sighed as he settled on my body, the relief of our moment together consuming him.

I stared at the watermarks on the ceiling, smiling because it was the only thing possible at the moment. Wrapped up in how amazing it was to be with someone that cared.

There were differences. I could see them easily now.

Dragging my fingers down his spine for as far as I could reach, I enjoyed the silence of the afternoon. It was nice to have a moment of just us. No demons or vampires, no betrayal or lies. Just love.

Anzide lifted from my body with a wicked smile on his face.

"Two for two and still obsessed with it."

I chuckled.

"And you."

"Good save."

His fingertips dragged over the top of my forehead, pulling the hair back.

"Are you happy?"

"With this? Absolutely. You?"

Anzide nodded, lowering to kiss me softly.

"When I saw you that day, the very first day, I was stunned into silence. When you went through the door, I realized my mistake in the choice of appearance. I was a teenager but I didn't think it would work. The more you resisted, the more I realized how wrong the choice was. They would not let me change. It added to the foul mood that I found myself in. I knew what was expected of me, but I saw you, and I found something inside myself that I didn't know existed."

"What?"

"Curiosity for love and affection. It grew beyond curiosity and festered into something that was uncontrollable. The boy turned up, making it worse. I could see him for his true worth, but you couldn't, which was frustrating. I knew that I'd dug the hole and only had myself to blame for your lack of belief in me. All that I could do was to keep you as safe as I could manage, knowing that danger was always stalking you. Not just the vampires but my own kind. I am the reason they were delayed,"

Anzide had a conspiratorial smile on his face.

"What did you do?"

"Led them astray, false reports. Anything that would delay the inevitable. It was working well until the witch turned up."

"What happened to him?"

Anzide sat up, pulling his pants on.

"The trial was done without proof of a child being born. Mardyl had already admitted to the act and confirmed that a child was created. He was convicted but appealed because he said they forced the confession out of him, and he was under duress. By that stage, the new ruling had come in, so they let him go free. From what I hear, he spent the night celebrating with several vampires. Clearly, he did not learn any lessons from what happened."

Anzide turned, and hungry eyes scraped over me.

"Maybe round two?"

He looked like he was about to say something, but the squealing of brakes ended that. I sat up, looking past Anzide to the kitchen window.

"Is it?"

"Yeah, get dressed."

Anzide quickly pulled his shirt on and then moved the mattress back to the top bunk. I was dressed and doing the once over when I heard the car door shut. Brad's footsteps were heavy, almost like he was trying to make a lot of noise as a warning.

Sitting at the dining table, I took a deep breath and hoped that I did not look as if I'd spent the past half an hour doing wonderful things in this little hot box.

The metal door swung open, and Brad frowned at us.

"How can you stand being in here? Open a window, sheesh."

Then he continued grumping that instead of sitting on our asses, we could be cleaning the yard.

Emerging with the camera, I sat down at the table and began the process of forming the list. I think that I managed to get all of the vampires on my hit list, but I couldn't be certain. One was a little vague.

Brad sat down with his notebook, thumping it to the metal table.

"Well, Hannah gave me a few good places to check out."

"Hannah?"

"The woman that you almost blew my chances with. Next time, behave yourself."

"Always do."

Brad huffed, sounding as if he didn't believe me.

"You keep cramping my style kid, and you're going to regret it. Loverboy will be so busy that you will forget what he looks like."

"Chill, Bradley. I'm not going to stop you from getting a girlfriend. So, what are these good places that you speak of?"

Brad turned the notebook and showed me. One place was for an industrial bin hire. There was a storage unit place as well as another company that would deliver shipping containers to be used. We could hire security fences if we wanted. She even offered a few names of builders to get more quotes from.

"This is a lot for Anzide to check out. Today took a lot out of him. You shouldn't go nuts on it."

"I wasn't planning on it. I liked the builder. He was pretty straight with what he offered, and, in all honesty, I can't be bothered. I just want the house back, as close as he can manage. How did your list go?"

I shrugged, turning the camera to show him.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that I got all of them except this guy I'm a bit unsure about. I know that Harlwood will accept whatever I ask, but I don't want to take out someone that is innocent. I'll keep thinking about it and hopefully, I'll figure it out."

Behind Brad, I could see the forest. It was like it called out to me and beckoned me into the warmth of her arms. I don't know why but I felt at peace when I was there. It was a little scary, and horrible things happened in there, but it still felt like it was a part of me.

"Hey, do you mind if I steal Anzide so that I can go for a walk and clear my head?"

Brad rolled his eyes.

"Sure, why not? Today is a complete write-off anyway."