“Chloe Lewis, is she here or not,” Destiny asks as she holds the bartender’s hand in a death grip.

“I don’t fucking know,” he shouts loudly.

“I swear I’ll crush your hand until it’s a pile of dusty meatloaf,” she threatens him.

“Hey, I really don’t think he knows,” I interrupt the interrogation.

“But he knows someone who knows,” Destiny squeezes harder.

“I don’t know I really don’t,” the bartender reaches out with his free hand.

“Don’t touch me,” she swats him away.

“Please, just let him go, he doesn’t know anything,” I try to gently guide Destiny away.

“You’re lucky I like him,” she lets him crumble to the floor in pain holding his hand gently.

“Please forget this,” I leave two hundred dollars, all my cash on the counter and rush out.

I’ve seen Destiny be rough and violent, I won’t lie. That’s part of the reason I like her, I’m just a real werido I guess. But she’s been on a warpath these last few days. I’ve seen her kill before, and she was calmer then. I don’t know what’s gotten into her, but it scares me. She’s really becoming the big bad monster that people tell their kids about.

“Well, I guess he can’t give us a hand with that one,” I get into the waiting car.

“No but if you hadn’t have interrupted me, I’m sure he would have pointed us to someone who could.

I don’t say anything on the ride back to her apartment. Something has her motivated and pissed off. The fact that she’s never acted like this, just sticks in my head; the scene in the bar repeating over and over again. I’ll find myself saying it and repeating the phrase again in ten minutes. I’ve followed along with her on missing persons jobs, and even helped with one or two. This is different, she’s facing it with an intensity that seems to be reserved for violent bounties, yet I can’t find anything about Chloe Lewis.

As we sit at the table eating Taco Bell, I’m almost afraid to ask her. I thought we were taking our relationship in a new direction. I thought we were taking things further. She still won’t call me her boyfriend, but she kisses me now. Eating in silence, just isn’t like us, and the whole thing is making my heart ache, or it can be the fake meat.

“Who is Chloe Lewis, and why is this job so important,” I just come out and ask the question.

“This isn’t a job. This is personal,” she responds coldly.

“Then what’s going on,” I ask but she remains silent. “You can tell me anything. You told me you were a vampire, and took me to vampire parties. I’m in pretty deep with your life.”

“But you aren’t ready for that side of my life. That side of my life will get you killed. I shouldn’t have even brought you with me today.”

“You’ve been training me to fight, I’ll be okay.”

“You need to train harder.”

“Or I’ll die,” I ask sarcastically.

“Exactly that.”

“Then tell me why.”

“Because you can’t deal with the vampire side of things. The real side, the real problems.”

“Well I’m already there, so talk,” I try to sound tough even if I know she could probably rip me in half if she wanted.

“Chloe Lewis is a vampire, not like me. She’s a Primeval, do you remember the difference?”

“You’ve been drilling it into my head.”

“Good, well she was a friend and brought me into her house. Adzi don’t really have houses, but Primeval vamps and those that worship them love having their own little kingdoms to rule. The arrogant fuckers need to hold on to the past. Build little empires to rule over. They need to be kings. Same deal with the Red Demon Gang, just more modern. The houses feud, the gangs fight for control. It’s all a game to them.”

“Like A Song of Ice and Fire,” I try to show I understand.

“What is that?”

“A book series, started in the 90s, there’s only like four books so far, but there’s going to be a few more.”

“What,” she genuinely seems confused, but calmer.

“You really need to take an interest in my hobbies too. You have all these books, but no fantasy novels. Pan-Africanism won’t keep you warm at night Destiny. But I will,” I raise an eyebrow.

“I was starting to think you weren’t a super nerd, but here you go.”

“I try. So how does the story end?”

“Well, she brought me into her father’s empire. I would have done anything for her, including crime. Her father’s house had built a reputation on crime for hundreds of years. Evolving to corporate espionage, but they still needed a few folks to get dirty. Break in to buildings and steal files, arson. That’s what I was willing to do for her,” Destiny pauses. “In the end, she let me take the fall for a job that went bad. I got kicked out, and every now and then, a few show up trying to kill me. That’s what you saw in the alley that night.”

“The guys in suits?”

“Yeah, if we cross paths, they’re supposed to kill me. I’ve been hard to kill.”

“Why kill you?”

“To erase me from Chloe’s history. The black stain on the pure white goddess.”

“You sound more like lovers than friends.”

“You’re one to judge.”

“I mean, you know I kissed Kesean in front of the school,” I shrug. “We’re just a bunch of bisexuals that don’t have sex,” I laugh, easing the situation.

“You remember his name?”

“He was my first kiss,” I laugh.

“Whatever, kissing a dude doesn’t make you bisexual,” she finally laughs.

“Okay, so you are? Do I need to be worried about your ex,” I joke.

“She’s supposed to be in town for business, that’s why I’ve been trying to find her.”

“I got this, I’ll hit her with the boom, pow, surprise.”

“Go home,” she finally starts to return to herself.

“Do I get a kiss? Maybe some sex? We’re sharing now,” I make my way towards the door.

“You can have a kiss if you act right,” she comes to walk me out.

“So no sex?”

“We’ve never done that, won’t start today, just go home,” she gives me a quick peck on the cheek.

“Guess I’ll go home and jerk off,” I walk out the door.

“I will disembowel you,” she jokingly threatens me.

“Been doing it since I was seventeen.”

“Late start,” she jokes.

“And an early finish too,” I call back down the hallway.

I’m glad Destiny is feeling better, but I can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t over. Nobody just has hitmen coming after them and takes it lightly. She was joking as I left, but I know she’s probably going to do something crazy. I want to hold her, tell her I love her, and want to spend the rest of my life with her, however long it may be. I think our time together might be growing short if she goes out and does something reckless.