July 5, 2002 – 22:15
Coralis hovered above the coordinates of the address sent by Frank. She wrote down the address of their new place before she left for Asia and converted it into coordinates through her hologram. It was late evening.
Before heading to her new address, on her way back from India, she made a stop at an electronic store run by a werewolf. There, she bought a burner phone and had it arranged so that if she was somewhere away from any cell signal, she could push the call into her hologram in satellite mode, and make the call made to and from it untraceable. She needed Frank to be able to reach out to her if he ever was in trouble, or saw trouble.
Anna, the werewolf who served her, was from Emma's pack. She knew exactly who she was. Her mate was one of the werewolves that Coralis restored the connection between human and wolf. From the moment her mate came back home, Anna swore to herself that she'd do anything for that elemental if she ever needed anything. When she saw her at work, she didn't care about the potential consequences: she would help her out in any way she could, so she made sure that no one could ever trace the phone number that was assigned to her.
Coralis considered her landing spots for a few minutes. Somehow, that landing spot was going to be symbolic to her. She was abroad when Frank moved in, so this was the day when she'd officially declared it her home address with her potential spouse. She didn't know what to expect as far as indoor decor was concerned. She made a mental note of all the potential landing spots surrounding the coordinates and landed on the rooftop of her building.
When her feet touched the ground, she remembered that this place wasn't warded against anything, so as soon she landed on the ground, she crouched on herself and turned into a black cat before voiding her invisibility glamour.
The roof was flat, the same height as most of the buildings on her street, so she was confident no one would be looking at her at that moment. She tried to make herself as small as possible, and as Cheetah, she walked around the edge of the roof and jumped down on the back balcony.
She was about to jump by the window but noticed there was no window ledge. She considered removing the solidity of the glass window, so that she could jump through, but a neighbour could see that. She thought about scratching the backdoor but decided against it. She wanted to see what her building looked like from the street.
She climbed down the stairs and went into the park across the street. The park was barely illuminated, so she didn't have any difficulties finding a spot where she could shift back to herself. She wanted to walk around it to find more secluded spots she could potentially use but decided that it would be for another night.
She exited the park and crossed the street to get to her new apartment. She stopped in front of it and took a minute to look at it. There were only three apartments in the building, so they had the top floor to themselves. She liked that.
She climbed up the metal staircase leading to the second-floor apartment and rang the doorbell of their apartment. She didn't have a set of keys yet. She heard a buzzing sound coming from the locking mechanism and she opened the door. She looked up the stairs behind the door, and she saw Frank standing on the landing.
"Welcome home, luv."
She climbed up the indoor stairway after closing the door behind her. As soon as her feet reached the landing, Frank pulled her against his chest and kissed her. She passed her arms behind his neck.
"I like the location so far. Good choice."
"Wait until you see inside, hope you'll like it," said Frank, still kissing her.
His hands went down in her pants, around her butt.
"I get we can't waste any time, but let's get in before we end up naked in the stairway. I wanna see inside."
"Are you hungry? Drink?" said Frank after closing the door behind them.
"I can eat yeah, and definitively yes for a drink."
While Frank was busy warming up food and filling two glasses of red wine, she checked every room in the apartment. She was looking at their bedroom when he handed her a glass of wine.
"What's your verdict?"
"I like it. You chose great."
They went to the living room, and she pulled a mute-ball out of her purse. She activated it.
"There is a chance we'll play against Britain for the finals or semi-finals. If we do and play at home, Erik and Henry will stay here while in town. They'll help soundproof the walls and ward the place."
"Sounds good. Tomorrow is a playoff game, right?"
"Yes. We finished first in our division, so as expected we'll be playing the first playoff game at home. If your family still want to come to tomorrow's game against Mexico, I can arrange it in the morning before going to practice," said Coralis, grabbing the bowl of pasta Frank handed her. "Thanks."
"Yes, they're still up for it. Audrey is really looking forward to it. You know how good my sister is at selling the idea to go to a game," said Frank while picking up a large item wrapped in black paper. "I forgot to tell you on the phone, but someone came here Wednesday evening to deliver you this… Prince Nuuka?"
Coralis stopped eating to look at it. She was standing over the kitchen island. Frank handed the item to her, and she removed the wrapping. It was a painting of a Korean village from the eighth century.
"Victoria told me yesterday that he passed by to bring something. She told him I wasn't living there anymore and that she'd give it to me, but she said he insisted on delivering it in person, so she gave him the address here. Prince Nuuka is an old powerful spirit mage, but he's not a threat. Is it something you want to hang in here?"
"Sure, why not! We do need to decorate this place after all. Think it'd look good in the living room. He didn't look old to me, are we talking about the same person? He said you saved his sister's life?"
"Some of us live very long and age extremely slowly after our body stopped growing. Prince Nuuka looks like he's thirty, but he is nearly 200, so yes, we're talking the same person and yes, I did help his sister."
"Oh wow, are you also going to live well past 100?"
"I don't know, I barely know anything about my bloodline. I'd need to look into my father's family to find out… and relatives on that side are either dead or can't be found."
Frank took the painting and laid it on the wall across the entry door, above his head. Coralis continued eating.
"What do you think if we hang it there? And what about his sister? Somehow, I don't think you merely helped her."
"Fine by me. I've known his family for a few years. His younger brother plays flyball and his sister runs a bookstore specializing in old grimoires and elemental books. I stopped there after the game. Some mages came in and started yelling. I didn't understand what they were saying, but I went to check what was going on. They had her incapacitated and started taking down entire rows of bookshelves. I fought them."
Frank placed the painting on the ground against the wall and went to the spare bedroom to grab the crate Victoria received for her.
"That's what Victoria received for you last week."
He put the crate on the kitchen island, next to her. She ate the last bite of pasta and put her empty bowl in the sink.
"I don't understand why King Matthew would send me something. He sent me a lot of wine bottles back in February."
"Maybe for your birthday? I know it's next month, but it's a possibility."
"He never did before, and I don't think he knows when it is."
She opened the crate and pulled out of it a sculpture of a cherub made of ivory. She placed it beside the crate and went to her purse to grab the phone she bought before coming home.
"Wow, how often do you receive gifts like that?"
"I receive gifts once in a while, but it's the first time I receive something that old. Coming from an 800-something-year-old vampire, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I got this phone on my way here, by the way."
"Finally!" said Frank as she dialled Veronica's number.
"Mind telling me what the cherub sculpture is for?" said Coralis when Veronica answered, and she put the call on speakerphone so she could refill her glass of wine.
"Sis, do you have any idea the amplitude of the beautiful mess your vase unravelled?"