Page 101 of Installment Immortality

“I will.” Malena looked at me levelly, and smiled. “You’ve done a lot for that species, and they help their friends. That help may not always take a form humans can easily understand, but it exists. Just call Candy and tell her you need a three-bedroom. Maybe that way I don’t have to sleep on the couch until I wind up paying a chiropractor.”

There were a few three-room units in the building, and at least one of them was currently open. And because of the quasi-legal way the dragons handled listings, there wasn’t a wait list of anything. Actually, the unit had been open for the better part of a month, since the harpies who’d been living there left for Colorado, citing a need for wider skies and fewer power lines. Their chicks were reaching the age where they needed to fly for their physical and mental health. It was a pity; they’d been good tenants.

Candice had mentioned the apartment to me several times when we met about other issues in the building, never with any implication that she was looking for someone to rent it out. I blinked.

“I think she already knows that,” I said.

“Does she?”

“Yeah. I think everyone knew it but me.” I sighed and looked down at my brush again. “This has been hard.”

“I know, Val. Losing someone is always hard. But David wouldn’t want you to sit around moping forever. He’d want you to take care of yourself, and take care of the babies he made with you. We live on through our children. Help him stay alive.”

“I’ll try.”

The mice, who had been eavesdropping shamelessly, cheered.

I rolled my eyes. “You sure you won’t let me help you with anything?” I asked.

Before Malena could answer me, the phone rang. Part of my rental agreement required me to have a landline the other occupants of the building could use to reach me. I shoved myself out of my seat and waddled toward the sound, waving her off as she leaned toward it. This was my job, and most of the other tenants were understandably anxious when it came to new people in their space. With the Covenant in town and a human in the building, they had good reason to be careful about who they talked to.

I picked up the receiver, cradling it between my cheek and my shoulder. “Hello?”

“Ms. Price? This is Roz, down in unit 1A. There’s something wrong with the pipes.”

“I’ll call the building handyman.”

“No, I don’tmean— Theystill work, and they’re not leaking, but the water that comes out of them is… well, it’s moving. I don’t think Carl can fix this.”

I blinked. “Moving?”

“Yes. Moving, around the bottom of my sink.”

“Have you tried talking to it? It could be an undine who got sucked into the city water supply.”

“It doesn’t seem to want to talk. It tried to grab my hand.”

“That sounds… bad.”

“I’m not a fan!”

I looked to Malena. “I’ll be right down. I’ve got a friend with me. Don’t worry if I show up with someone you don’t recognize.”

“Hurry,” she said, and hung up.

I set the receiver gently back into the cradle, looking to Malena. “Looks like we’re going to be making a house call,” I said.

“I’ll get your shoes.”

We left the apartment to the sound of the phone ringing again, seeming suddenly ominous.

Fortunately, while the dragons had never met a corner they wouldn’t happily cut, they actually cared about their tenants and, more, about how their treatment of said tenants would impact their standing in the cryptid community. They could have tripled their passive income from this building by renting to humans instead and treating them the way human landlords would, but they didn’t. They kept renting to cryptids, and they kept the rents low, and they made steady, reliable improvements to the building to guarantee their comfort.

All of which was a long-winded way of saying that the building had a working elevator less than ten yards from the door of my apartment, one which was spacious and well-lit enough to be comfortable. I got in, closely followed by Malena, and hit the button for the ground floor.

The doors closed smoothly, and she turned to look at me. “This happen often?”

I shook my head. “Not particularly. Plumbing is Carl’s problem.”

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