Sasha was frozen in place for a bit while Alice revealed some of that often incomprehensible human understanding. Perhaps she was in shock. It made no sense that now, unbound and standing in the open air, she would become more amenable. Or, she simply knew at this point that it was useless to run.

It was possible she would think better of it in the morning. Best make good time now, while they could. It would be difficult to keep a pin in her during daylight.

He looked up at the rain-filled sky, gauging the time until dawn. He remembered belatedly that he has his phone in his pocket and a watch on his wrist, but he had spent so much of his life looking up at the sky to assess the time that he still didn’t use those things instinctively. And with daylight savings now and the ebb and flow of daylight hours with the seasons, his method was typically more accurate anyway.

He couldn’t muster gratitude. He was too spent for that, and it was still too early to know where this would go. The vampire proceeded with cautious optimism.

“It’s only water,” Sasha replied. But it was probably the clothes Alice was worried about. Water could be hell on fine suede and delicate silk. He watched Alice as she walked past him, heading back to his abandoned car. “But perhaps a dip in your shower…?”

[hr]

A quick stop at the Timeless afforded both Sasha and Alice an opportunity to retrieve their coats, and more importantly, Alice’s keys. He did promise not to break her door in.

Sasha didn’t need directions to find Alice’s flat. He’d researched her after all. He knew where she lived, and where some of her relatives lived as well. If he chose, he could have come and cornered her in her home, and not doing so was no matter of courtesy, but timing. When he knew for certain what was to be done about Alasdair, he simply couldn’t wait for her to return to her home.

“Of all the methods I devised to get into your flat, if I needed to,” he muttered as they neared her place in the hall, “I hadn’t considered simply unlocking the front door.”