Captive Witch

Chapter Thirteen

I had a lot of things that needed to be done, and for once had all the time in the world to do them. There were no witches coming for me now that we had set a truce, Jim's sire had given me the papers to the bar, he wasn't mad about my inadvertently causing Jim's demise. I knew that after what Jim suffered, I would never let a vampire suffer that fate again, I would come up with something to help them, even if it just enabled them to see the sun again for the first time in years. But that was something that would have to be put on the back burner for a little while, at least while I figured out how to go about building the sanctuary I had in mind. I hadn't really explored the warehouse all that much, had never even been up to Jim's apartment, he had liked his privacy, I mostly only traveled from my room, the bathroom, and the bar, but I would have to change that if I wanted to reinvent this place.

"Let's go do some exploring shall we, Nox." After all I would need to know every inch and cranny of this place if I was to make full use of the space. The bar seemed to take up about a quarter of the space available in the warehouse, though it the bar wasn't very large. The warehouse was made of solid red bricks, though they were beginning to show signs of water damage, it was slight but definitely there, a little paint would probably prevent against further damage though.

"I've found lots of interesting spaces when you worked at the bar." I follow him out into the empty part of the warehouse, Jim had never really kept up in maintenance for this building, apart from the bar space that is, but his bar was simpler than I would like and with just under ten million dollars in funds, I had more than enough money to properly renovate this space. I glance around the dark space carefully, after all one never truly knew what could be hiding in the dark.

I glance at the stairs that would lead up to Jim's apartment, but just can't bring myself to go in there at least not yet. I summon balls of light to illuminate the warehouse, it was completely empty, though there were some piles of junk scattered everywhere. "Follow me." Nox darts off in the far-right corner, I trail behind him, unsure of what he seems so eager to show me.

Surprisingly, he leads me to a set of stairs, going down, warehouses didn't usually have basements. "A basement? Anything interesting down there?" Nox doesn't answer just continues down the stairs, allowing me to follow him. It was a standard basement space, mostly empty just like the warehouse above, bricks lined the walls, strange given concrete was usually used for basements. It was about the same size as the warehouse above.

"Interesting? Does another set of stairs count?" Another set of stairs, how the hell did this place have a subbasement, let alone just a basement. Except when I go down the stairs, I can clearly see that Jim must have been slowly digging the space out, he had done pretty well, about three quarters the size of the floor above. This was a lot of space and significantly allowed me a lot of leeway with what I wanted to have in this building.

"Is there another set of stairs here as well?" I glance around almost expecting to see that there was another basement awaiting me, but I see no such staircase.

"No, this is the end of the line, as deep as it goes. The only place left to look is Jim's apartment." I know I've put it off till last and even if I still didn't want to do it, I would have to eventually because I was going to be tearing most of it down. If the ideas going through my head were much to go by at least. I head up the stairs reluctantly, when I finally reach his door I almost don't open it because if I never open it then her could still be in there, just sleeping.

But he wasn't sleeping, he was dead, and I needed to come to terms with that. With a deep breath I open the door and am greeted by a rather antiqued space, all bulky wood furniture, all with a distinctly medieval feel, although his apartment spanned the entire space above the bar it was sparse. Apparently, Jim had felt rather at home with the medieval times, but I didn't, I hadn't been born without plumbing or electricity, those were essentials for me. Which is why I had to let Jim go and also get myself some help, because I did not know the first thing about plumbing, electrical, or construction.