You’ve inherited an apartment building but your tenants are not normal. You’ve got a Norse god living in one apart, vampires in another and it just keeps getting weirder.

When my aunt passed away, I hadn’t assumed that she’d even left me anything. But I got one hell of a surprise when I went to the will reading. My siblings all stood beside me, sad and somber, all three of us clothed in black. Both of them had received a modest inheritance from her, and I was waiting to hear if she’d left me anything. She’d been fair to us all throughout her life, and I expected that to be reflected in whatever she’d decided to leave me. Obviously, I was wrong. ‘And finally, to my beloved niece, Cassandra Janette Salazar, I leave the apartment building that I’ve had my entire life. I ask you to take care of my beloved tenants. My lawyer will provide you with the paperwork, but it’s you I want looking after the building.’ I blinked, uncertain if I’d heard correctly. “Pardon me?” I asked the lawyer, and he frowned at me, looking at me as though he worried I was daft. “Did you need me to read it again, Cassandra?” He asked, haltingly, and I gritted my teeth. I hated my name. Our parents had claimed it made me sound regal and majestic, like I was an homage to ancient queens who’d come before me. But to me, it just sounded pretentious. I wasn’t Cassandra. I was Cassie, Cass to the people I was comfortable around. Aware of everyone staring at me, including my parents, siblings, and my uncle, I shook my head mutely, my cheeks flaming. He handed over a stack of boxes, laying one of his business cards on top. “Call me if you’ve any questions or concerns,” He told me, and I nodded tightly. Honestly, I just wanted to get out of here. The office felt stuffy and staid, stiff in the way a man’s room can often be decorated. I booked it out of there as fast as I could, pretending that I didn’t hear my siblings and parents calling my name. No, I was eager to go home and investigate the mystery that my aunt had left us. The first thing I did when I got home was shed the dress I’d worn to the reading, then I got an old nightshirt and threw it over my head. I cracked open a bottle of wine and drank it straight, too lazy to get a glass. I lit a fire in the fireplace, and once it was warm and merrily blazing, I sat down on the floor opposite, opening the box. There were thick manila file folders, neatly labeled and bound together with different colored rubber bands. They were unusual in that there was so much paperwork, a lot of it in languages I couldn’t read. I’d known that my aunt was a bleeding heart, gentle and loving at the best of times. But it appeared her grace and mercy had been above and beyond even what I had expected. The paperwork in front of me was proof: there was a Norse god who was often reported to authorities for godawful noise, a vampire couple who were pale and quiet and kept to themselves, even a whole werewolf pack, complete with tiny cubs. It turned out that Aunt Jess was a protector, one of the supernatural sort. Perhaps we’d never even knew her at all.