"Originally? Chicago." Technically, she'd been born in Lincoln, Nebraska. And had grown up in Lake Forest, an affluent suburb of Chicago. But her heart belonged to the Windy City and always would. "But I've spent the last couple of years in Los Angeles," she added, with a nearly apologetic air.

She really didn't like LA.

But she had started to develop a certain affection for some of its people.

The not-pretty-people, the Kindred.