What We Do In the Shadows: "Jen..."

What We Do In The Shadows: "Jen..." Part XVII...

Summary: There are unexpected consequences when Laszlo seeks a new human familiar...

Part XVII...

"So it's Wednesday and things were complicated by a death in our...Well, I like to think of my Master's circle as my own...circle." Jen notes as she drives. "Tuesday morning Mr. Afanas...Turns out he wasn't Baron Afanas after all...Died. Poor Gui still feels terrible about it. I'd just dropped him off with some roses Master Nandor requested for Mr. Afanas' room and the poor, if somewhat terrifying Gui says, man was right there and burned up in a sec. Yikes." shakes head.

"Really Gui was very shaken up though the guys were great about it. The Master even said he'd actually done them a favor as Mr. Afanas was a bit volatile. You never knew what he might do, you know? Anyway, I feel bad I wasn't there to help him clean up, but I'd had to get right onto work. Some things at the office and we'd been planning to arrange a meeting with the Fielderson estate about initiating the sale. Poor Gui...Master Nandor was a bit angry but in the end he agreed with Master Laszlo that it was for the best. They held a ceremony and Mr. Afanas' wife and familiar...Yeah, she was his wife, she told them right after he flamed..."

Cut to the front lobby of the community manor...Tuesday morning.

"I really am so sorry..." Guillermo to the Baron's...Well Barren's...Familiar...

"Husband....Can you truly be dead?" the familiar, kneeling by the charred remains, hands in Afanas' ashes.

"You might want to be careful, it's very hot." Nandor urges. "Guillermo, get some water in case she burns herself."

"They say butter is better for burns..." Laszlo notes.

"No, I have read it is not..." Nandor counters. "Wait..."

"Husband?" He, Laszlo, the stunned Nadja...

"We married in 1943, after I helped him escape his confinement at the Nazis' Todt Korps installation."

"Death Corps?" Laszlo stares. "I had heard rumors...."

"Wait..." Nadja frowns. "You married the Baron...Barren,,, in 1943? How old were you?"

"Twenty two...I was a worker in the camp, a Jew from Spain...The bastard Fascists handed us over to the Germans when they requested any with experience with the Undead. My father was a great vampire hunter."

"Twenty-two?" Laszlo blinks. "But this is 2019, you'd have to be..." calculates...98,"

"I'm 99." the familiar shrugs. "A dose of Barren's blood, it's kept me aging slowly."

"But your father was vampire hunter?" Nadja...All three vampires pulling capes up in terror as if expecting stake-bearing vampire hunters to flood the room. Guillermo staring...

"Who taught me all he knew...But in course of working with him, I came to realize vampires are not truly pure evil." the familiar notes.

"Now see here...We're very evil." Laszlo, a bit miffed.

Reputation to think of...

"You must kill to live and you sometimes relish it, but no more than humans do and you still care for your families, you can love." she shrugs. "And Barren was so charming then, so helpless a victim, like me. And had no prejudices. He saved me from a guard who would have raped me, then killed me to conceal his having had sex with a Jew. He did kill and he had his rages but all-in-all he was a good and loving husband." she smiled fondly.

"I'm so sorry..." Nandor patted her gently. "You may take vengeance if you like...Guillermo?"

Guillermo, sighing...Uh-boy...