Fate's Vinculum

Chapter 4.

Marcus led Zoë back to the diner. By the time they arrived there wasn't any sign of the chaos Marcus and his assailants had caused. He was thankful for that; as he casually looked around them, making sure they weren't being followed, Marcus decided he wasn't going to tell Zoë he had brought her right back to where he had been attacked. Maybe later–or maybe not. Steering her by the elbow he gently led her to the parking lot, urging her into the passenger seat of his car and then quickly drove off.

They drove for about twenty minutes. The blocks of houses slowly started to spread out, and the size of the houses slowly began to become larger. Finally they were somewhere where each mansion--yes, mansion--had a plot of land attached to it, unlike the city proper where each lot butted up against one another, leaving only room enough for small gangways. Zoë had only seen places like this in movies.

Quickly the landscape changed again, and huge office buildings started to pop up. Zoë. found herself in a mini-city, skyscrapers and all. They passed two malls, yet still hadn't reached their destination. When they passed over an on ramp to a highway, Zoë began to wonder just how far they were going.

"Where are we going?"

"To my second safe house. It's not that much farther."

A few minutes later they had arrived at their destination, Zoë gawking at the multi-story building. Blue glowing letters were affixed to the top, spelling out the name of the establishment. She unbuckled her seat belt and scrambled out of the car in sheer disbelief. Not even attempting to hide her shock, Zoë gaped up at the hotel.

It read LaBelle Suites. LaBelle Suites was one of the most high-class, expensive hotel chains in the world. The empire had been built in the 70's, gaining traction in the 80's, and becoming the mega-house it was today in the 90's. LaBelles were right up there with Hiltons and Marriotts.

"Wait," Zoë said, watching the building as though it were about to move, "wait wait wait. LaBelle." Her head snapped to Marc walking beside her. "You've told me your last name is LaBelle. You're the LaBelle?"

He merely shrugged, slipping on his sunglasses even though it was the middle of the night.

"No," Zoë said in disbelief.

"Yes."

"No."

He swiveled his head to her. "Why do you find it hard to believe I own a hotel chain?"

"Oh gee, I d'no," Zoë said, her words biting in sarcasm, "maybe because you're a freaking vampire!"

Still facing one another in the parking lot, Marcus pulled out his wallet and quickly handed her his driver's ID. Sure enough, it was his name on an Illinois license with his face plastered on it.

Marcus removed something else from his breast pocket. "What can I say? I got bored."

Zoë handed him back his ID. "You got bored? Bored? So you built a hotel empire—oh my God what are you doing?"

Marcus had flicked his wrist, and a red and white walking cane unfolded. He slid his arm into hers, doing the familiar tap-sweep-tap, tap-sweep-tap.

"You're my sister, in from France," he explained seriously, not stopping what he was doing, "Your name is Rose, and you're on holiday."

"You're not seriously pretending to be blind?" she asked, sounding mortified.

Marcus kept his head straight. "In the 70's I made sure to do everything behind the scenes. With how the workplace changed in the 80's, I had to actually attend meetings and stuff. I tried contacts for my eyes but they were shitty back then and they hurt. In the 90's I went back to working remotely as often as I could. By then we were so big I could be much more hands off. Any time my presence was demanded, I wore sunglasses, making up that I had a degenerate eye disorder."