SNAP: The World Unfolds

CHAPTER NINTEEN

Downstairs, everything was bustling.  The regular staff and the house-demons tore around laying fires, arranging flowers in huge cloisonné urns, carrying linens.  I went into the formal dining room and was politely chased out by a footman setting the table for twenty or twenty-five people and at least five courses.  “You can get something to eat or drink in the breakfast dining room, or someone can bring you something in the back drawing room,” he said.  “The Baron will inspect this before cocktails.”

I didn’t want to be in the way so I grabbed another cup of coffee and went out on the terrace.  The day was partly overcast, the pale sun hitting the tops of the trees fronting the forest.  It didn’t look as menacing as last night.  Sandor came around the corner and slowed as he spotted me.

“You’re up.  You don’t look too bad, considering,” he said.

Smiling, I said, “I’m fine.  It was a nasty scare but no permanent damage, thanks to you and the other two, what were their names again?”

“Franz and Hermann.  They’ve been on the security staff for many years.  They were part of the detail that met you at the airport and now they’ve gone to pick up some of tonight’s guests.”

“How many people will be here?”

“I think there are twenty-six altogether,” Sandor said. “Seventeen are staying at the castle for the weekend and the rest are part of the family who still live in this area.”

“Are they all...um...”

“Vampires?”  Sandor laughed and his face lit up.  He went from looking like a glowering thug to an attractive guy who worked out at the local gym.  “No, not all.  I think there are about a dozen of you people this weekend.”

The way he said “you people” made be shiver.  It set us apart as a minority, not a usual place.  It also reminded me of Wells’ Elois. According to the Baron and Jean-Louis though, this vampire family had given up their killing ways for finding food in a much more scientific way.

Sandor gestured down the lawn.  “It really is a lovely place to walk,” he said.  “At the end of the garden is a beautiful small river with some rapids.  The Baron allows fishing, with a permit.  This area and down into Slovenia are favorite places for fly fishermen, trout.  The Baron will only allow permits for catch-and-release.  I think three or four of the guests are planning to fish.   If you’d like I can take you down there tomorrow.  I’m a little busy right now.”

“I’d love that,” I said. “Not fishing, but looking.”

“There isn’t anyone I can free up right now to go with you, but you should be fine in the daylight if you want to walk a bit.  Don’t go too far into the forest, though.  We have perimeters and motion detectors, but I’m concerned after last night.  Normally our guests are safe.  I agree with Jean-Louis, somebody in the Huszar clan is after you.”

At Jean-Louis’s name my stomach did a flip.  “Where is he?” I asked.

“He’s probably just getting up,” Sandor said.  “They all sleep better when they’re on home soil.  Stay safe,” and he disappeared around the corner of the house.  Damn, they were fast.

The way my life had been since joining SNAP, it suddenly struck me that here I had no one calling me, no pressing meetings, no insistent email or tweets.  I didn’t even have my Bluetooth.  This was the first time in months I had free time and I didn’t know what to do.  I went inside and wandered through beautiful rooms until I found the library.  It took up two stories in a turret.  The ground floor had a fireplace, two reading chairs and a library table with four wooden chairs. A spiral staircase connected the stories but as I wandered around the cases, I saw that English-language best-sellers and newer contemporary books were at a reachable height.  I pulled out two beach-reads from last summer and took them back out to the terrace where I plopped myself down in a lounger.

I didn’t fool myself that this would happen with any regularity, but this was one more perk I bought myself by choosing this life.

I was two chapters into a book and on the verge of falling asleep when Jean-Louis said “Hello.  Why don’t you come in and we can have a drink.”

It must have been a little after 5.  A chill was seeping into the air and the sun had passed behind the east wing of the castle.  In the shadows of the drawing room, he had on his ubiquitous sunglasses and I couldn’t see any expression in his eyes.  Lisbet said he was trying to charm me.  I wasn’t so sure.  We, or maybe just I, needed to clear the air.

“Do we have enough time before we have to change for dinner? I assume we are changing for dinner?”

“Yes and yes,” he agreed.  “People are still arriving so let’s go up to my sitting room.  I have some wine.  Or would you rather have something else?”

“No, a glass of wine would be fine.”

“Good, we’ll have time to talk.”  He ushered me up the massive main staircase.  Once in his rooms, Jean-Louis opened a bottle of Pinot Blanc for me, one of Bulls’ Blood for himself, poured and handed me mine.

“You look better than last night,” he began.  “I hope you slept well”

“I did.  I had odd dreams but I’m recovered.” As he looked at me, I could see him beginning to glimmer.

“I’d thought when we went hunting in L.A. you were interested in me, but maybe I was wrong.”

“You mean with your line ‘I’ve waited years’?”  I wanted to be snide then realized he really may have.

“I told you that it wasn’t really a line.  Now you know the truth.  It has been years.”

“You can’t expect me to believe that somebody who looks like you, who’s around celebrities all the time, hasn’t had his pick of girlfriends.  Not only over the years but over the centuries.”

“I have had girlfriends.  All of them have been regulars.  After a few centuries you know the other vampires too well.  You don’t want to get intimately involved with them.  You’re the first I’ve worked with, though, and gotten to know first.”

The wine was giving me a glow and his glimmer was getting stronger.  His eyes were taking on a dusky violet color and looking through me.  I stood up to stop from throwing myself at him and walked across the room.

“You disturb me,” I admitted.  “I’m frightened by you, I’m fascinated by you, I’m impressed by you.  You have too many you’s in there.  I’ve always made it a rule not to have any personal involvement with anyone at work.  And here you are, a work colleague, a beautiful man and a vampire.  This is a crazy, loony scenario.”

He stood up, came over to me and I remembered the feel of his chest last night and his arms holding me while I sobbed.  It was taking my breath away.  He touched my face with a finger and my stomach did handsprings.  He was smiling through his eyes and there was a whiff of my dream.  Was it a forest or an oasis?