SNAP: The World Unfolds

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“Once upon a time...” Carola laughed out loud.  “I’ve always loved that we can start stories like that.”

“Once upon a time, Jean-Louis fell in love.  This was about, I don’t know, maybe 300 years ago.   He was from Sopron, and had been visiting in Vienna.  He was taking a boat to Budapest and for some reason got off in Esztergom.   I don’t know why he got off the boat, but he did and he saw Magda. 

“She was a regular.  Jean-Louis fell, hard.  He spent about five years coming back to Esztergom, trying to convince her to become one of us.”

Carola paused.  “You must remember that we’d been living in the midst of frightened regulars for years and years.  This was a different approach.  No vampire they’d ever heard of asked the peasants if they wanted to die.  They were prey, and they acted like it.  So when Jean-Louis asked Magda if she’d be an acolyte and live with him forever, it took her a while to say yes.  Finally, she watched herself getting older while he never changed and realized that she would lose him.  Either she’d be old and ugly or she’d be dead.  He would continue on.

“We were happy for him, for them, and they enjoyed life.  They traveled to much of the world over the years, and particularly liked the United States.  Although, I think Magda was pretty fond of Paris, too,” she gave a sly grin.  “Most of us are fond of the shopping.”

“That all sounds idyllic,” I said, doing my best not to be peevish.  Having Jean-Louis and shopping in Paris?  My idea of heaven.

“I think it was, until the Huszars came around,” Carola went on.  “They’d started digging up trouble again.  A couple of raids on villages, then the people began hunting.  Magda was coming home late one night, alone in her carriage, when a mob of villagers came roaring down the road.  They dragged her out and forced her to open her mouth.  When they found fangs, they went into a frenzy.  Several held her down, some of the men hacked down a tree and whittled a huge stake.  They drove the stake through her and left her pinned to the ground.  The driver escaped and got Jean-Louis, but by the time he found her, Madga was gone.  He blames the Huszars and hates them.  That’s when he and the Baron started making plans for survival and safety.”

It was a nasty story.  I felt bad that Jean-Louis lost his lover and I could understand his feelings for the Huszars, but this must have been quite a while ago.

“When...” I started.

“This was more than two-hundred years ago,” Carola said.  “It left a deep scar on Jean-Louis.”

“What did you mean about the plans?” I asked.  “And why is Jean-Louis so tight with the Baron?”

“One question first.  Jean-Louis and Stefan are ‘tight’ as you so quaintly said, because Jean-Louis is second in command.  Sort of like Stefan’s son, in the regular world, except Stefan has no plans of dying.  It may be more like Stefan’s most trusted advisor.  Jean-Louis was one of Stefan’s acolytes.”

That brought Jean-Louis’ actions clearer.  When I was miffed because I though I had seniority I was so far afield that I wasn’t even in the same game. Duh!

“What plans are they making?”

“I’m not privy to them, but I suspect they’re trying to find ways to neutralize the Huszar leadership.”

“That sounds a lot like killing them...which sounds like a war,” I couldn’t tell if Carola knew the plans and was wary about discussing them or if she was really out of the loop.

She made a moue of annoyance. “You’re not listening again.  I’m not being coy, I don’t know.  You might ask Pen, although I don’t know if she’ll tell you anything.  She’s worried about Jean-Louis and thinks you might be putting him in danger.”

Wait a minute, here. I’m the one who’s under attack.  I’m the one who’s prey for the Huszars.  I’m the one who got pulled into this and I’m not even a vampire.

“Why does she think I’m putting Jean-Louis in danger.”  My eyebrows rose.

“Don’t look so school-girly at me,” Carola spit out.   “It’s clear to us that Jean-Louis is taken with you.”

Hmmmm.  This was for sure not the way I read things.

“What makes you think so?  I thought he was cranky because he’s had to watch out for me.”

“He has been watching out, that’s because he’s finding you interesting.  We’ve been there with Jean-Louis and his ‘interests’ and it doesn’t work for any of us.  I didn’t finish his story.

“After Magda was killed, he vowed he’d never ask another woman to be his acolyte.  He’d spend time with regulars—maybe even tell them he was in love—but find some way of dumping them after a few years.  When they began to realize that they were getting older and he wasn’t, it was time for them to go.  The time and emotion he spent on them took away from his work with the family.  When Stefan started SNAP and it grew so fast and so big, Jean-Louis’ talents were really needed.   We’ve all tried to keep him away from women of ‘interest’ and it’s worked for a few years.  You’re the first one he’s been tantalized with in about twenty years.”

With a guy as dishy as Jean-Louis, they must have been beating the women off with a stick.  Twenty years?  I would bet my Great-aunt Fanny that there were piles of young, and not-so-young, women who’d wanted his picture under her pillow.  Little did they know what he was actually doing at night.

“OK, just because he might be interested, why does that make me dangerous, unless the Huszars think that they can get to him...Oh.”   I may have misread things, but this hit me like an asteroid and blew a hole in my anger.  I deflated like a leaky tire.

“You mean he may do something stupid if he thinks that the Huszars are after me,” my eyes grew big at the sudden understanding.

Carola gave me a narrow look.  “Well, you may be listening at last,” she said with a shake of her head.  “I’ve spent too much time up here, Gregor and other will be wondering.  If you want any other information, Pen’s the best one to ask.”

She glided out of the room, leaving me stunned, confused, abashed and generally stupefied.  I wasn’t sure what I needed most; information about Jean-Louis and the family, just Jean-Louis, or my condo back in L.A.