by John Conroe
“Oh, they have agendas alright. It just usually involves candy, toys, or other simple objectives,” Lydia said.
“That’s true,” I agreed, happy for a reprieve from discussing the werewolf girl.
Chapter 32
The Murray Hotel on the Upper East Side was a very old hotel that had been very thoroughly modernized. Beautifully decorated in a slightly understated way. Modern art mixed with ancient antiques, finished with current high quality décor, and equipped with state-of-the-art technology.
'Sos’s claws clicked on the marble floor in the lobby, which made me wince but had no discernible effect on any of the staff. They simply smiled politely as we approached. Then they caught sight of Tanya, and every one of them straightened perceptibly. There were only humans in the lobby—staff and a few guests—so at first, I thought it was some buried instinct alerting them to the presence of predators. But the more I observed, the more I realized it was an employee hyperaware of the Big Boss sort of thing.
Tanya didn’t appear to notice it, instead looking the room over with a critical eye, while Lydia skipped over to the front desk and spoke to the reservation clerk.
“Demidova, Presidential Suite?” she asked with a smile.
The young lady behind the counter nodded, smiled nervously, and produced a package of room cards. A slim, overly groomed man in an expensive suit appeared from the back office, smoothing his jacket as he swooped in to oversee. The nametag on his chest indicated his last name was Deverson and that he was the manager.
“Everything in order, Lisa?” he asked the desk clerk, but his eyes flicked from Lydia to Tanya, who was standing, head tilted, studying a painting on one wall. Awasos click-clacked over to her and shoved his head under her hand.
A matronly looking woman with a carefully preserved face and hair that wouldn’t move in a gale force wind sat in the lobby lounge area and looked in shock at the giant wolf. Obviously a guest and, from the look of her, obscenely wealthy.
“Yes, Mr. Deverson. Miss Demidova’s party is all set. Your other guest has already arrived and is up in the suite,” the desk clerk said to Lydia.
“An older man, named Gordon?” I asked from my spot near Tanya.
Tanya’s attention immediately shifted from the painting to the staff, awaiting an answer to my question. The manager went blank when faced with her full attention, but Lisa answered me directly, with a quick glance at Tanya. “Yes, sir. He arrived about fifteen minutes ago.”
“Thank you,” I told her, my thoughts already on the old man upstairs. Tanya was now watching me and she grabbed my hand, smiling, and pulled me in the direction of the elevators. Two bellhops leaped forward to take the small amount of luggage that we had with us. The security vampire who was carrying it just glared at the unfortunate bellhops and they stepped away, uncertain. Arkady ignored them, instead moving to call the elevator. A chime sounded, announcing an arriving car, and when the doors opened, Tanya, Lydia, Arkady, Awasos, myself, Nika, and the luggage-carrying security vamp piled in, leaving the wide-eyed staff and slightly appalled guest lady behind.
The doors slid open on the eighth and top floor into an opulently appointed foyer leading to a wide, heavy door with a plaque next to it that announced it was the Presidential suite. Music was coming from behind the door—piano music.
Lydia used a cardkey to unlock the door, and Arkady ghosted through it to check the place out. The piano music cut off as we followed the giant vampire into a suite that was larger than many homes. It must have occupied most of the top floor, with multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, a full kitchen, dining room, library, and living room. The piano I had heard was a Baby Grand, and it was in one corner of the living room. My grandfather was sitting at it and turned to watch us enter.
I had been preparing myself for him to look older than I remembered. He looked younger. Not extraordinarily so, but younger than my best memories recalled. Fit and blooming with health. My mental image showed a tough, weathered man with plenty of years left, but fighting a certain fatigue. The Gramps in front of me was bright-eyed and snapping with energy.
I was puzzled, but kept my face straight as I hugged my only surviving family member, automatically adjusting the power of my hug for human level. Gina was right: I was aware of my abilities on an unconscious level.
The hug I got back was football-team vigorous; my feet left the ground briefly before he pushed me back to arm's-length to look me over.
“You look pretty good for being head shot. Feels like I’m hugging steel,” he said, completely at ease with a room full of vampires. He was wearing clean jeans and a button-down, checked shirt; pretty much high fashion for him.
“Well, I feel pretty good, other than not knowing anyone or anything! Except you,” I said, pulling him back into the hug. He patted my back a couple of times then stopped, which was Gramps code for things are getting awkward.
I was having trouble reconciling my memories with the actual man in front of me, which made me doubt myself till I noticed Tanya checking him over. She hugged him immediately after I did, her affection for him obvious. Lydia was next, and as the little vamp laughed with him, I saw Tanya study him from head to toe, a look of self-satisfaction plastered on her face. She looked at me and winked. Still puzzled, I watched Gramps get reintroduced to Nika, Arkady, and the other vamp, whose name was Trenton.
There was a knock on the suite door and Trenton flashed out of the room to answer it, coming back a moment later with a push cart of food.
“I told the staff to send up enough food for all of us, which translates into just enough for Chris and 'Sos, with maybe a snack for you, Alex,” Lydia said to us, directing her last comment to Gramps.
Suddenly, I was starving. The hunger had been a dull ache in my stomach that I managed to ignore in light of all the new things (that were apparently second nature to my old self) I was learning and the new people I was meeting. But now it roared into the center of my awareness and I found my feet moving me in a straight line for the food cart. Awasos arrowed in the same direction, and we arrived together.
I started pulling dish covers and reading the list of food that accompanied the cart, ignoring the amused stares of the others.
“Beef wellington. That’s mine, dude,” I told the eager wolf by my side. “Alaskan King Salmon. Oh, that’s yours.” I put the plate on the ground as he shimmered and expanded to his bear form in anticipation of salmon. “Vermont chicken, mine. Rare New York strip steak… hmm, yours, I guess. Vietnamese seafood salad—that goes to Gramps,” I said pulling the plate away from the big black nose that was trying to inhale it right off the china. Gramps jumped forward and took the plate from my outstretched hand as my attention was back on the food and my furry competition. “Hey, you already scarfed the whole salmon. The Maine crab is mine.”
I was half right as my struggle to secure the plate launched part of the crab dish into the air. It never hit ground, instead sliding down the bucket-sized gullet of my bear. “All right, you’re up one and a half to my none, so why don’t you park your furry ass right here and we’ll get this figured out.”
It was a struggle that I was destined to lose, but part of me seemed to understand that and plan for it. I ended up with three good entrees and a tureen of winter squash soup. He got the rest, including half the cheesecake, but Gramps and I each got a slice, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
I was stuffed halfway through the soup and put the rest down for 'Sos, whose bear form had an unfair advantage in stomach size. As I did, I noticed the five-gallon plastic bucket of saltwater sitting in the corner of the room. One of the vampires must have brought it up with the remaining luggage.
Stuffing one last bite of cheesecake in my mouth, I went over to the plastic bucket and pried off the lid.
As I peered over the side, the three vampire women were just there, arriving in a swirl of mixed scents and disturbed air. Lilac and Jasmine mixed with rose and musk interwoven with something more commercial that had vaguely ap
ple-like undertones. I arched one eyebrow at Nika.
“Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue. I’m trying new ones to see what I like.”
Gramps arrived to see what was in the bucket that had drawn all our attention.
Sloshing around the bottom of the plain white pail was a ziplock plastic bag with a pale, tannish book inside.
“Stacia told me that it is called The Book of Darkest Sorrow, or at least that’s the translation we got. She was told that much by that Swedish witch mom up in Michigan,” I explained.
“Quinby. Her name is Quinby,” Tanya said.
“Apparently the author was something of a bigshot among German witches several hundred years ago or so. So the book is chock full of all kinds of mischief and witchy mayhem. All the modern witches will literally kill to get it,” I said.
“Why is it in a bucket of water?” Gramps asked.
“Saltwater. Word has it that saltwater blocks the magical radio waves it sends out. Makes it hard to track. If we dumped the damn thing in the ocean without the baggie, it would destroy it… eventually.”
“Why not burn it?” Lydia asked. “God, what a smell? Somebody needs a biscuit for their teeth.” The last was directed at the big bear head that loomed over her shoulder. He was big enough on four feet and she was small enough on two that he could lean right over her shoulder to look where we were all looking. He perked up at the sound of a biscuit and I watched, curious, as Lydia blurred to a big canvas grocery bag near the luggage and retrieved a giant doggy biscuit.
“One of your better ideas… back when you had them,” she said. The jibe was delivered gently, and she waited to see how I took it.
“You know, there’s been speculation that I hired that vampire myself just to erase my memories of cruel punk vampires,” I replied. She smiled and nodded as she handed the biscuit into the toothy maw and instant dog biscuit oblivion. “And to answer your question, the book is supposed to be impervious to fire.”
The others were still checking out the book, although Tanya watched our little banter with a small smile.
“So this is sort of some kind of doomsday book?” Gramps asked, puzzled.
“Well, the witch that wrote it was very powerful and it has her darkest secrets, but the Hellgate in Asheville was like a coincidental confluence of events. The house had stored and built up psychic energy for decades. The spell had been conducted but never finished, so when the book was found, somehow those little were girls triggered it,” I said.
“I’m not sure I buy all that. I don’t much care for coincidence. Especially when you add another gate here in the City,” Gramps said, patting his pockets. I knew what he was looking for. I couldn’t tell you where the majority of my possessions were or what my password to Facebook was these days, but I knew Gramps was looking for his pipe. When thoroughly vexed with a problem, he liked to clench it in his teeth even if it wasn’t lit.
“It’s in your jacket pocket… I can smell it from here,” I said, pointing to where his Carhartt lay draped over an expensive armchair.
“You know, the fact that a second gate had formed close to the time of the first one did bother me as well. What’s going on to create these things?” Lydia asked, watching the old man as he found his pipe, packed it with Captain Black tobacco, and dug out a lighter. “Whoa there, cowboy. No smoking in these rooms. We just had this suite renovated,” she said.
He looked guilty for a moment, then a bit rebellious, and finally resigned to just clench the unlit pipe. Looking at the stern vampire, he opted for a redirection tactic.
“Tanya, when was the last time you fed?” he asked.
I knew his ploy, as I’m sure the others did, but it worked. We all looked at my beautiful vampire.
“I’ve fed,” she said, defensively.
Both Lydia and Nika laughed. “You’ve had two units of bagged blood in the last four days. You haven’t fed properly since Chris had to exit stage left!” Lydia said.
“You’re gonna take care of that… right, boy?” Gramps said, looking at me sternly.
Uh oh! I knew vampires drank blood, but the whole question of whether my vampire drank from me had been a twitchy little question I had avoided thinking too much about. It made sense, but I didn’t remember any of my previous life. Did it hurt? Was it violent?
“Listen up, whelp,” Gramps said after reading my expression. “You are the only person that your girl will feed from! Now, I realize that you don’t remember anything, but from what I know, you like to feed her as much as she likes to eat. As in it’s something you really, really enjoy! So you need to get over any little squeamish girly feelings and get her fed or by God, I’ll do it!”
My grandfather is old school to the core, and his respect was one of the most important things in my life. The fact that he talked to me at times like the former Marine Captain he had been, chewing out a soldier, was, perversely, a point of pride for me. It didn’t matter that I could juggle refrigerators or hang upside down from the ceiling in my sleep. He wielded my respect for him like a mother used guilt on her kids. Not to mention the instant, unreasoning jealousy that flooded me at the thought of the beautiful, azure-eyed vampire's teeth touching anyone else’s skin but mine.
“I’ll take care of it,” I almost growled back before adding a belated, “Sir.”
He looked at me with a level gaze for a moment before turning back to my vampire. “Just why did Christian have to rush out of town, anyway?”
She grimaced. “My grandmother, Senka, is a ruthless creature. She has plans within plans for everything. Old vampires get like that… constantly plotting and planning, but she takes it to a higher level. Anyway, she and Tzao decided to fill the third Elder position, and they knew who they wanted for the job. Trouble is, the Elder positions are theoretically picked by a conclave of very old vampires. So she needed to influence the outcome. She used my Christian to do it. She planted seeds in certain ears and let the attached mouths spread rumors about him. The candidate, Mausya, took the bait and used it as a campaign for office. Then Senka manipulated events to cause one of the other candidates to attack my Christian. That one died, in a rather dreadful manner as he should have, only it truly terrified the older vampires. Your grandson has the ability, without exerting much effort, to cause an old vampire to realize all their pent-up years at once. Frimunt died of old age in moments.”
Lydia laughed, “Looked like the Crypt Keeper from that old television show, Tales from the Crypt.”
“I thought Senka liked Chris?” Gramps asked.
“Oh, she loves him,” Tanya said with a casual wave of one arm in my direction. “But that has nothing to do with using him. She uses everyone around her. Me, Lydia, Nika, my mother, everyone. It’s her nature. It’s a very vampire thing to do.”
“So how does that stand… the older vampires fear of Chris. Is that why a vampire shot him?”
Anger flashed across Tanya’s perfect features. “The Conclave has dispersed. Almost all the old vampires have left. Mausya and Senka are still here, but both will leave shortly to see Mausya settled as Elder in Europe. The ones remaining are still afraid of my Chosen but have greater fears at the moment.”
“Yeah, they fear Tanya!” Lydia said. “She’s been on the warpath since you left, Chris. When you got shot, she challenged and dueled the seven most vocal opponents of your existence… all at once. Killed all seven in one big brawl. The funny thing is that now we don’t think that sniper was sent by any other vampires. We think he was a hired mercenary.”
I studied Tanya, who was carefully not looking at me but was facing my grandfather. Her beauty was so overwhelming, it was hard to see the dangerous predator underneath. But if you ignored her feminine curves and instead noted the taut muscles and perfect balance, then a hint of her dangerous potential peeked through. And she was mine. I couldn’t remember my life before, yet I looked at her and just knew that we were a matched pair. Something that went beyond the crazy vampire bond that she had with me. Her gaze fi
nally moved to meet mine as she felt what I felt. Then she smiled, somehow both shy and sly at the same time.
“I’m hungry,” she said.
“The lady has spoken," I said to the others as I went to her, letting her draw us into one of the suite's bedrooms.
Chapter 33
It was noon by the time I cracked the door on our bedroom. Tanya was fast asleep, which I gathered was normal for vampires. Our night had been… a revelation. Gramps was right: feeding my vampire was amazing. The flood of sensation and emotion that had accompanied her bite had been like nothing I had ever experienced… well I had, I just couldn’t remember it. And sex? Sex was beyond whatever I had imagined it to be. Apparently, my body remembered more than I did, as my responses to her had been more certain than they had any right to be.
Gramps was sipping coffee and working his way through a book of crosswords. Awasos was lying by his feet in bear form like a small couch.
