by Drew D'Amato
“No, I’m not that much of a public figure, why do you ask?”
“Your voice is so familiar. I have heard it before, but I cannot for the life of me place it anywhere.”
“Maybe in another life,” Vlad said with a smile.
“I don’t think I was a princess in another life.”
“No, you were probably a queen.”
Jasmine blushed, and to avoid awkwardness she focused on the menu. When ready, Vlad called the waitress over, and let Jasmine order first. She handed over her slip of paper with her slections marked. Vlad then ordered the beef Sashimi for an entrée and the carpaccio for an appetizer. The waitress walked away and all they had left was time for conversation. There was a slight tension, as if both didn’t really know what to say next.
“So tell me a little bit about yourself,” Vlad said to cut through the silence.
“What do you want to know?”
She was an energetic young girl, confident, and open to meeting new people. Vlad liked that in her.
“What do you like to do for fun?” he asked.
“Well, I’m not like the usual girls my age. A lot of girls my age like to go out to clubs, drink and hook up with random guys. That type of life never really attracted me. I like to go to concerts, rock concerts. Music made by the people who play it. I hate those bands formed by old white guys just looking for a quick buck. I mean there’s no tradition in it. I like to take a bath and read a good book.”
She sounds like such an old soul.
“Book reader, hey, that is pretty rare for a girl your age in this era. What kind of books do you like?”
“Era? What era are you living in?”
The 15th century.
“I mean your generation. Everything is iphones, facebook and reality TV.”
“Don’t forget the Kindle. I love mine.”
“Gotcha, so what do you like to read?”
“Horror, suspense, something thrilling. I like the good guys King, Koontz, Ellroy. Do you read?”
“Yes, I like books along those lines. I do not read as often as I would like, but if I do, it has to be something that could almost scare me. I never really get scared though.”
“I also got really caught up in those vampire novels. The Twilight Saga. Don’t laugh.”
“Why would I laugh? That is a very respectable franchise.”
“Are you serious?”
“No, that’s a lie.”
“I was gonna say I haven’t met one guy who hasn’t made fun of those books.”
“I have nothing to make fun of, I mean a lot of women like them, it’s just they are more of a romance novel with vampires, not an actual vampire novel. I guess I just like my vampires a little tougher.”
“Like those Underworld movies?”
“Lost Boys, Fright Night, Stoker’s Dracula. I don’t like vampires whose asses I think I can kick.”
“You think you can kick a vampire’s ass?”
Vlad smirked a bit to himself. “Some of them.”
“Yeah, they’re real pushovers,” she said with a laugh.
The conversation continued to flow for the rest of the lunch like it was natural. Vlad made fun of her food when it came. Funny names and funny shapes. She smiled a lot, she was comfortable. Throughout the lunch there did not seem to be an awkward moment, until the bill came.
The waitress placed it on the table and walked away. Jasmine went into her purse. Then it got awkward.
“I got this,” he said.
“No, really I can’t let you,” she responded with her hand on the bill.
“I invited you, it’s my treat.”
“No let me pay my half, I can’t let you pay for it all.”
“Why not?”
“Because then it would be a date.”
The silence hung over their table. Vlad was speechless and Jasmine could see she had misled him.
“I’m sorry, I have a boyfriend. I’m not the kind of girl who cheats, and if I let you pay then this is either a date, or I am taking advantage of your generosity,” she said to him.
“How long have you guys been together?” Vlad couldn’t hide his disappointment, and to Jasmine he appeared to be taking it all a bit too hard. She didn’t understand that what she told him had just crushed a dream.
“We have been together for three years. He’s actually my fiancé.” She put her hand out and showed him her ring. There it was, probably on that same left ring finger the day he saw her at church, and the day he met her on the street, and the entire time here at lunch. But people—even vampires—only see what they want to see.
“I’m sorry, I should have told you.”
“Can I ask then, since you are offering to pay—and that is a noble action—why you wanted to meet me for lunch?”
“It’s not often a girl meets a prince,” she said. “I had to meet you, to see what you were like. See if you were what I thought you were. And you know what, you weren’t—you were better than I expected, and if he wasn’t in the picture…” The guilt poured out of her words as she talked.
“You’re not a deceitful person.”
“Well I try not to be, but I was afraid if I told you, you would just decide not to meet.”
“So you came because I told you I was a prince?” Good idea, Malachi.
“One of, I also just wanted to meet you. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. The wedding is this spring and I am—”
“Starting to have some doubts?”
“Kinda, I guess, but that is natural, right?”
“Depends on who you ask. Some say yes, some say no.”
“What do you say?”
Vlad took a moment to answer. “I say that every relationship has problems, stress and tough times. But if you are not sure if you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, maybe that is a sign telling you, you shouldn’t.”
“Maybe, but I’m not ready to do anything yet. Is it all right to keep in touch?”
“Fine with me, but don’t make me some kind of escape route. People rush into new relationships that way, running from their last one to the next. That is a road to ruin.”
Vlad was struggling to hold back a scream building up in his throat. This entire date—no, wait, it’s not a date—he thought things were going good. His instincts were not too good in this field. He was not expecting this for an ending.
“Look, why don’t you let me pay. If anything happens in the long run, we can say this was our first date.”
Jasmine didn’t respond, she was unsure.
“Please, I want to.”
Jasmine nodded in approval.
“May I inquire who this lucky man is?” he asked. “Am I competing with another prince or a pauper?” He took out more than enough twenties to pay the bill.
“He’s not a prince, well, maybe kind of. His name is Kern, Kevin Kern, his father is Michael Kern, a congressman. He’s more outgoing than me. He goes to clubs and bars, and I like to stay home. I met him in college in a political science class.”
Vlad made note of every piece of information.
Vlad stood up. “Well he sounds like a lucky man, and his love stayed faithful even in the presence of a prince. You are not replaceable.”
They walked out together. He walked her to her car and they hugged good bye. As she drove off she couldn’t tell if she made the right move or not. Kevin was a good boyfriend and they had spent a lot of time together, but Vlad—there was just something to him that made even her feel like it was meant to be. Like he was a part of her. But she chalked that up to simply the grass always being greener, and like her father said, The grass is always greener, until you have to mow it. Still, she decided as she drove down San Fernando Boulevard, she would keep in touch.
Vlad was stuck in Burbank with no car and no powers since it was the day. He needed to rent a car, or a helicopter. He decided instead to just walk. It would take a few hours but he didn’t care. Right then he just wanted some time to be alone. He had
to clear his head and his soul about the feelings he felt for Jasmine. It wasn’t meant to be, she was engaged, and he would probably never see her again. He needed to think about Radu and stop ignoring the crisis in front of him, or this crisis, would smack him in his face.
SEVEN
1
Vlad walked up the stairs to his estate with a lot on his mind. The sun had gone down a few hours ago. He answered his phone when his underlings called to ask how the lunch went—it wouldn’t be fair to make them nervous and think he was in trouble—but he kept the answers short and told them he was out shopping.
He bought nothing. What he had done, was walk all the way from Burbank to Santa Barbara. He hadn’t grown tired. He spent the day re-evaluating his decisions. Did he still want to be human without Jasmine? Who the hell was Jasmine, you don’t know anything about her. He didn’t know anything, but what he felt about her was great.
He had to make this decision without any guarantee from her. Did he want the other aspects of it, growing old, becoming weak? He noticed an old couple together at a diner during his travels. He wondered if those two knew how lucky they were to have their lives end like that. Together with someone they love. Was that what he wanted—yeah, he could end his life like that. But how about just growing old—would he really want to end up like that?
And did he want to die. Really? Did he really think he had a shot to end up in heaven? Did he want to volunteer for eternal damnation?
He was horrible as a human. True, he had a strict moral code. But when the only punishment was death, how magnagimous was he? Also, he was a vampire. Did they get a chance to fly with the angels? Even though he spent years fighting for the good of human kind, he wasn’t a human. He has killed a lot of people during his existence, most were justified, but there were still a lot of innocents who died at his hands. Isn’t just one murder enough to damn a soul? Maybe he didn’t even have a soul anymore.
By the time he was in Santa Barbara, he had made his decision. If Radu was dead he would become a human again, regardless of what happened with Jasmine. Besides, if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. When it came to love, Vlad still believed in that mantra. The truth was he was just tired. His entire life had been one big war, from fighting the Turks as a human, to fighting his brother as a vampire. He had enough of it, he wanted to rest, he wanted to die. And if when he died his soul ended up in hell, well, the Devil would have a powerful soldier at his disposal.
When his decision was secure in his mind his thoughts turned back to Jasmine. He felt damned again, denied. Just one reward for all his years fighting the good fight, was all he asked. Just her. But who was he to ask for anything? After what he did as a human, he still had some more repenting to do. He also had a war to win.
What could he do with Radu? He was probably somewhere close. Where had he been staying at, hotels? Did he buy a house? He, like Vlad, had the money to throw around like that. He was planning his next move while Vlad was out on a date. Last night was close, very close. Radu would reveal himself, and do it soon. Radu would strike again while the iron was hot.
Vlad made his way into his house and decided to let his head relax for the rest of the night. He went to the kitchen to get a drink, and something stronger than booze. From there he heard the sound of the television from the parlor. The sound of gunshots from the TV screen reached a loud volume. With a slight bit of curiosity, he walked into the parlor.
In his parlor sat all of Vlad’s men who lived in the house. Malachi, Michael and Jericho were there along with the other seventeen vampires who lived there. Some pulled up chairs from the other room, some were not too proud to sit on the floor. The room itself was the size of an entire studio apartment. Windows stood around the three outer walls. Big picture windows, and the pool from outside could be seen through them. Michael sat on the bench of the grand piano in the farthest corner of the room. None of them were out hunting. This was odd, but not a complete rarity. Sometimes the vampires had what could be called a social for the house. Sometimes they may just be there drinking, other times they had a huge dinner.
Tonight was a movie night. The vampires gathered around the TV watching the movie “Apocalypse Now.” The movie appeared to be about an hour in. Right then, the main characters had just met up with Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore. Vlad stood in the doorway to the parlor for a few moments before anyone noticed him.
“You guys are taking the night off?” he asked.
“Well look at this stud,” Malachi said.
“Did she keep you out all day?” Jericho asked.
“Vlad, here, don’t stand, take my seat,” Michael offered.
“No Michael, I’m not in the mood to watch a movie, and no, I just wanted some time alone.”
Vlad walked out of the doorway and back into the kitchen. Michael got up from his seat and went to Vlad. Jericho also got up from his seat and walked into the kitchen.
Vlad rubbed his temples and leaned against the kitchen counter. He noticed Jericho and Michael had entered.
“You guys decided to have a get-together tonight?” Vlad asked the two of them.
“It was Michael’s idea,” Jericho said.
Vlad looked at Michael for an explanation.
“I just figured these past two weeks have been nuts for us. A lot of fighting, and we have not gotten a chance to just relax. I thought it would be good for everyone in the house to get together. Half these guys don’t even know what’s going on.”
“Yeah Vlad,” Jericho concurred. “We need to keep these guys more in touch. What affects us also affects them. They want to fight, and we lost a lot of important men after that meeting. There aren’t much of us anymore.”
“True, and we will use them,” Vlad said. “When we know exactly what to do next.”
“So I take it that your date didn’t go too well?” Jericho asked.
“She has a boyfriend.”
“You didn’t use your tricks, did you?” Jericho asked.
“She was of her own mind. It would mean nothing if she wasn’t.”
“Well then, there’s nothing you can do. She might have feelings, Vlad, you don’t know. At least she didn’t cheat and that’s a good thing. Shows she has some integrity. Character is what you do when no one is looking. Keep her around, nothing in this life is definite.”
“Well, we’ll see if she wants to keep me around. I think it was the curiosity over me being a prince that got her to come out. But now she met me so who knows what’s next.”
Vlad closed his eyes. “Charlie doesn’t surf!” Kilgore from the movie said. Then as an exclaimation point, the sound of glass breaking followed. A green rock came through one of the parlor windows. The green rock landed on the grand piano bench, where Michael had sat. The rock exploded. Two vampires near the piano burst into flames and disappeared.
Malachi fell to the ground. “RADUSONS!” he screamed.
“Everyone get into the kitchen!” Vlad yelled.
The vampires crawled into the kitchen, ducking the hail of bullets that came through the windows. A silver bullet killed another vampire as he tried to make it. The others made it to safety and stood up. There were fourteen vampires now along with the main four of Malachi, Vlad, Jericho, and Michael. No windows were in the kitchen, so at the moment they felt safe.
“What the fuck do you want to do?” Jericho asked Vlad.
“How did they find this place?” Michael asked.
“We can’t worry about that, everyone armed?” Vlad asked. Each vampire held their firearm of choice to answer Vlad’s question. “All right, soon he’ll send the ones he doesn’t care about in. We got to get out of here and meet at a rendezvous point.”
“What do you want to use?” Michael asked.
“I have another house in Malibu, on Malibu Colony Road. The name on the mailbox is Wellington. I forgot the number myself, but it’s a gray house. If anyone gets a chance to escape, head for it. Don’t stay too close together. If we put all our eggs in one bas
ket we don’t stand that good of a chance.”
“Vlad get the hell out of here, you are the most important one. I’ll take care of our trouble,” Malachi said over the soundtrack of bullets breaking through the parlor windows.
“No, he’s out there, no more running. We kill him now.”
“We can’t. They’re positioned and they got more than enough ammo. There’s no idea where the hell he can be, if he’s even out there anyway, you have to save yourself,” Malachi said, and he had the same look to him that he gave to his men back in Miami. Vlad looked at him and thought the same that those vampires did. If anyone could get out of this alive it would be him.
“You’re right. Jericho, come with me. You guys try to make it out from the balcony. If we can get out safely we’ll try to help you. Just remember, if the sun comes up and you’re still alive, you won. Don’t worry about the house, worry about yourselves. You each are invaluable to me. Everyone in this room is all my bloodline has left.”
Vlad and Jericho ran out of the kitchen and into the main room. They went toward the door to the basement. It also led to the downstairs garage. Jericho opened the door and they ran down to the garage.
“Michael, we got to distract the Radusons so Vlad can make his escape,” Malachi said.
Michael nodded and turned to the rest of the group. “Start shooting back, men.”
