"Licentious?" I gasped. How dare he say that about Dante's fabulous, romantic, sensual, erotic books?
"I bet you're one of those men who likes to feel superior to women," Roxy said suspiciously.
Christian turned a laugh into a cough. Raphael and I ignored both of them.
"—can only indicate that the books strike a chord with their readers, fulfilling a need, if you will, unmet in their everyday lives."
"Well, look who has a psychology degree," I snorted, and damning the calories, slathered fresh butter on my piece of bread.
"Bristol University, 1992," he agreed.
"Oh. Sorry." I ate crow in the form of my bread.
"I'm not." Roxy shot him a squinty eyed glare. "I think he's one of the alpha males he's so quick to damn."
"You tell me, then," Raphael offered, leaning backward on the back legs of the chair, his hands locked behind his head, "what it is you both find so attractive in these books."
I looked between him and Christian, wondering if they were just humoring me again.
"Please," the latter said, brushing bread crumbs from his shirt, and giving me an encouraging grin. I thought something flashed in his eyes, but it was quickly gone. "I am just as interested as Raphael. Are the men such as you described the type to interest you, personally?"
"A man like one of Dante's heroes?" Roxy asked.
He nodded.
"Ooooh," she squealed, "yes! Yes!"
"Not on your life," I answered at the same time. "They're fun in fiction, but I imagine real alpha males are the absolute pits to live with. They've got all those arrogance and domination issues, not to mention being obstinate, pigheaded, and determined to rule everyone's lives. Alpha males are not what women are looking for in a man." I smiled pointedly at Raphael.
"Don't listen to her, she's got no spirit. You have to understand, these heroes aren't just alpha males, they're Moravians. Dark Ones. Vampires."
Raphael rolled his eyes. Christian smiled, waiting until the waitress set down our meals before continuing. "I would have thought most people would find vampirism an experience they would not wish to explore in any depth, let alone consider it an asset in a mate."
"You're dead wrong there," Raphael said before Roxy could dispute Christian. "I've been with the GothFaire only four weeks, but they've made a small fortune at each of their stops. Some people come for the bands they hire, others come for the novelty of a traveling fair, but most are young people who want to be a part of the Goth community."
"Goth?" Christian asked him.
"It stands for Gothic, supposedly a society devoted to the dark side of life. Vampires, necromancers, morbid poetry and loud, grating music… anything that can be classified as strange and unusual. From what I've seen, the stranger and more unusual a person or thing, the more successful it'll be at the fair."
"Poseurs," Roxy said.
"Dominic," I offered.
"Exactly," he agreed with both of us.
"You do not believe that Dominic and company are what they claim, then?" Christian asked.
Raphael snorted in the negative, and sat upright again, glancing at his watch.
"And how about you?" Christian asked Roxy and me.
Roxy watched Raphael closely for a minute. "Well… Dominic might not be a vampire, but I do believe they exist. I'm quite certain that Dante couldn't have made up the whole race of Moravians based on just a little folklore. There has to be some truth in it."
"Ah. And the lady who refuses to be mad? Are you a skeptic or a believer?"
A blush crept up my cheeks as I told myself not to be annoyed. I had wanted them to stop pussyfooting around me, and Christian had done just that. I met his dark gaze and shrugged, unwilling to commit myself verbally. Despite the decision to do whatever it took to keep my mind from slipping away, I was having difficulty admitting out loud that I believed in something so extreme as vampires.
"Some people might consider it foolish to view a vampire, these Dark Ones, as a source of entertainment," Christian commented to Roxy.
"And if vampires really existed, they'd be right," Raphael interrupted. "You don't believe that Dominic is a real vampire, do you?"
Christian's eyes darkened. I wondered if it was easy to do. I made a mental note to practice in front of a mirror to see if I could do it. "No. I believe he is merely playacting a role."
"And not doing a very convincing job of it, either," I said wryly.
"I agree, but I'm afraid others are not so clear-sighted. You have not seen the north meadow today?"
"The north meadow? Oh, you mean the big open area beyond the hotel? No, we were off in the other direction today. Why? What's going on there?" Roxy asked.
"People come to this area every year at this time. The Harvest Festival draws some of them to Brno, others come here for an All Hallow's Eve celebration."
"Oh, we heard about that. The GothFaire is sponsoring a festival at Drahanská Castle." She turned to Raphael for confirmation.
He glanced at his watch again. "It's a festival to celebrate the cult of the dead, as demonstrated by particularly loud forms of music, the overconsumption of alcohol, and the more popular attractions from the fair, all of it amounting to a security nightmare. And speaking of that, I must leave. We are expecting a significant increase in attendees tonight, and as you heard, my presence has been requested."
He stood up, nodded to us, and grabbing his jacket, headed out the door without a look back.
"Well!" Roxy sniffed, then gave me a sympathetic look. "I think you can do better, Joyful."
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again. "Will you give it up?"
She grinned, then asked Christian if he wanted to join us at the fair that evening. "It should be fun. There'll be lots of vampires to look at!"
"Will there?" he asked with a wry twist to his lips.
"Sure there will. You do believe in vampires, don't you?"
We both looked at him. He was poking at his goulash, but he looked up and gave us another of his nice smiles. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio—'"
"Too weird!" Roxy interrupted. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but someone said that to Joy just a few weeks ago, and it seems odd you should repeat it now. Almost like it was a sign!" She sent me a look that spoke volumes.
I sent her one that told her she was writing the wrong book. "Yes, how very strange that an obscure and unknown author like Shakespeare might be quoted twice in a month Just let me make a note of the date and time. I'll want to include mention of this rare phenomenon in my diary."
"I would be happy to join you at the fair tonight," Christian cut in before Roxy could respond.
"Fabulous!" she crowed. "Now, let me tell you the basic storylines of the twelve Book of Secrets volumes, so you'll know what to look for in Dark Ones when we're at the fair. First of all, vampires are always men."
He raised his eyebrows at that. "Really? How interesting. Why is that?"
Roxy shrugged and stuffed a forkful of pork and cabbage in her mouth. "Something to do with the manner of their punishment, I think," she said indistinctly. "Anyway, they can't eat or drink anything but blood—it doesn't have to be human, though—they can't tolerate sunlight, of course, and they have great powers of mesmerism. They can also change their forms into animals, and are difficult to kill or wound. A Dark One can't ever become human again, but once he has completed the Joining with his Beloved, the woman who is his soul mate, he can do a lot more stuff like tolerate a little bit of sunlight. But the best part is that they're all, without exception, fantastic lovers."
I stopped frowning at my salad and gave her an exasperated look. "Oh, for heaven's sake, Roxy—"
"Well, they are!"
"Dark Ones are fictional characters—"
"Damned sexy fictional characters!"
"What is this Joining of which you spoke?" Christian asked, mostly, I suspected, to keep the peace between Roxy and me.
She waved her fork
at him as she chewed. "That's really cool. There are seven steps to a successful Joining."
I glanced at the small wooden clock on a shelf near the door. "Roxy, it's almost six. We really should be going if you want to have maximum play time at the fair."
"This won't take a minute. Christian's interested, aren't you?"
"Fascinated," he said, pushing his plate aside. I frowned at it for a minute. It was bare of all except a few pieces of garnish. He ate even faster than Roxy, and if she wasn't awarded the world's fastest eater title by the record-keeping people, it wasn't for lack of trying.
"The seven steps are this: First, the Dark One marks the heroine as his own; second, he protects her from afar; third, he conducts the first exchange—"
"Of body fluids," I interrupted. "Such as blood, saliva, that sort of thing. I know it sounds icky, but I have to admit, the way Dante writes it, it's really not. Usually the first exchange is a really steamy kiss."
"—followed by the fourth step, where he entrusts the heroine with his life by giving her the means to destroy him; then there's the second exchange." Roxy wiggled her eyebrows at him. "I'll let you guess what sorts of bodily fluids are exchanged there. The sixth step has the Dark One seeking the heroine's assistance to overcome his darker self, and finally, the last step is the ultimate exchange—their life-blood. The heroine redeems his dark soul by offering herself as a sacrifice so he can live. He doesn't let her die, of course, but it's all very romantic!"
"And utterly fictional," I muttered. Roxy didn't hear me, but Christian did. "That's it, Rox, you're done. Eat your dumpling and let's get a move on. The fair is about to start, and you're boring Christian to tears."
"Mmmm," Roxy said with a knowing smile, scarfing down the last of her dumpling. "The fact that a certain hottie guy will be hanging around there has nothing to do with your desire to check it out, huh?"
I stood up and grabbed my dearest friend in the whole wide world and muttered dire threats in her ear if she continued with that thread of conversation. She just stuck her nose in the air, and graciously allowed Christian to pay for our dinner.
We ran upstairs to collect our coats since the nights were starting to get cold. As I locked my hotel room behind me, I came to a fast decision.
"Rox," I said as she toddled out of her room. "I want to tell you something, but I don't want you to freak out."
She stared at me for a moment. "Well, I've seen you naked so I know you're not really a man. What's the problem?"
I cleared my throat nervously and tried to think of how to say it without sounding any more deranged than I was feeling. "You remember last night in the bar, when I got dizzy?"
She nodded, looking impatiently toward the stairs, taking my arm and trying to tug me in that direction. "Yeah. You said it was because of the beer, not that you had a lot of it."
"Well," I said, reminding myself that she was my oldest and dearest friend, and if she wouldn't be understanding and supportive in my time of need, no one would, "that wasn't exactly the truth."
Her eyes widened and she stopped trying to shove me toward the stairs. "Oh my God! You don't mean… Joy, why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know quite how," I said miserably, playing with the buttons on my coat. "It's not quite something I want everyone to know."
"I'll say! Geez, this puts a whole new light on things, huh? When are you due?"
"Due?"
"The baby. When's it due? And what are you going to say to Bradley?"
I smacked her on her arm. "I'm not pregnant, you boob!"
"Oh." She looked a bit disappointed. "If it's not a baby that made you feel faint, what was it?"
I took a peek down the stairs to make sure no one was hovering just out of sight. "I'm having, for lack of a better word, visions."
"Visions?"
"Yeah. You ever had them?"
"You mean visions of the Virgin Mary, that kind of vision?"
"No, not that. My visions are about… a man."
"Ooooh, now that sounds like my kind of vision! Is he naked? Are you? Are you touching each other? Does he have a really big package?"
"Will you drag your mind from the gutter for a moment while I'm explaining to you how I'm going stark, raving mad? Do you think you could do me the common courtesy of being WORRIED about the fact that I'm having visions?"
"Why?" she asked, her head tipped in question.
"Why?" I gawked at her in disbelief. "Why? WHY? You ask why?"
"One why, not four."
I grabbed her ear and peered in it. She tried to squirm away. "What are you doing?"
I released her earlobe. "Looking to see if I can see through to the other side. Did you not hear me? I'm seeing visions! Visions! Strange, unexplained phenomena whereby I'm possessed by the emotions and feelings and sights of someone else. In this case, I'm feeling things from someone who's…"
I couldn't bring myself to say it.
"Someone who's what?"
"A vampire," I mumbled, wishing now I hadn't brought the subject up. It was far better to go quietly insane on my own than to suffer the embarrassment of admitting I was being used by a creature whose existence I had long and vociferously denied.
"What? I couldn't hear you."
"A vampire," I said a bit more loudly, peeking at her from under lowered lashes.
She blinked at me. Twice. "OK."
I made scrunched-up lips at her. "OK? Is that it? I tell you—that's me we're talking about, the skeptical one—that I'm having visions coming from a real, honest-to-goodness, card-carrying vampire, and all you can say is OK? You're not going to laugh or make fun of me or tell me I must be imagining it?"
"Idiot!" she said fondly, grabbing my sleeve and pulling me toward the stairs. "It's because I know you that I know you must be going through hell experiencing something that's way beyond your control. Come on, Christian's waited long enough. Let's go see if we can't find the Dark One who's giving you all the trouble."
"Wait a minute! You're not even going to question whether or not I'm really having visions? I thought I was going insane before I decided to believe in them! The least you can do is appreciate how hard this is for me!"
"Oh, I know it's hard for you. I know you must be wigging out at it, and squirming with embarrassment because now you have to admit that I was right about vampires all along, but I'll save my gloating for later."
"How grateful I am for your tender mercies. That aside, how do you know that the one who is affecting me will be at the fair?" I asked, following her down the stairs, more than a little befuddled by her quick acceptance of something that still gave me the willies to think about.
"Has to be," she called back over her shoulder. "He's marked you. That's the first step in the Joining, and everyone knows they can't Join with you unless they're physically close."
I looked down at my hands as we descended the second flight of stairs. "I'm not marked."
"That's what the visions are—his mark. If they're like what's described in the books, you're experiencing things that he sees and feels, basically all his strong emotions. Dark Ones can only do that with their true soul mate, so if he's projecting to you, that must mean he's marking you as his."
Instantly I thought of Raphael.
"How many visions have you had?" she asked as we rounded the landing.
"Hmm?" I pulled my mind from the thoughts it was pursuing. "Well, the one at Miranda's was due to the gin, I'm sure, so that leaves me a couple last night in the bar, and one just before we had dinner."
She paused and turned around to face me. "You had one before dinner? When?"
"When I was standing in the hall with Christian."
"Christian?" She thought for a minute, then shook her head. "Nope, can't be; we've seen him eat and drink. Hey!"
Her eyes met mine. A chill rippled down my back. I swallowed. "Raphael."
She nodded.
"The last vision happened when Christian was kissing my hand. Raphael was standing in t
he doorway, watching us."
"Cool!" she breathed.
"It is not," I snapped, pushing her to get her going. She stood where she was.
"When the first visions in the bar came, where was Raphael?"
The sensation of blood flowing down my throat, subduing the hunger howling inside me flashed into mind. "He was. uh… feeding."
Her eyes widened until I thought they'd pop out. "Oh, that is so cool! He shared his feeding with you? Wow! What did it feel like? What did he do? Could you see everything?"
I closed my eyes for a minute and took a couple of deep breaths to rid myself of the remembered images. "Yes, and I'd really like not to remember it, if you don't mind."
"OK." She thought for a moment. "So you had a vision before Raphael came into the bar? Just before?"
I nodded.
"Well, then, there's your answer!" She started back down the stairs.
"Wait a minute!" I hurried after her. Christian was waiting for us at the door. "Roxy, wait up—what do you mean, there's my answer? What answer?"
"Sorry, Joy's having a bit of vampire trouble," she told Christian in a confidential tone that made me want to die right there on the spot.
Not surprisingly, he looked astonished by the news. "Is she indeed?"
"Do you have to tell everyone?" I hissed, pinching her arm, flashing a reassuring smile at Christian. He just looked at me with a faintly puzzled frown between his brows, no doubt trying to calculate how much trouble it would be to bundle me away to the local loony bin.
"That's OK, Christian believes in vampires. Remember the 'more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio'? Joy's having visions," she added. "She's been marked by a Moravian. I was just explaining to her that it must be Raphael, since he refused to eat in front of us."
"Wait a minute," I said, remembering something she'd said that morning. "You said just this morning that he couldn't be one because he had a beer at the bar."
"Ah," she said cannily, throwing open the door and charging out into the night. "But did you actually see him drink the beer? Let's shake a leg, people. I want to examine Raphael up close. Imagine sitting next to him and not even knowing what he was!"
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