by Aya DeAniege
“After the fire, he followed some of the remaining books to Constantinople and began petitioning the Council for protection of vampire property.”
“Including the protection of stock, which one of the Council members had living in Constantinople?”
“Exactly right, he wasn’t pleased that all that knowledge was destroyed by another’s stock. He took it as a personal attack. It may have been one too, but the vampire in control of the stock was killed by Death after he left the Council.
“Now we spread the books as far as we can. The largest collection is arguably at the Vatican. Thank goodness for digitizing everything, I just wish it were a faster process.”
Ask, ask, ask, ask.
The mantra played through my mind, but I held back from asking for fear of being wrong. The question had to be asked, of course. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, to ask the question that I truly wanted to, because I was afraid.
Smart asses get eaten.
“Wait, a vampire owns the Vatican?”
“I told you, we have had a hand in the making of most countries.”
“But, religion?”
“Control belief and you control the people. This way.”
I noticed that while he admitted they had controlled religion, he didn’t outright say they owned the Vatican. I guess that could be taken as saying that the vampires had a vested interest in the history that the Vatican protected.
For a moment, I gawked around me, then rushed to catch up to Quin as Fluffy meowed.
Quin led me to what looked like a building inside the factory. It had a flat roof, no windows, and one door that I saw. There were fake plants just outside the door, imitating a little garden.
“I like green things, but have a black thumb,” he said as he opened the door. “Recent developments in fake flowers are doing marvels for my morale.”
We stepped in, and Quin closed the door.
He activated another alarm panel. Then he set the carrier on the floor and opened the door. Fluffy and Scruffy peered out at him, then spotted me. Both began meowing loudly.
I knelt and hugged and petted them as Quin walked off into the secondary apartment.
From another room, I heard him mutter a curse. I stayed where I was, petting the cats because I caught a muttered self-deprecating comment:
“This is why you can’t have nice people over, Quintillus.”
Whatever it was that he found, Quin fixed it and then strolled to me as if nothing had been out of place.
“Muffin belonged to my stock. I’m caring for her until the new stock and arrives,” he said. “The litter box and food are both accessible. I was told that Muffin is shy around others, but it’s only for a night, perhaps two while things get sorted out at your apartment.”
I followed him away from the entrance, to a living room.
The apartment was not lavish, more of cozy. The most lavish thing was likely the fake fireplace. It looked like real fire until I got up close. Then I realized it was just a very clear picture on a television screen
“No gas?” I asked.
“And have someone snap the pipes and kill any mortal visitors?” Quin asked as he settled on the couch. “No, I’ll settle for the fake stuff in the safe zone. There’s a plug there for your tablet. The toilet is off the entrance.”
“Oh, that reminds me.”
I rushed to relieve myself. The small bathroom only had a toilet, sink, and mirror. A guest bathroom, I suppose. After finishing my business, I looked at myself in the mirror.
I was a mess, and I didn’t have makeup or brush to help clean up.
There was a knock on the door, so I opened it.
Quin had a change of clothing and a small toiletries package in his hand. I looked at the whole lot as he handed it to me, and frowned.
“I don’t like the women I bed doing what you call the walk of shame,” he said. “Not those I like, anyhow, so I provide new clothing and keep these packages available for them. I know most women would want to freshen up after a night like tonight, so I thought I’d offer you the items.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I don’t suppose there’s a chance of a shower as well? I probably smell of fear to you.”
“And your roommate’s boyfriend,” he said with a motion. “The shower is in my room.”
Quin led me to the bedroom.
It, at least, was lavish. Pretty well what I expected from a rich vampire. I’m no expert, but I believe there were silk sheets on his bed. The colour scheme was rich, earthy colours with a deep green trim.
The bathroom was just that. Bath, shower, sink. No toilet.
“So, do vampires not poop?” I asked as I stood in the doorway.
“I grew up in a place where you did not wash and shit in the same place. They are kept separate.”
“That doesn’t answer the question of whether the toilet is just for guests.”
“It’s not,” he said, then he left the room.
I got to shower in peace. If I’m ever rich enough, I’m going to get a shower like that. It was so wonderful.
Once I was showered, I put on the new clothing.
Black slacks that were a great deal more comfortable than they looked, and a grey t-shirt. I could probably have slept in the pants without feeling constricted. The t-shirt had a V-neck to it and was made of cotton, very comfortable.
I got the feeling that Quin’s lady visitors didn’t go home in t-shirts, however.
I was a little embarrassed to find that everything fit. Right down that the bra and underwear. Obviously, Quin had been paying close attention to my shape.
I hadn’t noticed his looks, unless he had summed me up with all those casual glances.
After brushing my hair, I left the bathroom and found my way back to the living room.
“No portraits of you?” I asked.
The walls of the apartment were painted a soft, twilight sort of shade. I wasn’t certain if it was a blue or purple tinge. There was no artwork on the walls, not even one of those cheap prints.
Quin was sitting on the couch with two wine glasses before him and an unopened bottle of wine in ice. He arched an eyebrow at my question.
“We can get to that later,” he said. “Right now, I’d like to talk about you. Since you know so much about me and I know nothing about you. Like this professor?”
I hesitated before sitting beside him.
“It was like I said, nothing more to the story.”
“Except you ended up out of school and without a job,” Quin said.
I shrugged. “He threw me under the bus. Said I was obviously a predator, had a couple of the other professors say that I tried to sleep with them as well. Apparently, men think that if you talk to them, you want to have sex with them.”
Quin reached out and pulled the wine from the bucket of ice. He twisted the top off, breaking the seal, and poured a small amount into a glass before offering it to me. I took the wine, eyeing it suspiciously.
“The good wines take an effort to de-cork,” he said. “While you’re worth the effort, I prefer to share closed drinks with women until I’ve gained their trust. A sweet Niagara Riesling may not be what you expect a vampire to sip, but I still quite enjoy the vintages with a screw top.”
“Do you have a thing for wine?” I asked, smelling the wine in my glass. “Or does that just come naturally with breeding stock?”
“The two can go hand-in-hand quite well. Makes it easier for the breeders to work in the open as well. Most vampires have developed a taste for wine. Water wasn’t always pure and crisp, so wine would be served in its stead. Ales and mead as well.”
“Aren’t those the same thing?” I asked.
“I’ll leave it to you, to look it up,” he said.
Quin sat back with a great deal more in his wine glass. I eyed it, then looked up and met his brown eyes.
“I don’t want you to feel like I’m pushing you to drink more,” he murmured.
“Such a gentlem
an,” I said.
“Sometimes.”
Quin sipped his wine. He did so, but held the wine in his mouth a moment before he swallowed. For another moment, he seemed to consider the flavours of the wine. Then he made a small appreciative sound at the back of his throat.
“You kind of look like a wine snob.”
“You kind of look like a prude,” he responded, his entire focus still on the glass as he considered the wine.
I smiled and sipped my wine. Being called a prude was not something that I was going to argue. Several people had called me prude in the past, and I didn’t care then.
Quin slipped a little closer.
“You trembled, are you cold?”
“I don’t feel cold.”
“Should I turn on the air conditioner, then?”
“Why?” I asked.
He slipped an arm around my shoulders. I sat for a moment, not quite understanding.
“You’re warm,” I said, surprised.
“We do tend to run colder than mortals,” he said. “There are ways for us to warm up. One of which is drinking blood enough to fill our bellies, or having Maker’s Blood. Both of which I’ve done tonight.”
“Are you going to smack Androgen for that?”
“Perhaps, we’ll see. Let’s not talk about the others right now. Just relax.”
“So, you can work up the courage to kiss me?”
“Not the courage, no.”
“Oh, well then.”
I turned to him and captured his lips.
I was feeling silly, I suppose. That was not something I normally did. His lips were warm against mine, still for only a moment before he returned the kiss. His tongue slipped into my mouth, and then he broke away.
“I do enjoy the modern belief that women can initiate contact, but I never know which of you takes it to heart.”
And he kissed me again. My wine glass tilted in my hands, and he pulled away once more. His hand slipped down my wrist, straightening the glass.
“Let me get you a blanket. You trembled again,” he said.
I couldn’t find my voice to protest that I hadn’t shuddered because I was cold.
The rules did not explicitly forbid us from carrying on a sexual relationship with the vampire we were interviewing. A couple of the interviewers had, in fact, become sexually involved. Everyone knew, however, that we weren’t writing romance novels.
Our goal was to record the life of a vampire for other humans to review. If we all came back with the same story, it just wouldn’t be amusing to anyone.
In fact, it would be downright suspicious.
When Quin returned, he had a blanket draped over one arm, a pillow under the other, and he seemed to be doing something with his mouth. The beard sort of hid the motion, but it almost looked like he was working his tongue over the inside of his mouth.
“Problem?” I asked.
“Little bit,” he said. “It would be inadvisable for me to kiss you again tonight.”
“Why?” I asked.
He dropped the pillow and blanket beside me, then sat on the other side.
“Do you have a problem with the inside of a person’s mouth? Squeamish?” he asked.
“No, I’m good with blood too.”
“You should be a nurse then,” he muttered.
Quin opened his mouth and, as I watched, something oozed down and off his canine teeth. I ducked my head, peering as best I could.
No wires, no tubes.
When I shifted closer, he closed his mouth and swallowed with a grimace.
“Sometimes sexual arousal can cause leakage,” he said.
“I thought you had a cap or something on them,” I said.
“I did, it seems to have worked its way loose on the one, so I had to remove the other for an even look. Nothing more disgruntled than a lopsided vampire. Even with one uncapped, I’m a danger to mortals.”
“What’s it taste like?” I asked.
“That’s an odd thing to ask,” he said with another grimace.
“You just keep making faces about it.”
“Oh, well, it’s a little hard to describe, but it makes the back of my tongue ache from some flavour. It can’t make me sick, but it’s thick enough to give the sensation of swallowing a booger.”
“Ew,” I said. “That’s gross!”
“You asked,” he said. “It’s already slowing. That’s good. In a few more minutes it should be entirely stopped. Then I can enjoy my wine again.”
“If you drink from that glass, could a human come up behind and drink from it and accidentally turn?”
“No, no vampire venom is that potent. You’d probably make yourself more attractive to the vampire who sipped from the glass first. Slipping some venom into the drink of prey was once a way to track them. It also loosens the blood flow, keeps it from clotting. Makes for a good feeding.”
“Could a vampire be, like, date raped in such a way?”
Quin seemed to consider. “There have been times where I have had accidental leakage during a group meal, and it has ended in an orgy, even though I didn’t think it would go that way. So, I suppose the answer is a hesitant yes.”
“Do you worry about being date raped by a human?”
“That’s a good way to get yourself into trouble. There are mortal laws against rape, and you’d be surprised how much control we have in some places. We might not kill you, but you would find yourself without a job, evicted from your apartment, and with nowhere to turn to.”
“Could a vampire abuse that?”
“Those who are under close surveillance are the only ones who would be so destructive. Lu is not the only one bound to one place. I was bound for a time. Some are not appropriate for different times in human history. The Council strives to maintain a balance between it all.”
I made a sound and sipped my wine in contemplation.
There were dangerous vampires in the world. Ones who the Council was keeping out of sight of mortals to keep the peace.
But Quin had left the room before his leakage had started. He could have placed something behind his teeth to cause the goop.
Corn syrup might have been all it was.
So, I was back to square one, and wondering what I was getting myself into.
I had never been able to have blind faith. Not in God, not in people. I had made mistakes in the past based on trusting people, so I didn’t do that any longer. I had to question Quin.
“Is there any way to tell for certain that you have a vampire in front of you?” I blurted out.
“Cut them, not deep mind you, but a quick slice across the skin. We heal quickly. Though, a little dangerous given mortal laws on assault.”
I made another sound and turned to grab the blanket, deciding that I was feeling cold.
Fluffy and Scruffy were laying atop the blanket and pillow. Both appeared soundly asleep and unmoving. They didn’t always sleep together, but when they did it was because there were new and frightening things around.
“I see you lost your blanket, allow me to get you another one.”
Quin left the room again, probably to remove the thing in his mouth causing the ooze from his teeth. He was gone only a few moments before he returned with the blanket. This one he set on my lap.
I spread it over my legs and up my torso a bit.
Fluffy was immediately awake. She meowed and put a paw on my leg, I ignored her, focusing on Quin instead.
“Do you need to charge that?” he asked, motioning to the tablet around my neck.
“Oh, no, still has most of the battery. They’re supposed to go twelve hours without a charge.”
Fluffy placed both her paws on my shoulder and meowed loudly. I turned and looked at her. She seemed to stare into my soul as only a cat could do: judgmentally because I was paying more attention to Quin than I was to her.
She meowed again, staring at me expectantly.
“I’m trying to have a conversation here.”
Fluff
y meowed once more, headbutting my chin as she did so.
Edit so that I don’t sound like a completely crazy cat lady.
I sighed and scratched her head between her ears. The moment I stopped, she meowed pitifully and looked at Quin. Again, she meowed. Except this time, she climbed onto my lap and meowed at Quin.
He obliged by giving her a good scratch.
“Brat,” I muttered.
“No boyfriends, and you believe yourself to be a spinster because you have two cats?” Quin asked. “Have you already given up on your mortal life? So, young to be doing so.”
“I don’t have a great choice in men. My last boyfriend—before the professor—was an addict. He was manipulative and controlling when high, then sweet while hungover. When I finally convinced him to get help, he decided that I was too pathetic to continue seeing because I had stayed at his side as he struggled with his addiction.”
“I’ve found with addicts, their interests can fall in two ways after recovery. It’s very unfortunate that happened to you, but it doesn’t make you a spinster in your mid-twenties.”
“Boyfriend before that said he thought everything was going fine and then stopped talking to me. I found out we were broken up when he posted pictures of himself and his new girlfriend on social media.”
“A run of bad luck.”
“The one before that broke up with me before every weekend and holiday. He spent the entirety of my birthday making me cry through an online chat and then later used that history to get out of a speeding fine.”
Quin stared back at me, mute.
“Saw a guy a few times. He broke it off because he took me to a Chinese restaurant that served cold food, had no heat in the middle of November, no ventilation inside and a child of the owner who kept throwing things at me. I quietly complained because I was cold and the smoke made me nauseated. He said I was too negative.”
“You shouldn’t be with men like that.”
I shrugged. “Erin says I have daddy issues. That I stay with these men because they treat me better than my father did so I think it’s all right.”
Quin seemed to choke. He turned away and cleared his throat, then turned back to me ever so slowly.
“That’s a strangely accurate way of putting it.”
“What about you?” I asked.
