Sun-kissed.

London, 5.

2011-02-06T11:53:00.002+02:00

Wednesday

Waking up next to Iggy again was nice, but there was too much between us now for it to feel right. He didn’t stir as I sneaked out of his bed, peeked through the curtains at a rainy London, and left the apartment. This time I took stock of where I was; last night I had been a little too distracted to do so as he took me here.

No, not because of him. He had been just as distracted as me. No, because of her. The vampire we were after. None of that had occurred between us. He wouldn’t have minded, but I, showing uncharacteristic restraint, hadn’t felt like it.

The first timepiece I saw outside informed me that it was early afternoon yet, so I headed to my hotel, to hopefully find a decent change of clothing, and to make sure they hadn’t given my room to someone else in my absence. Wouldn’t be the first time. But the room was still there, bed and all, with fresh clothes. Bless the man who invented hotel laundry services.

After I got out of a hot shower it was still raining outside. Good for me and my plans for getting out. Bad for… no. I couldn’t think how rain could be a bad thing right now. Suited my mood, too. For ever since I had woken up this, well, day, there had been pretty much only one thought circling my head, besides the basic urges and needs. A thought of that vampire, the killer look she had given me, how popular and well-known she was, and how much harder that discovery had made everything.

No matter how dramatic the effect of walking in the rain through London, I did the smart thing and took an umbrella with me as I left. The streets were not quite as full of tourists as on a sunny day, but full enough to make it hard to walk with all our umbrellas bumping to each other, getting stuck and turning inside out. So I suppose I had the irritated glare a walk in the rain would have brought on when I reached Heidi’s little shop and entered, shaking the damned umbrella.

“Lovely weather we’re having!” the cheery werewolfling called out, grinning wide. I gave her my best killer glare, startling a few customers as I walked to the counter. “So, did you two get re-acquainted last night?”

“What an annoying smirk you have, grandmother.” I growled at her, trying hard to keep up my sullen façade.

“The way you jumped him, one would think you a bisexual soon.”

“I prefer pansexual, thank you very much. Anyway. We need to talk business. What time do you get off?”

Heidi’s smirk grew even wider and I rolled my eyes. “At five. Can’t we talk here, now?”

I shook my head. We needed to talk somewhere private, where no one else would hear us. I told her as much.

“Not even Claudia?”

I blushed a little, remembering my earlier fantasies. “She’s all right. I meant people who don’t need to know about all these bloodsuckers.”

“Well, she’s at the apartment, she’s got the afternoon free. You can go there already if you want, I’ll be over in a couple of hours. If Simon was here, I could tell him to mind the shop and leave now, but the bastard’s sleeping off a hangover. Who the hell gets stupid ass drunk and goes partying on a Tuesday?”

“Your pothead workmate and at least one vampire, for two.” I said, and her yellowish eyes grew wide.

“You mean…”

“Yeah.”

“Shit. Go to the apartment, I’ll meet you there as soon as I can. I’ll try to get his lazy ass out of bed.”

I nodded and left. Only once I was back outside in the rain, halfway to the apartment Heidi and Claudia shared, I remembered that the little blonde would be waiting there. Oh crap. Maybe I should have gotten more comfortable with Iggy last night. Now I was so full of frustration, annoyance and anxiety that I would be climbing walls soon. Some good old sexual fulfillment would have hit the spot. Would have made it less likely that I’d blurt out something stupid.

My feet hadn’t stopped walking even as my mind ran in circles, so before I knew it they had taken me there. The brain tried to steer me towards the nearest pub for a while, to screw my head back on straight, but the feet were insistent. Up the stairs we went, and the hand, apparently in cahoots with the legs, rang the doorbell while the brain still tried to bribe them with beer.

“Oh, hello!” Claudia’s cheery greeting and wide smile brought me back into the here and now, and I opened my mouth, hoping a similar greeting might come out of its own accord.

“I just wanted a beer.”

Way to go, mouth. Way to go.

“You should have gone to the pub, then.” Claudia laughed, but opened the door. “I think we have a couple in the fridge. Do you want to come in?”

“Yes, actually. Sorry. I was just at the music shop to see Heidi, and she told me to come and wait for her here, since you’re home. I have some news about our… prey.” Now the mouth was working. It babbled on as I stepped in and out off my shoes. Claudia took my umbrella to the bathroom to dry, and then fetched a beer from the fridge. “I wasn’t really serious about the beer, that was just my mind hitting empty.” I confessed, but accepted it anyway. She sat me down by the kitchen table, taking the other chair herself.

“Drink it, less for me and Heidi. She should drink less, and I’m on a diet anyway.”

“You’re skinny as a twig.” I argued, eyed her body through the simple clothes she wore, and blushed.

“Thank you.” Claudia blushed as well, pulling the long sleeves of her cardigan over her palms. We stared at her hands for a moment, then at the table. The window. The table again. The beer. What an exciting bottle.

“So what did you find out? About the vampire?” Claudia asked, and specified which vampire at my blank expression.

“Oh! That one. I found out who it is.” I nodded, frowning. “Unfortunately, she found out who I am as well. There might be trouble.”

“She? It’s a she?” Claudia asked, leaning over the table towards me, excited.

“Yes. And an old vampire, to boot. Oh, there’s really going to be trouble. I feel it in my bones.”

“You mean, dangerous trouble?” She seemed nervous now, and pulled away. My first reaction was to reach out and put a reassuring hand over hers, but let’s get straight here for a moment –no pun intended- I was far from reassured myself.

“Yes.” I finally admitted.

“Do you think she’ll come after you?” she asked, and I had to think a minute.

“She might. She probably won’t connect me to Frank, but she could tell what I am. And if I start hanging around her, she’ll for sure realise that something’s going on. Good thing is, we can pretty much stalk her without me dogging her every step.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s not exactly a nobody.”

Claudia’s eyes grew wide and she leaned over the table, towards me. “You mean she’s famous?”

I nodded.

“Do I know her?”

“Most likely, yes.”

“Who is it?”

“I’d rather wait until Heidi gets here.”

“Don’t you trust me?” Claudia asked with a pout. I swallowed hard.

“Yeah, I do.” I couldn’t come up with an excuse for her for not telling. Dramatic purposes? Fear that saying her name out loud would bring her on us? Or maybe I just didn’t want to turn Claudia’s attention from me to her.

“…so, so much trouble…” I muttered and took a long swig from the bottle of beer. It almost fell from my hand when Claudia suddenly took a hold of my other hand. The touch of her tender skin on mine sent shivers up and down my spine, and I put the bottle down, faster and louder than I had wanted to.

“Don’t worry,” she said with a smile, “Heidi and I will help you.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” I managed after a quick impression of a fish on dry land. “She’s powerful, believe me. I want to keep the two of you far from harm.”

She smiled ruefully, looking down at my hand, now in both of hers. Her fingers stroking my tingling skin. “I think you’re far too late for that.”

“What do you mean? Are you two in some sort of trouble?”

“No, nothing like that. Besides the obvious, of course. I just meant that life hasn’t been exactly easy for either of us. There’s always trouble and harm and hurt feelings. That’s life.” She looked up and gave me a little smile. “So don’t worry too much. Live in the moment. All that jazz.”

I blinked, nodded slowly, and leaned over our joined hands to kiss her on those lovely little lips.

It was pretty much as sweet as I had thought it would be. She was wearing lip balm with a hint of honey on lips slightly warmer than mine. Surprised at first, she didn’t react at all, but soon melted into the kiss. Not completely, but there was definitely melting going on.

Still, somewhere which is probably closest to what an old bastard like me has for a conscience, I realised what I was doing, and to whom. So I pulled gently away, and sat back down. Claudia opened her eyes and blinked a few times, as if just waking up. Her lips were still parted when she blushed faster than I have ever witnessed anyone blushing in my whole life.

“I’m sorry. I just find you very attractive. This won’t happen again.” I said, pulling –reluctantly!- my hand away from hers.

She blinked some more, closed her mouth, and blinked. “Oh.” She finally managed, still red as a tomato. We stared at each other, blinking.

“So. How about that weather?” I eventually broke the silence with a strangled chuckle.

We were still staring out of the window, securely on our respective sides of the table, commenting on this cloud and that, wondering about the raindrops when Heidi came home some forty-five minutes later.

“Honey, I’m home! I got Simon out of bed and came here as soon as I could.” The quarter-werewolf shouted from the door, some twelve feet away from us, kicked off her shoes and rushed to the table, to give Claudia a small kiss on the cheek. Then she turned to me, eager as a dog for his walkies.

“So, spill already!”

“Uh, yeah.” I muttered, getting my mind back in gear. For a while there I had managed to forget the whole vampire ordeal. Claudia perked up as well. Heidi’s eagerness seemed contagious. “So, I caught the vampire’s, well, let’s call it scent, last night. Iggy and I. We followed the scent, and ended up at this fine restaurant. We couldn’t get in, so we waited for the vamp to come out. And then we saw who it was.” Short and simple. No chance of the rest of this business being anything like that.

“So who is it already?!” Heidi nearly screamed, throwing her arms open. “I’ve been going nuts at the shop! Tell us!”

I picked up a glossy magazine from the pile on the table, flipped through a few pages and saw a familiar face. I turned the page towards them. Heidi shut her mouth, and Claudia’s fell open.

“…You’ve got to be fucking joking!” Heidi finally screeched. Or maybe whined. I couldn’t quite classify that sound. Claudia just blinked.

“Oh I wish.” I muttered in reply.

”Does this mean we can’t kill her?”

“Well, no. But this does mean that killing her will be extremely difficult. She’s old for a vampire, has power, influence among people and vamps, and she’s recognised everywhere she goes. Plus, bodyguards. Mobs of fans. Getting close to her, most likely to get our asses kicked, will be difficult.” I explained.

“Well, shit.” Heidi eventually muttered, scratching the back of her head. “So what do we do now? And why the hell would she kill Frank?”

“I still can’t see Frank trying to cause her trouble, so maybe it was the dentist. Maybe she killed Frank, or both of them, just to keep her secret. Maybe it’s just that simple, she doesn’t want the common people to know she’s a vampire. Some people get very paranoid in their old age. Vampires even more so.” I said, shrugging. ”We could try keeping an eye on her, as long as we don’t do it too obviously, and wait for the doctor to come back. If she makes a move then, if we can prove that she’s out of control, causing trouble, other vamps would become interested in the matter as well.”

Heidi gnawed at the nail of her thumb, deep in thought. Claudia’s nervous eyes were moving from her to me, back and forth.

“Shit.” Heidi eventually said. ”I guess we have to do that, then.”

“It’s probably our smartest move, at least until we know more.” I have to admit, I was more than a little frustrated at this turn of events. I’m sure the sour look on my face communicated this adequately.

I left soon after that. The atmosphere in the very small apartment was a little too awkward for me, with Heidi pacing from wall to wall in frustration and Claudia barely daring to look at me. I was more than a little restless myself, my mind going over the situation again and again, trying to figure out the smartest thing to do, and what we could do. If we could do anything.

My feet seemed to think that they wanted to see Iggy again, as they guided me towards where I had found myself this morning. Well, morning for me. As in, when I woke up.

He was really taking his current role as a jobless layabout seriously, living in a seedy, small council flat away from the tourist areas. I had stopped for a pint or two on the way, to wait for nightfall so he could come out and play, but there were still little kids out on the yard, screaming and playing and swearing. Kids these days… I’m old, I’m allowed to think such things. Of their parents, too. The mothers hanging around the wee ones didn’t seem old enough to vote.

Sometimes, for example days like this, the world can be such a depressing place.

There was music coming from Iggy’s place when I reached his door, so he must have been up already as I rang the doorbell. There was no real sound out of it, just a sort of a pained ping. I rolled my eyes and banged my fist on the door instead.

The music paused. “Who is it?”

“Santa Claus. Let me in.” I growled, glaring at the two kids who had followed me up from the yard after I had refused to give them five pounds. They crouched a little bit lower when Iggy opened the door a little and shoved his deathly pale face out.

“Oh. You. Come in?” he said politely, noticed the kids and made a scary face at them. The kids ran back down screaming in horror. I could hear the word vampire mentioned a few times. The vampire in front of me grinned sheepishly at me as he took off his useless glasses. “That is just a game we play. They are convinced I am a vampire since I only come out at night.”

“I have news for you, Iggy dearest…” I muttered as I stepped in and closed the door behind me, “you are a vampire.”

“Yes, but what better place to hide than behind a child’s play. None of the grown-ups take it seriously. Nobody believes in us anymore.” He almost seemed sad at that. I clapped my hands a little.

“Don’t come crying to me if you wake up one day with those little bastards standing over you with a stake.” I said and sat down unceremoniously on the messy bed.

“I’ll take my chances.” He said with a wan smile and plopped his skinny butt on the large sofa which dominated the other end of the bedroom slash living room slash kitchenette with a large television and a commendable movie collection. I was getting pretty sick of these one-room apartments. “Not that I mind, Dhampiresa, but what brings you here? Did you go and see the girls?”

“That I did.” I quickly told him how Heidi and Claudia had taken the news, and that it was still more or less undecided what we would do about the situation besides sit and wait. I left out the kiss.

Iggy pondered on all this for a while. I could still hear the kids screaming on the yard. Bored, I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes. Eventually Iggy shrugged and opened his mouth again.

“There doesn’t seem to be much we can do right now. So that should mean you will not have to walk the streets anymore, yes?”

“Oh yes. My feet are extremely grateful.” I muttered, near dozing off. So I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

“Well then. I suggest you gather your strength and relax and all that kind of stuff.”

“Actually… I thought I’d go for a walk. Around London. Wanna come?”

Iggy blinked at me. ”What? Why?”

“I want to see all the old places. Where we used to live, and all that.”

“You are becoming nostalgic at your old age, Dhampiresa.” He said with a smile, but got up. “Let me get dressed.”

Looking at his skinny body draped in an old Led Zeppelin T-shirt and loose boxer shorts, his bony, hairy legs as white as a white man’s legs could be, I giggled. “Please do.”

The look he gave me could only be called dirty.

I could almost have called the walk a romantic one. Nostalgic it was, without a doubt. It’s not that long since the fifties, not from a good, sturdy building’s point of view, and a lot of the old places still stood. I was positively touched, might I dare to admit even a little teary to see the old house where Iggy and I spent most of our years together. Annie and Irving we had been called then. It had been my first long peaceful ‘life’, and it had nearly driven me mad of boredom at times. But it had been a good life. We had been happy. But the world had been changing so much around us, it called out to me, and once it was time to move or make people very suspicious since we never seemed to age, I left to roam. Iggy close to stay in London. I had been mad at him for a long time for that, and I think he must have been, if not mad, at least disappointed at my need to wander.

But anyway. Now we were over all that, thankfully, walking hand in hand out of habit, talking about old times and old friends. Cars driving by were too modern, but London in the dark in this new millennium looks very much like the London in the dark fifty years ago. Enough that we could pretend, if just a little.

Eventually our leisurely walk led us over to the busier parts of London again, and we found ourselves near Soho. It was well after midnight by now, and no matter that it was Wednesday, or rather Thursday already, there were people about. We decided to head for a pub nearby we had used to go to ages ago. Iggy assured me that it still stood, and wasn’t too horribly modern. But our path was suddenly blocked on a narrow street, which was, also, rather empty. A good place for a nasty confrontation. Or a bad place, depending on which end of the confrontation one was.

Two large men whose appearance screamed thug suddenly stepped in front of us out of the darkness. I stopped and grabbed Iggy’s arm, and he nearly fell over his own legs.

“What’s going on? Who are you?” he asked, looking nervously at the men. They looked at each other and took a step forward.

“I don’t think we need to tell you who we represent… you’ve already met the lady. Or should we say stalked?” one of them said menacingly. The meaner looking one. Iggy was twitching beside me. I sighed. Yep. This looked like a bad place for us.

“Is anyone else here getting a real strong sense of déjà-vu?” I asked. That completely baffled the thugs. Good. ”Just me then? Okay. What do you want?”

”We trust you people are smart enough not to cause or missus any trouble. She is very well known, and very powerful. And hey, we could snap you in two like twigs.” The other one said. He had more of a sneaky look on him. Somewhere underneath the mountains of muscle.

“So you could.” I said with a sigh and rolled my eyes. As long as they took us for nothing else than a curious pair of potential troublemakers, we could probably get out of this situation without too much pain.

“So we could. So unless you want to end up like your old pal Frank, we suggest you back away from her.”

…so much for that hope. “What?” was all I said out loud. They knew we knew Frank? I had been fumbling inconspicuously for my gun, just in case, but now my wandering hand stopped inside my bag, fidgeting around something else.

“Hand out of the bag.” The meaner one said, glaring at me. I pulled my empty hand out and lifted both slightly in the air.

“You was friends with him, weren’t you, poppet? Frank the werewolf? That’s what she said. She didn’t want to hurt ‘im, but he left us no choice.” The one with more of a brain said, looking condescendingly down on me. The other one just sneered.

“He took a long time to die. Longer than any man that age ought to.” They laughed. They actually laughed. Iggy whimpered a small Polish curse beside me as I felt my face twist into an angry sneer.

“Real brave, that, killing an old man. ‘Cause that just takes such balls, you know. Frank was, what, in his nineties? You guys so macho.” There goes my mouth again. It really ought to tell me before it starts going on like this, I think. “Or did you just watch, peckers in hand, while your ‘missus’ took care of business?”

Ooh, that pissed them off. “Oh, we got to beat ‘im up well enough. She don’t want to get any bruises, they look bad at shows.” The meaner-looking one snarled. I smirked, just a little, and the one I had dubbed as the smarter one suddenly got suspicious. Better not let them think too much, or we’d really be in trouble.

“Guess she had to let you boys have a little fun. With all those steroids you’ve pumped into yourselves, I guess beating up ninety-year old men is the only fun you can get.” I wiggled my little finger and eyed their crotches intentionally.

“I’ll show you fun…” the smarter –maybe not so smart after all- snarled, flexing his muscles as he started to approach.

“I love you, Dhampiresa, but you have to learn to shut up, okay?” Iggy hissed at me. Vampire or no, he did mostly resemble the aforementioned twig. I tried to steel myself, to get ready to have my ass handed to me, when whatever higher power there may be dropped two angels on us.

“Rufus!”

“Hey, it is you! Roofie-darling!”

I’d better make that drunk angels. Two young men suddenly appeared on the scene, and promptly threw their arms around Iggy’s neck. The thugs were again properly baffled, and they took a few steps back, clearly unsure on what to do.

“Hey, Roofie, can you give us a pound or two? For tea? Just for tea, we’re cold. Or beer, whichever you feel like buyin’ us?” one of my angels, a very skinny man with lovely chocolate brown skin more or less cooed at Iggy, who was blushing furiously. The other one, bleached blonde and very wobbly on his extremely skinny legs, was giving me a leer from underneath a hat which had seen better days. And better years.

Iggy was stuttering something along the lines of being totally broke. My attention was more on the bodyguards, who were obviously not used to such high levels of homosexuality as the scene before us contained. They were backing away, eyeing the trio and me suspiciously. Eventually, when both angels had all their hands in various vampire pockets, their faces more or less pressed to Iggy’s neck, mouths begging, the muscle men retreated backs first, giving me what they must have hoped were menacing looks.

“I won’t have any money until the next giro. I can barely afford crackers for myself.” Iggy was just saying. Poor man looked like his head would soon explode from humiliation. The blond let out a pitiful whine and leaned his head on Iggy’s chest. I bit down laughter, shoved my hand into my bag, grabbed the first banknote I found, and let out a loud whistle.

“Hey, pretty boys, here!” I waved it in the air, and Iggy was freed immediately. I on the other hand was smothered in the skinniest hug ever, and the money quickly disappeared.

“Thank you pretty lady!” the blond kissed me on the cheek.

“Bless you!” the other one called out as they were already wobbling away, admiring their prize and giggling. I grabbed Iggy by the arm and started to run, in a different direction than the two thugs in case they hadn’t gotten too far yet.

“How much did you give them? You’re not supposed to give them money, they just spend it all on pot and beer! It’s better to buy them tea or food! How much was that?” Iggy fretted.

“Relax, it was just twenty pounds.” I think. “Besides, I thought you said you gave all that stuff up in the seventies?”

“I did! They’re just friends!”

“Milord objects too much.” I muttered, grinning a little, still running.

“Shut up. What’s with the rush?”

“I want to be far from here in case those thugs come back. I don’t want to get beat up again.”

“Again?!”

“This is bad, Iggy. This is bad on so many levels of bad. They know we knew Frank. That means they must know Heidi and Claudia too.”

Iggy considered this a moment. “Oh. Bugger. You’re right. You and I, we can handle ourselves, we’re most resilient, but they are just human. This is bad.”

“Don’t forget, though, that every cloud has a silver lining.” I muttered as we reached a larger street, where Londoners and tourists were still wandering around.

Iggy gave me a look. It was a look he’d given me so many times back in the days when we used to live together. It translated roughly to I suddenly feel dread. Still, he had to ask.

“There’s something good in this situation?”

“Oh yes. They just admitted to killing Frank.”

“So? It’s our word against them. Against her. She has more influence, more money. More friends. What do we have?”

I allowed the smirk to finally spread on my face, and pulled my cell phone out of my bag. “I have their every word on tape, darling.”

Interlude : London 1954

2010-08-08T20:04:00.001+03:00

1954

I doubt there is a soul alive who wouldn’t consider the sight in front of me right now as beautiful, romantic, and a perfect setting for what I had in mind.

Imagine, if you please: a quiet, warm summer evening in London, above the quaint rows of houses full of life, none of what reaches the roof I’m currently standing on. The sun is setting to the west, painting the sky with brilliant reds, yellows and oranges. Above me, and to the east behind, it’s full of purples and blues and stars. Smoke from a few chimneys twirls through the still air lazily as families curl up around the fire in their drawing rooms, enjoying the quiet evening, maybe listening to the radio, reading or doing chores. Drinking tea. This is London, after all.

I’ve got everything ready here: a small table, two chairs, nice, lacy tablecloth and a candle. It’s a classic, I know, and something of a cliché, but who cares. A bottle of red is chilling under the table. An old wind-up gramophone is playing quiet music, somewhat scratchily.

Me? I’m dressed in my nicest summer dress, long dark hair tied up to keep my neck cool.

All I’m missing is my ‘date’, but the sun is still up, settling itself on the horizon, so I need to be patient for a little while longer. I take the moment to think on how my life has changed, how the world around me has changed: from a small cold hut in Russia, with not even a hint of electricity or vaccinations in sight, to a brick house in London, full of life, people and things like the radio, music and cars. Airplanes! What will they think of next?

My musings are cut short as there is a noise. Someone coming up the stairs. But the sun is still visible, so I fret a little. Can’t help it, I’m in love, and don’t want to see the man of my so-called life bursting into flames because of impatience.

“Hello Dolly!”

The head that peeks out from behind the small door does belong to a man of my so-called life, but not the one I was expecting.

“Hello Frank.” I greet him with a happy smile. So I had planned this night for just two, but Frank’s been a friend for decades, and is always welcome in our humble little home.

“Your boy says he’ll be up in a stiffy.” Frank says with a smirk. I kind of blink at him for a moment. “He just can’t figure out the lingo, can he?”

“Oh! No. Not really. Part of his charm.” I smirk too. “As long as he doesn’t say that in public, I suppose.”

“All fine and good!” Frank laughs and sits himself comfortably on the warm roof. Looking at the setting sun, he lets out a long, happy sigh and closes his eyes. “Is this the life, or is this the life, Annie?”

He does call me with mostly just one name. Usually. Annie’s short for my real name, and he used it when he created this new identity for me, just so he could keep calling me that. He claims it’s too much of an effort to keep thinking of me in different names, after knowing me for some three decades.

“It indeed is. Paws off.” I can see him inching towards the bottle of wine.

“Is this a special occasion?”

“Not really. Just a pretty evening. So why not enjoy it?” I say with a shrug. We fall silent to do just that, listening leisurely to the gramophone as it scratches through a slow, crooning love song. The sun sets before our eyes, beautiful and bright and deadly, but not to us. Frank, as a werewolf, can survive quite happily in any climate, hot or cold, bright or dark. I, as a dhampir, am a bit more sensitive to the bright sun, but as long as I don’t try to tan myself on the sunniest of summer days completely naked, I need not worry. The one climbing up the stairs as soon as the sun is below the horizon, however. I think I already mentioned the amazing human torch part? That tends to happen to vampires, which Ignacy Wit, my originally Polish lover, who now goes under the name of Irving, just happens to be.

We have a good relationship. The fact that I made my career and reputation killing his kind doesn’t bother us. Mostly because he doesn’t go around killing people for blood, so there is no need for someone to hire me to kill him, or for me to have a crisis of conscience or something dramatic like that.

But seriously! “Good evening, Irving!” Frank and I call out as soon as Iggy pops his head through the door. He waves his book at us scoldingly.

“It is a very fine name, can you two not get over it?” He manages to act almost dignified this time. I gesture at him to sit on the other chair, opposite of me, and he complies. Frank uses this opportunity to grab a hold of the wine bottle, and opens the cork effortlessly. Standing up, acting like a proper waiter, he pours us both a glass and takes a good, long swig from the mouth of the bottle for himself. Neither Iggy nor me really protests. He’s gentleman enough not to finish the whole bottle.

“Do you have the night off from work?” Iggy asks him, and Frank nods. For appearance’s sakes, he’s working as a bouncer at a nightclub. Most of his money comes from people like Iggy and me. The two of us, on the other hand, we pretty much live on my savings and investments. I sometimes work at a nearby shop, and Iggy writes short stories for magazines. A nice, comfortable, cozy life. And so dull that if I didn’t have such nice people to share it with, I’d go crazy. It’s not been so long since I was traveling all around the place, hunting and killing vampires. That wasn’t the greatest way to live, either, but at least every day wasn’t the same as the one before.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love Iggy. I love London. I love my friends. I love our life here. I love the peace. But it’s hard to break out of the habits of a century, you know. Nowadays, excitement is seeing whether the milkman remembered to bring everything we ordered. Iggy is a sucker for hot chocolate. It’s like blood to him.

Looking at him, talking with Frank over whatever, my lover and best friend together, there is peace. But looking at the starry sky above, there is impatience, and the yearning for the road.

“Were you here, dear?” Iggy asks suddenly, turning towards me. I snap out of my thoughts and turn to him.

“Huh? What?”

Both laugh a little, and Iggy repeats his question. “Were you here when Jack the Ripper was doing his killings?” he lifts up the book he brought up with him. He’s always reading something. Apparently, the notorious serial killer is the object of today’s interest.

“Oh, no. I heard of him, back then, but I was busy in Prague.” I explained, thinking back some sixty years.

“How about you?” Iggy turns to Frank, who laughs some more.

“I’m not that old! My parents hadn’t even met yet. But, you know…” he smirks and winks, “there are rumours that old Jack’s still about.”

“What, that he’s one of us?” Iggy’s eyes go wide and he lowers his voice. Not like anyone could hear us, up here. Frank nods, leaning forward.

“Oh yeah. A vampire.”

Iggy’s laugh is a little strained, and he looks at me with disbelief. He knows Frank well enough not to trust everything he says. Let’s face it; most things that come out of the man’s mouth are at least exaggerations. “Do you know of this?”

I shrug and allow myself a smirk, too. “Know of this? Hell, I know the man.”

“What?!” both Iggy and Frank shout more or less in unison. So obviously Frank was just trying to pull Iggy’s leg.

“He is a vampire?” Iggy asks, leaning excitedly over the table now.

“Oh yes. And he’s still alive. Well, alive for a vampire. As far as I know.”

They both look at me expectantly. “You’re really met him, though?” Frank asks.

“Yes, once. In Budapest, a few years after the murders.”

“And you didn’t kill him?” Iggy, now.

“No.”

“Why not?” Frank.

“I didn’t really believe him, for one. He seemed like a mostly harmless guy, for a vampire, and since I was just heading out of the area after some hard work, I let him be. I only found out later that he had been telling me the truth. He was bragging about it, you know. How they were still talking about him in London, and all over, too. And how he would never be caught.”

They both still stare at me, obviously not knowing whether to believe me or not. Frank eventually laughs, taking my words only for a continuation of his own yarn. Iggy’s smile is slower in coming, but he finally relaxes as well, and tells Frank to fill our glasses.

The evening turns into night, and Frank leaves our company for a fairer one, or so he says. The moon is halfway to full, the stars are bright above us, not a cloud in sight, and the gentle music from the gramophone fills the still warm night air. Iggy finally takes the hint and asks me to dance with him. Oh, I have no problems with me being the one to ask him to dance, but a girl needs some romance every now and then.

Yes, I know I organized this whole evening. Shut up.

We dance slowly, my cheek resting on his collarbone –he is quite tall- until the side of the record ends. I turn it over, and we dance some more as the moon travels across the sky. There are no words. Sometimes they just aren’t needed. There’s no kissing either, no traveling hands. There’s just this moment, him and me and the music and the moon.

It’s nice, and the peace doesn’t seem so stifling for a moment.

Eventually we sit back down and finish the bottle, talking about this and that. Planning a trip somewhere in Europe for the autumn. I’ve traveled all over, but Iggy hasn’t really been anywhere besides a few towns in Poland, and the greater London area here. Traveling overseas and over moving water can cause trouble for vampires, but he is not some newborn anymore. There’s over a decade under his belt, and we both are eager to see some other sights for a change.

“So since there is nowhere that you haven’t been yet, is there somewhere you would like to go again?” he asks, swirling the last of his wine somewhat unsteadily in his glass.

“The question rather is, since you haven’t been anywhere, where would you like to go? I’m happy to revisit everywhere.” I turn the question back at him, since it’s only true and fair. “And remember, this’ll be just the first trip of many. You have centuries ahead of you, if you’re careful.”

He leans back in his chair, thoughtful, the front legs of the chair rising into the air. This will take a while. We are talking about a man who can take ten minutes to choose a drink in a pub, while the barkeep is waiting. I try to remember whether we have another bottle of wine somewhere. But the chair suddenly comes back down, and Iggy snaps his fingers with glee.

“I have it!”

I blink at him, confused for a moment. “What?”

“I want to go to…” he draws out the final word, smiling and leaning towards me over the table. I laugh and reach over to pinch his cheek.

“Spit it out already.”

“…to Paris! Can we?”

All right. Not exactly what I expected. Not very ambitious, either. “Sure, if you want to. Kind of like going to Wales, distance-wise, but sure.”

“Great! I wanted to go there during the war, but never had the chance.”

“We can take the ferry over to Calais, not a lot of traveling overseas there, and drive the rest of the way. Or take a night train.” I start to warm up to the idea as well. Paris is always nice, and it has been a while since I’ve gone, either.

The song playing on the gramophone catches our ears, and Iggy pulls me up to dance again, excited. “I hear it is a very beautiful place in the autumn. And every other time of the year as well.” He pulls me close and sings along, quietly, only to my ear.

“I love Paris every moment
Every moment of the year
I love Paris, why oh why do I love Paris
Because my love is here…”

“You’re a big softie, you know that, Irving?” I whisper back and kiss his neck. I can’t reach much higher when he’s standing up.

“Can we go back in? It would be nicer there.” He suggests, and I nod. We pack up the gramophone and the records, the rest can wait.

“Was that true, what you said about Jack the Ripper? Him being a vampire?” Iggy asks as we’re heading back down, to our apartment. He has his book with him, reminding him of out conversation.

I nod with a smirk. “Every word of it.”

“Then why haven’t you gone out and killed him?”

“You read what he did to those women? No way am I going near that mad bastard again.”

I love Paris is written by Cole Porter.

London, 4.

2010-04-07T23:21:00.006+03:00

Tuesday

I spent the whole night walking around the area: Kensington, Notting Hill, Hyde Park, but there was no sign of the vampire anymore. Still, I wasn’t going to lose hope over that. Just knowing that it was possible to find the bastard was enough to keep me going for weeks!

Not that we had weeks: the doctor was coming home in a little over one. But that would just make my life a whole lot easier, since we knew where he lived and worked. Stalking one or two certain areas was much easier than running all over London.

Morning was dawning again when I got back to the hotel, sunny, warm and bright. I hissed at the evil daystar and crawled into bed after hanging the DO NOT DISTURB –sign on the door. I was excited to go to Heidi and Claudia –the thought of her, and Kielo, still made me blush, and gave me some damn interesting dreams- and report on my findings, but that would have to wait until the evening, until the sun would not be shining so damn brightly.

I slept fitfully, waking every time someone opened a door to the nearby rooms, or during especially loud traffic. The day seemed to drag on for ever, and I finally gave up on sleeping in the wee hours of the afternoon. I was too restless, too eager to get out and to the pub. To get back on the vampire’s tail. But the sun was still too high, and too bright in a cloudless sky. I knew that the weather in the area could turn completely within minutes, but no matter how I peeked through the curtains, the sun was persistent once it had claimed the sky.

So I took a long, hot shower which soon turned cold as I found myself imagining what treasures Claudia hid underneath her clothes.

I admit: more than once I’ve wooed away another woman’s man, or man’s woman, for a night or two of passion and fun. But, I think I might have mentioned it before: I don’t like doing that to friends, and I considered Heidi one of those. Claudia was something I’ve never had, and that, with her cute face and lovely personality, was becoming quite an obsession to me. And I know myself. I know how I obsess about things such as this. I know that this might mean trouble, no matter whether I want it or not.

Damn it, I might as well be a man, following the will of his cock!

I ended up leaving the hotel as soon as the sun had disappeared behind the buildings across the street. It created enough of a shadow for me to get to the nearest tube entrance, and once I was underground, the sun didn’t matter. I decided to stay away from the pub, for my own sanity’s sake, and instead went straight to the music store. Heidi was just talking shop with a few customers, so I bided my time by going over the LP-shelves. I picked up a few titles, and once she was free, I bought them and asked for Heidi to keep them behind the counter for me. She agreed, and asked what had brought me here. She didn’t buy my excuse of loving the music.

“The way you’re beaming and bouncing on your heels, there’s gotta be something more to this visit. Not that I mind, mind you.” She said and leaned over the counter, lowering her tone. “So what is it?”

“Well, you’ll be glad to know that sucking those dentures paid off. I felt our vamp last night.”

“Really?” she straightened up, a look of new respect in her eyes as she stared at me. “So who is it? Did you see him?”

”No, I’ve no idea who it is.” I admitted. Her face fell, and I hurried to assure her that since I’d felt the vampire once, he would not get away, couldn’t hide from me.

“Well, that’s good. You planning to go looking tonight as well?” she asked, still looking a little disappointed. I nodded. “D’you think you could come to the apartment at round ten or eleven tonight?” she then went to ask me, looking around to make sure no-one was listening. I looked as well, to find the shop empty, and her pothead of a fellow employee singing to himself in the back.

“Sure, no problem. Something going on?”

“Kind of, yeah. I’ve got a vampire coming over. Some guy, I don’t know. Wants to talk business. Would you… I mean, this is all so new to me, and I’d kinda feel safer if you were around?” she looked very sheepish, so I gave her a friendly smile.

“No problem.” I repeated. Then a thought hit me. “You don’t think it’s our guy?”

“It might be. He said he needs a new identity and everything, but it might be just a cover.” She said quietly, tugging at her curly hair. “That’s kinda why I want someone there who knows what they’re doing with these bastards around. You obviously came to mind.”

I laughed a little and nodded. “Sure, I’ll be there. I’ll go and wander around the place anyway, I’m too fidgety to stay still. But I’ll be there by ten.” I didn’t think I would find a true vampire anywhere outside that early in the night, not when the evenings were so long and full of light, but I couldn’t imagine sitting still all night, either. And besides. All I had to do was find the vampire again, now that I knew I could. I could afford the night off.

Playing bodyguard.

Again.

I spent an hour or two in a nearby pub –there really seems to be one just across the street, no matter where you are- until the sun was low enough not to give me much trouble. Most shops were still open, so I amused myself by walking in them, buying small snacks or trinkets here and there, and a pocket book or two, heading out to the streets only when the sun was properly down.

That didn’t stop the people, though; despite it being Tuesday evening, the streets were still packed. But I started to sense a vampire here and there as they climbed out of their hiding places, looking for the night’s meal, or perhaps just enjoying a nice evening in the city full of life.

I didn’t want to head out too far from the area, not if I had to be back here by ten, so I walked the relatively short distance to the banks of the Thames. The great Eye was easy to see in the not-so-far-distance. The river seemed cleaner since the last time I’d stood here, watching it flow by, reflecting all the lights around it.

One of the vampire myths is that they can’t cross moving water, at least on their own power. That’s… really not true. I’ve been chased over enough streams and rivers to know. It does weaken them momentarily, maybe slow ‘em down, but that’s pretty much it. I don’t know where people come up with some of these things… maybe they’re just used as plot elements in stories, and then suddenly, hey presto, they’re a part of a myth.

Still, I can imagine that for a vampire, crossing something like the Atlantic Ocean would be a bit of a bitch. I know I always get a little queasy, but that’s mostly because of being in a small, cramped space with lots of people. High in the air, in a lump of flying metal, or in the middle of the ocean, in a lump of floating metal. But crossing a bridge to the south of London: not a problem. Not for me, not for any normal vampire.

Night came on eventually, and as the streets quieted some, I headed back towards Soho, and the small apartment Heidi and Claudia lived in. I arrived just in time to witness an argument on whether the blond should stay or not. Heidi tried to persuade her to go to a pub or a café for her own safety, but the small blonde was curious to see a full-blooded vampire.

“She’s here now,” Claudia argued, pointing at me, ”so there’s no danger, right?”

So she stayed, glued to the TV for the time being. I didn’t recognise the program, but I guess it was one of those hospital dramas, with how many people were screaming for a doctor.

Heidi was more nervous than anything. Not because of the vampire, though, but because of what he’d need from her.

“There’s so much paperwork, I don’t know if I’ll ever get the hang of it.” She was moaning, leafing through a pile of papers for my new life.

“Don’t forget you’ll get paid for it. A lot of money.” I reminded her, my attention spread over the neighbourhood. I wanted to get a feel of the vampire before he’d get here, to know whether it was our man or someone else.

“I know. That’s about the only reason I’m even trying to figure this out. That, and I don’t want to disappoint Frank.” Her last words were quiet, and her nervous hands stilled. Claudia, who had been sitting beside me on the sofa, staring intently at the television, slipped onto the floor and kissed the curly-haired one on the cheek.

“I’m sure he’s proud of you, no matter what. You’re such a good person. Now, let me see those… I end up doing half of the paperwork at the bar, maybe I can make something out of it.”

Heidi gave me a small smile when the bothersome papers were almost forcibly removed from her hands, making me wonder how much of her helplessness had been an act.

That question would have to wait, though. “I think he’s coming.”

There was still the very real threat that it might be the vampire we were looking for. But when the vampire got closer, and the feel of him sharper, I could tell it wasn’t the one I’d come across last night. I informed the others of this, and Heidi calmed down immediately. For ten seconds, before she picked up all her papers again and started to leaf through them. Claudia took them from her again, scooting away. I hardly noticed.

It wasn’t the vampire who had killed Frank, of that I was sure. But it was… the feel of him… it was familiar. I couldn’t place it, but I was sure it was someone I’d met before. Not too unlikely, since I have met my fair share of vampires, no matter whether I ended up killing them or not.

But…

The doorbell rang, followed by a sharp, quick knock on the door. We all glanced at each other, and Heidi got up. “Here we go…” she muttered as she walked past us to the door. Claudia and I stood up as well, and she gasped a little as she saw the gun in my hand. Hugging the papers, she backed away towards the kitchen table.

I had turned towards the door, and could hear Heidi talking with a man. His voice sounded familiar, so it was not just the feel of him. But I couldn’t place him, not until Heidi came back into the living-room, followed by a tall, thin man, who—

He looked into my eyes and—

“Hello, Dhampiresa.”

They were all staring at me, I could feel it without looking away from him. I couldn’t look away. I was frozen to my place, my heart beating faster than any drum I had ever heard. I felt like such a fool! He had been on my mind for days now, and I had recognized the feel of him, his voice, but it took seeing his face to realise it was him.

“Would someone mind telling me what’s going on?” Heidi asked eventually. I don’t know how long we had been standing around like idiots for, but her words broke the spell. I dropped my gun, opened my mouth, and jumped him, screaming his name.

“Iggy!”

“Okay then.” Heidi chuckled and moved out of the way as Iggy almost lost his balance with me hanging around his neck. She retreated to Claudia’s side as he hugged me back, and eventually put me down on the floor. He gave me a nervous grin and straightened his glasses.

“I guess that means you’re happy to see me?”

Claudia laughed.

“Yeah, you could say that.” I said, ignoring the chuckling from behind. “I’ve been trying to find you, but Frank must have set you up good.”

“That he did.” Iggy said and bowed his head at Heidi a little. ”I was very sorry to hear of his passing. My condolences.”

Heidi nodded back and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs. “How about some introductions then?”

I made the round of introductions, and we all settled down, nervousness and tension gone. Iggy sat beside me on the sofa, looking more like a computer geek than a vampire of more than half a century.

His dark brown hair was shortish and messy, what seems to be fashionable these days. Black-rimmed glasses had slipped down his nose, and he was peering around the room over them. He hadn’t needed glasses after he became a vampire, but he still preferred to use them. A disguise of sorts, he had explained. His clothes seemed to be very used and scruffy, but clean and in one piece.

“So…” Heidi eventually said, after Iggy and I had stared at each other for a good five minutes, no doubt both checking the other one out to note all the changes of the last few decades. We both snapped into attention and turned to her, making Claudia giggle a little again. Heidi smirked and continued. “Before you two head down memory lane, do you want to get to business?” she nodded at Iggy, who turned his attention from Claudia to her. Looking a little embarrassed at being caught staring, he shook his hands in the air.

“Oh! No. That was just an excuse to come here and try to find some way to find her.” He pointed at me and grinned widely, showing off sharp, tea-stained teeth. “Turns out it was easier than I had though, I had not imagined she would be here with you. But I couldn’t say that on the dog and collar, it would have been suspicious.”

“Dog and bone.” I automatically corrected. He was always very keen to blend in, but he’d never gotten the hang of the rhyming slang. I remember finding it cute at first, when we were first dating and then living together, but annoying later on, when he just wouldn’t get it. “Some things never change…” slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

Iggy opened his mouth to speak, but ended up just looking slightly hurt. I patted him on the shoulder and smiled, trying to signal that I meant no harm with it. He apparently accepted. Well, at least he closed his mouth and offered a slight smile. “Sorry.”

Both our younger Londoners were giggling by now.

“Never mind,” I muttered, and then had an idea. Here I had a vampire! “Have you heard anything about what happened to Frank?”

That quieted the girls down. Heidi leaned towards us from the kitchen table as Iggy nodded.

“Not much. I know that everyone’s pretty angry about it, since he did such good work.”

I nodded, having gathered as much, and motioned for him to go on.

“None of the old ones would have done it, and by old ones I mean my age and older. But by the time the word got out of his death, there was no traces left to follow. So I tried the old-fashioned way and went asking questions, at Frank’s pub and around his friends, but only heard about you,” he pointed at Heidi, “and you, I guess, knew even less. Some time later I went back to the pub and heard that a little black-haired girl had been there asking of Frank as well, and thought that it meant you.” Now he pointed at me, looking smug. “And I was right!”

“Bingo.” I said, grinning back. But it soon turned to a frown. “So basically, you… don’t know anything more than we do.”

“Sorry.” Iggy shrugged. ”There are rumours, of course, but they’re just that. No one would openly admit to doing such a thing. But you are the vampire hunter here, have you figured anything?”

Heidi pointed at me. “She found the vampire last night.”

“Sensed him.” I corrected as Iggy turned to stare at me in amazement. “You see, there was a trace to follow, but Heidi beat you all to it. I didn’t get close enough to see him, though, but at least we know he can be found.”

“And we got another lead as well, but he’s in the States right now.” Heidi said, also a little smug over her detective work.

“That’s great!” Iggy said, grinning again. “So, what are we going to do once we find him?”

That silenced all of us. Looking at each other, my eyes eventually landed on Heidi.

“You’re the client here. Kind of. What you say, goes.” I said. “We can turn him over to the vampires, they would believe at least you. Or I can kill him.”

Vampires have their own society, laws and such, not so different from the humans. Killing a human by drinking their blood is very much frowned upon, but Frank was no mere human. He was a werewolf, and a very important member of the creatures of the night.

“Basically, it’s just a question of who kills him, then.” I muttered. “I will do it swiftly, the vampires will without a doubt take their time and pleasure.”

Heidi’s mouth was hanging open a little. She must have never realised what would be the murderer’s fate. Claudia looked uncomfortable with the thought as well.

“You mean…” Heidi started, but stopped to lick her lips, “they’d torture him and stuff?”

“Torture will be just the warm up round.” Iggy said with a solemn nod.

Heidi stared at us for a moment longer before her soft, dark lips spread into a wide, feral grin. “Excellent. I hope he takes weeks to die.”

“Heidi!” Claudia’s tone was as surprised as I felt. Frank’s granddaughter just shrugged.

“It’s not like he doesn’t deserve it, he killed Frank, and most likely that dentist as well. Who knows how many else! And d’you really think, if he knew we’re on his trail, that he’d give us any mercy?” she reasoned, and I found myself nodding to her words after the initial shock. Iggy was very quiet beside me, and eventually Claudia nodded as well.

“Guess you’re right, then. I’m glad I’m just on the paperwork side of this business…”

Heidi snickered. “Fifty-fifty?”

“At least forty-sixty, if I’m doing all the paperwork.” Claudia smirked.

“But it’s my family business. Forty-five and fifty-five?”

“Oh, don’t get cheap with me, or you can keep all of it. Including the paperwork.”

I turned to Iggy who was watching the women, obviously unsure on whether they were serious. “Maybe we should leave, before they move on from flirting.”

Heidi laughed and Claudia blushed. So did Iggy, who stood up and stuttered something about the time.

“The whole night’s still ahead of us,” I said and stood as well, looking up to Iggy, “I might as well go back to searching. If you have nothing else, maybe you could join me in a long walk around London?”

“Yes, that would be fun.” He said with a smile and a nod.

“We’ll be off then. See you tomorrow afternoon, or so?”

Both Heidi and Claudia nodded, and soon enough Iggy and I were out in the cool early summer evening. The sky above was clear and dark, the numerous street lights and passing cars took care of the illumination.

“So… which way?” Iggy asked, somewhat nervous now that we were alone.

”Towards Kensington.” I nodded to the right, and off we went.

The streets were still quite packed once we got to Piccadilly. Tourists, mostly, I supposed. We walked in silence, making our way through the busy area as fast as we could. Only when we were getting near to Green Park did we slow down, and continue on side by side. Still in silence, though.

It had been great to see Iggy again, for sure, I had missed him over the years, and worried about him for the last few days, after Alby and Kielo used him in their plot. And then he just goes and drops into my life again. Great! Really, great, no sarcasm here. No, really. But now that we were alone, walking along a quiet street, in the dark, the decades between us seemed so long. Not to mention all the people. It was kind of hard to think of anything to say. And I knew Iggy well enough to guess that his thoughts were traveling along the same lines.

“So…” he eventually ventured. I grinned, but couldn’t come up with much else than a “So…” as well.

“Nice night for it.” He said with a grin, and I laughed a little.

“How have you been? Where are you living? And what’s your name, anyway?” I asked, to make at least some small talk.

“I’ve been fine. Living in Euston these days, I’ve been Rufus Smith for the past five years now. Almost six.”

“Smith.” I laughed again, and he gave me a questioning look. ”Nice to meet you, Mr. Smith. I’m Dorothy Jones.” Now he laughed as well. ”Well, I will be, once those girls get my papers done.”

“You’ve known those… girls for long?”

“Since last Friday. I came here to see Frank, maybe find you, and then I find that Frank’s dead.”

“Can they be trusted? I mean, Heidi is Frank’s grandchild, I guess she understands the importance of keeping what we are a secret. But that blonde…” he left the end of his sentence hanging in the air, and I couldn’t help the lecherous grin. He must have realised what Claudia was faster than I had.

“She’s very cute, isn’t she? I think she’s pretty good with secrets. And Heidi trusts her. Why Mr. Smith, is that a blush I see?”

“I don’t blush!” Iggy objected, covering his red cheeks with long-fingered hands. “Anyway, how have you been? And where?”

“All right as well.” I answered curtly, not wanting to go into the last few weeks too much. “I was living in Helsinki, had to leave in a bit of a hurry. I think I’m going to stay here until I get a new passport and everything. And find the vamp who killed Frank.”

“That’s nice. I mean, that you are staying a while. I think I’ve missed you.” Iggy said thoughtfully, nodding to himself a little.

“I’ve missed you too, idiot.” I said with a smile he didn’t see, and gently punched him in the arm.

“That’s nice too. Not an hour we’ve been together again, and already you’re hitting me.” he moaned theatrically, making me laugh.

“You always were such a wuss!”

“You have very sharp, tiny fists. They hurt!”

Once we reached the corner of Hyde Park, we headed south-west to Cromwell Street, towards South Kensington. Neither of us seemed too keen on going too deep into our pasts, so we continued in the light, small-talkish line of conversation until we reached the large museums. I’d felt a few vampires here and there as we’d walked, but not the one we were hunting for.

“This is the area where I felt him last night.” I explained, looking around. Iggy nodded firmly and followed suit. The road was almost clear now, but a new batch of cars was waiting at the traffic lights.

“How about tonight?”

“Nothing. Yet, anyway.”

“What’s your range?”

“Not too much. I don’t have a strong… scent on him. Maybe a hundred meters or so. Tops.”

“That is not much, Dhampiresa.”

“In a city this big? No, it isn’t.”

I had always liked it when he called me that, even if it was only when we were alone. Or maybe because he only called me that when we were alone. It meant female dhampir, simple as that. But his accent, which he still apparently hadn’t managed to shake off completely, made it sound so adorable. It still made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But not in love.

“Iggy?”

“Yes?”

“I just want to make this clear. Just so that there are no misunderstandings. I still love you, as a friend. But I’m not in love with you.”

I didn’t dare to look at him, but it was comforting to hear the soft chuckle. “Thank you, Dhampiresa. We’re on the same book, then.”

“You mean same page, right?”

Iggy shrugged. “More or less, yes. Who do you do love, then?”

“Someone I shouldn’t. Let’s get a move on, ok?”

He agreed with a nod and followed me as we headed deeper into Kensington. I was considerably shorter, but the way I marched on forced him to almost jog to keep up. It had just been a simple question, but the answer for it…

As soon as he had asked it, do you know whose face it was that I immediately saw? Yeah. Kielo. Answer like that does one cranky dhampir make.

”So, this not being in love thing...” Iggy ventured after he had caught up with me at the next traffic lights, “does it mean we can’t make love anymore?”

Question like that does one amused dhampir make. “Of course it doesn’t!”

“Well then, I’m glad.”

“Here I was thinking you’d have a girlfriend.”

“I never claimed such a thing.”

“Boyfriend then?”

“No, I gave that up in the seventies.”

“That’s funny, I gave up smoking in the seventies.”

“About time. It was like kissing an ashtray, kissing you when you smoked.”

“I don’t remember you complaining back then.”

“Well, I was very young then, and foolish.”

From Earl’s Court we turned north towards Notting Hill, all nervousness between us finally gone. Iggy certainly wasn’t afraid to complain that the endless walking was making his feet hurt. Still, he soldiered on, even when I told him he could go home if he wanted to. Frank’s pub wasn’t too far off our ‘route’, and we were just pondering going in for a pint and a rest when I felt him. Iggy stopped in the middle of a sentence when he saw me go all rigid.

“Ah, ze hunter, she senses her prey.” He muttered and followed without complaint as I started to run after a few inquiring steps. The few people in the streets gave us odd looks, probably thinking Iggy was chasing after me, so I slowed down until he caught up, and we continued somewhat slower until we reached a larger street again. More people here, again. The tug was so much stronger, increased by every step I took. The vampire wasn’t moving. I told Iggy as much, and he nodded, looking all around the place over my head.

We walked past open restaurants and pubs, people going in or coming out, and colourful store fronts with their lights still on, even when they had closed hours ago. The feeling got stronger and stronger, and I hurried faster and faster, until it felt like I must have been standing on him. I stopped, and looked up to see the front of a very expensive restaurant.

“This the place?” Iggy asked, and I nodded. I tried to look through the darkened windows, but couldn’t say whether our man was one of the patrons I could just about make out.

There was a man on the door, and he was giving us a politely questioning look. You know, one of those that would be dirty if one’s salary would have allowed it. “Can I help you?” he asked, and before either of us could manage to say anything, he informed us that the place was fully booked for the evening. The look on his face added many things which made me think we’d better move on.

“No thanks, we’re fine.” I said with a smile as sunny as possible for someone who’d most likely burn in the sun, and ushered Iggy on. He tried to protest, but my sharp, tiny fist below his ribs silenced him. I dragged him to the other side of the road, and into a small café almost across the street from the restaurant. “We’ll wait here. It’ll look less suspicious.”

Iggy, still sour from the punch, nodded and went to order a pint for both of us. I trained my eyes on the restaurant, and settled in for a possibly long wait. The feel of the vampire was so strong that I was sure I couldn’t miss him when he came out. Not anymore.

A pint turned into another, and a third, and by the time Iggy had explained all about his favourite science fiction show, I was ready to call it a night. The café was about to close its doors, but by the looks of it, so was the restaurant. So I perked up, shook my head to clear it a little, and dragged babbly-drunk Iggy out. We watched the people come out of the restaurant on the other side of the street, and tried to look as harmless as possible. The doorman seemed to recognise us, and was giving us a rather dirty look now, every time he wasn’t opening the door or bowing down.

“Are you sure he hasn’t come out yet?” Iggy asked, shivering a little with the cool night air. It felt all the cooler after sitting in that warm café, but compared to Russia and Finland, this was nothing.

“Yes. He’s still in there.” I had scanned everyone leaving the place, and hadn’t found the vampire yet. But just as the café behind us locked up, I felt that tugging get stronger again. I straightened myself and took a few steps forward to get a good look at the small group that was coming out, huddling around a fancy car that had arrived to separate us from them.

There was half a dozen people there, from the look of it three couples. Rich, judging by their clothes and what I could hear of their words. Drunk, as well. They were followed by a big, strong man in a suit whose appearance screamed bodyguard to me.

My eyes were immediately nailed to a blonde woman in the middle of the group. She was somewhat shorter than the rest, almost lost between them. And she was no human.

She was also very familiar. Extremely familiar, even to someone like myself, who still prefers LP’s over CD’s.

“Isn’t that…” Iggy muttered and moved closer, when she suddenly turned her head towards us. Our eyes met, and she held mine in an iron grip for five seconds. She knew I was here, and what I was, as clearly as I knew about her. And the look in her eyes was telling me to back off, and stay away. She was old, and powerful. I even stopped breathing and just watched her enter the car with her friends. More than one human walking past them stopped to stare at her and whisper.

The fancy car soon drove off. I let them go. I now knew the identity of our killer, and, unfortunately, it would be no problem to find her again. When someone’s as famous as her, all one has to do is read the damn tabloids to find out where to go.

Which would make talking to her, or better yet, killing her, all that more difficult.

Interludic interview with half a vampire...

2010-03-11T10:04:00.003+02:00

...quarter werewolf, femme fatale and a very normal girl. This meme thing has been around for years, and I've done it with my characters several times, to get to know them better. Here are the leading ladies of Sun-kissed.

1) How old are you?

Stasya: I was born in 1827. You can do the math yourself.

Kielo: None of your business, sweetheart!

Claudia: I’m 22.

Heidi: Getting very close to 25 here.

2) Height?

Stasya: I’m almost 160 cm.

Kielo: Just admit that you’re only 159.

Stasya: Never!

Kielo: I’m 175.

Claudia: I’m, umm, let me think… 5 feet and five inches.

Heidi: I’m something around five and nine.

3) Do you have any bad traits?

Stasya: Of course not. *cough*

Kielo: Me neither. *coughs as well*

Claudia: I tend to be insecure.

Heidi: Aww, sweetie! *hugs Claudia* You’re the sweetest thing ever!

Claudia: Really?

Heidi: Really really!

Kielo: *gag*

4) Are you a virgin?

Stasya: Not for a very long time now.

Kielo: No.

Claudia: …no! *blushes*

Heidi: No. *big grin*

5) Who's your mate/spouse?

Stasya: I thought it was Kielo, but…

Kielo: Are you still upset about that?

Stasya: You fooled me for days, and then had your friends tie me outside to die in the sun. Fuck YES I’m still upset about that!

Kielo: Well sor-ry!

Stasya: You oughta be.

Claudia: …Heidi.

Heidi: …Claudia. Man, you two have issues.

Kielo: Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Stasya: Don’t sass my friends, bitch!

Kielo: You going to stop me?

Kashii: NEXT QUESTION!

6) Have any kids?

Stasya: No. Never did, never will.

Kielo: No.

Claudia: No, but I’d like some.

Heidi: No, but maybe one day.

Claudia: We could adopt!

7) Favorite food?

Stasya: Sushi.

Kielo: A good steak.

Claudia: Fish ‘n chips!

Heidi: A bloody steak.

8) Favorite ice cream flavor?

Stasya: Blueberry.

Kielo: Cherry Garcia.

Claudia: Chocolate.

Heidi: Vanilla.

9) Killed anyone?

Stasya: Too many to count.

Kielo: Not yet, but I’m still young!

Claudia: No, I could never kill someone.

Heidi: No, but I guess I could if they were trying to hurt my Claudia.

Claudia: My heroine!

Kielo: …

10) Hate anyone?

Stasya: *glares at Kielo*

Kielo: *looks at the ceiling*

Claudia: The kids who used to bully me at school. But I’m trying to get over it.

Heidi: Nah. I get annoyed at people, but I try not to hate anyone.

11) Any Secrets?

Stasya: Yes, but I’m not telling.

Kielo: A lady never tells.

Claudia: Just one. And it’s not very big.

Heidi: Not really.

12) Love anyone?

Stasya: *looks at the ceiling*

Kielo: *glares at Stasya*

Claudia: Heidi!

Heidi: Claudia!

13) Tacos?

Stasya: No thanks.

Kielo: Yes.

Claudia: Mmm, yes!

Heidi: *gigglesnort*

Stasya: What are you laughing about?

Heidi: I’ll email the YouTube link to you later.

14) Ever slept in all day?

Stasya: I’m a night person, so yes.

Kielo: Yes, quite often.

Claudia: Not since I was a kid. Have to work!

Heidi: Sometimes, when I have a day off.

Claudia: You’d rather sleep than spend time with me?

Kielo: *whispers* Ooh, trouble in paradise!

Heidi: Well, only when you have to work, sweetie!

Claudia: Oh! I love you!

Heidi: Love you too!

Kielo: …

15) Favorite show?

Stasya: I prefer movies to shows.

Kielo: Desperate Housewives.

Claudia: Doctor Who! I love number 10, he’s so… scruffy!

Heidi: I dig Bones.

Kielo: Oh pun-ny… *eyeroll*

16) Favorite movie?

Stasya: Either Gone with the Wind or Moulin Rouge!

Kielo: Nosferatu and other good vampire movies. For the love of God and all that’s holy, do NOT talk to me about Twilight!

Claudia: I like the old Star Wars movies. The new ones are pretty bad, though.

Heidi: Company of Wolves. Storywise it’s not so great, but I like the effects.

17) Favorite band?

Stasya: Cole Porter.

Kielo: He’s still not a band. I like Depeche Mode and Blondie.

Claudia: I like Muse.

Heidi: I work in a music shop so I get to listen to a LOT of music. Current favourites are Dinosaur Jr., The Clash and Rammstein. I tend to like heavy rock, but can easily listen to just about anything.

Kielo: The question was favourite band, not an essay.

Heidi: Shut up, bitch.

Kielo: Oh, it’s so ON.

Kashii: Next question!!!

18) Eye colors?

Stasya: Dark brown, slightly reddish.

Kielo: Brown as well.

Claudia: Green.

Heidi: Yellow, bitches.

Kielo: I’d say light brown.

Heidi: I’m sure you would. Bitch.

Kashii: Fuck’s sake. Next!

Kielo: You can’t keep a good bitch down, honey.

Heidi: …

19) Skin?

Stasya: I’m as pale as they come.

Kielo: I’ve got a nice tan going on.

Claudia: I’m pale, but I have freckles.

Heidi: Sweet, sweet chocolaty brown.

Claudia: I could lick it for hours!

Stasya: …

Kielo: …

Claudia: *blush*

Heidi: Awwwww yeah. *big shit-eating grin*

20) Fat/Average/Slim?

Stasya: Slim. Bony, even.

Kielo: I’m fit enough.

Claudia: Slim, I guess. I wish I was more curvy.

Heidi: I’m average with curves in all the right places.

21) Rain, sunshine?

Stasya: Rain.

Kielo: Sunshine.

Claudia: Sunshine.

Heidi: Sunshine.

Stasya: Thanks for the solidarity, guys…

22) Pool, Beach?

Stasya: Pool.

Kielo: Pool.

Claudia: Pool. More intimacy.

Heidi: Either is fine.

23) Camping, staying home?

Stasya: I like both.

Kielo: ‘Camping’ at the gay bar.

Claudia: That sounds nice!

Heidi: …yes it actually does.

Stasya: Yeah I’d like to change my answer to that as well.

24) Dog or cat?

Stasya: Cat.

Kielo: Cat.

Claudia: Dog.

Heidi: Wolf.

25) Believe in aliens?

Stasya: I suppose they’re possible.

Kielo: I believe in a lot of weird shit these days, so why not.

Claudia: Ditto.

Heidi: Yeah, what they said.

26) Natural born, or clone?

Stasya: Natural. Kind of.

Kielo: Natural.

Claudia: Natural, but wrong.

Heidi: Natural, as in SUPERnatural.

Kielo: Oh you just love to rub it in, don’t you?

Heidi: Blow me.

27) Car or ship?

Stasya: I prefer my feet.

Kielo: Car. A nice one.

Claudia: Subway. But out of those, car. I’d like to go on a big ship, though!

Heidi: I’ll take you one day, sweetie!

Claudia: Yay!

28) Ever destroyed something out of blind rage?

Stasya: And how.

Kielo: Yes.

Claudia: Not really…

Heidi: Well, yes.

29) Any unusual things about you?

Stasya: I’m a Dhampir.

Kielo: There’s a vampire after me.

Stasya: No there isn’t. We went over this already.

Kielo: Oh. Well, no, then. Are you happy now?

Stasya: …no.

Claudia: Umm. NoIAmPerfectlyNormal!NORMAL!

Heidi: There’s some animal in me.

30) How much food/drink do you need a day?

Stasya: Not much.

Kielo: Not a lot, I need to stay in shape.

Claudia: I have to stand and run around all day for work, so I need quite a lot of energy.

Heidi: I don’t need much per se, but I do like a good meal.

Kielo: Ha haa, you said perse!

Heidi: …and your point is?

Kielo: That’s what you are.

Heidi: You’re not making any sense.

Stasya: …you’re such children.

31) Favorite place?

Stasya: I have to say London.

Kielo: In the sunlight.

Stasya: Oh blow me as well.

Claudia: At home with Heidi.

Heidi: At home with Claudia.

Kielo: Well if you two aren’t just the cutest thing ever. End sarcasm.

Heidi: Blow me, bitch.

Kashii: go home, all of you, before you kill each other. I need most of you alive.

Stasya: …most of us?

Kashii: Erm… go home!

Kielo: Going!

Stasya: Going!

Claudia: Going!

Heidi: Gone!

London, 3.

2009-01-26T20:20:00.002+02:00

Monday

Sunday had passed with very little besides a hangover and sore feet. After spending a few hours at the pub I’d found on Saturday, I’d taken to walking the streets of London, looking for the feeling of recognition which would have hinted at the presence of the vampire who most likely had caused Frank’s death. It was Sunday morning when I had finally made it back to my hotel, and then I’d spent most of the day asleep. Come evening, it was back to walking the streets again.

So Monday found me with feet so sore I was surprised they had not strangled me in my sleep. Don’t get me wrong: even though there had been no sign of that particular vampire, it had been wonderful to get to walk leisurely around London, to watch the people and the nightlife of such a large city. And there were parts of it that were practically still the same they had been in the twenties and fifties, so I had managed to easily slip into the past and relive some fond memories. Bad ones, too, of course.

I had gotten to bed only when the sun had started its rise and the vampires had gone underground. I had felt a few of them around, but none that had been familiar. Because of getting to sleep so late, or more precisely, early, it was long into the afternoon before I finally woke on Monday, sore and ravenous. After a shower and a large cup of coffee I headed out, once again towards the pub, to see my new friends.

The sun was peeking out from behind a thin cover of clouds, and the brightness of the day hurt my eyes enough that I decided to take the tube to the pub. It was rush hour already, so for once my small size was a plus as I elbowed my way into a full carriage. The air in it was hot and dry, full of smells of people sweating and tired after a long, warm day.

I should have braved the bright day after all.

The pub was absolutely packed, which was to be expected. I headed straight for the bar, not even attempting to find a seat in one of the full tables. The barman nodded at me as he rushed past, calling out orders to the kitchen. Leaning against the bar, I looked around for either Claudia or Heidi. I soon spotted the blond, carrying several pints across the room, trading them for empty ones. Soon enough she started to head back to the bar, and noticed me.

“Busy, eh?” I greeted her with a smile and a nod. She left a tray full of empty classes on the bar and ran a hand over her sweaty brow.

“That’s an understatement if I ever heard one! People want to forget it’s Monday again.”

“Is Heidi around?”

“She’s still at work, she’ll be over later, when it gets quieter.” Claudia picked up a full tray before giving me a questioning look.

There was that strangeness in her again, the heat of her sweaty body making it all the more notice-able. I figured I should find out what it was about her that just didn’t fit. You know, before another pretty blond tries to kill me.

“That sounds like a good idea. I think I’ll go see her at the shop, and come over later.”

“Okay!” Claudia said with a bright smile and excused herself, heading out across the bar again, somehow managing not to drop anything from the tray as she navigated her way through the throng of people, most of them at least half a head taller than she was.

Damn blondes and my weakness for them… I followed her example and dived into the crowd, making my way to the door and the relatively fresher air outside. The streets were full of tourists and people who had just left work, now going to shops or their homes or to meet up with friends or loved ones. Normal people doing normal things.

Days like these, I envied them so much.

The bell above the door rang as I entered the shop, and Heidi, standing behind the counter, looked up.

“Well hello there! Haven’t seen you since Saturday.” She greeted me once I got to her. There were a few customers at the shop, but they were more interested in music than us. Still, I kept my voice low.

“I’ve been hunting for our vampire.”

“Any luck?”

“No sign of him yet. How have you been doing?”

Heidi gave me a sheepish smile. “I haven’t actually gotten far yet. I had a few failed attempts. It’s only my first time, you know.”

I lifted my hands into the air and smiled when she started to get defensive. “It’s no problem! There’s no rush, I appreciate that it’s not so simple as it may seem.” And I wholeheartedly believed that. Except for the part of me that was growling and clawing, eager to sink its teeth into Alby and Kielo. But really, to find Frank’s killer, we needed more time anyway. “Better to practice and make a proper one than to get stuck in customs because of an obviously fake passport.”

“Thanks.” Heidi muttered but perked up as her eyes fell on the book she had been leafing through as I entered. I recognized it immediately as Frank’s address book.

“Find something in there?” I asked and nudged my head towards the book. Heidi nodded and leaned towards me.

“I got so frustrated with the id’s that I started to look through this. And guess who I found?” she looked at the book for a moment, frowning. “Well, guess who I think I found would be more accurate.”

“Our killer?” That would make life so much easier. We’d only have to track the bastard down and kick some ass.

“No.”

Ah well. No one ever said life was supposed to be easy.

“The dentist who made those falsies.”

I blinked a few times and shivered with disgust. “How do you reckon that?”

Heidi opened the book at a place she had marked with a slice of paper, and turned it around for me to see. There was only the one word on the page, Dentist, accompanied with a phone number. Heidi started talking before I could ask the obvious question.

“I called the number so I could get more information, or an appointment, or something, and guess what?” she was so excited she was practically bouncing.

“Tell me already.” I’m not so good with the guessing game.

Heidi leaned even closer. “The guy died. A week after Frank. Guess how.”

I glared at her from underneath my eyebrows.

“He bled to death, but! There wasn’t enough blood around him for that. Like someone had, oh, I don’t know…” she took a dramatic pause and I wanted to throttle her. “Sucked it out of him.”

We stared at each other for a long while, gears turning in our heads as both headed towards the conclusion I so eloquently voiced out.

“Well, fuck.”

“So I’m thinking,” Heidi said, looking at the book again and leafing through the pages, “that there might be more dead people in here. But why? Is the killer trying to get rid of all the witnesses? People who know he’s a vampire?”

“That would be my guess.” I said with a shrug.

“But… why? These people, if they’ve worked for long with Frank, they’re all gonna know to keep their mouths shut.” Heidi ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “I mean, all the clients should know they can trust Frank.”

I nodded. “That’s the basic principle. And most have taken his word, through all these years. But if there were more people involved: the dentist, perhaps a plastic surgeon, who knows who else, maybe our vamp thought that his secret wasn’t such a secret and wanted to make sure no one blabbed any-thing.”

“Too bad that having figured that out doesn’t get us anywhere.” Heidi nodded towards the customers who left without buying anything, leaving us alone for the moment.

“Don’t be so sure…” I said, for a thought had just popped in my head. I rolled it over for a moment while Heidi stared at me, one eyebrow raised in expectation. “If he’s so afraid of his secret coming out, I’d be willing to bet my… teeth,” I wasn’t that sure of my idea, “that he’s someone who has a lot to lose if the truth comes out.”

“Someone famous?” I could swear I saw curious wolf ears pop up on top of Heidi’s head.

“Someone famous.” I repeated with a nod.

“Cool. I mean… well. Cool.”

“It makes kicking his ass that much harder. There might be bodyguards.”

“Oh, yeah.” Heidi’s mood flattened, but she soon perked up again with where the trail of thought was leading her. “Maybe the dentist was blackmailing him.”

I was nodding, having reached the same conclusion. “Sounds likely. Him, or someone else who was helping with the vampire’s new life. If one of them was blackmailing him, I doubt they’d let the vampire know which one of them it was. Have you tried calling anyone else?” I nodded towards the book again.

“There is a number for a doctor, but he’s in the States for some conferences, has been for two weeks already. The rest…” she spread her hands in defeat. “Frank obviously had some code for all this. There’s mostly numbers here, no names, just initials and more numbers.”

I nodded, having seen the book myself.

“We could start calling the numbers…” Heidi started, clearly not looking forward to it. I shook my head.

“No point. Not yet, anyway. Who did you talk with about the dentist?”

“His assistant, the call was forwarded to her number. I pretended to be a client, and she was very chatty. Apparently, she didn’t like her boss much, and he was a bit of a twat. I doubt Frank would have hurt his own business by starting trouble with his client, so my bet’s on the dentist. Besides…” she frowned and looked at the book, “I’d like to think Frank would have told me if he would have been in enough trouble to start blackmailing people.”

I agreed. “It really wasn’t his style.”

“So, if we’re suspecting the dentist, does this get us anywhere?” Heidi asked. I shrugged, jolted out of my thoughts when the shop door opened and a few customers entered. Heidi greeted them with a happy wave, and leaned forward. I did the same, and tried to catch the end of my thoughts.

“It gives us a motive, but other than that… we could go over his client files, if we could get to them. Which I doubt. Besides, he probably wouldn’t include this kind of clients in those. Too risky, and most demand extreme confidentiality anyway.”

“So we’ll just keep tabs on the doc and see if he kicks the bucket under mysterious circumstances?” Heidi seemed disturbed at the thought of letting someone die like that.

“If we know when he’s coming back to London, and where he lives and works, I can try to keep an eye on him. If we’re right, that way we’ll have better chances of finding the vampire than by me running all around London.”

“I’ll see what I can find out!” She seemed thrilled at the thought of playing detective. I nodded, thinking that finding the vampire wouldn’t be so simple but not wanting to bring her down.

I moved away from the counter as the customers came to pay for their purchases, and wandered past the shelves myself while Heidi started her investigation with the help of a phone book and the internet. Those would have made my job so much easier in the olden days: she soon had the doctor’s addresses, both home and work. A single phone call told us that he’d be back in London next week.

“I might as well keep on walking the streets until that.” My choice of words, intentional of course, made Heidi grin like a wolf. I still doubted finding the vampire would be as easy as just stalking the doctor, but it was a possibility, and if it turned out well, we’d have our killer within the fortnight. Sweet. Less pressure on me finding him by walking aimlessly, no matter how minimal the chances.

Heidi and I chatted about this and that for about an hour after that, listening to music, until it was time to close the shop and head over to the pub. I had just started to educate her on the subject of Cole Porter, my favourite songwriter, but for some reason she seemed relieved to turn off the music and head on out. Kids these days, no respect for proper music.

The pub was slightly emptier than it had been earlier, but the atmosphere was a lot calmer. I suppose it was because the patrons already had a few pints in them, and could face the reality of another long week ahead of them with a more relaxed attitude.

We managed to get a table all to ourselves, and Claudia was there immediately, to give Heidi a kiss and me a smile. “Hey you two, what can I get you lovely ladies?”

“Pint, and fish ’n chips for me.” Heidi said, almost glowing at the little blonde. I looked away, pretending to read the list above the bar.

“Same for me.”

“Coming right up!” With that, Claudia was gone again. I turned back to Heidi who gave me a wide grin.

“You know, there really is not anything quite as annoying as a sweet couple in love.” I muttered. She laughed.

“Suck it up. Figuratively speaking, of course.”

Claudia was soon back with our pints, but the food took a while longer. We were almost done eating when she joined us with a cup of coffee, taking a break.

“So many people, I thought this day would never end. My feet are killing me. You’re going to have to rub them tonight.” She had slipped off her shoes and was now poking at Heidi with her toes. My eyes were glued to her shimmering stockings.

“All right, just put them away!” Heidi laughed, trying to defend herself. “No offense, love, but you have been wearing those shoes all day. And we are trying to eat here.”

Claudia pouted and retracted her feet, slipping them back under the table. The loss of the sight of those legs woke me from the near trance they had caused, and I remembered to eat again, feeling quite guilty at staring so. Neither of them had noticed, or at least they didn’t comment on it.

…damn blondes.

With my worries at the back of my mind for the moment, I had time to notice that strangeness in Claudia’s scent again. While the two of them chatted quietly, leaning against each other while Heidi ate, I concentrated on the blonde to try and figure it out. It took a minute but it was their closeness which finally made it clear.

I blinked a few times in surprise when I realized what it was, and since my mouth is too often quicker than my head, and since I was so surprised, the words were out before I could stop them.

“You’re a man.” I said, staring straight at Claudia. They both froze, eyes wide, just staring ahead. Heidi dropped her fork. It felt like the pub around us stopped while a bright blush raced up to Claudia’s face. The next second the world was moving again, and she –or he?- was running across the bar, towards the backroom.

“Why the hell did you do that for?” Heidi yelled at me before rushing after her. I was left sitting at the table, feeling both dumbstruck and very, very dumb. I could feel the stares of the people around me, but they seemed mostly curious about the shouting and running, rather than if they had actually heard my words. Which was good, I guess.

I could see the barman making his way towards me, a stern look on his young face. When he reached the table he leaned close and told me to go after them and apologize. I nodded hastily, having expected a sermon, and got up. Before I could pass him he grabbed my upper arm. My first instinct was to tear his off, or throw him away, but I forced myself calm. This human couldn’t possibly hurt me.

“And whatever the fuck you do,” he whispered into my ear, “don’t ever, ever hum or sing Crying Game around her, or she’ll lock herself into the bathroom for three hours again.”

Fighting down a grin I nodded and headed towards the door which said ‘Staff only’ in big bold letters. No one stopped me from passing through it, though, and I found myself in a very full corridor. I had to dodge and twist around boxes, crates and piles of various things before I reached a small room. It seemed to be some sort of a restroom combined with a small kitchen and tiny closets for the worker’s things. Heidi was in there, standing next to a closed door, talking quietly. She gave me an exasperated glare when I entered, but moved away a little when I reached the door. I pressed my head against it to be heard on the other side.

“Claudia, I am so sorry. It just slipped out. I didn’t mean to say it like that.”

“You could tell!” came a muffled answer, followed by sobbing.

“Honey, trust me! You totally pass.” Heidi said, waving her hand at me, urging me on. It took a moment for me to realize what she was talking about.

“She’s right. I wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at you.” I tried to assure Claudia through the door. It was the truth. If I hadn’t noticed her scent, I wouldn’t have been able to tell. But I didn’t know whether she’d understand if I told her that. I had no idea what Heidi has told her of me or her-self.

“Then how did you know?” Claudia asked. I gave Heidi a pleading look, spreading my hands a little. She rolled her eyes and leaned against the door as well.

“Honey, you remember when I told you that I’m special in a way?” she said in a low voice, not wanting to be heard outside the room. Sobbing ended on the other side of the door, and Claudia sounded less muffled when she spoke next.

“Yes. You mean she’s…”

“Yes, love. She’s special as well.”

“Is she like you?”

“Kind of, but in a different way.” Heidi explained, looking at me. I gave her a grin and pressed my mouth almost to the crack between the door and the wall.

“I have a very keen sense of smell. That’s the only way I could tell. You look just like a girl, I swear, but you don’t smell like one. Close, but not exactly.”

There was a long silence before the bathroom door opened slightly, and Claudia peered out at me quizzically. “What are you, then?” she asked with a whisper. I glanced at Heidi who nodded.

“I’m half vampire.”

Green eyes blinked at me, and she wiped the last of her tears away. I muttered one more apology to her and moved back as she opened the door to come out. They were both now giving me examining looks, and I bore it with just a small sigh.

“How can you be just half a vampire?” Claudia asked, her head tilted cutely to the right. In the poor lightning of the room she looked too much like Kielo again.

“My father was a vampire and my mother human. Sometimes, if too much time hasn’t passed after the vampire’s been turned, he can still sire children.” I explained with a shrug. Heidi nodded at this; she must have done some homework on the creatures of the night. Claudia’s eyes grew wide and her mouth even opened into a small ‘o’.

“I didn’t know that was possible!”

“It’s not too common, but it happens.”

Claudia gave a small sound of wonder, and the three of us looked at each other for a moment. Heidi was the first to start grinning, and I soon followed. Claudia’s small smile was too cute.

Normalcy is overrated anyway.

The barman was still glaring death at me when we returned to the pub, but the patrons paid us no attention, which helped to calm Claudia further. This sudden revelation about her did help to distinguish her from Kielo, but it also made my interest in her grow. I have met a lot of different people and creatures during my near two centuries of existence, including people who dressed as the oppo-site gender, but never anyone quite like Claudia. She was more woman than man, clearly, but from looking at her I couldn’t honestly tell what I might find underneath her clothes. I wanted to ask, purely out of curiosity of course. No need to mention the urge to get a better mental image. But as much as I wanted to, it was clear this was neither the time nor the place for that kind of a conversation. Most likely she wouldn’t even want to talk about it with me, practically a stranger, someone she’d met a handful of times. Besides, she had to get back to work.

“Sorry.” I said once more after Heidi and I were left alone again, but she just waved her hand.

”Don’t worry about it. Had I realized you could tell, uh, that, I would have mentioned something.”

“Yeah, so that I don’t go and blurt something stupid in public.”

That got a smile out of Heidi. “So, you’re gonna spend the night walking again?” she asked after emptying her pint.

“Yes. I’ve slept all day, so I might as well. The doctor is a good lead, but I’m not willing to bet everything on it.”

“It’s your feet.” Heidi said with a shrug and gave me a warm smile. “Still, thanks. Frank would appreciate it. But if you want to take a night off or something, you’re welcome to hang out with Claudia and me. All work and no play and so on.”

“Thanks.” I honestly considered the offer. “Claudia won’t mind?”

“Nah. She’s actually quite interested in werewolves and vampires and such, for some unimaginable reason.” Heidi said with a smirk which showed off all her sharp teeth.

I grinned back, refraining from mentioning that I was starting to find the blonde quite interesting myself. Bad girl!

I kept Heidi company until Claudia’s day was done, and headed to my hotel after we parted ways outside the pub. I had wanted to change into clean clothes, I had worn these last night as well, but realized that everything I owned could do with a wash. Or, alternatively, I needed to buy new clothes. Yes, that was far preferable. But not now; now I just grabbed my new gun and headed out to walk the darkening streets of London.

The sun had already gone down, but it was still warm, a nice summer’s evening. The streets were still quite crowded, and as I walked through the busy Oxford Street, full of stores, towards Hyde Park, I felt more than one vampire in the vicinity. That was nothing new, not a night had passed so far when I hadn’t noticed a few of them, lurking just inside my range, most likely trying to find out who I was and whether I was trouble. It was frustrating.

You see, I couldn’t be exactly sure that I could tell whether one of the vampires was the one I was looking for or not. I wanted to run from one bloodsucker to the next, find a place they hung out at –there’s always a place like that- and interrogate or bully them into telling what I wanted to know. I had tried questioning a few the other night, but they had not been too keen in telling me anything. Geez. You kill a few dozen vampires and suddenly everyone hates your guts.

I didn’t really make any move to follow any of them, so they had left me alone. So far. Still, the gun in my bag gave me some small amount of extra security. It would not kill an attacking vampire, but it would slow one down. A human I could handle without it. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need it at all.

I was quite frustrated by the time I reached the park, and started to walk through it straight towards south and Knightsbridge. The park was quiet but not empty by a long shot. I stuck to the paths, but let my senses spread out as far as they could go. It was refreshing, and nice to be in such an open area for a change.

My thought wandered along my senses, and without my common sense looking after them, I soon realized they had found their way to Claudia. I stopped dead in my tracks, not unlike walking to a wall, and slapped my forehead.

“Not going there. I haven’t even gotten over the last one. And, this one’s taken.” I muttered, ignoring the people who had just passed me and were giving me very long looks. I shook my head and continued walking, faster this time. It’s in my nature to pursue any romantic option presented, but I still have some morals. I’d never go between a loving couple like that. Not anymore. Thrice was enough, and that was a long time ago. I would like to think myself an older, smarter little ungodly creature now. And it was silly, fancying someone so suddenly, just because they’re something I’ve never ‘tasted’ yet. Not that I hadn’t found Claudia lovely from the first time I met her; it’s just that I had figured that was because she reminded me so much of Kielo.

In any case, she was with Heidi, and I am a responsible, reasonable adult, who was picturing Claudia naked at the moment.

I started to run.

I reached the south end of the park in no time, and had to concentrate on not walking into people again, so my mind was blissfully empty of pretty blondes. Until I realized that I was not thinking about either Kielo or Claudia, of course. You can imagine yourselves the visuals that brought up. Hurrying my steps, I soon turned away from Knightsbridge, and passed Harrods. Following our brilliant deduction that the vampire was rich and/or famous, it made sense that he would live in wealthier parts of London, like Kensington. It was as good a place to start tonight as any.

Soon the road changed its name to Cromwell Road, and I was setting myself up for another night of walking till my feet fell off. But wouldn’t you know it. Then, just then, I felt the familiar tug of a vampire approaching. Fast. From behind me. I whirled around and was almost blinded by the head-lights of several cars on the road beside me, released by the previous set of traffic lights, rushing to-wards the next ones. I blinked several times and stopped breathing when the tugging became some-thing more than just the normal warning of a vampire close by.

Frank’s killer was in one of the cars, passing me just now.

I spent another three heartbeats staring like an idiot, and then took off running after the cars. There were about a dozen of them, several taxis, a few lorries, the rest private cars. I couldn’t tell which was the right one, they had passed so fast. But the first ones were already stopping at the next traffic lights, so I’d get a chance for a closer look.

If I could run a little faster, that is. The lights were already turning green, the cars taking off. I could still sense the vampire vaguely, and the feeling got stronger as I got closer. But it wasn’t enough, and I wasn’t fast enough. I couldn’t make out which car the feeling was coming from, and they were gone before I got to the lights. All I could see was their tail lights as the line of cars drove on, some turning off Cromwell, some heading on along it. I stopped after a few more meters, out of breath and annoyed, but also quite excited.

Our man was still in the area.

If that wasn’t him leaving the city, my annoying pragmatic side voiced up, but I refused to let it get to me. I had found the vampire once: sucking those dentures hadn’t been for nothing.

I would surely find him again. The hunt was on.

Not a real update...

2008-12-23T15:34:00.010+02:00

Sun-kissed is obviously late again, delayed because of all the fuss and extra work due to the holidays. I'll try to get a chapter up late this week or early the next, but in the mean time, have some pictures: Kielo, Claudia, Heidi and Stasya as the fours seasons, after originals by Alphonse Mucha.

Happy holidays!

Bigger pictures and more info about them at http://kumoashi.deviantart.com/

London, 2.

2008-12-04T16:28:00.003+02:00

Saturday

Someone has once said or written something along the lines that when you are bored with London, you are bored with life. It’s true, and I could feel the extraordinary power of the city the moment I put my foot onto its soil for the first time. It breathes and lives, a place of growth, birth and death. It’s always a pleasure to go there.

It certainly was a pleasure waking up to a cloudy Saturday from between two warm bodies. Both my willing victims were still sound asleep, and barely moved as I stretched my body from the tip of my toes to the tips of my fingers high above my head. No angry pulling of burned skin, no creaking in my joints, no aches in the back of my head. Only the languid warmth one can achieve with a night full of hunting and sex, and a belly full of strong blood. With two plates to eat from, I hadn’t had the need to taste too much from either, so they wouldn’t suffer any ill effects. Well, nothing more than drinking down half the bar would have. And that was no fault of mine. Not completely, anyway.

I had half a mind to stay in the warm bed, but a look at the small clock hanging on the hotel room wall informed me that it was close to noon already. Careful not to stir the sleepers, I crept out of bed and into the small bathroom for a long, hot shower. I stopped to admire my healed skin for a moment in the mirror, and gripe at my mess of hair. The short strands that had survived Kielo’s scissors hadn’t all made it through that damned sunny day, and even though I had gotten rid of the smell of burnt hair, the dark mop itself looked like a bird’s nest.

Nothing to ruin a perfectly good day than to be reminded of those who fucked you over. But the noises coming from outside the bathroom door quickly drew my attention away from moping too much.

My pillows had awaken.

They both looked a bit sheepish and a lot hung over as they crawled out of bed and into their clothes. Much attention was not spared to who put on whose shirt or pants, but they managed to look more or less representable as they gave me a small kiss each, a thank you for a good night, and lurked out of the room and towards their own hotel before their parents got worried.

Don’t give me that look. I already feel like a cradle robber no matter who I’m with.

After a big cup of coffee for breakfast –if you can call it breakfast at one in the afternoon- I got dressed and headed out. I had an hour before Heidi got off from work, so I started to head to the pub already. It was a nice day for a walk, and I hadn’t allowed my willing victims to drink down everything in the bar: I had wanted my share, so a few hairs of the dog that bit me would be appreciated.

The pub was almost as full as it had been yesterday, but from the hubbub of voices I could make out that there were a lot of tourists in today. Soho is a popular place for them. Hell, most of London is. For me it meant that I couldn’t get a window-seat, so I took the last available chair at the bar itself. The barman seemed to remember me from yesterday as he nodded a greeting and got me a pint of beer before rushing to the other side of the bar to serve some tourists.

The cool drink felt heavenly in my mouth and as it made its way into my stomach. The noises of the crowd faded into a murmur and I do believe there was a silly, dreamy smile on my face. At least it made Claudia hide her laughter behind her hand as she came over to say hello.

“You look like you had fun last night.” She said as she leaned against the bar and lifted one foot out of her shoe to rub at it.

“Oh yes, twice as much fun as I had anticipated.” I grinned wide enough to show her most of my teeth, which made her laugh again. She was flushed from running around the bar, and looked more than a little tired. Now that my senses were keener again from all that blood, I could sense that wrongness in her scent I’d noticed last time. Still, I couldn’t identify it. Quite baffling. “Do you always work Saturdays?”

“Pretty much, yeah. I need all the money I can get!” This time her laugh sounded a little forced, and she sat down happily when the seat next to mine was vacated. “Still, I wish I’d have a full weekend just to myself sometime. Or a week, even. I’d love to travel somewhere, and be pampered.” She looked over the full room and frowned. “Good to have dreams, I guess.”

“You’ll make it some day,” I assured her absent-mindedly, still trying to figure her out.

“God, I hope so!” Claudia laughed and stood up to get back to work. “Heidi should be here soon, so I guess I’ll see you later.” And with that, she was off, lost in the sea of patrons all vying for her attention. I gave my pint all of mine, and spent the next twenty minutes in a pleasant fog where nothing else existed. Not even the puzzle that little blond girl had presented me with.

Maybe it was my senses or just damn good timing that I snapped back to reality as the door opened and Heidi walked in. I turned to give her a wave and she headed straight for me. The seat beside me had been claimed again, so I turned away from the bar to greet her.

“So. Do you want to head out straight away?” she asked, scanning the place for Claudia. I shrugged and slid off the bar stool, ignoring the fact that it pulled my skirt up almost all the way. Sometimes it’s really annoying to be so short. I arranged my clothes and tried not to stare too obviously as the girls exchanged a kiss before we left.

Heidi was surprisingly quiet as we walked through the busy streets. Well, I didn’t really know her that well to say that the silence was odd, but I’d gotten the impression she wasn’t the quiet type. I also noticed that she was stealing glances at me when she thought I wouldn’t notice.

She spoke out before I could ask if something was wrong.

“Have you been drinking?”

I opened my mouth a few times before answering, wondering whether I still smelled like… well, like a still even after the long shower. “Yeah, I had a few too many last night.”

“No, not beer. I mean, drinking. You know.” She seemed somewhat awkward. I felt somewhat embarrassed.

“Yeah. That, too. You can tell?”

“It was either that or then you’re on some damn heavy period.” Heidi said with a grimace. I burst into laughter.

“Haven’t had one of those in decades!”

“Lucky you.” She said, smiling once again. Her expression however soon changed into that uncomfortable one again. “If you don’t mind me asking, do you do it often?”

“Does it bother you?”

“A little.”

“Don’t worry, then. I only drink if I really need to. As it is, I got my ass handed to me just before I came here, and needed some refreshment. I can assure you that both my victims walked out of my hotel room on their own feet not two hours ago. And they were not complaining.”

“I’m not trying to be your conscience or anything here, I know it’s natural to your kind. It’s just… icky.” Heidi hurried to explain. I assured her it was no problem. Still, we didn’t speak much for the next quarter of an hour or so, which it took to walk to the somewhat rundown apartment building where she led me.

Heidi dug out a cardboard box from a closet and brought it out to a living room slash bedroom slash kitchen slash dining room. The apartment was very small, everything except the bathroom and toilet were situated in the same space. There was only one window above a small table and three chairs, next to an American-style large fridge and other kitchen appliances. On one wall was a double bed, on the other a small sofa. More like a big easy chair, actually. A small table between the bed and the sofa was covered with magazines, books and a small TV.

Heidi dropped the box on top of the table with a loud gasp and motioned for me to sit on the sofa. I perched on the edge since it was mostly covered with magazines, clothes and blankets. Heidi herself plopped unceremoniously down on the floor, and opened the box.

“This is some of Frank’s stuff, the things I suppose you’ll need.” She made a gesture with her hand for me to take a look, and I obeyed.

The box was full of neatly packed empty passports and driver’s licenses for many countries, and different kinds of official forms and documents, seals of approval and stamps.

“There’s two more boxes of this same kind of stuff, plus a few cameras and other things. I don’t know what exactly to do with it all. I mean, Frank told me a lot, but I’ve never really done anything like this. You’ll be my first victim.” Heidi grinned at me, a bit nervous, most likely because she wasn’t sure how to help me. I gave her a reassuring smile.

“We’ll figure something out.” I said as I reached over to pick up a few empty passports. I had no idea how Frank had managed to get these things. They appeared to be the real things, lacking only the official information and photo of the carrier.

“You… show up in photos, right? ‘cause if you don’t, I think we have a problem.” She asked, scratching her head as she leafed through an empty passport.

“Yes, I do.” I managed after laughing a minute. ”I’m not even a full vampire, and those show up in photos, TV’s and whathaveyou. We’re real, but all the myths about us aren’t.”

“Again, lucky you. There ain’t no denying that I turn into a complete monster once a month.” Heidi grinned like a beast while I all but laughed myself down from the sofa. “You figure out what you need, I’ll get the rest of the stuff out.”

I made a mental list while she brought out two more boxes and a laptop computer. Guess I’d manage for now with the bare necessities: a passport and maybe a driver’s license. Birth certificates and a history for my new identity could wait. I wasn’t going to get a job or an apartment in the next few days or weeks anyway. Not until I’d figure out what I wanted to do.

Hell, if I decided to head back to Finland as soon as possible and get me some good revenge, I wouldn’t need any of that unless I survived it all. Me against the night time. No matter how damn good I am at what I do, it had been made obvious just a week ago that I could get my ass kicked. I might have to go against Alby’s friends as well. Through them before I got to him, and Kielo.

Heidi dropped the last box onto the floor and picked up a camera from it. “All right, try to look all serious and shit.”

I ran a hand through my hair and looked straight at the camera. Its flash blinded me for a second, and when I could see properly again, Heidi was giving the photo a judging look through the camera’s small screen.

“I think it’s all right. So what do you need?”

I gave her the same explanation I’d ran through my head, omitting all talk about revenge, though. She wouldn’t need that information for what she needed to do.

“That makes it easier for me. So for now we just need to come up with a name and a birth date and place for you.” She picked up a paper pad and a pen and looked up at me, expecting me to come up with something. I just blinked at her. There was a reason I’d always let Frank handle all this stuff.

“Well… I told the barman at Frank’s that my name’s Dorothy. Might as well go with it.”

Heidi nodded and wrote the name down, the tip of her tongue peeking out from through her lips. “Surname?”

“I don’t know. Jones. That’s common enough.”

“Right. When were you born, Dorothy Jones?”

I threw my hands up. “Don’t know. How old do I look?”

Heidi raised an eyebrow at me. “Something between twenty-five and two hundred.”

“That’s not really helpful.”

Eventually we decided on twenty-six, and that I was from London. Heidi also wanted me to tell what kind of schools I might have gone to, so that she could do some research and start on my history already.

“I might as well learn to do this now, when I have such a patient client.” She said with a forlorn look at the boxes. “At least Frank left me some manuals in the computer.”

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. There are other people who do this stuff. Frank’s bound to have some information on them somewhere, so if someone else comes knocking, you can send them on. Most people won’t do what I do and pop up when they need a new identity now. It’s considered bad form, knowing how much time it takes to create a whole new life.”

Heidi nodded, thoughtful “It’s a pain in the ass to learn everything, but I don’t know. It’s kind of cool. Besides, I can make some serious money with this. That would be great, Claudia and me could get a proper place to live in, instead of this.” She waved a hand around the small apartment. “Besides, she can be a bit high maintenance.”

I had to laugh, and Heidi smirked. “I’m envious. She’s very cute.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” Her smirk turned feral, and I thought it best not to question too far.

“Have you two been together long?”

“Six months or so. She could probably tell you how many days exactly. But we’ve known each other for like, two years. I’ve been working at the music shop ever since I moved to London, and we met the day she started to work at the pub.”

“That’s sweet. You both live here?”

“Yeah, she moved in a few months ago. So we can save more money, paying only one rent instead of two. Of course it’s nice, since we love each other and all.”

“That is nice.” Uncalled but still there, Kielo’s laughter ringing in my head at the mention of love, sunlight through the curtains dancing on her curls.

“Don’t do that. You look like I just kicked your puppy.” Heidi said and lifted a hand to my knee, still holding the camera in her other hand. “Why so sad?”

“Some bad stuff happened in Helsinki before I came over here.”

“The same shit that made you drink blood last night?”

“Exactly.” She didn’t question further and I wasn’t keen on telling more, so we fell quiet. She had a very open, honest face, so I could tell she thought she’d crossed a line with her question. I wanted to tell her she hadn’t, but as good as I am at reading the emotions of others, expressing my own is something I don’t really excel at.

“So,” I eventually broke the heavy silence, “do you need any more information?”

Heidi let out a long breath. “There was actually something I wanted to run by you. I mean, you knew Frank. Better than I did, and for far longer.” She said quietly, staring at the camera in her hands, clicking a button to run through the pictures saved within.

“What is it?”

”I think he might have been killed. Murdered.”

“Shit. By who?” The thought hadn’t crossed my mind at all. But damn, it made me forget my own worries like nothing else.

”That I don’t know. But I was the one who found him, at the backroom of his pub. They say it was a heart attack, or maybe a stroke. They didn’t look into it too carefully since he was so old, and because there was nothing in the room to suggest anything but a natural death. But as far as I know, he was unbelievably healthy for someone his age.”

“Because of the werewolf-thing. He could have had years, maybe decades more.” I muttered.

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I think he didn’t just drop dead like that. And also…” she hesitated for a while, pursing her lips and frowning as she thought. “When I found him… there was something in the room that made me think there was someone else there when he died.”

“What?” I sat up straight, eyeing her. “What was it? Did you tell the police?”

Heidi looked a little sheepish, not to mention frustrated. “No, I didn’t. I took it. Frank used to tell me how important it was to keep what he did a secret, since so many people’s lives depended on it. And what was there, it would have made the police suspicious. They would have investigated further, and people would not have been happy. Not to mention that the thing I found was… well, you have a look at it.”

She put the camera down and rummaged underneath the sofa, pulling out dust bunnies, discarded socks and hair ties, and finally a small cardboard box. After one more moment of hesitation she shoved the box at me. “Take a look.”

Somewhat worried that the box might jump up and bite me, I gingerly took it from Heidi’s outstretched hand and put it down on my lap. Swallowing my silly fear, I took a hold of the lid and pulled the thing open.

“What the hell…” was all I managed to say when I saw what was within.

“Told you.” Heidi said quietly and picked up the camera again. “What do you make of it?”

“It’s… it’s not his, is it?”

“Hell no! He had all of his where they belonged. Take a close look on the inside.”

“I’m looking.”

“So you thinking what I’m thinking?”

I pushed down shivers of disgust and picked up the… thing. It was covered with dried blood, but still felt smooth, cool and almost slippery in my dry fingers. “Vampires, vampires everywhere…” I muttered as I stared at the human dentures in my hand. They were for the upper jaw, for the front teeth, from eyetooth to eyetooth, a bit yellow, completely normal looking. Except for the fact that on the inside, there was room for a full set of teeth. And looking at the holes left for the eyeteeth, it was obvious there was room enough for a pair of sharp and long vampire teeth.

Cosmetic teeth to hide the fact that whoever wore them was really a bloodsucker.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Heidi said with a morbid chuckle as she stared, fixated, at the teeth in my hand. “They were in his hand, so I figured they had to be important. So I cleaned the blood from his hands, and everywhere else, took those and called the ambulance so they’d come and pronounce him dead.”

“Shit…” I muttered, turning the teeth around and around, careful not to disturb the blood.

“So… can you, I don’t know…” she twirled her fingers in the air, “do some vampire magic and find out who those belong to?”

“Frankly…” I started and stopped to curse my choice of words, “I’ve never tried. In theory, I should be able to tell. I can’t hunt anyone down from just this, but if I pass them in the street, I might be able to tell. The blood is dry, so that might be a problem.”

“Can you try?”

“For Frank, hell yes. And only for him. You might want to look away.” I grimaced at the mere thought of what I was about to do. But there was no other way. This was our only lead to who had been there when Frank had died, and if there was a chance to find that person, I would do anything.

Even stick those used, bloody dentures into my mouth and suckle on them.

Heidi had not looked away.

“Oh my god!” She screamed and covered her eyes with her hands. “Sick! I’m gonna throw up!”

When they were clean, I spat the dentures back into the box. “You’re going to throw up? Do me a favour and get me a beer. Or juice. Or a stiff drink. Anything. Now. Please.”

Heidi didn’t hesitate for one heartbeat: she was at the fridge before I finished my request, and within another five beats she dropped a can of beer into my lap and opened another for herself. Those disappeared quite fast, and she was faster in getting both of us another ones.

“So…” she eventually started, pointedly looking at anything besides the open box in my lap, “did that do any good?”

I closed the box and gave it to her. She shoved it back underneath the sofa very quickly.

“Some of the blood was Frank’s. Most of it not.”

“Can you tell whose it was?”

“I don’t know. I won’t know if it worked at all until, and if, I come across whoever it was. Then, if I get this… feeling, I can tell it was that person.”

Heidi stared at me for a long while, processing the information. “Damn. Respect to you, girl.”

“Thanks.”

She’d been flicking through the photos in the camera again, and now gave me the camera and pointed at the small screen. Squinting a little, I immediately recognized Frank from the image, smiling as he looked towards the camera. He was far older than the last time we saw each other, but still the same. Nothing, not even so many years, could alter that grin. I felt a lump in my throat and swallowed hard before tears accompanied it.

“Could you… if you ever print some of these, could you make me a copy of this?”

“Of course.” Heidi said softly as she took the camera back. “Should make one for myself. I miss him, much more than I thought I would. Never knew him as a kid, and now… feels like I got to have him for such a short time, you know?”

I laughed a little. “Yeah, I know, even though I knew him for over eighty years.”

“My parents are alive and well, but dad’s always been in denial of what Frank was. What he himself is, and me, too. Dad’s barely like, half a werewolf, I just have these teeth and kick-ass senses, but to him, even that’s too much to handle. So he’s always looked at me a bit funny, especially after I got in touch with Frank. Mom doesn’t know of all this, just that dad and Frank never got along. I’m not much in the way of a werewolf, but I always felt that with Frank, I didn’t have to hide even that. He’s always accepted me.” Heidi’s eyes were nailed on the camera while she spoke. I shook my head a little when I realized I’d learned more about her in one conversation than I knew about Kielo at all.

Ugh. Get out of my mind, blondie, I’ve got other things to worry about now.

“He was always special.” I managed to say once I got my thoughts in order. Heidi looked up at me and smiled, even though her yellowish eyes were sad.

“Could you tell me more about him sometime?”

“Get me another beer and I’ll tell you now.” I suggested with a grin, and Heidi complied.

We sat talking for the better part of three hours. I did most of the speaking, telling her how Frank and I had met, and about our adventures together through the 1920’s. She seemed thrilled to hear all of it, to learn how he had saved my life and how he’d ended up doing what he’d done. And it was good to relive those memories. A proper wake for Frank, something he’d have appreciated. Two of his favourite women talking about him, and not cursing him to the lower levels of hell.

Heidi was so grateful that she didn’t even think to object when I asked whether I could have a look through Frank’s black book where he had kept all the basic information on his clients and other people he’d worked with. I couldn’t find Iggy, not with his original name anyway. Nor with the one Frank had given him after the war. And after that, I knew nothing of him.

What I did find was the name and phone number of someone else, someone who could lend me a hand in getting what I needed. After what happened in Helsinki I had decided that I wouldn’t be caught unarmed again. I let myself get too comfortable back there. I won’t make the same mistake again.

It is illegal to carry firearms in the United Kingdom but that doesn’t mean they can’t be found and bought, when you know where to go. I was also looking to buy some knives. Can’t beat a good knife, unless it’s with a sword. There’s just something so classy about them. Guns are efficient, fast, and good when you can’t or don’t want to get too close to your opponent. But they lack the grace of a good sword. That’s what I think anyway. They’re also good for sharpening stakes. Useful things, swords. But since I was looking for an easily concealable weapon, I would have to make do with a gun.

I jotted down the name and number, and returned the book to Heidi’s safekeeping. I told her to take good care of the book since it most likely held some information on Frank’s killer as well. She promised to start working on my id’s as soon as she was sober again: for now, she’d head down to the pub and wait there until Claudia got off. She invited me to join her, but I declined again. I had a gun to buy.

There was a slight drizzle when we finally got out. Heidi headed towards Soho, and as soon as she was out of hearing range, I called the number I’d copied from Frank’s book. A man soon answered, and after a brief conversation I knew who to look for and where to find him. It was no surprise that I would have to go to the seedier part of the city, East End. Didn’t mind, though, I’m pretty good at taking care of myself. Barring the chance of a pretty blonde leading me around like a lovesick fool, of course.

I was still so high on all that beer and blood that I decided to walk. Just a mile or three. I wanted to see some of the sights and the area I used to live in decades ago, but resolved to leave all that until I had my matters in order. I would have to do a lot of walking anyway, if I wanted any kind of a real chance of finding the vampire whose fake teeth I could still feel in my mouth.

The cover of clouds above hadn’t shown any signs of parting by the time I found myself in parts of London one might want to avoid, at least in the night. I turned away from the busier main streets, and soon enough my surroundings started to look less than inviting. Despite the slight rain, there were groups of people here and there, young and old, looking suspicious and looking suspiciously at me.

“Hey sister!” someone hollered from behind, and I turned to look in the direction I had come from. A man who had been sitting on the side of the street had stood up and taken a few steps in my direction, away from his surly looking friends. His long reddish-brown hair was on a ponytail at the back of his head, leaving his round and amused face for the world to see. His grin was wide as he waved at me and walked closer. “Somethin’ I can help you with?”

“Perhaps.” I said, looking him up and down. His clothes were baggy, good for carrying around concealed weapons and other pleasantries. “Are you T.T.?” I had no idea what the letters stood for, nothing else had been written on the page to clarify.

“That I am. You must be Frank’s friend, may he rest in peace.”

“That I am.” I said and nodded. The man grinned, the solemn look mentioning Frank had brought on disappearing as fast as it had appeared.

“So what can I do for a pretty lady such as yourself?”

“I’m looking for some protection.”

“Oh, what a happy coincidence this is, then! For I do offer that very thing. Now,” he looked around, “what kind of protection are you looking for, precisely?”

“A gun.” I told him, and managed not to roll my eyes too much.

“Something small for the little lady…” he said like any market place seller would, and shoved his hand into his jacket. “Might I suggest a Ruger GP-100? Small, easy to handle, yet packs a nice kick. Not a tiny pocket gun as those tend to suck. A classic. Also, looks pretty. Ladies like the pretty things, eh?”

I took the gun from him with a chuckle and inspected it. My familiarity with it seemed to impress him. “You have bullets as well?” I asked, liking the weight of the thing in my hand.

“Of course.”

It was hard to fight down laughter as he pulled out a small, bunched up plastic bag from his pocket and dropped in a few boxes of bullets ‘For starters,’ as he put it. The gun went in there as well, and I then buried the package into my bag. The price was higher than I had imagined, but as I soon learned he was keen to haggle, and eventually let me have the bullets for almost free.

“Don’t want the customer to go away with a bad taste in ‘er little mouth, do I?”

I wanted to tell him he was far too late for that, but since I didn’t particularly want to explain the denture thing I just nodded and shoved my wallet back into my bag.

”Just one more thing…” he said as I got ready to thank him and leave. “Could I see some ID, miss?” he asked, grinning. My hand was halfway to my wallet again before the absurdity of the situation stopped it.

“You’re about to sell me an illegal gun, and you want to see my ID?” Yep, it still sounded silly when I said it out loud.

He barked with laughter and slapped my shoulder playfully. “People always fall for that!”

“Yeah, very funny, Giggles.”

“Call me T.T., sister.”

”What’s it short for?”

“You have to guess.”

“…Tea for two?” He stared at me for two seconds before bursting into laugher again and draping an arm around my shoulders.

“Well, if you insist, darling. But you’re buying.”

“No.” I lifted his arm off and started walking. Two blocks away I could still hear him laughing.

Soon I was back on one of the busier main streets, wondering what to do next. It was half past six on a Saturday evening, and I had nothing planned. I stood there, people walking past me in the still light early summer’s evening, despite the clouds that kept the sun away from the streets. I thought about Helsinki, about Frank’s death, about Heidi and Claudia, and decided to do the only sensible thing.

The closest pub is usually only across the street.

London, 1.

2008-11-16T12:23:00.001+02:00

Friday

It’s good to be back in London, underneath its overcast skies, where the sun doesn’t reach my sorry ass. Not at the moment, anyway.

I was fresh out of the tube out of Heathrow out of a plane. All I had with me were the things that fit into my back bag. So not much. A few of my favourite books, some mementoes and a change of clothes. Things that had not been taken from me.

Not like it’s the first time I’ve started a new life from scratch.

I chose to come to London not just because I like the place, but because of an old friend of mine, Frank. He could create a new life for me, which I was in dire need of if I wanted to make sure Alby’s friends wouldn’t become aware of my continued existence. Not to mention the bastard himself. He’ll know I lived, though, once I kill him. But that would have to wait until I heal properly.

Have to admit, I was also a bit worried about Frank. He hadn’t answered his phone when I called him several times, just last week.

Last week? Feels like I’ve aged decades since I met Kielo.

It was late in the cloudy afternoon as I moved from the busy main street to a small passage between high walls surrounding expensive houses. Ah, Kensington. There’s a well known green door along this road, and like I’ve heard to be true, there was a person sitting next to it, writing something onto it feverishly. She –at least I think so, a skirt was involved- didn’t even notice me approach.

Only when I’d nearly passed her she noticed me, startled and looking slightly guilty at being caught so. I just smiled at her and her rainbow-striped hat and continue on. Who am I to mock one’s religion?

A few more crossing of roads and I was at Frank’s pub. Some things never change. The place still looked uninviting with its dirty windows and lousy paintjob. I entered and breathed in the smoky air. It was full of memories.

It’s good to be back.

Frank bought the place ages ago, and even though he doesn’t work behind the bar anymore, he still spends most of his days there. Amongst our kind he’s famous for his creative skills, and people from all over know the place, even if they weren’t familiar enough with the man to have his phone number.

The last time I spent a lot of time in London was right after the Second World War. When I left, Frank had been the last person I’d seen. And last time I did business with him faxes, emails and the internet had been invented, so there had been no need to see face-to-face. So, it has been a while. Too long.

The pub was nearly deserted, only a few old men were sitting at the small tables. They gave me a quick glance but didn’t even bother to stare as I walked straight to the bar and grabbed a stool. My still sore body sighed with relief. The bartender nodded at me and put down his newspaper.

“What’ll it be, love?” He called out as he walked towards me.

“A pint of Guinness, please.”

He made an approving clucking sound with his tongue and within a minute there was a pint of the good old stuff standing in front of me. I sipped at the head before getting to the good part.

“So, where’s Frank?” I asked after wetting my whistle. I had immediately noticed that he wasn’t in, but you can’t expect one to stay put all day, especially if one’s not expecting company.

The guy got a funny look on his face at my question. “Didn’t you know, love? Frank’s dead.”

No. I did not know that. I told him as much. “When? What happened?”

“His heart gave out. We found him collapsed in the backroom, maybe three weeks ago. The funeral was last weekend. He was old as the skies, love.”

“I know…” I muttered, staring at my pint. “Hell, he’s always been here. I never thought he… wouldn’t.”

That’s just it. I never thought that what was one of the most natural things to happen in a person’s life would actually happen to Frank. He was in London back in the 20’s. He saved my ass from some nasty bloodsuckers then. He spouted out a whole new life for me in the 50’s, just like that. He was the best, and even though I must have known that he wouldn’t live as long as I would, the fact that he would just die never occurred to me.

The bartender nodded, sharing my sentiment but not the reasons for it, I should think. His scent made it very clear that he was a normal human being. Not one of us. Not like me, not like Frank. Not one of the creatures of the night.

I sulked into my pint for the next half an hour, cursing my own short sight –why did my wits have to fail me here and now, when before they’ve been the voice of reason that have helped me build a small fortune? Sentimentalism?- and wondering what to do next. I could always seek out one of my other contacts, but they have always been few and far between. Besides, Frank had always been my number one to-go-to-man. My friend.

I felt as lost as that little girl stuck in the land of witches and flying monkeys.

The bartender took pity on me and brought me another pint, on the house. I thanked him and lifted the cool glass in a toast.

“To Frank. Where ever he may be.”

“To Frank.” He nodded and gave me a lopsided grin. “If you don’t mind me askin’, how’d you know him? Young girl like you?”

Curse my youthful looks… “He’s been a friend of the family for ages. He used to have the best stories.”

“Got that right, uhh…?” he gave me a questioning look. I hesitated for a moment.

“Dorothy.” That fits.

“Nice to meet you, Dorothy, I’m Roger.”

We talked for a while about Frank, and by the time I finished the second Guinness I was armed with the name and workplace of Frank’s granddaughter –he had kids?!- and a nice buzz in my head. I took the same path to the main street as before, and sure enough, there was the rainbow girl, leaning against the door, humming to herself, hugging a huge bottle of something that smelled quite strong. I waved a small salute to her as I passed and she informed me that we are the champions.

Have I mentioned that I love London?

With nothing else sensible to do than to seek out this grandchild, I headed towards Soho. The cloudy weather turned to a slight drizzle, but that is something that comes as naturally to Britain as vodka to Russia or sauna to Finland. The grey weather, no matter how nice to cold rain felt on my still healing skin, lowered my mood even further from where it was. I’ve been a fool, I know. And not just in how I’ve depended too much on Frank. But that’s what you do with friends, I guess. And as I’ve already so eloquently blubbered, he has always been there for me before.

How could the bastard just die on me like this? Who am I to go to now for a new name? A new ID, new family history? Most of it I can manage myself, sure. But fake passports? Driver’s license? Give me a vampire to kill or a werewolf to hunt down, and I’m your man. Woman. But bureaucracy, computers, ID’s… for crying out loud, when I was born most people didn’t even have last names!

Before I barely noticed in my thought of doom and gloom, I’d walked from Kensington to Piccadilly Circus. Past that was Soho. That’s where Frank’s granddaughter, one Heidi Sinclair was supposed to be working at, in a small record shop. All I knew of her was her name, the name of the shop and the knowledge that, according to Roger, she looked nothing like Frank.

Bloody marvelous.

At least I should be able to recognize her by her scent. Frank was one of us, one of the creatures of the night. A werewolf. Despite the generation between them, this Heidi should have some of that unearthly –I shouldn’t say unearthly, actually; werewolves are more earthly than me or most people today!- scent about her. And my sore little nose should be enough to tell.

I’m a dhampir, a half vampire. I used to make my living by killing vampires who terrorized humans, but that was ages ago. These days they’re smart enough to either lay low or make themselves so visible that you can’t kill them. Not unless you want to be arrested for murder. So I make my money other ways, mostly by gathering rent from apartments I own all over Europe and which I rent out when I don’t live in them. I have a nice apartment here in London. Kensington, even! But I’m not yet sure whether to throw out my ever-so-nice tenants and move in myself, or to find another, a cheaper place.

Hell, with no Frank here, I might as well go somewhere else. Roger told me to get in touch with his granddaughter as she had expressed interest in meeting people he’d been friends with. Who knows, maybe Frank had trained her to do his job.

The rain was pouring down when I got to Soho and spotted the small shop I was looking for. Flipping wet hair back from my forehead –and damn the one who cut it so short- I entered with a chime of a bell above the door and almost choked when the hot, humid and still air hit my lungs, the flurry of smells making my head spin. Curry, vinegar, cigarettes, perfumes, incense…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s good to be back.

“Can I help you?” A young man sitting behind the counter asked me, his eyes slightly glassy and some food crumbs on his unkempt beard struggling to grow on such young skin.

“I’m looking for Heidi Sinclair.” I told him and he nodded before shouting towards the backroom.

“Heidi! Someone here to see you!”

“In a minute!” a muffled voice answered. The boy repeated the words to me and I thanked him and turned to look at the shelves.

Their collection seemed quite extensive, with a lot of music from earlier decades, and even a wall covered with shelves full of LP’s. I should have to remember this place.

“So, what can I do for you?”

The sudden voice next to me almost made me jump, and I turned around to see a beautiful black girl. She was about half a head taller than me, with long, wavy dark brown hair and surprising eyes. Her skin was the colour of dark chocolate, and her skin-tight clothes showed off her curves very nicely.

Beautiful? More like drop dead gorgeous!

“Uhh… Heidi?”

“That’s me!” She smiled at me even when her eyes looked a little unsure, almost cautious. Frank’s eyes, more dark yellow than brown, and there’s a familiar tinge in her scent. I’ve got the right person here.

I stuck out my hand and gave her a smile. “Hi, I used to know your grandfather Frank. I just heard about him passing away. Roger, at his bar, told me to get in touch with you.” I bowed my head a little. ”I was sorry to hear about him, he was an… exceptional man.”

Heidi stared at me for a long while with her eyes wide, her warm hand still in my cool one. I could practically hear the gears turning in her head. Finally her eyes lit up and she lifted her other hand to clasp at mine as well.

“Oh! You’re one of granddad’s… friends! So nice to meet you!” She shook my hand like a Polaroid picture, but her eyes never left mine. She was almost frowning as she stared deep into them, obviously trying to figure out what I was. I gave her a grin that showed my sharp teeth, and her hands grew still. Another long moment of cool observation and gears turning, and she smiled a little.

“I think I know who you are now. Listen, I can get out of here in an hour. There’s a small pub just across the road,” she dragged me to a window mostly covered with posters and pointed across the crowded street. I nodded as I saw the place she was talking about. “If you have nowhere to be, you can go there and ask for Claudia. Tell her I told to take care of you, she’ll get you drinks and food. I’ll be there in an hour and we can talk more… privately, sound all right to you?”

“Yeah, sounds great.” I nodded and found myself ushered out of the door while Heidi repeated that she’d be there in an hour. The bell above the door chimed happily and I was standing in the rain again.

The thought that this might be a trap did cross my mind, but I had always trusted Frank, and I got the feeling from that brief encounter that I could trust his granddaughter as well. So I headed across the street towards the pub.

It was a bit more crowded than Frank’s, so I headed over to the counter to find this Claudia. A tall, young man was serving people their late afternoon pints, and he greeted me as soon as I reached the counter. After I asked for Claudia I got a rerun of the scene from the music shop, except that this time the answer came from behind me, and instead of a tall, gorgeous woman I came face to face with a short, skinny blonde whose long hair was tied back with a few bangs left out to frame her heart-shaped freckled face. Her eyes were light green, almost grey; the shade of her hair a bit too pale and she was way too short, but there still was a painful twinge inside of me when I thought that I was seeing a completely different person in front of me.

I didn’t even notice that I was staring until Claudia cleared her throat and moved a little, away from my line of sight. I apologized profusely and she asked if she could help me.

“Yes. Heidi sent me here and told me to ask for you. She said she’d also be here in an hour.”

There was an instant change in this small, pale girl at the mention of Heidi’s name. She seemed to start to glow, and the smile on her lips was not so hesitant anymore. The similarity with my past was made all the clearer.

“All right then! Come on, I’ll get you a table! Any friend of Heidi’s is a friend of mine!”

I smiled and followed her as she led me through the bar to a quiet table next to the windows. I noticed that I could see the record shop from here. I could even see inside if its windows weren’t covered so.

“What can I get for you, love?” Claudia asked, whipping out a pen and a small pad of paper.

“A cup of coffee for starters. And maybe the dish of the day?” I thought I might need my wits about me when Heidi got here, so no more pints for the moment. Claudia nodded happily and scooted away, checking if everyone on her way to the counter had everything they needed. I stared after her: there was something about her, something a little off, but couldn’t put my finger on it. Her scent was odd; human, I could tell that, but it still was not quite what it should be. It shouldn’t have bothered me, though, there are so many people in London that anomalies are bound to happen. Still, it annoyed me that I couldn’t figure out what it was about her.

My coffee soon arrived, and the dish of the day was quick to follow. Claudia tended to other customers as well but I could feel her eyes on me from time to time, and she walked by my table with a smile more often than past others. Once the place quieted down a little she came over with a refill of coffee and a cup for herself as well, and sat down.

“Have you known Heidi for long?” she asked as soon as she was on the chair. She was clearly trying to be casual, but I recognized the look in her eyes when the name was spoken. Like a magic word, it lit up this pale little girl like a Christmas light. Claudia was clearly in love with Heidi. What I didn’t know is whether the feeling was mutual.

She seemed a bit unsure on how to think of me, even a bit territorial, so I assured her that Heidi and I just met, and that I was an acquaintance of her late grandfather’s. This immediately calmed Claudia, even her posture grew more relaxed. She wanted to know how I knew old Frank, so I told her the same lies I fed Roger. I had no idea how much Frank had told Heidi about me, so I thought I’d better keep my lies simple and consistent until I knew more.

Once she relaxed Claudia turned out to be quite a chatterbox. Friendly as many Brits were. I told her that I haven’t been to London in ages so she filled me in on where to go and what to see and how the trains were always late. It’s people like her as much as the city that made me love London so much.

Claudia soon had to get back to work, but the hour was almost gone by then. Nursing a third cup of coffee already I stared out of the window, letting my mind wander as I watched the posters in the music shop window. I could see movement behind them every now and again, but couldn’t tell who it was or what they were doing. But with my stomach full and a good cup of coffee in front of me, there was no rush.

Despite all the trouble ahead of me in creating myself again, I could say that at that moment, listening to the rain and the quiet chatter, warm and cosy in my seat, I was content. There were no worries right then. Just that perfect moment.

It was enough to forget even Helsinki. Even if just for a while.

I think I was almost falling into some sort of a trance when the shop door suddenly opened and Heidi came out. I perked up immediately and looked over to where Claudia was. She must have sensed something since she was also staring at the door with a smile on her face.

Heidi soon entered, waved a cheery greeting to the barman and Claudia, and headed straight over to my table. Claudia was almost immediately there with a cup and a pot of tea. I watched as they exchanged a few quiet words while Claudia poured the tea. It was obvious that the feelings were mutual. They were not even touching each other in front of me, but their eyes spoke volumes.

Ah. True love. How sweet.

”Sorry I’m a bit late.” Heidi started but I shrugged the apology away, assuring her that it was quite all right. She sipped at her tea and stared at me quite openly. I didn’t mind, I’m sure she was trying to figure me out. And if she knew anything about what Frank had been and what he had done, she would have a lot on her mind right then.

“This is a bit... awkward, I don’t know how to start.” She finally said, lowering the cup to the table but not letting go of it.

I shrugged again. ”I can imagine. What do you know of Frank, and his… friends?”

“I know what he was and what he did. Dad didn’t keep in touch with him at all, but when I came to London a few years ago I looked him up. We met a few times, keeping it light. I’d never known him as a child, you see. Then one time he starts telling me about all this weird stuff. Vampires and werewolves and such. Dad used to say that those were his fairytales, but I could see he really believed them.”

“Do you believe?” I asked when she stopped to search for more words. Heidi hesitated for a moment before nodding.

“Yes. I do. I mean, I’ve known ever since I was a little kid that there is something a bit off about me. Dad as well, but it never really clicked until I met Frank, and he told me all about this stuff.”

“It’s hard to believe sometimes, I know. Even when I am one of those fairytale creatures.” I gave her a grin and she nodded, smiling and relaxing a little.

“So, I guess you’re... Stacy then?”

”Stasya.” I corrected her pronunciation. “But I guess I’ll be needing a new name.”

”All right then. I recognize you from some of granddad’s old photos. And he would sometimes talk about you, how you were his oldest friend.”

“Oldest surviving friend, I guess.” I muttered through the lump that was suddenly blocking my throat as I regretted not keeping in touch better. One should never abandon their true friends, especially not as old and good ones like Frank. I know that he understood that we didn’t keep in touch a lot, but I could have made more of an effort. But there it is again; I just didn’t think he’d go and die on me like that.

After a few somber moments I got down to business. ”Did he tell you what kind of… services he used to provide people like me with?”

Heidi grinned at me a bit nervously. ”He sure did. I think he knew he didn’t have long, and wanted someone to know what he did. That someone was me. I got all his contacts and whatnot at my apartment, you could come over and we can see what we can do.”

I gave her an incredulous look that asked if she thought that wise. She understood.

”Granddad always told me that I could trust you. You and a few other friends of his. So I will. And besides, I’m not completely harmless myself.” Her grin showed some admirable teeth as well.

”Good girl.” I said with a wink and sipped at my cooling coffee. She laughed as I relaxed further, hoping that my worries were done with. Probably not completely, but most of them should be. If Heidi had all of Frank’s stuff on her, there should at least be more contacts in his files, if she herself couldn’t help me.

We talked a bit about Frank, agreeing that all the business could wait until we got to her place. Besides, Claudia soon came to sit next to Heidi with a cup of coffee, and the three of us had a nice little chat.

Side by side like this, it was obvious how they were almost complete opposites of each other. Heidi was tall, all colour from skin to clothes that hugged her curves. Claudia was small and thin, her clothes pale, almost faded, hiding any curves she might have. Heidi was guarded but outgoing, whereas Claudia seemed almost timid, even when she was so friendly. Opposites attract, I guess. They made a very cute couple, and I apparently was not the only one thinking so; I noticed the barman and a few customers giving them similar soft looks.

Claudia soon also got off from work, and since that was the case for half of London and everyone seemed to be coming to the pub, Heidi suggested that we’d leave. She offered to take me to her place now, but since she had a previous engagement we wouldn’t have time to do anything with Frank’s stuff, so I declined the offer. Besides, I had something in similar vein myself.

So, once we were out of the pub we agreed to meet tomorrow afternoon at the pub, and once Heidi got off work we’d get straight to business. She borrowed me her yellow umbrella as it was raining quite hard. I watched with some amount of envy as the two of them huddled under Claudia’s red one as they left. I waited until they were out of sight before turning to walk in the opposite direction.

I didn’t like to admit it, but Alby’s little stunt had hurt me more than it would have mere decades ago. The skin on my upper arms still hadn’t healed properly, and considering the amount of energy my body had used to heal itself to this degree, I was in sore need of refreshment.

To put it plainly: I needed blood.

I’d be all right by now had I dared to feed in Helsinki, but the vampire circles were too small there for me to risk it. Any word of a human being used as a quick snack could reach the wrong ears, and Alby’s friends would get suspicious. If a human who had been sipped from walked past a vampire on the street, they could tell. As could I. And using the trick I had used on Kielo –by tasting the human’s blood- the stronger ones could even tell who had sunk their teeth into this one.

Dinner was therefore late, and I was very hungry. And after the last few weeks I thought I deserved a feast.

First things first, though. I needed a hotel room for the night, somewhere to take my willing victim. Somewhere nice: I didn’t want to appear cheap. Luckily a city this size has hotels everywhere, and I didn’t have to go far to find a room. I also needed some nice clothes, so once I’d left my few belongings in the room, I headed out to the nearest shops. Abundance of those, as well, and since I wasn’t feeling too picky, I was soon armed with a new outfit. Back to the hotel for a quick shower, and a change, and soon enough I was prowling the streets of London, trying to decide what I wanted to eat.

So many options! Was I hungry enough for Italian? Or maybe something smaller and lighter, like Japanese. Easier to find Chinese, though. Or maybe something British. I was in London, after all. Small details like gender could be overlooked, as long as my meal didn’t remind me of Kielo. I had decided to forget her, and my feelings, put them behind me as a learning experience. But you can’t just switch everything off like that.

A good start, however, in getting over her just walked past me. Two good starts, to be exact. I turned 180 degrees, and followed them into a bar just as the clouds in the sky cracked and allowed the sun to sweep the streets.

The green door mentioned in the beginning used to belong to Freddie Mercury, and is kind of a place of pilgrimage for fans. My profile photo shows a part of it. Unfortunately I didn’t have my rainbow hat with me that day…

London Cover

2008-11-03T13:35:00.003+02:00

Helsinki, 13.

2008-10-25T17:23:00.003+03:00

Unknown

…you can imagine my surprise when I did wake up. Again, there was a splitting pain in my head, only amplified by the amount of sunlight.

I was outside. I couldn’t move. And I wasn’t alone. I could tell all this without opening my burning eyes.

There was fresh air, cool fresh air. Not that of the cities, or a hot summer’s day. No, a cool morning breeze, easing the burning in my eyes and the tingling on my skin, but not by much. I could hear as the wind caressed new leaves somewhere nearby, and the quiet howl as it passed through cracks in a wooden wall. I knew that sound all too well from my childhood.

“I think she’s up.”

My hands were bound tightly above my head, and I couldn’t move my legs either. They had tied me on my back, on something that creaked and dug painfully into me and smelled of burned wood. Not very comfortable.

“Good.”

And I certainly wasn’t alone. I could feel people around me. Humans. The bright sun was somewhere above us, painting the eyelids over my eyes a painful red, so vampires would be asleep by now. Asleep, or hiding. Exactly where I should be.

I let out a groan as someone poked my cheek with a cool finger. “Alby, I swear… I am ripping out your colon and strangling you with it.”

A howl of laughter. “I told you already, this is purely business. No need to take that attitude with me.”

“Attitude?!” I forced my eyes open, ignoring the damn near intolerable pain as the splitting headache moved gears from two to five without passing through three and four. The sun, not even in sight, made my eyes water. I hated it, hated that it made me look like I was crying. Apparently my anger wasn’t enough to vaporize the tears.

My muscles had tightened with the wave of anger, making my arms and legs pull at their bonds. Metal. They had bound me with metal. Smart move. I think I would have been able to break anything less with pure rage.

The smell of burnt wood was strong all around me. A quick, painful look around showed me that I was in a house without a roof above me. The walls were blackened by fire; without a doubt it had also consumed the ceiling, and whatever it was I had been tied to.

A pale blur came to stand between me and the bright blue sky above, and I squinted to see Alby better. I growled, tried to both bite and pull away as his hand came up and landed on my forehead. It was cool, and I had to fight the urge to press against it and the sobering effect it had.

“I really hate to see you like this. That’s why I won’t be coming back once my shift is over.”

“Shift?”

“We’re not dumb, S. Don’t think that we’ll let you out of our sights until you’re burned to ashes. The vampires do demand proof of your demise, of course. They won’t part with their money or their gifts that easily.”

“You’re an ass if you’re trusting a vampire…” I hissed and closed my eyes when the brightness became unbearable. Alby sighed and took his hand away.

“I am willing to trust them as long as they trust me. We’re friends.”

“Funny, that’s what I thought we were.” I growled at him.

“Of course.”

“Then why won’t you be a friend and put me out of my misery instead of letting me lie out in the sun? I think that’s something a real friend would do. Oh, pardon me. A real friend wouldn’t try to kill a friend in the first place!” I couldn’t get up to punch him, so shouting was all I could do. It gave me little pleasure, but one has to take what one can get.

Alby had no answer for me. He just stood by my side, a towering shadow of uncharacteristic uncertainty. He had always been so very sure of himself, so cocky and ready with words. Not so this time.

“You pussy. You’ve got the guts to take on the task of killing a friend for cash, but not the balls to see it through. Some man you are.” I practically spat the words at him, but he just stood there. “What else did they give you? Did they promise to turn you? What are they planning, why the hell are they so worried about me meddling with whatever the fuck they are doing?”

That got Alby back on track. “I’ve seen enough movies not to go babbling about the plans of the bad guys to the hero of the movie. No matter that soon you’re going to be dead.” He crouched beside me and let out a long sigh. “You’re right, though. I am a coward. They didn’t specify how you should die, or how soon, as long as you are no more. I don’t want your blood on my hands, so it’s easiest to let nature take its course.”

“My blood already is on your hands, Alby. You just can’t see it.” I closed my eyes and turned away from him. I had no more words for him. No more respect, either. All those years of friendship, even though we weren’t all that close, he had decided to throw them away, and not even have a spine to do it properly. He might as well be dead to me.

I could feel him move towards me and hesitate. After a moment he stood up, and hesitated again.

“I’m sorry, S. But if I wouldn’t have done it, they would have gotten someone else to do it. And someone else wouldn’t have cared. They’d just killed you in a stinking alley one night, and been done with it. I wanted your death to mean more, to be remembered.”

He stopped, probably expecting a thank-you or at least any kind of an acknowledgement of his intentions. I gave him none. He sighed again and turned to leave. “This is goodbye. I hope you’ll be in peace once you’ve gone.” His steps were heavy as he walked away, stopping only once to say a few words which made my blood freeze.

“Kielo will be here later.”

That day was perhaps the longest I’ve ever lived. The sun soon rose above the meagre shelter of the burnt-down walls around me and hit me full-force. All I could do to protect myself was to turn my face away from it when I could, to keep my eyes from burning. The rest of me wasn’t so lucky. The clothes I had on –the ones Kielo had bought me- were the only thing protecting most of my skin. The pants were made of a strong, thick fabric, so my legs weren’t doing too badly, but the shirt was far thinner and of course had no sleeves. I couldn’t see my arms, but could imagine the skin turning more red and red in the sun, blistering and blackening. And it was the more delicate skin of the inside of my arms that was bared to the nature, therefore quicker to burn. Same with my face. The smell was not a pleasant one.

Since I wasn’t a full vampire, I didn’t catch fire as soon as the rays of the sun hit me. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but in the past I could happily wander around during the days. It was no problem at all, even if my eyes always were a bit too sensitive to the amount of light. But a combination of living so long and the problems with the ozone layer, more precisely it not being up there properly to protect from the sun anymore, the vampire in me would burn. Slowly and painfully.

If there was a god, any god, watching, they would grant me death before Kielo got here.

Did I ever go into her apartment? Had I ever even checked whether she was telling me the truth about anything? Her jobs, her roommate? No, I hadn’t. I had trusted her like a blind, lovesick fool. And now I was paying for it. Just because of a pair of pretty, dark eyes I had cast away all of my hard-learned caution, plunged recklessly into unknown waters. Worn my heart on my sleeve, and whatever other clichés you have.

I had believed that the feelings she had spoken of truly existed, and not just in my heart.

Really, I had brought this on myself with my foolishness. She had trouble written all over her when we first met, but I hadn’t listened to common sense.

Oh, but it’s so easy to be smart in hindsight. And oh, but kicking my own ass was easier than dealing with the pain of betrayal. I had no words for the ache in my heart, because of both Kielo, who had turned my life around so fast, in such a short time, and because of Alby, who had been a friend and confidant for years. How does one cope with that?

How does one cope with burning alive, over hours of agonizing, slow heat?

I’ll tell you.

By screaming one’s throat so sore that blood starts to come out, and by eventually passing out during the endless hours of the afternoon. I suppose I should have been thankful of the clouds the wind brought with it, but when I came to in the early evening, I was mostly disappointed. The sun had passed from above me, and I was again given protection by the ruins of the house around me. During the night I would heal some, so the sun could wreak havoc on me all over again come next morning.

As Alby had promised, I wasn’t alone. There was a human somewhere in the vicinity, and he laughed out loud as I swore in pain and cursed my so-called friends. My lips, burnt and hard and dry and aching, cracked and bled with the words, but the physical pain was so much easier to bare now than the feelings inside.

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, indeed. Although I could have lived without realizing the truth in that personally.

Most of all, of course, I was angry at myself. I’d told Alby all the things they had now used against me because I had thought him a friend. I had thought that now that vampires were such a visible part of the world and no longer needed the likes of me to keep them in check, I really could retire and enjoy myself. Have a little fun. Learn to trust people.

Maybe I should have learnt to trust the right people, not just anyone who’d buy the new face a drink and know more about vampires than was good for a normal human. But he had been charming, and funny, and it had been so easy and liberating to really talk about the creatures of the night with someone who understood and knew them as well. To let someone know the real me.

Well. At least Alby knew enough of me to keep my memory alive… as he lay in bed with the woman I had so loved.

The bastard.

Blood from my lips slipped into my mouth as I switched into cursing in Russian. It was hot and too salty, but it refreshed my throat and gave me strength to swear some more. Maybe to survive another day. To cry a few tears which burned new painful paths into the scarred skin of my face.

Fuck you, Alby, for not having the balls to finish this like a man.

And fuck you, Kielo, for breaking my heart.

For a while I wondered which I dreaded more; the coming morning, still hours away, or Kielo coming to see me. It was a short while, though, for the latter was clearly worse. For despite fancy literary quotes, I still loved her, and fuck me for it, but I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t beg her to tell me why she had done all this. Beg her to release me, from my bonds or from this life. Beg her to love me.

I had never liked to show weakness either to my prey or my clients, because someone like me couldn’t afford it. But there was nothing to do, no way to hide myself from the vampire guarding me as the tears started to come out full force. Really, I was surprised I still had them in me after laying in the sun all day.

The night came on eventually, as it always does. Both my tears and anger had died down to embers that burned inside my chest by the time the human was joined by a weak vampire. I couldn’t see or hear them, but the human soon left. Change of shift, no doubt. The vampire came close to check on me, asking whether I was awake. I just swore at him a little and he left me alone, to stare at the stars above. We must have been some way from the city; there was no other light in sight than the stars, and the crescent moon I could barely see from the corner of my eye. No streetlights, no cars, no people. Just me and the sky above. Just like it had been for most of my life. I even felt safe for a while within the familiarity of it all. And despite the pain in my tied wrists and ankles, the aches in my stretched and burnt limbs, I could imagine my mother there with me, laying beside me, humming a lullaby. My father on the other side, pointing up at the stars, telling me their names and stories. Natasha somewhere in the background, chanting spells and songs to learn them.

“See, my little flower…” my father said, pointing at the constellation straight above us, “that there is the Hunter. He’s always after the wildlife, and the likes of us. But he is stupid, and doesn’t know how to catch us. For we, my little Stasya, we are too fast and smart to fall for his traps.”

Well. It was about time I lost it.

My mother laughed and reached out to run a cooling hand over my brow. “My silly little child. I told you time and again, we are like the stars. Even if you can’t see us all of the time, it doesn’t mean we’re not there for you.”

I still couldn’t see her, but I felt it as she propped herself up on one elbow and leaned over me to kiss my cheek. “You’re a strong woman. You won’t break this easily. Not after so long.”

I sobbed but couldn’t help but smile at her following words: “I raised you better than that.”

“You don’t want me to just give up and die, do you?”

“Of course not!” My father said, aghast.

“I named you resurrection, not surrender.” My mother said, teasing but stern.

“But…” I argued, ignoring the snorting sounds the vampire was making somewhere nearby. He must have thought I’d gone insane.

“It will hurt, don’t doubt that. But you’ve suffered worse pain, and you know that things do not always go your way.” Mother reminded me, her tone now soothing.

“You’ll be all right.” Father said. “And when you’re better, you’re going to open such a can of whoopass on those fuckers, they’re going to think sun shines out of your… fists.”

I burst into laughter, tearing open long, painful cracks all over my face. “Now I know you two are just a hallucination. Words like that weren’t even invented when you were still alive.”

Father shrugged. “Hallucination or not, you heard our words and believed them. Our work here is done.”

“Give them hell, my little flower.” Mother whispered into my ear, and kissed me on the forehead one more time. I chuckled and smiled as their presences left me alone again.

I wasn’t hoping for death anymore. Dreading seeing Kielo, hell yeah, but not about to slit my throat over it. Especially since I was still all tied up, you know.

Spring was close enough to summer that the night was very short. The sun was not yet up but the sky was turning pale above me when words spoken nearby woke me from the light sleep I had fallen in while my body worked overtime to mend itself. The vampire was talking with someone. A familiar voice.

The chill early morning air had made me shiver, but when I recognized Kielo’s voice, I froze.

“She hasn’t tried anything, just talked and laughed and shit like that.” The vampire was saying when they got close enough for me to make out their words. I squeezed my eyes closed as tight as they went, but even so I could see Kielo walk towards me. The look on her face, the bounce in her curls and breasts, the swing of her hips. The pain of her betrayal returned, and brought along its friend deathwish.

Slip into my shoes for a bit and try being all heroic and shit. Not so easy, is it? I thought so.

“She seems all right.” Kielo said after a long, quiet moment. She was standing so close to me I could feel the heat of her body.

“She looked worse, she must’ve healed some during the night. Alby said she’s got excellent healing powers, so it might take a few days before the sun actually kills her.”

I could feel Kielo shiver at the thought. It wasn’t actually warming my heart, either!

“That’s horrible.” She said quietly after clearing her throat.

“It ain’t a walk in the park… if you’re all right here, I’ll head to the basement. The sun will be up soon.”

“Yes, I’ll be fine. I’ve got a weapon, just in case.”

“Good.”

I was steeling myself to a long day of pretending to be emotionally dead while, judging from the sounds, Kielo produced whatever weapon she had brought with her. The vampire made an approving sound--

--which suddenly turned into a surprised shout, a sound like a baseball bat hitting a melon, and a heavy slump followed by a heavier silence. Not knowing what was happening, my eyes were open and I was straining against my bonds before I knew what I was doing.

The first thing I saw was Kielo with a heavy, and bloody, night stick, breathing heavily and staring at the unconscious vampire on the floor. When she noticed me watching, she tossed the night stick on the bed and pulled out a set of keys from her small bag. I almost cried with joy and relief as she leaned over me to undo the locks in the chains which bound my arms above my head. I pulled them free and reached out for her. She had come back to me!

But. When she saw my shaky, weak hands coming towards her, she stepped away, not looking at me. She didn’t speak as she released my feet and picked up the night stick. With it she poked at me until I realized she wanted me to get off the ‘bed’.

Easier said than done. There was hardly any blood in my feet and hands, and operating the limbs after they’d been burned and stiff for so long was like trying to maneuver a life-size ragdoll. But I managed to more or less roll off the side, and fell onto the hard floor. The impact forced all the air out of my lungs, and by the time I managed to breathe and sit up, Kielo had already dragged and bound the still unconscious vampire to my place.

“What’s going on?” I managed to ask, my throat too dry.

Kielo gave me a quick glance full of… I don’t know. I recognized at least shame, determination, frustration and anger in those dark eyes of hers.

“I’m just evening the score.” She then pulled out a small handgun from her bag –and I had wondered if she could use a tazer!- and before I could even open my mouth, she’d put a bullet into the vampire’s head, exactly between the eyes. I could do nothing but blink at this woman I hadn’t known after all.

The sun climbed just over the horizon somewhere behind me as Kielo flipped open her cellphone and dialled a number. I watched as she lifted it to her ear, and said two words as soon as someone answered.

“She’s dead.”

She glanced in my direction quickly before continuing. “No. I killed her.”

She listened for a while before hanging up and putting her phone away. She never, not once, looked at me as she turned away and made to leave the house. “Get away from here. Leave the country, and never come back. Maybe they’ll leave you alone.”

“Maybe I won’t leave them alone, have you considered that?”

She snorted, not turning to me. “You haven’t paid any attention to the vampires here in years. Why should you care now?” With that, she walked away before my feet could carry me anywhere. She just walked away from me. Not one backward glance, no hesitation in her steps, no longing in the swing of her hips, no regret in her heart.

No doubt in my mind that I hadn’t mattered to her any more than they had paid.

She was right, though. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about the vampires and this ‘plan’ of theirs they had wanted to protect from me. No. They could go and wreak merry hell on Earth for all I cared.

This was all about revenge.

And revenge… it would be mine.

I managed to get down and wobble my way to a nearby riverside, where I hid from the rays of the sun. I spent two days there, licking my wounds, before I felt well enough to go back home. Or what was left of it. They’d taken everything they could carry or sell. The rest they had destroyed. If I would have had more energy, I believe I would have gotten angry and gone after them right then and there, and damn the consequences. But when I found dear Buttercup, her neck broken, I lost what little strength I had.

It took me a few more days to gather myself together, to scrounge up treasures I had hidden both in the apartment and out of it. To get my savings out, money they hadn’t known about. To bury Buttercup. I wanted revenge. I wanted it more than I had wanted it since my father was killed. And I knew I would get it. But now was not the time. I was still healing, slowly but surely. There were too many of them for me to take on like this. I needed time to heal and plan. I needed to get away from here for that.

So I took whatever I still had left, and headed for the airport.

All that time, and all the way to the plane itself, I could still smell it. The scent of her sun-kissed skin.

The line about colons, of ripping them out and strangling with them, is borrowed from my favourite comic, Poison Elves, by the late Drew Hayes.

Next, it’s part two! Thank you for reading, and if you could leave maybe a small comment telling me what you thought about part one, that would just rock. ^^

Helsinki, 12.

2008-09-26T19:33:00.001+03:00

Friday.

As Friday dawned bright and sunny, for some odd reason I was not the least bit relaxed or prepared for the evening. Despite getting myself, Kielo and weapons ready, and taking that long, relaxing bath, I was a bundle of nerves as the first rays of the sun crept curiously into my living-room from between curtains I hadn’t closed properly.

I was still dressed in my bathrobe, too distracted by Alby’s news to change into anything else. My hair was pointing straight up after I’d dragged my fingers through it again and again during the night. No sleep for me, oh no. Couldn’t relax after that. I had tried to reach either Iggy or Frank by phone for half the night, but again with no luck whatsoever. It was understandable for the former, quite worrying for the latter. Just what I needed, more things to worry about.

My nerves in this state, I didn’t know how I’d get through the day. Not to mention the night. I needed to calm down or I’d do something stupid when the time came to meet Dorian. To meet Iggy. He knew I was coming. He knew my strengths and weaknesses. If he was going to give us trouble, he knew exactly how he’d manage that.

I was a liability to Kielo.

Could I protect her from Iggy? Physically, yes. I was always the stronger one, and despite him being a true vampire, I had the years to back me up. Mentally? I really didn’t know. Could I kill him and live with myself? Did I still care for him? Too many questions, too little time. I did know that I couldn’t let her go on her own. That would be the end of her.

Come midday I was no calmer or more prepared. I was barely aware of the time passing by. Only when Buttercup got tired of subtly suggesting that she was hungry did I get off my ass and do something.

I had to go with Kielo. I would have to confront Iggy and what he had become. I might have to kill him. All that was certain. No amount of worrying would change those facts, or make them go away. So I might as well find my spine again, go out there with Kielo and do my damned best.

The more romantic side of me had already imagined how I would manage to talk Iggy out of whatever he was planning for Kielo. Hell, it was even a plausible option, if he still cared for me at all. If he was even partly as reasonable as he had been. But people change, as Kielo had pointed out, and power corrupts. The romantic side of me would have to hold its horses and let the logical side try and work things out first.

All this I knew, and kept repeating unto myself until it forced me to calm down some. That was all I needed. Getting through tonight didn’t require knowing now what would happen: it required that I went in there as calm as possible, as ready for anything as I could be.

I didn’t like the fact that I hadn’t gotten any sleep last night, but back in the days I had survived against vampires with far less rest, food and preparation, so unless I had gone completely soft I shouldn’t have any problems.

Shouldn’t. But in the days, I hadn’t had to fight against someone I had used to love.

Right, right. Where was that spine I was going to find?

With nothing else to really do than wait and think, I managed not to go absolutely stir crazy before Kielo got off work and came over after a quick detour to her apartment. I had even managed to comb my hair and get some clothes on, along with a calm façade so I wouldn’t worry her. Any more than she was already worrying, that is. I could tell her lower lip was so red because she had been chewing it all day long, and not because of her lipstick. Still, she was putting on a brave face.

“I’m so scared… but kind of excited as well. Is that stupid?” she asked as soon as she had parked her bottom on the sofa. Her presence, no matter how nervous she was, was soothing me like nothing else. We would get through this.

“I think it’s pretty normal.”

“It’s probably because, after tonight, it’ll be all over, right?”

“Yes, Kielo. You’ll be rid of all the pesky vampires. Well, except for a half-vampire who’d like to remain in your life, if you so wish.” I sat down and scooted closer to her as she laughed and leaned over.

“Oh, don’t even think you’re getting away from me that easy. I own your ass.”

“You do?” I leaned over as well, and our lips met. Quite fiercely.

“Should we be doing this?” Kielo asked after a few minutes, her blouse more than half off, mine already on the floor.

“Sweetheart, there’s nothing else we should be doing.” I muttered and all but jumped on her. Kielo screamed with laughter and leaned back on the sofa.

Don’t give me that look. If you can think of a better way to relax, I would like to hear it. Just so I can ignore it, as this is, in my book, the best way.

“Have to admit, that did the trick…” Kielo muttered as we were trying to calm our racing hearts some time later. “But now I want a cigarette.”

“Go smoke on the balcony…” I muttered, as languid as she was.

“As soon as I can get up!”

It took a while, mostly because I was so reluctant to let her go, but eventually she made it to the balcony and closed the door to keep the smoke out. I took the opportunity to make one last phone call. Not to reach Iggy, for it was obvious where he was. Or rather, would be. And not to Frank, for there was nothing my old friend could do anymore.

Alby answered after a few rings, sounding slightly out of breath. “Hey. You all right? You sounded a bit odd last night.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. What you told me kinda came like a punch to the face.” I said and could almost hear his ears perk up. Before he could ask more about it, however, I continued. “I just wanted to thank you for the info, and everything else you’ve done for me.”

Alby laughed nervously. “Why is this sounding like a goodbye? You’re not going to do something stupid, are you?”

“No. Just in case, you know.”

“Ah, gotcha. Well, just in case, then, you’re welcome. But if you’re really grateful, you’d let me see your tits.”

“Fat chance.”

“Ouch.”

I wouldn’t give him a laugh, but I think he could hear the smile from my face. “Thanks for being my friend, Alby. Much appreciated.”

“Ditto. We can show our mutual appreciation over beer some day? Seeing as how this is ‘just in case’.”

“It’s a date.” With that, we hung up.

I felt ready.

The hours were slow in turning, but once we started to get ready, time seemed to fly by. Kielo’s laughter was strained as she joked about putting on the war-paint while doing her make-up, and my hands were shaking a little as I fought with my new pants and their many zippers and buckles. They did look nice, but I’d never get them on or off in a hurry.

We’d called for the taxi well in advance, and it was honking its horn outside exactly in time. Buttercup was slightly surprised about the big hug I gave her; normally I just give her a pat on the head before going out, if I can find her. Kielo fussed over the grey cat hairs on my new shirt, but had no time to clean it as the taxi’s horn called for us again. There was no good place to really park outside, so we had to hurry.

The taxi dropped us off just outside Raison D’être at five minutes past half past ten. It was still fairly early, but there was already a long line to the club’s door. The crowd seemed a bit older than those we’d seen in the line for the goth club. Made sense, if this place was so high class and hard to get in to.

“Popular as ever,” Kielo said and gave me a nervous grin as her hand sought mine out. Holding each other tight we walked past the line, she leading the way and me listening to the jealous muttering as we just walked in. The doorman greeted Kielo like a friend and didn’t give me another look.

Once inside, I could hear music gliding down a long staircase which must have lead to the first floor. Our destination. Less than 25 minutes left until the big moment.

Kielo gave our jackets to one of the doormen and exchanged a few words with all three who were working there, laughing with them. I felt a little left out but put the moment on my own to good use, and checked our surroundings in case we’d have to leave here in a hurry.

The hall itself wasn’t that large, and most of it was taken over by the cloakroom. Between that and the staircase was an opening which must have led to the small bar Kielo had mentioned. Other than that and the front door there were no other doors, nowhere to hide in.

A wavy mirror, about a foot high, decorated the wall beside the staircase all the way up. It was only broken here and there by posters that advertised the bands that would be playing live at the club. Tonight the entertainment would be provided by The Bard. The name didn’t ring any bells, but the music I could hear sounded familiar.

Kielo was beside me then, her arm linked with mine. We gave each other a small smile and started to ascend the stairs towards our destinies. Never before has a staircase so long felt so short.

The view from the top of the stairs frankly took my breath away as I could have sworn I had stumbled back in time some fifty years. I barely heard Kielo’s words as she left me to go and get something to drink for the both of us, so mesmerized I was by the atmosphere of the place.

The large room reminded me more of a theatre than a bar. The building was old, so maybe at one time that’s what it had been. There actually were a few small theatre boxes on the walls, opening towards the other end of the room, where a small stage stood in front of gorgeous, heavy dark red curtains. I could only imagine what was behind them.

On one end of the stage was a small band, playing an old tune I recognized immediately. A woman was singing into an old-fashioned microphone in the middle of the stage, she the only thing properly lit in the whole room. She was dressed in a style I hadn’t seen in a few decades. Her red hair shone in the warm light, and her voice was strong but tender, like thick honey as the lyrics fell from between her smiling lips.

“Fill my heart with song, let me sing for evermore

“You are all I long for, all I worship and adore.

“In other words, please be true

“In other words, I love you.”

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Kielo suddenly whispered into my ear, and I started, feeling a little embarrassed for actually forgetting where we were and what was awaiting us. So I just nodded as she passed my drink to me.

We sought out a small, empty table in the dimly lit room and sat down as the band played on. As I turned away from the singer and my eyes got used to the darkness I could see how full the room actually was. Almost all tables were occupied, most people were sitting quietly, watching and listening to the show. The tables were mostly as small as ours, with candles in the middle to give illumination. A few bigger ones stood near the walls, hosting larger parties of patrons.

The high walls were richly decorated with columns and gilded floral shapes which glittered here and there where light reached them. I felt regret at never having come here before in all the years I had lived in Helsinki.

“In other words… in other words…

“I love you.”

“Very beautiful.” I muttered, not quite sure whether I meant the place, the song, the singer or Kielo. Most likely all of them. Kielo smiled at me and caught my hand on top of the table again. She looked absolutely stunning in her light blue shirt, decorated with a few sequins, and the short denim skirt she’d bought to go with the shirt. It didn’t really cover any of her shimmering legs, which most likely was intentional.

The song ended and the audience rewarded the singer with enthusiastic applause. Only during the short quiet moment before the band started on the next song could I hear the more contemporary music coming from the floor above. And only when the singer’s voice no longer attracted my attention did I grow nervous again.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be all right.” Kielo said to me, still holding my hand. Her words made me laugh.

“Shouldn’t I be the one to tell you that?”

“You can remind me in about fifteen minutes.” She said and glanced at her watch, smile disappearing from her slightly glittering lips. I nodded with no small amount of dread and let my eyes roam around the room again. Only this time I didn’t admire the play of candlelight on the walls, the glitter of gilding or the cascading shadows of the curtain behind the stage. No, this time I let my senses roam as well, and searched out anything that wasn’t human.

To my relief the large room seemed free of vampires, but there were definitely some of them in the area. That’s when I remembered Kielo talking about the private rooms. I squeezed her fingers a little to draw her attention from the singer to me.

“The private rooms, where are they?” I asked, eyeing the walls. There were no obvious doors anywhere.

“Oh, yeah.” Kielo sat up a little straighter and craned her neck. “Over there, on both sides of the stage.” She pointed quickly towards both ends, and I could make out dark hallways, partly hidden by the curtains. “Five of them on each side. Four small ones and a big one with a door leading to the back of the building.”

“So they could come or go through there as well.” I muttered mostly to myself, not liking the idea. But a backdoor meant that we could attempt escape through there as well if there was no other way out of the situation.

“The back doors aren’t guarded, and they lead to the inner yard between the buildings. You can get out of there through gates, but those are locked. One of them opens if you buzz the doormen.”

I nodded, not knowing whether this was good or not. It would certainly slow us down if we needed to escape, but it would also make entering and exiting harder for the vampires.

Perhaps too nervous to talk, we fell quiet after that, listening to the music. The quiet, dreamy atmosphere of the place would have been just the thing to relax in, if one wasn’t walking into the dragon’s den. As we were, I couldn’t properly enjoy either the music or the beautiful settings. Only thing that mattered was the warm hand on mine, squeezing every now and then, giving comfort and expressing anxiety.

According to Kielo’s watch it was two past eleven when we were approached by a man I immediately recognized as a vampire. He stopped a few meters from our table, and his eyes roamed over the both of us before he stepped closer and gave us a small bow.

“Dorian would like to meet you now, ladies.”

Kielo and I looked at each other, squeezing each other’s hands for courage as we stood up and followed him towards the partly hidden door on the right side of the stage. On it, the singer was cooing about paper moons and make-believe. As far as I could tell, no one was paying any attention to us as we slipped into the short, dark corridor. Out of sight, out of reach.

“It’ll be all right.” I reminded Kielo, and she gave me a smile. We would be all right.

There were two doors on each side of the corridor, and one at the end of it. The vampire led us to the last one, and Kielo quickly whispered to me that it was the biggest one. The one with the door to the backyard. I could feel no other vampires on the premises except for the ones on the other side of that door.

This was it, I thought as the vampire gave a sharp knock to the door before opening it. He stepped aside and motioned for us to step into the warm, dimly lit room. The door closed and locked behind us, making me jump a little. To my surprise, Kielo, beside me, didn’t feel nervous at all. On the contrary, she seemed calmer than I was. Good poker face, that girl. My girl.

There was a wooden, oval table in the middle of the room, and comfortable white chairs surrounding it. They had been pushed against the dark red walls now, though, and there were three vampires standing next to the table, eyeing us. I recognized all of them from the night at the goth club. One of them was the one I’d maced in the face.

The largest chair, opposite us across the table, was turned so that its back was to us, and we couldn’t see who was in it. I had thought that I wouldn’t need to see: I should still be able to recognize Iggy, even after all these years. But the vibes I was getting from that direction, they weren’t what I had been expecting. Familiar, but…

There was a woman, a human, standing on the right side of the chair, and she demanded my attention before I could figure out what was bothering me about the chair. She was familiar as well.

“You?” I muttered quietly as I recognized the woman who had shoved the crucifix into my face a while ago, and who I had seen again on Tuesday. She was staring right at me, smirking. I could feel the pieces of the puzzle click in my head, and suddenly her actions became clear. She was with the vampire. With Iggy. He must have sent her to check me out, to confuse me.

“Welcome.” Came an amused voice from the other side of the chair, and a pale hand gave a short wave on its left side. I swallowed and glanced at Kielo, who…

Kielo was smiling, staring at the chair as well. I couldn’t understand why, unless she was pretending that the vampire didn’t scare her. I didn’t get a chance to ask or think further, though, as the chair started to turn around, the one sitting on it coming into view like the bad guy from a spy movie.

The vampires in the room, they smirked and glanced at each other as the chair turned ever so slowly. The woman beside it winked at us. My hand inched closer to my bag containing the weapons I’d brought, but it fell to my side as I finally saw the man sitting in the chair, smiling like a shark.

The face was familiar. But not one from decades ago. Not Iggy.

“…Alby?!”

Alby –for it was him, no one else- spread his hands as wide as his grin, and shrugged. “Surprise.”

“But… you…” I couldn’t get anything coherent out of my mouth, nor could I understand anything as everyone in the room burst into laughter. Everyone but me. Yes, even Kielo. I turned to her, my eyes begging for an explanation. She leaned over to give me a kiss on the cheek, and when Alby reached out a hand towards her, she left me and walked to stand next to his chair. She and the woman gave each other an affectionate look over the back of the chair.

My mouth was hanging open, and there was nothing I could do to close it. My brain was busy trying to comprehend, to come up with answers, but it was as lost as the rest of me.

“I guess an explanation is in order. Please, sit.” Alby said, and one of the vampires lifted one of the chairs behind me. When I made no move to obey, I was pushed down as Alby –my friend- leaned over and placed his elbows on the table, his pale chin on his laced fingers. “First… I think you’ve met my friends already. Kielo…” he nudged his head towards her –my lover!- “and Paula. My girlfriends.”

“What?!” I would have shot up from the chair but the vampire next to me grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back down. “Kielo, what’s going on?” I pleaded with her, begged with my eyes, still not understanding. Was this some kind of a joke?

She, the one I’d fallen so hard for, who I had held in my arms and protected, kissed and made love to… she just smiled at me, tilting her head so that her lovely blond curls bounced a little.

“I can see that she played her part well. Good job, babe.” Alby said, and Kielo leaned over the back of the chair to kiss his neck. A small wail of pain escaped my lips, I couldn’t stop it. He grinned and locked his eyes to mine. “I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’ll just get it over and done with. The thing is, S, there are people who want you dead.”

He stopped to allow me to answer, to ask the obvious questions, but my confusion and growing anger still prevented me from speaking. Alby shrugged and continued.

“To be more precise, there are vampires who want you dead. I know you’ve retired, but as we can all see…” now he leaned back again and spread his hands, “it is obvious that it doesn’t take much to get you to come out of retirement. You’re tiny and cute, but you’re also almost 200 years old, and you’ve killed more than your fair share of vampires. So, my friends, they have good cause to be worried that someone like you would try to meddle with their plans. That being the case, they contacted me, your friend as well, and offered me a lot of money to kill you. And we are talking six. Figure. Numbers here, babe. Big money. But, any sane person wouldn’t even consider killing their friend for petty change.”

“Friend! Exactly!” I finally found my voice and words to come with it. “What the hell is going on here?”

“That I am trying to explain to you, in case you haven’t been paying attention. Come on, I know Kielo has the best tits in town, but this is your life we’re talking about. So try to keep up.” Alby snapped his fingers while Kielo and Paula laughed behind him.

“What about me, then?” Paula asked.

“You’ve got the best ass in town, babe.” Alby said and turned his attention back to me. “You’re right, though. It takes more than money to make one turn on one’s friends. The vampires knew this, and added some… fringe benefits to the pay. Suffice to say, it was enough to turn even my head.”

“But… if you wanted me dead, why all this? What the hell for? Do you enjoy torturing me?!” I demanded to know, angry as all hell. Still, the anger was barely enough to keep the tears from my eyes as I watched the three before me.

“Torture? Oh no.” Alby spread his hands and let out a laugh, as if it was obvious. “Because you’re my friend. That’s why.”

There were no words to express what I was feeling then, but I didn’t need them as Alby continued.

“I do care for you. And as your friend I have to say that you’ve spent the last decade or so doing nothing. You’ve let yourself go, and haven’t really lived. I mean, you had to come to me to find out what’s going on with the vampires these days. It made it easy for me to manipulate you, though.

“But the point was that I wanted you to live a little before you died. As a last favour to a friend.” He pointed to his left, where Paula stood, smiling as she watched my expression. “Paula won, and got to try and seduce you first. But she fucked it up, didn’t you?”

The brunette shrugged one shoulder. “I panicked. It was stupid.”

“But that was all right, considering that Kielo had even a better idea.” Alby now pointed to his right. I turned back to Kielo, who was not meeting my eyes. Her smile seemed to falter a little now that the attention was on her. “And you have to admit, she played her part like a pro. Do I know how to pick ‘em, or do I know how to pick ‘em?”

He clearly waited for me to answer. I just growled at him, making him shrug.

“Fine. Anyway, it was all going really well, with a little help from my friends.” The vampires around us chuckled at that. “But when we thought to bring Iggy into the picture, we almost lost you.”

“Where is he? What have you done to him?” I had completely forgotten about him. Alby just shrugged again.

“Haven’t the faintest idea. Never met him.”

“So it was all lies. Everything was a lie.” I turned back to Kielo now. She wasn’t smiling anymore, but she did meet my eyes this time.

“More or less.” Alby said. “But you gotta admit… you enjoyed every minute of it.”

“Not the concussion.” I muttered crankily.

“Too bad. You’re in for a lot more pain before we’re done.”

I ignored him, still staring at Kielo, begging for her to smile, to say it wasn’t true, to tell me it hadn’t all been a lie. That she hadn’t taken my trust and abused it, lied to me about everything.

She just turned her eyes away.

Alby had noticed, and sighed. “You really fell for her, didn’t you?”

“Which one of them are you asking?” Paula asked, her arms crossed over her chest. He ignored her and got up, to walk past Kielo and to stand before me. I was forced to look up, from his belt to his face.

“I really meant it over the phone, you know. I do appreciate having you as a friend, S. Too bad it has to end like this.” He leaned over to give me a kiss on the forehead before motioning to one of the vampires.

”It’s nothing personal, love. Just business.”

I could feel the excitement of the vampires as they all crept closer, leaving the humans to the back of the room and me to wonder who were the real monsters here.

This time, as there was a splitting pain at the back of my head, I welcomed the following darkness, knowing I would never awaken from it.

The Bard is the property of Laura Bushinski, used with exclusive permission.

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