I was a pinned butterfly with thirteen vampires looking at me.
“I know you’ve all heard about the little fracas last night,” he started and there were nods around the table. I wasn’t sure I would have referred to last night as a “little fracas,” since it was my neck involved. “This was the second attempt on Maxie. She was also attacked in the parking garage at SNAP right before they left L.A. I’m disturbed at the attacks and want to know why. Why Maxie? Why now? Any theories or suggestions?”
The room hummed with murmured voices. “Do we know for sure it was the Huszars?” Carola asked.
“Last night, the attackers were actually members of the next-door neighbor’s family,” the Baron said drily. There were snickers around the table. Living next to the Huszar family for hundreds of years hadn’t made for any better relations, apparently. I wondered if I could find what had started the feud or if it was buried in all of the vampire myths from this part of the world.
“In the Los Angeles attack, I don’t know if they were Huszars or hired goons. One of them was killed and the other got away. The dead one didn’t have any identification on him. All we know is that he was a vampire. One of Sandor’s men killed him.”
This was my first exposure to vampire killings and I had a lot of questions. The Baron had talked about peasants using stakes in the past, Lisbet and her family wore crosses and some of the other castle staff smelled—reeked—of garlic. But other vampires wouldn’t wear crosses or garlic and wooden stakes weren’t much available; hard to carry around and use. Jean-Louis saw my eyebrows wrinkling and said, “All of the security demons carry silenced Sig Saurers or Glocks with special adaptations for our own ammunition. We have a factory in the Czech Republic that makes silver bullets.”
“How do they manage to carry that kind of weapon?” I asked. “Don’t they ever get stopped?”
“Stopped by whom?” Jean-Louis asked.
“I don’t know, cops, airport security, metal detectors?”
A spate of laughter spread through the room.
“You’re showing your naïveté as a regular,” Francois was laughing so hard he started coughing. Gregor reached over and slapped him on the back—harder than he needed to, I thought—and Francoise hiccupped a couple of times and wiped his eyes.
I didn’t think my questions were that funny. I guessed I hit some nerve.
“Did you have to go through airport security?” Jean-Louis looked at me, his right eyebrow arcing.
My mouth imitated a perfect “O” as the light dawned. Everybody who worked with the Baron flew Viper Airways when they needed to, which used private airports with a minimum of security checks. Guns and silver bullets were only part of the different baggage. There was also blood, often a lot of blood, transported. Since the Kandesky family had foresworn killing humans regularly for food, they had to carry around all their food with them.
Jean-Louis gave me a quiet smile and turned his attention back to the topic on the table, me.
“They do seem to be more active since Maxie arrived,” Carola’s quiet dignity silenced the remains of snickering at my gaffe. “Maybe they’re looking to kidnap her.”
“But for what purpose?’ Bela’s hands waved circles in the air. “What could they possibly hope to get from her? We know they’re trying to compete with us, but she won’t be useful to them until they actually have a product ready to go.”
It wasn’t exactly a snide putdown, but I felt the undercurrent of distain. I was a regular doing a job that supervised vampires. I had been included in much of their business and, with this trip, was now privy to all of their secrets. Some of them were still uneasy at the trust that the Baron and his closest advisers continued to put in me.
“She knows us, now.” the Baron said, leaning over to a
“I know you’ve all heard about the little fracas last night,” he started and there were nods around the table. I wasn’t sure I would have referred to last night as a “little fracas,” since it was my neck involved. “This was the second attempt on Maxie. She was also attacked in the parking garage at SNAP right before they left L.A. I’m disturbed at the attacks and want to know why. Why Maxie? Why now? Any theories or suggestions?”
The room hummed with murmured voices. “Do we know for sure it was the Huszars?” Carola asked.
“Last night, the attackers were actually members of the next-door neighbor’s family,” the Baron said drily. There were snickers around the table. Living next to the Huszar family for hundreds of years hadn’t made for any better relations, apparently. I wondered if I could find what had started the feud or if it was buried in all of the vampire myths from this part of the world.
“In the Los Angeles attack, I don’t know if they were Huszars or hired goons. One of them was killed and the other got away. The dead one didn’t have any identification on him. All we know is that he was a vampire. One of Sandor’s men killed him.”
This was my first exposure to vampire killings and I had a lot of questions. The Baron had talked about peasants using stakes in the past, Lisbet and her family wore crosses and some of the other castle staff smelled—reeked—of garlic. But other vampires wouldn’t wear crosses or garlic and wooden stakes weren’t much available; hard to carry around and use. Jean-Louis saw my eyebrows wrinkling and said, “All of the security demons carry silenced Sig Saurers or Glocks with special adaptations for our own ammunition. We have a factory in the Czech Republic that makes silver bullets.”
“How do they manage to carry that kind of weapon?” I asked. “Don’t they ever get stopped?”
“Stopped by whom?” Jean-Louis asked.
“I don’t know, cops, airport security, metal detectors?”
A spate of laughter spread through the room.
“You’re showing your naïveté as a regular,” Francois was laughing so hard he started coughing. Gregor reached over and slapped him on the back—harder than he needed to, I thought—and Francoise hiccupped a couple of times and wiped his eyes.
I didn’t think my questions were that funny. I guessed I hit some nerve.
“Did you have to go through airport security?” Jean-Louis looked at me, his right eyebrow arcing.
My mouth imitated a perfect “O” as the light dawned. Everybody who worked with the Baron flew Viper Airways when they needed to, which used private airports with a minimum of security checks. Guns and silver bullets were only part of the different baggage. There was also blood, often a lot of blood, transported. Since the Kandesky family had foresworn killing humans regularly for food, they had to carry around all their food with them.
Jean-Louis gave me a quiet smile and turned his attention back to the topic on the table, me.
“They do seem to be more active since Maxie arrived,” Carola’s quiet dignity silenced the remains of snickering at my gaffe. “Maybe they’re looking to kidnap her.”
“But for what purpose?’ Bela’s hands waved circles in the air. “What could they possibly hope to get from her? We know they’re trying to compete with us, but she won’t be useful to them until they actually have a product ready to go.”
It wasn’t exactly a snide putdown, but I felt the undercurrent of distain. I was a regular doing a job that supervised vampires. I had been included in much of their business and, with this trip, was now privy to all of their secrets. Some of them were still uneasy at the trust that the Baron and his closest advisers continued to put in me.
“She knows us, now.” the Baron said, leaning over to a
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