A Fantastic Holiday Season: The Gift of Stories (32 page)

“He said he was a werewolf,” said Kelly, sounding shell-shocked. “At the door.”

“He’s dangerous,” Meg told Kelly, and Asil started to work his way over to them. He needed Kelly not to “run screaming into the night” and to stick around for another half hour—at least.

“Really, really dangerous,” Meg continued in a furious whisper. Her back was to him, but Kelly saw Asil approach. “No one screws with him, not even my Uncle Tag, because Asil is crazy. Uncle Tag told me to tell you to be very polite and to keep your eyes lowered—and whatever you did, excuse yourself as quickly as possible.”

Instead of being properly frightened, Kelly laughed. Asil considered being offended.

Kelly saw the expression on Asil’s face and covered his mouth. He put his free arm around Meg and turned her so she could see Asil. “You have to admit it’s funny, Meg. A werewolf set up on a date with a girl pretending to be a vampire—who was actually a guy pretending to be a vampire. And
both
of us were set up—by different people.”

“Coincidence, indeed.” Asil was better pleased when both of them started at his silkily voiced observation and Kelly’s wide grin disappeared. He directed his question to Meg. “Are you sure that your Uncle Tag didn’t have anything to do with this? Interesting that he knows us both, don’t you think?”

“It wasn’t Uncle Tag,” she squeaked. She looked at Asil, then jerked her gaze to the floor. “Not him. I told him a friend of mind had been set up on a vampire dating site without his knowledge. He’d heard that someone had set you up, too. He told me he was suspicious because—how many people in Montana would sign up on a vampire dating site? Turns out that whoever set you up, sir, only found one profile in a five hundred mile radius. And that was Kelly—who, on the profile Travis and his rat-bastard crew wrote up, appeared to be a girl.” She took a deep breath, then raised her eyes. “Kelly doesn’t deserve to get hurt over something that’s not his fault.” Her eyes left his again before she finished, but her chin was still up.

“I’m fine,” said Kelly. “He’s not going to hurt me.”

“Yes,” agreed Asil. “I never blame the messenger. The perpetrators on my side of the fence were misguided, but not malicious. I accept that Tag was not one of them—he is more inclined to use an axe than a keyboard. When I find out who they are, I will serve them with justice—but no bodies will be strewn about. Especially since I am enjoying myself.”

“Kelly is gay and Uncle Tag says you aren’t.” She said it really fast to get it all out. Unwilling to leave her friend at the mercy of someone her uncle warned her about without checking to make sure he was really safe. He had no doubt, since she was related to Tag, that if she thought he would hurt her friend—she’d throw herself into the fray.

He liked her. A lot. He had always liked Tag, too.

“We have already established that I prefer women and he prefers men. But I have no problem dancing with a man, because my reputation is such that pretty little things such as yourself and also big, scary men like your uncle tremble in fear of me. Dancing with a man is unlikely to change that—and I like dancing.”

She frowned.

“He’s funny,” said Kelly. “You have to watch for it, but he’s pretty funny underneath the Castilian manners and straight face.”

Asil took pity on her. “Your friend is safe with me.”

She took in a deep breath that threatened to release parts of her that the Elizabethan dress put under a lot of pressure. “Really safe?”

“Safer than anyone else here,” said Asil showing her his teeth. He might like her, but he didn’t like her questioning his word.

“Okay,” said Meg. She let out a breath in a huff of air. “Good.”

A fanfare sounded through the speakers to draw their attention to a stage that had been erected against one wall.

“Well, that was embarrassing,” muttered Kelly as he tugged Asil toward the stage—and away from his friend—by tucking a hand unselfconsciously in the crook of his arm. “I’m sorry about my friend.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. Who a man’s friends are, says a lot about him. She knew who and what I was—and still tried to save you from me. She is brave and loyal. No one needs to apologize for such a friend.”

Beside him, Kelly straightened a little. “She did throw herself in front of the bus, didn’t she? Even if the bus was already stopped.”

“I am not a bus,” murmured Asil as someone stepped up to a microphone and chatted some canned welcome speech. “A chariot. A Porsche. But not a bus.”

“See,” said Kelly to no one Asil could discern. “He’s funny.”

The speaker nattered on for a few minutes more before announcing the opening dance.

They had never danced together before, and it was obvious that many of the couples on the dance floor practiced for this dance. But Kelly did indeed know how to dance, and they soon progressed beyond the simpler moves into some more daring, dramatic … even melodramatic moves. There were a few stumbles here and there—it was very obvious that Kelly was used to leading, no matter what he’d said.

But when the music ended, and they froze for that last dramatic moment, chest to chest, face to face—Asil realized he was really having fun. More fun than he’d had for a very, very long time.

As they stepped away from each other, exchanging grins, Asil wondered when he had forgotten how much fun dancing was? How much fun flirting was? Especially when both people knew it was not going further than that?

In order to properly repay the people or person (he was not ruling out someone using the royal “we” to obfuscate his or her identity), Asil was beginning to believe he might have to buy a gift instead of dealing out vengeance. Though he had no intention of letting his benefactors know it until the whole thing was over. Let them fear his wrath for a while more.

“Hey Kelly, is this the date?” A young man Asil had not seen anyone who looked to be over twenty-five came up to them swaggering a little. He was the type to impress people under thirty—big, athletic, handsome. “It worked out? Awesome. You owe me one.”

“This is Trace,” said Kelly.

Before Asil could say anything, Trace looked over his shoulder at the entrance. “Late comers,” he said. “Next time I’ll tell them the party starts an hour before the doors open.”

He stepped around them and headed for the front door. Asil glanced at the incoming party and then turned around to face Kelly.

“Do you see the very young man in the tuxedo who just came in?”

Kelly frowned and squinted. “Yeah. That’s Bruce. He’s a cousin, I think, of Shawna’s—one of the other members of the group. I haven’t seen her tonight. He’s a freshman, I think, and he’s been coming to the LARPs since school started this fall. He’s not a good player, mostly he just sits around and watches us. I expect that he’ll find his own group of friends and quit coming. Why?”

Bruce wasn’t the name Asil knew him by. Though “Bruce” would recognize his own. For the first time, Asil wondered if he had stepped into a trap when he’d come on this date.

“LARP?” asked Asil.

“Sorry. It stands for Live Action Role-Playing. L-A-R-P. Do you know Bruce? What’s wrong?”

“Come with me,” said Asil. Leaving his enemy still standing bothered him, but he had to gather information.

Walking through the dancing crowd was like swimming upstream, but Asil was a good swimmer. People parted for them, as he led Kelly to an alcove furnished with a bench and a large plant that looked real but smelled of plastic.

“Forgive me,” Asil said, pulling Kelly close and burying his nose in the young man’s neck.

Kelly struggled, mostly from surprise, Asil thought, much good it did him. Faintly, very faintly, he caught the smell of vampire.

He pulled back and held on until he was sure Kelly had his balance. Kelly jerked free and straightened his clothes. In a fine temper he said, “
What
was that about? On a normal date, I would have objected because you didn’t ask. But that wasn’t about romance—and I have an almost uncontrollable urge to smack you on the nose. Were you
smelling
me?”

Asil reminded himself forcefully that Kelly had a right to be mad. He loosened his neck and heard the vertebrae pop. “Bruce is a vampire.”

“I could have told you that,” Kelly snapped. “That’s right, I did.” His mouth opened, doubtless to deliver some more scathing commentary—but he shut it. “No way. No way in hell. Vampires aren’t real.”

“Shh,” advised Asil. “They are real, I assure you. And they have very good hearing. What one is doing here, I cannot tell you. Is there any chance Bruce was involved in the prank that led to our date?”

Kelly stared at him, but when he spoke again it was in a hushed whisper. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t think so. Trace and his girlfriend apparently thought it was a good idea one day while they were drunk.”

“They exchanged emails with people pretending to be me for two weeks,” Asil said dryly. “Were they drunk the whole time?”

“Them? Who knows, it’s possible,” Kelly shrugged distractedly. “What do you mean vampires are real? Everyone knows they aren’t real.”

“Vampires,” Asil spoke slowly, “are real. They usually live in seethes and feed on human prey, who die very slowly as they gradually turn into mindless slaves. You’ve been bitten—don’t fuss. Only once or you’d smell more like one of them. You’ll be safe enough.”

“How could I have been bitten?” Kelly asked, his eyes widening until the whites were visible all the way around like a startled horse. “I don’t think I’ve exchanged two words with Bruce and we haven’t gotten closer than ten feet apart. How could I have been bitten by a vampire and not known?”

“It is better for you that you didn’t know,” Asil told him. “It means that the vampire hasn’t decided to make you his, yet.” Probably the vampire was afraid to draw attention to himself.

Kelly started to say something more and Asil held up a hand. “Sorry, let me think a bit.”

It was
possible
that the vampire had arranged the whole thing to lure Asil out without the pack at his back, so that he would be vulnerable. It sounded plausible until Asil looked deeper.

Bruce who Asil had once known as … Basil something. Basil Hennington. Basil Billingsley. Basil Featherington. Something of the sort—whatever the vampire’s name had been, it had made Asil think of chicken soup. The vampire’s name might have changed, but this vampire was a creature of subtlety. He lived in the shadows, away from his own kind. Attacking one of Bran’s wolves would not be subtle in any fashion.

It was Asil’s people who had sought out Kelly for the date. And he was certain it was his pack—because no vampire could have imitated him so well in the emails. It took familiarity and Asil had never been familiar with any vampire.

And there was this. Alone Asil might be, but he was not vulnerable.

No. The vampire who called himself Bruce had no idea Asil was anywhere near.
Bruce
just thought he had a nice meal ticket going.

Kelly had folded his arms around himself and was obviously bursting with questions. But he’d kept quiet.

“It will be all right,” Asil said.

“Weirdest freaking date of my life,” muttered Kelly.

He was afraid. Asil’s wolf usually liked it when people were afraid, but this one was under his protection tonight. There was no need for the fear.

“We need to go outside and look for a dark space,” Asil told him.

“It’s eight p.m in the winter on the outskirts of Missoula,” Kelly said. “There’s freaking dark space everywhere.”

Asil frowned at him.

“Fine,” Kelly huffed. But he didn’t smell mad. He still smelled scared.

“Look at me,” commanded Asil.

Kelly looked at him.

“I will not let harm come to you.” Asil smiled and Kelly took a step back because it was that kind of smile. “In fact I will do you and your group of vampire players a good turn—and teach Trace not to meddle in other people’s lives at the same time.”

“Hey, Bruce?” Kelly said nervously.

Bruce turned to look at him, and no matter how hard Kelly tried to see it—Bruce looked like a freshman who hadn’t quite grown into his own skin.

“You heard about what Trace did to me, right?”

Bruce frowned. “I heard. I don’t know why he’s in charge of the group when he’s such a jerk.”

“Yeah, me either.” Maybe because no one else wanted to put the time in to do it right—and because Trace was a decent game master. “I have an idea that will keep him from ever doing it again—to anyone else. I don’t want him to see me watching—but you know my friend Meg?” Meg wasn’t formally a part of the vampire group but she did costuming for a lot of them.

“I do.” Bruce smiled and the avarice that came and went in his eyes made Kelly’s stomach tightened. Yeah, this wasn’t a good guy.

“She’s over with Trace and his girlfriend right now, distracting him so I can get you outside without him noticing.” No lies, Asil had told him. Vampires weren’t as adept as werewolves apparently were at telling when someone lied to them—but this one was very old and with age came some skills. Kelly hadn’t know that werewolves could tell when someone was lying.

Asil’s advice rang in his ears
. You’re afraid—and that’s fine. Let him know there’s a reason to be afraid and he won’t pay any more attention to it.

“I’m not the first one he’s tormented,” Kelly said. “But I’m going to be the last.”

“What are you going to do?” asked the vampire.

“I’m going to teach him he can’t hurt people without paying a price,” Kelly told him. “He would never face me on his own if he could help it. Meg is going to get him to follow her outside, out of sight. Then you and she are going to watch to make sure no one else follows him out to interrupt, and to vouch that the fight was fair.”

“You’re going to beat him up?” asked Bruce. “Really?”

Kelly didn’t blame him for the doubt in his voice. Trace was bigger and Kelly had that whole geek thing going. “Really,” Kelly said. He was pretty sure he could take Trace if he wanted to. His mother had given him dancing lessons. His father had insisted that any boy who danced that much needed to be able to protect himself—so he had six years of Taekwondo to go with his dancing. He tried a smile and wasn’t upset that his inner tension made it fail. “I haven’t done anything like this ever. But I can’t let it go.”