SNAP: The World Unfolds (24 page)

“What there weren’t, this morning, were nosy neighbors. If somebody had seen you and called the police, how do you think we would’ve handled it? We could pass you off as being mugged on a morning jog, we could pass Carlos off as just a bodyguard, but it would open us up for scrutiny from all our competitors as well as mainstream media.”

That was why this meeting was so hush-hush and only the vampires. Anything else about SNAP or SNAP Holdings was open and transparent; vampire ownership wasn’t. So once again, they were concerned with themselves.

Jean-Louis was boring holes in me with his great hooded eyes. He wasn’t glimmering now, none of them were. “Don’t even say it,” Jean-Louis ordered.

“Say what?” An innocent act was my only defense.

“You were about to accuse us, me, of only caring for ourselves...leaving you out there as tiger bait. Pulling you out of L.A. isn’t firing you from SNAP. And my business and personal plans both agree with our decision.”

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

I didn’t get a vote.

I may have been upper management, but this was a vampire decision, not a SNAP decision.

The upshot was that SNAP would announce I was taking a temporary position as International Planning Editor, a cobbled-up title that meant nothing but covered my absence from any of the offices in the States. I could and would visit our locations in Europe and South America. They would even set up meetings for me in Asia and Australia, scouting for possible expansions.

But my home base wasn’t going to be my condo in Santa Monica. I would be headquartered in Hungary, at the Baron’s castle.

“We truly think this will only be temporary,” Jean-Louis said earnestly. “We’re not at war with the Huszars, but this last stunt has upped the ante. We, I, want you someplace that’s defensible by our usual methods and that has privacy.”

“That’s rich,” I snorted, “given what we do for a living.”

“You’re right. There’s a lot of information we’ll put out to the public. We actually believe that by pouring out tons of facts and information, most of the other media will get bored with us. It’s worked in the past.” Chaz had been in charge of much of this disinformation, and was good at it. “The key is having ‘facts’ that are real or plausible and putting spin on them. What we won’t announce, is where your headquarters will be.”

“And when you travel, now it’ll always be on Viper,” Mira added. “You won’t have to worry about overweight luggage or anything again.” She’d been silent up till now. I wondered how much input she’d had into the discussion and the decision.

“We’ve talked about this all morning,” she continued. “This isn’t a decision made lightly or by one person. We’ve had skirmishes with the Huszars for centuries, and we see this as just one more. The difference is that today the whole world can find out our business. What Jean-Louis and the Baron are attempting will bring the Huszars into that business. That way, they’ll be vulnerable to the scrutiny as well. We’re hoping this will neutralize them.”

Damn, there it was again. That vampire ability to anticipate my thoughts and head them off before I could voice them. There was no doubt that Mira, quiet though she may have been, was Kandesky family leadership.

The next hour was spent in going over the details. I’d just come back from Hungary, so the timing of my reassignment made sense. There’d have to be internal memos, press releases, interviews. This would probably take a couple of days to finish up.

And there was the little matter of my personal belongings. I wouldn’t have to sell my condo, the family would make the mortgage payments and have someone come in weekly to clean. I could take two days to cull through things and choose what I wanted to take with me. It felt like I was going into some exotic exile. I didn’t know when, if ever I’d see my old life again.

Finally, a big question was Jazz.

“What can I tell her?” I asked. “We’ve developed a close working relationship and I depend on her for a lot.”

“Tell her you’re going to be working remote for a while,” Chaz answered. “This move won’t relieve you of all responsibility here at SNAP. You can stay in daily contact with her. In fact, we’ll probably promote her. She’ll be working more independently. We can even give her an assistant.”

I nodded. They’d thought of everything, which proved again that centuries of life, and years of business, had given them power to anticipate every move. Good god, I wouldn’t want to play chess with any of them.

The interoffice memo went out late that afternoon. The content meeting and the taping were bittersweet. Most people congratulated me on my promotion. Working remote, traveling around the world, meeting with celebs, was the stuff of dreams, even though it meant giving up life in the States for a while.

I took the congrats and good wishes as omens that this would be positive and temporary, as Jean-Louis had promised. And when I told Jazz about her new responsibilities, she was initially skeptical. “I haven’t had your experience. There’s so much I wanted to learn from you. What if I mess up?”

“You won’t mess up,” I told her. “You’re bright, you have a longer history than I do at SNAP, you’re tuned into the office politics way more than I am. And if you ever have any questions, I’m only going to be a phone call or email away—allowing for time differences!” I laughed. “You’ll do fine. And this is only temporary. We’re both going to get promotions if we carry this out as well as I know we can.” Both of us believed my pep talk.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

I snuck out of L.A. like a thief in the dead of night.

Well, there was more flourish. And it was in the afternoon.

I packed books, clothes, cosmetics some keepsakes and pictures. My things didn’t take up more that a few boxes. Jean-Louis was laughing at me.

“You’re going to be staying at Stefan’s castle. There are servants. You have a suite of rooms assigned to you. You’re in Europe. You can have the plane, or the demons, take you to Rome, Milan, Paris. If you truly run out of something from here, you can have me or Carola or Mira pick it up on one of our trips. You can call Jazz and have her send it! Stop acting as though you’re going to a Siberian gulag!” His words were stern, but his tone was light.

And why not? He’d won. He got his way. I’d be tucked away safely where he, Stefan, Pen and the demons could keep an eye on me—waking and sleeping.

He was right, on the surface of it I looked silly and provincial. I was—temporarily, I kept reminding myself—moving from a six-room condo with a view of the Pacific to a 150-room castle with a view of manicured grounds and forests filled with feral pigs, wolves—Were and others—and occasional vampires.

Inside, though, was the rub. I was managing the strangeness of working with, and loving, a vampire. It was beyond my comfort zone and knowledge. It was terrifying. As long as I had my real life, my normal life, waiting for me in L.A., I could cope with the eeriness. If I was overwhelmed by the strange, I could leave; give it up and go back to my usual, unexciting, known and unsurprising routine. The familiar was home. I’d built a life that made me feel loved, safe, close to my mother.

Deep, deep inside, I guess I knew that I could, still and always, choose to give up the vampires, the luxury, the excitement, Jean-Louis. The routine and regular were going to be there. This move was stepping into the abyss. My world was unfolding, opening up to new dimensions.

I was on the verge of hyperventilating on the way to the airport for a trip that would be a duplicate of my first one to Budapest. The leg to Newark, refueling and on to Europe. Except the first one was going toward the unknown and a great adventure. This was running from my home and escaping possible kidnapping, torture, maybe death. I could do it because Jean-Louis was with me.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Sandor was waiting for us in Budapest with a truck to haul my boxes to the castle.

The trip to this point hadn’t been uneventful. Chrissy had been the cabin attendant again and she greeted me with a smile that cracked her Ice Princess exterior and made her warm and human. She was a donor; maybe it was the blood-giving that made her so pale and aloof.

“Do you want dinner on this leg?” she asked, putting my purse and briefcase in a small closet.

“We have some pasta primavera. Would you like a drink? A glass of wine?”

“I’ll have a glass of pinot blanc,” I said, taking a spot on one of the couches for takeoff. I glanced at Jean-Louis who was stowing his laptop in a desk drawer. “Are you going to work?”

He looked up at me distractedly. “Uh, yes, I have a few things to take care of. We need to watch the show, too. There’ll be a very brief announcement that you’ve been promoted to International Planning Editor and will be working away from the office.”

“You’re not announcing that I’m moving to Hungary, are you?” I knew I was going to the lion’s den, but I sure didn’t want it announced to the lions.

“No, no. We’re just announcing that you won’t be working out of the L.A. office. We’re hoping that the Huszars will spend time and money watching your condo and searching the area for you. It won’t get them off our backs, but it may give us some breathing time.”

Chrissy caught his eye and he began a low glimmer. “The usual, Chrissy,” he smiled. “Thanks.”

When we reached cruising altitude, Chrissy brought out food and flipped on the realtime TV. I took bites of food and sips of wine as I watched for the announcement of my, what? demise? abdication? removal? Stop it. I mentally smacked myself. I had to get my head screwed around to understand and appreciate the positive of this...beyond staying alive.

I almost missed it. Jincy, tonight’s anchor, threw in two sentences before sign off. “In media news, SNAP’s magazine editor has been appointed to a new position. Maxie Gwenoch will be planning for SNAP’s expansion to additional international markets.”

Chaz was certainly a master at un-information.

Touch down and refueling gave me a chance to stretch my legs and walk around the hangar. Sucking in jet fuel vapors, rubber, grease, oil and unidentifiable other smells weren’t fresh air, but moving around eased some kinks. As we hit altitude for the next, longer leg, Jean-Louis said, “I asked Chrissy to only make up one cabin.”

I went into the cabin, looked at the big bed, chose a side, turned on a bedside lamp and got ready to read myself to sleep. Some time later I jerked awake. Some one was in the room with me. I wasn’t awake enough to remember this room was at 35,000 feet; I screamed. A short scream and just one sound before Jean-Louis put his hand over my mouth. “Hush.”

He was glimmering and his eyes were so dark they looked black. He smiled at me, broad enough that I glimpsed his fangs as he leaned toward me. I lurched upright and shrank away.

“I wanted to talk to you about the plans. Stefan has allocated a suite of eight rooms for you. It’s in the same wing as my suite. You have your apartment and your maid has a room as well. We know, or we assumed, that you’ve never lived with other people and servants around, so we set it up to give you as much privacy as possible. We, I, want you to feel this is your home”

I got stuck on “your maid,” “I have a maid assigned? Who?”

“Lisbet’s sister has agreed to come and work for as long as you’re there. She’s been working in Budapest but was glad to come home. Her name’s Elise. I think you’ll like her.”

Once again, the vampires had done it right. They were courtly, mannered, urbane. I flashed on suggesting that they give lessons to the world’s diplomats.

“If we were great at diplomacy, we’d have won over the Huszars by now,” his glimmer got stronger. He ran his hand down my face and my skin tingled.

This time, when he leaned toward me, I didn’t flinch. His lips caressed my face, my ear lobes, my eyebrows. I closed my eyes, my bones melting, and began an almost purr as he kissed my eyelids.

“You are soft,” he whispered as his hands pulled up the shirt I was sleeping in. He touched my breasts and ran a hand down, over my thigh. I couldn’t resist. My body was limp and I silently told him to do whatever he wanted to. He heard my language, and slowly, slowly made love to me. It was outside any sensations, any sex, I’d ever had and after it was over, we lay twined together.

If this was an introduction to my new world, I was ready.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

My suite was lush. The rooms were large and the windows overlooked the front terrace and the rolling hills of rural Hungary. They’d taken my sensibilities into consideration and not given me rooms that looked out to the forest.

After Stefan and Pen formally greeted us, Lisbet and Josef took my bags. Jean-Louis traveled with a laptop. He had complete wardrobes and toiletries in all of the SNAP Holdings houses around the world.

He was right, I did like Elise. Lisbet introduced us and helped Elise unpack my traveling cases. My other boxes would be brought up while we had drinks. Jean-Louis and I went down to the main salon to talk with Stefan and Pen. A vampire I’d never met before, Milos, was already there when we came in and Jean-Louis nodded at him “Are we ready?” he asked and the three men went into the study, leaving me and Pen to make conversation.

“I understand from Mira and Carola that you had some misgivings about coming here,” she said. As a conversation starter, it was a bombshell.