SNAP: The World Unfolds (9 page)

I kept sucking deep gasps and willing my body to stop shaking. Sandor leaned over me with concern in his eyes. “Are you alright?” he asked, putting one of his strong hands on the side of my throat.

“Don’t touch me,” I shouted as I tried to roll away. The roots of trees and drifts of fallen leaves gave me no traction and I slithered around like a landed fish. I’d been saved by the demons only to have them go for my throat?

“Still, still,” Sandor said. “I’m only trying to take the pulse in your neck. I’m not very good at finding it in a wrist.”

My chest was still heaving but I tried to lie as still as possible. It wasn’t easy with my body giving involuntary shivers every few seconds.

“What was that all about?”

“I don’t know. Franz and Hermann will ask them once they’re subdued. For you, now we’re going back to the house. I’ve asked them to have a doctor ready to check you over, though I think you were only winded.” With that, he reached under my knees and my back, lifted me as though I were a child and loped across the lawn where the French doors were open to the night.

Sandor, with me in his arms, led a parade up the staircase to my rooms. The doctor, Josef the house-demon, Lisbet, Jean-Louis and Pen trailed behind, shocked into silence. The doctor, God knows where or when he went to medical school but I prayed it was after 1970, whipped a blood pressure cuff on me, stuck a thermastrip in my mouth and counted. “Your pressure and heartbeat are elevated. I don’t wonder, after an attack like that. Open your mouth.” He checked my ears and peered into my eyes. “No pinpoint bleeding, all looks normal.” He packed everything away. “I’d stay in the house for the next couple of days,” he said. “Somebody out there doesn’t like you.”

Pen asked Lisbet to get me a cup of non-caffinated tea then looked at me. “I didn’t think,” she said. “You’re not one of us. I imagine you’re tired, but are you hungry? The kitchen can put together soup, a fresh roll?”

“No, just the tea will be good,” I said. Suddenly, the last two days caught up with me and tears slid down my cheeks. Jean-Louis picked up my hand and at his touch I dissolved. Great gulping sobs made my body shake. “Oh Lord, what’s happening. This isn’t real! I want my life back,” I howled between sobs.

Jean-Louis glanced at Pen, slightly raised an eyebrow and she excused herself. As she went out, she closed the door softly. I felt Jean-Louis’ arms pulling me up and holding me and I had no more strength to fight him. I leaned into his chest and moaned. “I’m frightened! Why am I being attacked? Who are all of you? How did I get into this? Why was I chosen to work at SNAP?”

He was stroking my hair and murmuring. “I’ll explain as much as I know. I’m so sorry this has happened. We thought you’d be safe. Hush, we really are your friends. We don’t wish you any harm. We want to keep you safe and away from any danger.”

I was calmer, but he hadn’t answered any of my questions and didn’t look as though he would. “Tell me! It’s only fair!”

He let me go, stood up and began to pace. “The Baron told you a little of our background,” he began. “We were doing well. There were those of us in the movies, some as entertainers, singers, all of the high-profile spots where we could shine at night.” Here he had the good grace to throw me a wry look at his bad pun.

“And where we really made money—and as you know, money can provide privacy—was in the media that covered entertainment. From
Picture This
we moved into tabloid papers and then, with television...what gave us such a huge jump was syndication. When the entertainment news shows started more than thirty years ago we knew that there was more money to be made. We put together the combination of a nightly TV news magazine and a weekly celebrity print magazine and we could make or break stars. We always have a few of our own stars—Robert La Paz, Charlie DiVinci, Cristal Springer...”

“Are you telling me that they’re vampires?”

“Well, yes. And there are lots more.” He named off another ten or twelve names recognizable in most of the developed world. “We really are about celebrities, though, not just vampires. Better than half of the people we cover on a regular basis aren’t vampires. And that’s where people like you come in. We need a lot of staff to produce what we produce and a lot of those people have to work during the day. Which is dangerous for us.”

This staggered me. The celebrities that he’d named were household names. How could they be vampires? Easily, I realized. If they worked or were seen only at night. If their movies were shot by vampire-headed crews and were all shot indoors. If they wore sunglasses and had parasols carried over them to keep off the sun. If all the photo shoots were indoors and all the “candid” shots were night-time parties.

What had been unthinkable a few weeks ago was now making sense. A lot of people came and went in LA by back doors, underground garages or had drivers drop them off two steps from the front door. Everyone wore huge, oversized sunglasses, big floppy hats, baseball caps pulled low. The public accepted this because this was how celebrities were supposed to look. Except for the pictures at the beach or by the pool, an average reader wouldn’t be able to tell that certain celebs were never seen out of doors during the day.

I lay back on the pillows and closed my eyes. It was a weird sensation to have your entire world, everything that was ordered and normal in your experience, turned completely around. Like believing white was white and suddenly learning it was black. Or day was night. This new reality was so different I couldn’t grasp it fully.

When I opened my eyes, I jumped and yelped. Jean-Louis’s face was less that a foot away and coming closer and he was grinning.

“What! What!” I mumbled, turning my head. Then I realized that this move exposed the side of my neck so I whipped my head back.

A flash of hurt surfaced in Jean-Louis’s eyes for a second, then he pulled slightly back.

“You’re going to have to stop doing that,” his tone was miffed. “I was only going to give you a good night kiss. I think you need to sleep.”

He gave me a puzzled look. “We don’t get up very early around here, but there are a few people coming tomorrow—both your kind and our kind—so there will be food available beginning about noon. Most of us will be up and indoors in the early evening. Drinks will be at 8 with a formal dinner later. We’ll screen two or three of the shows—L.A., Paris, maybe Rio—followed by a business meeting.” He nodded at me and let himself out.

I turned to say something to Lisbet who was looking at the spot he’d occupied with longing. Here was an interesting wrinkle. Did she want him? Maybe she was an old lover. Hell, maybe she was a current lover. I wasn’t sure quite how to ask the question but I finally blurted out, “Are you a vampire, too?”

She jumped at my voice. “No. My family has worked for the Baron for more than 150 years,” she said. “A long time ago he offered to give one of us eternal life, but we’re Catholics and know we have it anyway. We’ve stayed loyal to him...well, there was an uncle, or grand-uncle, about a hundred years ago. He disappeared, and no one was ever sure what happened to him. Some say he was killed in a hunting accident, some said he moved away and some said he’d taken up an offer to be an acolyte.”

“Acolyte. That’s an odd word. The Baron used it earlier.”

“It’s what the Baron calls those who are chosen,” she explained. “My family always wears crucifixes, just so nobody misunderstands.” She pulled a small gold one on a fine chain out from her blouse. “Will you be warm enough? I can bring you some coffee and rolls when you wake up, just pull this cord. How do you like it?”

“That would be great. Black, please.”

She went out, softly closing the door, and I was alone for the first time in almost 48 hours. It was 3 a.m. The room was silent. My mind was clamoring. Did I want to stay in this strange new world? I could quit SNAP and get another job fairly easily. It wouldn’t have the cachet, perks or Lord knows the money, but it would be on familiar ground.

I got into bed, turned off the lights and closed my eyes. Safety. Having a routine. Understanding my job and doing it well. Making friends with co-workers. Giving dinner parties. I t was a complete life and the life I’d thought I was leading. Hah. I was really out in the deep end now, swimming as fast as I could with no land in sight. The water was salty, though, and I was aware I could float. It would support me and keep me beautifully afloat as long as I didn’t struggle. Floundering around and lashing out pulled my head under water and made me choke. If I stayed calm and swam carefully, I would be comfortable and make headway.

And maybe the fins I saw were dolphins, not sharks.

I dreamt. Hands were trying to hold me as I hung out over an abyss. I shouted at them to pull me back. Several of them let go and I was falling. But I was falling up. I could see the land and the canyon growing smaller as I rose, becoming part of a much larger landscape. I stopped rising and began to waft over the land, occasionally coming down in some soft oasis, sometimes touching the tops of dark forests with wolves howling in the night. The forests were terrifying, which made the oases unbelievable warm and cocooning so I tried to find them. I reached out to put my arms around the next oasis and smiled.

Consciousness came back. I was wrapping the duvet around me and
was
smiling when I remembered where I was. Lisbet appeared with a tray a few minutes after I pulled the cord.

“Hello, did you sleep well?”

“I did. I had odd dreams but seem to have made some peace. I saw you watching Jean-Louis last night. Are you in love with him?”

Luckily, Lisbet had set the tray down. She covered her mouth with both hands. “Oh, no! We wouldn’t dare have any feelings like that for any of them!” she said and I remembered her Catholic comment last night.

“You seemed to watch him closely when he left.”

She reddened and put her hands over her mouth again. “I can’t help myself sometimes. There are only a few of them that make me feel like that. They’re just so...mesmerizing...they’re so....beautiful. Particularly when they’re trying to charm you. He was dazzling last night. He’s definitely being attractive for you.”

Jean-Louis did seem chameleon-like. When we were working, when we were in L.A,, he was an attractive man. Well, more than attractive, and he made heads turn. Since we arrived in Hungary, he was even more lovely. Lisbet was right, he was beautiful and it was close to impossible to resist. That may have underlain the decision in my dreams.

I was going to stay. I had to take both the wolves and the oases. I needed the adventure, the change that would be mine by staying. SNAP, the vampires and Jean-Louis would be my future.

“
You again!” Matthais sneered at the Kandeskys in front of him. “I don’t know why you keep coming into the neutrality.”

“
Because it’s neutral,” hissed Simon. “You’re not supposed to be there either.”

“
We weren’t,” Matthais smirked, his pale skin translucent in the firelight. “Those were the werewolves and pigs, not us. They didn’t sign the pact for the neutrality.”

“
Picky point. We know and you know they’re following orders—your orders. I heard one of the Weres say ‘let’s take him to Matthais’. Did you send out the hunting party?”

Matthais paused. If he admitted he’d given the order for a patrol one night after a full moon, it would be a violation of the pact. On the night of the full moon, the pact allowed the Weres hunting rights in all the forests that abutted Kandesky holdings, a huge tract that covered several thousand acres. Any other time, the swath of land covered by the Pact of Neutrality—land given up by both the Huszars and the Kandeskys—was agreed to be neutral. No hunting, no patrolling, no traps or snares to be set. Only the feral pigs regularly ran through. Anyone else was required to get approval and stay on the paths.

On the other hand, if he denied it, the Kandeskys could tell if he lied, and that would invoke stronger penalties. Vampire to vampire, Simon and Matthais stared, each probing the other’s eyes.

Matthais flinched. “Well, the Were’s asked me to let them run a patrol. They said that last night they smelled an intruder in that area.”

“
What kind of intruder?” Belon, the second Kandesky asked. “Are you sure they didn’t just make that up? Were’s don’t tell the truth when their blood’s up.”