B008IFNJZM EBOK (12 page)

             
Tom spun around to see three young women enter the club.  He was attracted to the one in the middle with a brief case and a newspaper under her arm.  She had short black hair and a dark women’s business suit.  Her two friends were more casually dressed.  All three were smiling and talking as the bartender waved them over.

             
“Iolana is the one with the newspaper.  My name is Pasha if you prefer blondes.”

             
Tom smiled at his protector and server.

             
“That’s the best offer I’ve had in a long time.”

             
The potent brews had affected Tom.  Iolana came over.

             
“Yes Pasha, what do you want?”

             
“This courier is here to see you.”

             
Iolana had a puzzled look on her face.  She wasn’t expecting a courier. She glanced at Tom and returned to continuing her eye contact at Pasha.

             
Tom smiled at the slender well-dressed woman.

             
“Hi my name is…”

             
Iolana didn’t look at Tom.  She addressed the bartender and continued to lock her eyes with the bartender.

             
“Is the conference room empty?”

             
Tom could see Iolana’s fangs.

             
“As usual my dear, it is free and available for you.”

             
“Good.”

             
She turned to Tom.

             
“Follow me.”

             
Her two friends were smiling at Tom with what he also thought were lustful stares, and he liked it.  Iolana’s glance was more of a business glance.  Maybe it was that lack of desire in her facial expression that drew Tom to her rather than one of the others.  Tom followed her to a door alongside of the ‘warm blood’ restroom.  He was relieved that he didn’t actually have to enter the club. Her two girlfriends walked alongside of him to the conference room door following Iolana.  Iolana went into the room first and found the light switches.

             
“I wouldn’t feel so relaxed and comfortable Courier, my bite is much worse than my bark.”

             
One of the women escorting him tugged on his arm smiling up at him.

             
“She is kidding.  She was turned her freshman year in college and never even went on a date with a man before that.”

             
The other woman escorting Tom had to add her comment.

             
“We don’t think she even knows how to dance!  She is all business.”

             
“What kind of business is she….”

             
Iolana was becoming irritated with her friends teasing her.

             
“Have a seat Courier.  I was not expecting a delivery.  Do you have an invoice or a note?”

             
Tom looked at her and removed the note from the psychic and gave it to her.  He sat the medical case on the table.  She motioned for him to sit and he did as she requested.  The others sat down very close to both sides of him flirting with him.  With the light beer buzz he had acquired, he was enjoying it.  He thought if he had to be bitten by these women, it would not have been the worst way to go and besides, given his curse, it seemed to be better than a silver bullet.  All three appeared to be in their early twenties and their complexions were not as pale as some of the other patrons he saw  enter the lounge area.  Iolana paced back and forth reading the note very carefully.  When she finished, she looked at Tom.  She put the note down.  She opened the box and removed one the contents of the case by extracting the metal liner that sat on top of the dry ice coolant below its cargo.  She slid a plastic bag over two her two companions.

             
“Here this is for you.  Please take the rest of this to Pasha and have her store the other bags for us.  Bring back the liner and then please leave us alone for a while so we can talk.”

             
Her two friends were all smiles as they read the label on the blood and quietly left the pair alone.

             
“Just how much blood does one of you need a night….”

             
“A half of a pint is more than enough for one.”

             
“Aren’t you going to have some…”

             
“Maybe later…”

             
She kept looking at the note and then at Tom.

             
“So you only have been infected for a few days?”

             
“Yes.  Is there any hope?”

             
“Maybe, I am not sure.  Hell, I am not even sure if I want to help you.  Are you married?”

             
“No.”

             
“Who are your closest living relatives?”

             
“My sister and my uncle…”

             
Iolana took a seat and was about to continue her interview when one of her friends entered and put the medical liner on the table.

             
“Thanks Chelsea… Chelsea you were turned by your grandfather right?”

             
“Actually it was my great, great, grandfather.”

             
“Do you know how to reach him?”

             
“It has been awhile since we talked but I should be able to run him down.  Why?”

             
“I will fill you in just as soon as we finish this meeting.”

             
“Okay, by the way, Hadiya says the Ab negative is top quality.”

             
“That is good, please leave us.”

             
Chelsea smiled and left the room.  Iolana went over and put the liner back in the case and closed the empty container.  She then sat it in front of Tom.  She kept examining him as she returned to the front of the table.  She opened her briefcase and removed a pen and an index card.  She handed the items to Tom.

             
“Write down your name and address and a phone number.”

             
“Do you think you can help me?”

             
“I haven’t yet decided if I want to help you let alone if I can help you.”

             
“I am running out of time.”

             
“You have a solid three weeks.  That should be plenty of time.”

             
Tom wrote the information down.  He printed it to make sure that his only ray of hope would be able to read his writing.

             
“I detect a southern accent.”

             
“I am from Kentucky.”

             
“Is anyone traveling with you?”

             
“My sister and also a flight crew...  We are using a corporate jet.”

             
“If I call you later, you must send them all away.  This is important.  No one you care about should be around you.  They will be the first you will want to attack and kill.”

             
“What about the jet and the crew?”

             
“I have my own.  If we need to travel I will make any necessary arrangements.”

             
“I am willing to pay whatever you…”

             
“If I decide that I can help you, it won’t be for the money. Now go and tell my friends that they can come back in here.  This meeting is over.”

             
The meaner she treated Tom the more he liked her vampire or not.  Tom took the case and stood up.

             
“Thank you.  You don’t know how much this means to me.”

             
“You are wrong!  I do know how much it means to you.  Leave now.”

             
“Thank you again.”

             
Tom realized his hand had stopped shaking as he turned the door knob.

             
Tom walked back to her two friends sitting at the bar talking to Pasha.

             
“Excuse me ladies, our meeting is over.  You are free to return to your friend.”

             
The girls smiled at him and they did check his neck.  He could see the empty blood bag with a sets of fang holes on each end and just a small trickle of blood near the lips of the women.  He removed his handkerchief and gave it to one of them.

             
“Here ladies… keep it.’

             
Hadiya took the cloth and wiped her lip.

             
“Thank you ‘warm blood’.”

             
The bartender leaned over.

             
“Want another for the road or the walk later to my place?”

             
Tom smiled.  He liked all the women he had met this evening.

             
“Maybe some other time...  Your offer is most tempting.”

             
Tom was teasing his protector.  There really was no way he would want to be alone with Pasha but he wanted to be on the best of terms just in case he had to return.  He left money on the counter that covered his drinks along with a sizable tip.  Pasha stuck the money in her cleavage and smiled as Tom turned to the door.  He wanted to break into a fast run but maintained the appearance that he was not worried and casually strolled out the door, up the stairs and returned to the street.  His heart was pounding and hailed a cab for the ride back to the hotel.

             
The first thing Tom did was send a short text message that he was on his way back.  The streets still had quite a few people around.  Some were window shopping.  Others were coming and going from the restaurant across the street.  There was even a police man talking to someone just down from his location.  He had no problem hailing a cab at ten in the evening.  He climbed in back and gave the driver the address for the hotel.  It was then that he realized he had given the bartender a hundred dollar bill as a tip.

             
Maybe it was the beer, but he had a different image of vampires.  These are creatures that didn’t even exist in his version of reality until now.  He no longer thought of them as monsters.  He now viewed them for the most part from his small sample, as victims just like him.  Only instead of a wolf’s curse they had been unlucky enough to be attacked by another nocturnal predator.  There are those who are killed and injured in car accidents every day.  These poor people are just trying to get by.  During his short time in their company, he realized that they were in many ways, just like him.  He sensed that this Iolana was going to help him if it were possible and probably saw herself as attempting to save his very soul and any chance he would have had to live a normal life.

***

As he paid the driver and climbed out, his sister was standing there waiting for him.  He almost forgot to retrieve the empty medical case but the driver had noticed it and made sure Tom grabbed it.  The driver waved and left the area as Elizabeth hugged her brother with tears in her eyes in the windy and chilly night air.

             
“I was so worried about you.”

             
“Hey, I’m fine.  Let’s go back inside before you catch a cold.”

             
“Did you meet this monster named Iolana?”

             
“Yes and she is not a monster.  She is just another unfortunate victim of a different brand of curse.”

             
On the way up to the room, Tom filled his sister in on all the details.  She did not like the part where she and the flight crew were going to be dismissed if this figure of the night called him.  Tom put his phone on charge and sat in his sister’s room.  They watched late night television.  Tom searched the channels for any movie that had werewolves or vampires but as luck would have it, there wasn’t any on.  It was almost five in the morning when his phone rang.  Tom gently pushed his sleeping sister aside and unplugged the hand set from the charger and answered it.

             
“Hello?”

             
“It is I, Iolana, Iolana Hellenberg from the club.  You asked if I…”

             
“Yes, I remember, I didn’t have that much to drink.  Can you help me?”