Call of the Vampire (3 page)

“What’s your name?” Blossom asked, once she had drunk.

“You may call me Viktor.” The man smiled at Blossom over his goblet. You could tell by the way he pronounced his name that he definitely spelled it with a K.

It was only a matter of minutes until Blossom became even more wobbly than before we had met the stranger. “Are you okay?” I asked, taking her glass away from her and setting it on a table. I knew she was feeling pretty out of it when she didn’t protest.

“I could use a drink of water,” she mumbled.

“I’ll get it for her,” Viktor eagerly volunteered.

“No, that’s okay,” I said in a slightly elevated voice. If he kept getting the drinks, Blossom would probably end up in a coma. “We’re just going to use the ladies room.” Hooking my arm around Blossom’s waist, I said to her, “Come on.” I was going to get her away from Viktor, even if I had to half drag her.

“No,” she whined. “I want to stay and party.”

“I think you’ve had enough partying for tonight.”

Blossom’s legs started turning into spaghetti, and I was barely able to get her over to a settee before she collapsed. “Oh, my,” Viktor said with false concern. He’d followed us quite happily. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, you’ve done enough,” I told him in an even louder voice, drawing the attention of some nearby guests, which was actually my intent. “Please, leave us alone!”

Viktor acted offended. “Don’t blame me just because your friend doesn’t know how to drink.”

Blossom’s head began to roll from side to side. She was obviously not going anywhere any time soon. I had to accept that we were in trouble and do the smart thing. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed my mom. She was going to be furious, and Blossom’s mom was going to hit the roof, but a parent’s wrath was better than trying to deal with a passed out friend while a predator like Viktor sniffed around. The only problem was my phone wasn’t getting any bars. Every time I punched in my mom’s number, all I got was dead air.

“There’s no signal,” Viktor explained smugly. “All this stone and no cell tower nearby makes it impossible to get a call out.”

“Great,” I grumbled to myself. “Now what am I supposed to do?”

A waiter sailed passed, and I hailed him. “Excuse me, but do you know where the
Vanderlinds have a house phone? My cell isn’t working.”

“I guess I could ask Mr. Vanderlind,” he replied vaguely.

“Would you ask Jessie Vanderlind, please?” He appeared to be much nicer than Daniel, and I wasn’t sure which Mr. Vanderlind he meant. “In fact,” I had an idea, “would you tell him that Aurora needs his help?”

“If I can find him,” the waiter sighed.

I got the feeling that he had no intention of looking for Jessie, so I quickly added, “If you can bring him to me, there’s a twenty in it for you.” I didn’t have a twenty, but he didn’t know that.

The waiter might have had his suspicions about me paying up because he said, “Sounds good,” and held out his hand.

“After you bring him.”

As the waiter left, Viktor came closer. I could tell that my distress and Blossom’s condition had him excited, but he was trying to hide his delight. He extended an arm and leaned against the wall so that he was towering over us on the settee. “There’s no reason to call Jessie. I can be just as helpful as him.”

“Step back! You’re crowding us, and she needs air,” I snarled.

“Ooh, the little girl has teeth.” He laughed, not feeling at all compelled to comply.

“What did you give her?” I demanded.

Viktor shrugged. “Champagne.”

“Yeah, I mean, what was in the champagne?”

“Bubbles.”

His callous humor really had me upset. “Just get the hell away from us, okay? Just leave us alone.”

Several of the party guests were now watching us as if we were performing some kind of play. No one offered us any aid; several people were openly amused.

“I’m just trying to help,” Viktor said, as if the whole thing were my fault.

“Yeah, well you’ve helped enough for one evening.”

“I’ve always found it’s better to help myself,” he said, setting down his glass and scooping Blossom up in his arms.

“Put her down!” I shouted, but it was no use. Viktor was already carrying her up the wide staircase that led to the second floor. I had no choice but to chase after him.

It was amazing how fast Viktor could mount the long flight of stairs carrying the dead weight of my friend. He was already outstripping me when the heel of my shoe twisted under me and my foot popped out of the sandal but remained tangled in the straps. I was delayed a few seconds as I wrenched both sandals off my feet. By the time I reached the top of the staircase, I barely saw Viktor disappearing with Blossom into a room. I charged after them, jamming the sandals that were in my hands into the narrowing gap of the door as Viktor tried to push it closed.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I shoved the door open, Viktor putting up no resistance.

“Please,” he smiled his predator’s smile. “Join us.”

He’d laid Blossom on the bed in a large bedroom that was decorated in cream fabrics shot through with gold thread. There were large bay windows that I assumed faced out onto the river, but the heavy drapes were closed.

“Viktor,” I said in the steadiest voice I could muster, “you need to leave.”

“No,” he smiled. “You can leave, or you can stay; the choice is yours. But I am not leaving.”

“Yes, you are,” said an angry voice behind me. I spun around to see Jessie Vanderlind, and he looked furious.

“Ah, our charming host,” Viktor said, smiling. “I was just helping myself to a few of the hors d’oeuvres. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I very much mind,” Jessie informed him. “These two are not on the menu this evening. You’ll have to sate your appetite elsewhere.”

Viktor frowned. He was a man not used to hearing the word no, or at least not listening to it. “I spoke to them, and they said they were not your particular friends.”

“They misspoke,” Jessie replied. “They are my very close friends, and I’m telling you that they are to be left alone.”

“Have it your way.” Viktor shrugged like the fabled fox that was denied the grapes. “They aren’t that enticing anyway.” He brushed past me on his way out of the room but stopped for a moment to say one more thing before he went. “I won’t forget your lack of hospitality, Jessie.”

“Nor will I forget your rudeness,” was the reply.

Once Viktor was gone, I breathed easier. “Thank you so much,” I sighed. “I’m really sorry for all this. I think Viktor slipped something into Blossom’s drink. She’s out cold. And then he dragged her up here, and I couldn’t get my cell phone to work.” I paused to take a breath, then laying my hand against my cheek, I said, “I’m sorry, I just didn’t know what to do.”

Jessie’s eyes lit up for a moment and then narrowed. “Where did you learn to do that?” he asked, gesturing toward me.

“Do what?” I looked down at my gown, not quite sure what he was talking about.

“No. With your hand to your cheek.”

“I don’t know.” I studied my hand as if it held the answer. “I’ve always done it, I think.” When I looked up again, Jessie was staring at me, almost transfixed.

“You just remind me so much of someone I used to know many years ago,” he breathed, reaching up to caress a lock of my hair.

“It couldn’t have been that many years ago,” I joked, uncomfortable under his gaze. “You can’t be much older than me.” I had just turned seventeen a week earlier and he didn’t look a day older than that.

“I’m older than I look.” He lingered with his hand in my hair, lost in his own thoughts.

“Do you have a phone I could borrow?” I asked, verbally nudging him out of his reverie. “I’d better call my mom to come get us.”

Remembering himself, Jessie quickly lowered his hand. A part of me ached for him to touch my cheek, my lips, my neck, but I fought that longing. It was no time to indulge in a crush on a hot guy. He slid a gold pocket watch out of his jacket’s breast pocket and regarded the time. “How long would it take your mother to get here?”

“I don’t know. Depends how long it takes to get a hold of her and what she’s doing,” I explained. “Maybe twenty minutes. Maybe longer.”

Jessie frowned at his watch before closing it and slipping it back in his pocket. “It’s too close to midnight to take any chances. You’d better just stay here until the morning.”

“I can’t stay here all night,” I told him. “My mom will freak.”

“Better to have her worry for one night than to always wonder,” he said, half to himself.

My adrenaline level, which had been lowering since Viktor left, began to rise again. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you and your friend snuck into the wrong party. The smartest thing you can do is stay in this room; keep the door locked and the windows closed.” He made his way toward the door. “Your friend should be fine by morning, and then you can leave. In the meantime, do not come out under any circumstances. Do you understand?” he asked as he stood over the threshold.

“Why? What’s going on?” I wanted to know. There was no way in hell I was going to stay locked in a room in some creepy castle all night.

He shook his head. “I cannot tell you. You’ll have to trust me when I say it’s for your own good.” With that, he closed the door and was gone.

The instant he made his exit, I sprang forward and threw the lock. What kind of party was it, and what the hell was I going to do?

I knew I couldn’t leave Blossom, even if it was to go get help. I was sure Viktor would be on her the instant I snuck out of the room. It was the law with girlfriends: if your friend passed out, you never left her alone—even at a party where you were friends with all the guys— because you just never knew. Not really. Being a good friend might ruin your evening, but being a bad friend might ruin her life. Blossom had acted like an idiot, but I was not about to leave her as prey to whatever letch happened past. I would just have to stay awake all night and deal with my mom in the morning.

A clock on the mantelpiece quietly ticked, keeping my mind on the time. The party grew louder and more raucous as the time inched toward midnight. The guests had filtered upstairs. Every once in a while, someone tried the handle of the door to our room, but finding it locked, quickly moved on. Blossom was breathing but, besides that, showed no signs of waking up any time soon. I became distinctly aware of my bladder. The bedroom we were in had no adjoining bathroom.
What the heck am I supposed to do?
I wondered. The hands of the clock met at the top of the dial, and it chimed out twelve beats. The party grew instantly quiet. Not just quieter but dead quiet. The music stopped and everything. It was bizarre.

The minutes dragged on, and still there wasn’t a sound anywhere in the castle. At twenty after twelve, I could no longer hold my water. I had to find a bathroom or pee in the potted palm tree that was next to the bed. Cracking open the door, I opted against the palm.

There was no one in the hallway. I leaned out a few inches and peaked toward the staircase. Still no one. Not a sound, not a voice, not a whisper. I pulled the door quietly shut after me and started tiptoeing down the hall. There had to be a bathroom somewhere nearby. I mean, I knew it was a very old castle, but it had been modernized. They couldn’t expect people to pee in chamber pots.

There were so many doors, and each had a different coat of arms carved above the arch. I saw a lot of knight’s helmets and roosters, but nothing that would indicate a place to empty my bladder. How did people find their way around? One of the doors was open a crack, and I decided to peep inside, hoping to get lucky. I was literally about to burst.

There was a couple stretched across an elaborate four-poster bed. The woman was on her back, just an inert figure, not moving at all. Her long red hair was loose from where it had been pinned up, and her dress was pulled off one shoulder exposing her breast. The man was on top of her, enthusiastically hickeying her neck.

What was up with some guys and hickeys? They were so tacky. And you’d think a classy guy in a tuxedo wouldn’t feel the need to mar some beautiful woman’s neck.

The woman seemed to gain consciousness for a moment, let out a soft sigh, and turned her head further to the side. I thought maybe she was trying to get away, but it only served to give the man better access to her neck. He lifted his lips briefly, and I saw something drip from them. It wasn’t drool. It was red. Blood red. I could see that there was an open wound on the side of her throat. He hadn’t been hickeying her like I thought. He had been drinking from her.

Stifling a small shriek, I ran back down the hall as quickly and as quietly as possible. Fortunately, the room where I’d left Blossom had a very distinct crest of a wolf’s head above the door, so I remembered it.

Inside the room, I quickly scanned for intruders then closed the door and threw the lock. “I’m losing my mind,” I said to myself. I had to be losing my mind. There was no way I saw what I thought I saw.

I couldn’t think. I couldn’t focus. I said, “The hell with it,” and watered the potted palm.

Afterwards, I sat on an overstuffed chair and forced myself to calm down and think rationally. Vampires do not exist, so I didn’t really see what I thought I saw. It was more likely that Vanderlind Castle was just hosting some kind of kinky sex party and the guy in the tux had crossed the line in a major way. That also explained Viktor’s behavior and why the other guests were so amused. Jessie probably thought that if my mom came by when things started getting really crazy that we would either get caught up in the debauch against our wills or my mom would call the cops.

How long could a person bleed from the neck until she died? I didn’t know, but I was willing to bet it wasn’t that long. I had to get her help and I had to do it immediately.

Blossom was still blissfully unaware of our predicament. I inspected the room and discovered the old Victorian wardrobe that was sitting in the corner wasn’t very full. There was room for someone Blossom’s size if I shoved all the shoes to one side. Hiding her wasn’t as good as taking her with me, but at least I wasn’t leaving her sprawled on the bed unconscious.