SNAP: New Talent (21 page)

Suddenly, I was overcome with exhaustion.  The drain of the adrenaline that had kept me alert—actually hyper-alert—for the last 30 hours left me wrung out.  Jean-Louis noticed, although it may have been the enormous yawn while he was talking that tipped him off.   A demon came in, probably called by Jean-Louis’ non-ability to send nonverbal messages, Jean-Louis asked him to carry me to my room and I was out of there and in my own bed before I could yawn again.

No medication tonight, I was unconscious before the door closed.

Chapter Thirty-seven

We put the tutorial on hold until we got back to the Baron’s and then, of course, there were a myriad of details to get the war council together.  Getting many of the senior editors of SNAP to leave their offices and gather in Hungary on a moment’s notice was iffy.  Schedules were rearranged, planes were readied, demons were called back home.

I had a day to myself and used it to take a long walk around this place that I was calling home.

With two weeks to go until winter, and almost to the Christmas season, activities were ramping up.  Our coverage of holiday parties, the minor royal wedding, frantic shopping, kept all of our staff and free-lancers busy.

And the vampires were busy and euphoric, too.  After the winter solstice, the days would incrementally grow longer, so this run-up was a heady time for them as well.  Villagers were often seen at the castle in the long evenings, chatting with Stefan and Pen, giving Jean-Louis hearty handshakes and exchanging small tokens, usually a piece of jewelry.

The grounds around the castle were headed for hibernation.  We’d had one night of snow and the trees looked stark against the gunmetal gray sky and the pristine snowy ground.  Firs still held some snow on their branches, glistening like Christmas trees when hit with a ray of sun.

I didn’t know the name of the demon who escorted –guarded?—me, but I was taking them more for granted now and not bothered by the anonymity.  The air was cold against my nose and throat and burned the tips of my ears, but I relished it.

Jean-Louis had opened me up to sensations and sensual pleasures.  This walk in the cold, still air, knowing that warmth, big fires and hot drinks were going to follow, brought tears because of the enormous simplicity of it.

How odd to be taught to live in the now by someone with eternal life.  Maybe if we lacked a knowledge of death and the finite length of our regular lives, we could let go of the frenetic pace of how we lived.

When the demon and I came in through the armory, stomping the snow from our boots and with me clapping my hands together to jumpstart circulation, Sandor was there taking inventory.

“Elise has been waiting for you.  She said you need to get ready for dinner.”

I didn’t bristle, I didn’t snap.  Sandor was just the messenger.  A few days ago I may have been annoyed at being given an order, but now I was absorbing the text and subtext and beginning to weed out my instant emotions.

A hot shower warmed my outside, a hot brandy warmed my inside and I was ready to go when Jean-Louis tapped on the door and came in.

“You look lovely.  Is that a new dress?  It suits you.”

He had ceased to surprise me with his observations of small things.  I was slowly understanding that he vacuumed his surroundings, taking in all that was there, using the relevant and discarding the rest.

“Thanks, yes.  Jazz had it sent from Saks.  That personal shopper is almost always spot-on.  I’ve only sent two things back.”

This particular choice was winter-white soft wool, high-necked but sleeveless with a drapy golden belt that hung on my hips.  It hit the curves in the right places, but was loose enough to allow easy movement.

“What’s the agenda for tonight?  Will we have some time for ourselves?”

He gathered me up in his arms and licked my earlobe.  “Yes, we’ll have time.”

I sucked my breath in and moved back from him.  “Not for that, well, yes for that, but I meant for my next lesson in mind-reading.”

“Aahh...I do wish you wouldn’t call it that.”  He was miffed, not really angry.  “You make it sound like some carney side-show attraction.  ‘Come into my tent and let me read your mind for only $1.’  That’s not what this is about.”

After a moment of silence, “Yes, we’ll have some time for that, and for this.”  He leaned over and kissed me, hard. “Let’s go, now.”

And we went.

Tonight, there were twenty-seven for dinner.  I was stunned to see the table stretched to accommodate everyone, but the sheer size made it difficult to talk with anyone beyond immediate neighbors.  Stefan was at one end, with Pen on his right, and Jean-Louis was at the other, with me at his right, a bold statement for those who weren’t privy to our relationship.  Many of the family, for these were all members, knew that Jean-Louis and I were a number, but this announced that I was trusted and permanent.

Gatherings like this showed off the castle and the Kandeskys to their best.  Although there was wi-fi in every room and satellite communications, flat-screens and smart phones, a closet full of servers and firewalls as good as the National Security Agency, tonight the huge dining room was lit by a massive fireplace and a rank of candelabras marching down the table.

The flickering light prismed off cut crystal that was red with Bull’s Blood and reflected pools of crimson on the white linen.   My consommé, chicken vol-au-vente and salad paled on the bone china in comparison to borscht and steak tartre.

With dinner over, the crowd moved into the screening room and arranged themselves around a massive conference table. The screen was pulled down and what looked like piles of corporate reports had been dealt out to each place.  Stefan and Jean-Louis took their seats in front of the screen and the war council of the Kandesky vampires began.

“As many of you know, I’ve just returned from Kiev,” Jean-Louis began.  “Nikoly called for help with a problem he assumed was Huszar related. When we got there, we found that Nik was right.”

Nikoly, seated along one side of the table, stood.  “We’d heard rumors that not only had the Huszars teamed up with the Chechen again, as when they tried to grab Maxie in Paris, but they’d gone a step further.  They’d begun abducting young women from around the Kiev area.  They were planning to turn some of them to use as bait for SNAP coverage.  The Chechens could keep the others, probably to sell as sex slaves.  Our demons and I followed their movement for a few days and we were convinced that Leonid had the girls stashed in his house.”

Jean-Louis took up the narrative.  “Nik was right, we found ten young women kept as prisoners in Leonid’s basement.  Three of them had recent bites on their necks, so the turning process had begun.  The Chechens were dropping hints and forensic clues that SNAP was involved in the kidnappings and this had to stop immediately.”

The room lights dimmed and video of the fight at Leonid’s house was thrown up on the screen.  “As you can see,” Nik pointed out areas in the house, “even before the fire there was severe damage.  Once we started the fire, there wasn’t enough left to conduct any forensic testing and besides, why bother?  The entire episode was written off to gang rivalry, supported by the stripped bodies on the grounds.”

Stefan stepped up to the head of the table.  “We’ve called this council together to figure out how best to stop these predations once and for all.  These are skirmishes, but if we have to fight enough of them, we’ll be unprepared when a true battle breaks out.

“I’m announcing that the Kandeskys have to go on the offensive and declare war.”

There was silence.  This was a family of vampires who had spent the last several hundred years peacefully counting their money and living well, if quietly.  They’d all killed at some point and understood the necessity of it, especially on a one-to-one basis with a rogue Huszar.   And they all had pride of family.  A full war, though?  This was not a comfortable idea.

Francois stood.  “I’m aware of their techniques.  I was supposed to be with Maxie when she was attacked in Paris.  I agree these have to stop, but isn’t there some way of negotiating a truce?  We’re brighter, have more money, have more position...”

“Yes,” another vampire broke in, another whom I didn’t know. “Why do we have to fight these 15
^th
century idiots on their terms?  Why can’t we bring them to ours?”

A chorus of voices broke out, pushing for a negotiated peace rather than all-out war.  Jean-Louis let it run its course and when the room was quiet again, said “Let me tell you what we’ve been doing.”

Chapter Thirty-eight

For close to an hour, Jean-Louis, Stefan and occasionally Nik went over all the attempts they’d made to bring revolution to the Huszar leadership.  Without naming names, they talked about the clandestine meetings held at the castle, the lengths they’d gone to disguise any Huszar involvement, the disinformation they’d fed back to Matthais.

When they finished, Chaz stood up.  “Like many of the others, I had no idea it was this desperate.  I have the luxury of being isolated from the family’s day-to-day problems in L.A. but I want to go on record as supporting whatever Stefan and Jean-Louis chose to do.  I’m behind you 100 percent and will help in any way I can.”

At this, everybody chimed in, a couple of the younger vamps even banging emphatically on the table which earned them the fish-eye from Pen.

Stefan then stood and waited for silence.  “I thank you all.  As you know, unlike our neighbors, we have been careful and selective in our acquisition of acolytes.  This now is bearing fruit.  We do and will present a united front.”  He turned to Jean-Louis.  “Bring them in.”

Jean-Louis picked up a communicator, said “Now” and Sandor opened the door to escort Markov, Karoly and Alessandr in.  Both the Kandeskys and the Huszars were silenced, and wary about being in the same room with age-old rivals.  One Kandesky began a low hiss and was instantly quieted by a look from Stefan.

“Tonight, we meet for one purpose.  To design a method of bringing this vicious and stupid tension to a close.  A short time after I was turned, another vampire appeared.  His name was Felix .  I was settling into the area where I finally built the castle and Felix wandered over a large area, feeding and indiscriminately turning peasants.  After about fifty years, he had a large band of followers, while Pen and I had started our family with twenty-two carefully selected acolytes, among them Jean-Louis, Milos, Bela and Nikoly.  As Felix’ family grew, they ranged over a larger and larger area, until we were running into each other every time we went hunting.”

One of the Kandeskys I didn’t know had a frown on his face.  “You’re too new to the family.  You became an acolyte after we’d given up hunting and foraging for food,” the Baron told him.  Then he turned to the full room.  “I know there are several who don’t remember the old days.  That’s why I’m going back.”

“We had to do something if both our families were to survive.  We, the Kandeskys, were beginning to branch out to trade, moving more into the regulars’ world, so we began experimenting with food to see if we could live without hunting and killing.  It was during this time that Felix and I developed the Neutrality, a swath of the forest where we agreed to never hunt.”

The Baron’s story continued, taking the group through almost three hundred years of growth, consolidation and pact-building.  As the Kandesky’s moved into trade and fanned out to all the mercantile centers of Europe, Felix led the Huszars in the direction of controlling large areas of small and isolated villages, developing a form of agriculture.

This lasted until Felix turned a young man named Matthais.  Matthais was ambitions, ruthless and a consummate plotter who quickly worked his way up to second in command of the Huszars.  Felix doted on him, pouring on him all the affection he would have given a son.

Just before the turn of the 20
^th
century, it was obvious to all that tensions were rising in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire, the area of Central and Eastern Europe where the Huszars hunted and cultivated their prey.

“We heard rumors that Matthais was stirring up dissent.  It didn’t much matter to us, we were too busy making money and expanding to the Americas.”  The Baron paused, his expression turned inward as he relived the past.  “Then, they began to flaunt forays into the Neutrality.  This was land we’d agreed to keep in trust and they violated it.  We sent many peace emissaries and negotiating teams to Felix.  He listened and agreed, but it was clear he was losing control over Matthais.  The Neutrality raids continued and we fought back, losing two of our family members and a few demons.”

The lights were still dim from the video presentation, making the vampires’ eyes huge and dark.  I glanced at Jean-Louis and a twinge of fear went through me.  If I hadn’t known, trusted and loved him, his look would have sent me running in terror.  These vampires may have been worldly, sophisticated, urbane, but they were vampires. It was like looking at your pet dog and suddenly seeing the wolf inside him.

The moment passed.  Jean-Louis took up the story.  “One day, we assigned a watch patrol for the Neutrality.  Two Kandeskys and two demons.  They were moving quietly, using silent communication, when they heard noise—snarls, shrieks, hisses.  They crept up to the spot and watched as a band of Huszars attacked someone.  After using silver rope to immobilize their prey, we watched them stake two figures to the ground then leave.

“When it quieted down, we went over to the assassination site—it was an assassination—and found Felix and a companion, dead.”

There was no sound in the darkened room.  Everyone was stunned to silence at the story of greed, murder and usurpation.

Stefan’s voice was tightly controlled as he told how emissaries from the Kandeskys went to the Huszars, looking for explanation.  What they found was Matthais taking absolute control over the family, banishing dissenters into the edge of their territory and to the small, isolated villages of Eastern Europe.