The Lost Souls Dating Agency (6 page)

‘Hey, Victor,' I said loudly, trying to catch his attention, which was currently drawn dangerously at Fiona.

‘Hi, Shaleenee, nice to see you here,' Victor said smarmily. He was such a bad actor. Weren't vampires supposed to be great seducers of women?

I pointed to him and said, ‘Hey, Fiona, this is my friend Victor.'

Fiona jumped off her cross trainer and said hello. Then she added, ‘You can use this trainer if you like, I'm finished.'

‘Thank you,' Victor said with a dazzling smile.

Fiona smiled back at him shyly. She pushed strands of her brunette hair away from her face. It was cascading out of the ponytail that was tied to the back of her head. ‘I'll just wipe it down for you.' She walked off to get the paper towel and spray attached to the wall at the front of the cardio area.

When she was out of hearing distance I whispered to Victor, ‘Talk to her or something!'

Victor hissed, ‘I know what to do,' sounding like a petulant teenager.

He turned to look at Fiona and his eyes glazed over. I noticed the pained expression on his face. ‘What's wrong?'

Victor murmured through gritted teeth, ‘I can hear the blood pumping through her. You have made this very difficult for me.'

Oh shit. I looked up in a panic to see Fiona returning. I watched Victor watch Fiona with a fixed stare. Oh no, oh no, Fiona was going to be eaten because of my major oversight!

Fiona reached us and started to calmly wipe down the cross trainer.
Run
, I wanted to scream at her.

Victor, rolling out of his trance, collected himself and said pleasantly, ‘Oh please don't bother with that.'

I let out a deep breath. Crisis averted?

‘Oh I don't want you to deal with my yucky sweat on the machine,' Fiona replied scrunching her nose. She looked like a cute red-nosed bunny.

Victor tilted his head slightly and looked at her agreeably. ‘If you insist.' I wished he would stop watching her so intensely.

‘So what do you do when you are not wiping down machines for strangers?' he asked casually.

‘Nothing very exciting.' Fiona glanced at him.

‘Well I'd like to make up my own mind and hear more about the not very exciting things you do, if I may.' His dazzling smile was back. I had to admit he could turn on the charm when he wanted.

‘Oh well I…' Fiona's sentence trailed off as she looked Victor in the eyes. ‘Ah I'd be happy to tell you more about it next time,' she concluded timidly.

‘I'm nearly done here,' Victor said smoothly. ‘Would you like to go for a drink after you finish at the,' Victor paused and seemed less self assured, ‘machines?'

Fiona was silent. What would I do if she refused? Please don't refuse. Luckily Fiona smiled. ‘Okay.' She turned to look at me. ‘Do you want to join us for a drink and a chin wag?'

‘You guys go ahead, I'm going to be here a while. Lots of extra muffins to burn off.' I pointed to my midriff and winked.

Fiona smiled and shook her head.

I watched covertly as they walked down the stairs, Victor talking animatedly and Fiona listening quietly. Success! I spent the next hour on the cross trainer planning my, or rather Victor's, next move.

***

I slept soundly that night. I didn't even wake to pee in the middle of the night as I usually did. The next morning I found an envelope slipped under my door. It was a note from Victor. Hadn't he heard of email?

Dear Shaleenee,

This is a quick note to say that I had a very pleasant time with the lady you chose tonight. I hate to admit it, but you were right. I also thought you might like to know that she is safe at home, despite her exercise flush driving me to distraction.

Best regards,

Victor.

Well now, that sounded promising.

Five minutes later while I was in the shower, a disturbing thought hit me. Victor came to my home to deliver the note. How did he know where I lived? Despite everything, I did not trust the vampire entirely.

The next day, I stayed in the office later than usual. I thought Victor might want to meet. It was nearly seven p.m. and I was getting hungry and impatient. I heard my mobile phone ring. It was him.

‘Hello!' I answered eagerly.

‘Shaleenee, how art thee?' Victor said hurriedly then corrected himself. ‘Sorry, how are you? Forgive me, I revert to my old ways once in a while.'

‘That's okay, it's quite endearing.' I smiled down the phone. I felt positively chirpy. ‘How was your date last night?'

‘Last night was not a date.' Victor was acerbic. ‘I merely chatted with the lady.'

And there, ladies and gentlemen, was the arrogance that came so easily to him. I frowned.

‘Anyway, tomorrow night I meet with her again,' he said.

‘Well that's great!' Two nights in quick succession, huge!

‘So tomorrow will be our first date, as you say,' he said.

‘Where are you going?' I asked out of curiosity.

After a long pause, Victor said, ‘To Luna Park in St. Kilda.'

‘What?' I laughed, amazed. ‘That's an unusual first date venue.' Especially for a vampire.

‘I'm…' he hesitated, ‘I want to take her to a place surrounded by people.'

Alarm bells rang softly in my head. ‘Victor, are you worried about something?'

‘Shaleenee, you will not understand this. I do like her and I…I want to make sure she is safe.'

‘Listen, Victor, you're starting to scare me. I thought you had blood transfusions for this sort of thing…'

‘You really don't know much about my kind do you?'

I
do
know about your kind thankyou very much and that's why I'm concerned. But all I said was, ‘I'm starting to wish I did.'

‘Don't worry, that's why I'm taking her to a theme park,' Victor said with disgust. ‘The excited squeals of people on the rides and the bright lights will be just enough to keep me nauseated for the entire night,' he said in a humourless tone. ‘Spending time with her there will help me, as the kids these days say, figure things out,' he ended dryly.

‘Listen, I don't want to risk a human life for you to see if you can figure things out okay?' I was blunt.

‘Shaleenee, I am over eight hundred years old. I have learnt to control my urges,' Victor replied haughtily.

‘Fine,' I said through clenched teeth. There was nothing I could do to stop him.

‘Fine,' Victor said. Then after a pause, ‘I am grateful for your services thus far, Shaleenee.'

‘Just make sure she is safe and there won't be any need to thank me.' I was angry, mainly at myself, for not seeing this coming.

‘I give you my word.' And with that he hung up.

I felt uneasy all the way home.

I slept fitfully that night, thoughts racing through my head. By the time I woke the next morning, I knew what I had to do.

So far, so good.

I had been following Victor and Fiona since their arrival at Luna Park a few minutes ago. I had disguised myself in dark baggy trousers and a grey hooded jumper. I made sure I didn't get too close. There were so many people and so much noise, I was fairly confident about not being spotted. Just to be safe, I was wearing hideously strong lavender perfume. Not a chance that Victor could sniff me out.

I watched them walk through the “Mr Moon” face entry to Luna Park and the flanking towers outlined by sparkling neon lights. I waited a few seconds, and then followed them in with a surge of people. Thank god it was a busy night!

Fiona looked charming. She was wearing a blue and white polka dot knee length dress and radiated luminous warmth, even in the harsh glow of the electric lights. I glanced at Victor. If I didn't know him better I'd say he was actually enjoying himself. I hid behind an empty popcorn stand as they chatted nearby. I could only catch snippets of conversation. Victor was asking Fiona about her research.

‘Don't you wish you had lived back then?' I heard Fiona's voice drift my way.

I saw Victor nod in agreement.

If only she knew how much! At that moment I felt quite sorry for him.

They meandered though the stalls and I saw Fiona clap her hands excitedly when they walked past the Ghost Train ride.

‘That is so awfully tacky! Oh please let's go in!' she said loudly with eager eyes.

There was only one other couple standing outside the entrance to the ride and I decided it would be too obvious if I followed them in. Instead I skulked around near where I thought they would exit. I waited and waited some more. Over half an hour later, I'll admit, I panicked. They should have come out ages ago! Where could that sneaky vampire have taken her?

I quickly walked around the immediate area. It was hard navigating through the sea of kids lapping around my knees. I contemplated shouting Fiona's name, but it would have been pointless competing with the electric bells, horns and jingles of the rides.

In frustration, I decided I would stand near the main gates and watch. There was little else I could do. I stood nervously watching happy faces walk in and out of the park, but none belonged to Fiona. Could Victor have heard or sensed me? I tried to stay positive.

About an hour later I spotted a familiar polka dot dress in the distance and my stomach dropped to my knees in relief. I inched closer and saw Fiona munching away on pink fairy floss. I wanted to whoop loudly but knew the night was far from over as Victor navigated Fiona and her fairy floss out of the park. I saw them head towards a bench on the boardwalk along St Kilda beach.

This was going to get tricky. There was a bright moon and a soft breeze. The sounds of the ocean became louder as we moved away from the noises of the Park. I couldn't risk getting any closer. Damn it.

I parked myself behind a lovely coastal tree that I didn't know the name of, and watched their silhouettes. They looked comfortable with each other, deep in conversation. Well, well, I'm obviously a better matchmaker than I thought.

After about an hour, they moved from their bench and made their way back to the main street. Now what? I followed them to the busy section of Acland Street and saw them wait at a tram stop. I lingered a little distance away, and watched as Fiona jumped onto a tram. Victor stood at the stop watching it pull away. Thank goodness that ended safely. I quickly turned and walked back to my car. I felt quite triumphant about the success of my first detective snooping. I was a regular Nancy Drew.

As I neared the foreshore, I sensed movement behind me. My pace quickened. I hope it isn't who I think it is! My heart rate shot up. I ran across the road to the nearest shrub and crouched behind it. After a minute of trying to steady my pulse, I peeked out from my vantage point.

‘I know you're there, Shaleenee,' Victor said softly.

I held my breath.

‘You can't hide from me for long.' I heard him inch closer.

My body tensed as I held completely still. Was it too late to make a run for it?

Then as if reading my thoughts, his dark form appeared in front of my crouched body, his face an inch away from mine.

‘Goddammit, Victor!' I sprang to my feet.

‘Hello to you too.' He sounded amused.

This was not good. I folded my arms. ‘Well you can't blame me for making sure that everything went well tonight,' I said tetchily.

‘No I can't.'

‘How long did you pretend not to know I was there?'

‘I knew you were here the entire night.'

‘Great. That's just great. And the academy award goes to…' I made a mock gesture to give him an imaginary Oscar.

‘I think I should be the one who is a little irritable, don't you think?' Victor asked, continuing to look amused.

‘Well you left me no choice, with your ominous talk about making sure
the lady is safe
,' I imitated his deep voice badly.

‘I gave you my word,' he said seriously.

I opened my mouth and then shut it again. Okay, so he
had
given me his word.

‘Isn't that good enough for you?' Victor asked.

I felt abashed. ‘I didn't trust that you would keep it,' I stammered.

Victor remained silent. I thought I saw a hint of sadness in his eyes. In a flash it was gone.

‘Listen I'm sorry for not trusting you, but this is all part of my job. I have a duty of care not only to you, but also to anyone I introduce you to.' I glared at him. Offence was the best form of defence.

‘I suppose, in a similar way, I did not trust that you would introduce me to the right woman,' Victor said finally. He seemed subdued.

‘That's true.' I had forgotten about that. Great! It gave me some ammo to work with.

‘And you did…' Victor paused then added quickly, ‘so I suppose we can call it even. Good night.' He turned briskly and walked away.

Wait, what?

‘Hey waaaaait just a minute.' I pounced and walked beside him. ‘So the date went well?'

‘Yes, I think so.'

‘Does she like you?'

‘That's hard to say since I am not her,' Victor said cryptically.

‘Do you like her?'

‘That's even harder to say.' He stopped walking and looked at me. It always made me a bit uncomfortable when he did. His eyes had a depth I found unnerving. ‘I've never met anyone quite like her. She is smart and independent and lacks the usual tedious feminine qualities.' I rolled my eyes as he said this. He continued, ‘Yet she is quite delectably beautiful and —'

‘Please don't use the word delectable to describe a woman. It makes me nervous.'

‘Shaleenee, despite all your fears, I am not going to eat her,' he said with a half smile.

‘How do I know that?' I knew I was in a huff.

‘You don't,' Victor replied wickedly.

‘What kind of an answer is that?'

‘The only one you shall get tonight. Now if you'll excuse me, I have things to do.'