The Vampire (THE VAMPIRE Book 1) (62 page)

Jason thought he had gotten a hint of that. He guessed he had been about to be frozen out forever. And yet somehow things had turned around. But how and why, really?

“You said you had information about recent events.”

“Yes. And if you don’t mind I am curious to hear your version of events first.”

“Where should I begin?”

“Well, as much as you want to tell me, I guess. But we could start with why you decided to leave.”

Jason had a moment of serious doubt. Who was this person, really, calling from a distance? What was his true motive in calling now? Was this some perverse kind of test? Of his loyalty and his promise not to reveal anything about Augere? He could not rule out that possibility.

Jason released a heavy sigh. “I don’t know you. You could be anyone. And your motives could be highly suspect. I am not able or willing to share any information.”

“I had nearly forgotten—what it is like to live under that fear all the time. I was encouraged to call you, by the Geniers. Unofficially. Although it was in fact my idea. Very well. How about if I tell you what occurred when I called Augere? You can listen to what I have to say—it will be of interest to you, I am certain. And then you can decide how much trust to place and where.”

Jason was silent.

“So far I have two rather different versions of why you left. The Geniers believe the combination of seeing those portal things and learning the truth about Augere was just too much to take, and that was why you wanted out. That was totally understandable to them. When James was unable to reach Augere by phone for several days after you left he asked if I would call him and get a sense of how he was doing. I had some difficulty reaching him also, which is unusual. I knew all the details of what had occurred, as far as the Geniers were concerned, but I decided to act as if I knew nothing of those events when I spoke to Augere.”

Jason was curious now. “Mr. Genier gave you a number where you could reach him?”

“No. I have Augere’s private number.”

“Even though you don’t work for him anymore?”

“Yes. I can call him whenever, and he almost always takes my calls or gets back to me as soon as he can.”

“And do you ever see him?”

“Absolutely. I just saw him in fact when the two of you were in London. He had contacted me in advance and asked if I would be interested in meeting with him. So we arranged that.”

“Can I ask—what is your relationship like with him now? What are your feelings toward him? And what do you think of him?”

There was a long silence and then the stranger said:

“That crazy vampire bastard.” Then another longish pause.

“Even considering all the things he has done…I guess I would have to say, after all this time—I am still quite ridiculously fond of him.”

Jason laughed, and then he sighed. The stranger had spoken quite candidly; Jason had a sense maybe he could be trusted, and since he always trusted his own instincts, he decided to at least hear the rest of what he had to say.

“I guess if you can still say that, things cannot have been all bad. Okay, so—what were you saying? You tried to reach him by phone?”

“When he finally answered my call I asked how things were and I asked if it was snowing yet in Boston. And he replied he was ‘home.’ Which I took to mean he was in New Orleans, which I already knew. I asked him why he was there and he said he had things to do. I knew he had been there for the debriefing—”

“There was a debriefing?”

“Always, with a situation like this, yes. It is standard procedure: the principal players get together to discuss what went wrong and what went right. I guess he was in rare form at the debriefing.”

“How do you mean?”

“For one thing, James had let some new recruits sit in on the meeting, and Augere hates not being informed of things like that in advance; I guess there just wasn’t time. Not that he would have approved of it. One could see James’ point: they are the next generation of Geniers, and things like this don’t happen that often. It was a rare learning experience. But Augere despises that. Besides, he was already not in a good frame of mind to begin with.”

Jason felt responsible for that. Guilt rose up again. “What else did he say when you talked to him?”

“He stated ‘the assistant left.’ I told him I was sorry things had not worked out. I said I thought he had seemed a good match, but that, you know, sometimes these things just are not meant to be. I asked him what had happened. ‘There was trouble at Highgate,’ he said.

“‘You didn’t break in again?’ I asked him. ‘You didn’t get arrested this time?’ ‘No, he said. A very large portal. I did not see the full measure of it all at once. Several of the beings tried to get through.’”

“Several?” Jason exclaimed. “I only saw one.”

“Be glad of that. He said there were several, one behind the other.

“I asked how bad it was—‘Did the assistant get hurt?’ And he was indignant. “Of course not. I was there.’ I got a sense he was blaming himself for this happening.

“Mindful of the Geniers’ explanation, I said to him, ‘Well you really can’t blame the assistant for his fear then. Those portal things would be enough to cause anyone to back out.’ And he said, ‘No, that was not the reason.’

“I was surprised so I asked then why he thought you had left, and he replied ‘Can you not guess.’ I should mention at this point I have learned, over time, to record his conversations as verbatim as possible. What he actually says and what we think we hear him say can be quite different.

“I asked if he thought the assistant had suspected him for a while. There was a long silence. Finally I figured out what only someone who knows him well would realize: that he was nodding. I do not for the life of me understand why he thinks it is okay to nod instead of speak when he is on the phone, but I’ve seen it enough times to know it occurs. So I asked if he was nodding. And he said yes. ‘So, you think he suspected you for some time—but you think he was okay with it then?’ I asked. Silence again. I had to pull the information out of him. He was reluctant to talk about it. I said, ‘Well, did he start acting differently towards you?’ He replied there was a difference. I asked: was that before—or after—the portal thing happened? And he replied it was after.

“‘So what makes you think he left because of you then, and not because of the portal things?’ And his reply was ‘I asked him.’ ‘What did you ask him, exactly?’ I said. And he said, ‘You are not really afraid are you, ghost hunter?’”

“He did say that!” Jason gasped. “That is exactly what he said to me.”

“I knew it!” the stranger replied. “He has this idiosyncratic way of expressing himself, that comes across as sarcastic, when in fact he doesn’t mean to be.”

“I could hardly believe it. I thought he was mocking me. I was so afraid and it seemed he was just making fun of me because I was so badly shaken. I just wanted to run and get away from there, but I had no idea where I was really, and didn’t know if there were more of those things around. It was such a horrible feeling and all of it so unreal. Yet he seemed to be so completely fearless. And I had to stay right there with him, no matter what.”

“And did you make any reply to him?” the stranger asked. “When he made that comment?”

“I remember trying to sound like I was okay. To brush it off somehow. I made some flippant remark, said some line from a movie, as I recall, to express what I was feeling but more to diffuse the sense that he was just laughing at me. And then I remember I said we had to report all of this to the authorities as soon as possible.”

“Yes, he mentioned you making a casual remark, and he took that to mean you were not afraid. But I couldn’t believe that. So I pushed a little more. I said, ‘So—you think he just took that whole horrible portal episode in stride? Like it was nothing?’ And his casual reply was: ‘Yes; it is quite common to him. He studies these things.’”

“What? I can’t believe Mr. Augere thought that!”

“Nor could I. I said, ‘How do you mean he studies these things?’ And he said, ‘He studies the paranormal and the supernatural. Like on the television. He hunts things like this to learn about them. He has equipment he uses for such.’

“Well, you can imagine my surprise. I know he watches that TV show, Supernatural, and he really likes it though he will deny that. And he believes a lot of things on the program are real, because, I guess, in his world, some of those damned things are. I have had this discussion with him before and I have told him such and such do not really exist. He insists that is not entirely true.

“I was incredulous. I said, ‘So you really believe he has seen things like those portal beings before?’ And he replied, ‘It is as I said.’ Then I had to wonder, not knowing you—if you were the sort who might puff himself up and invent some crazy story like that to tell him, but I doubted it because he would see right through that and he would avoid such people. So I said, ‘You concluded he left because of what you are, and not because of the portal things.’ He was growing irritable then and said, ‘Have you not been listening?’ So I said as gently as I could, ‘I don’t know your assistant or anything about him. And all I know about paranormal stuff and such is what I see on those TV shows I watch. And even though
you
don’t watch the news or read the newspapers—I do. And I can tell you this with certainty: if anyone, anywhere, had ever seen anything like those portal things, if these things were common knowledge—it would be all over the BBC, CNN and even the other crazy news networks—and I am telling you—that just has
not
happened. I would be willing to bet your assistant never saw anything like those things in all of his experience, no matter what impression he gave you, and that he was, justifiably, terrified.’”

“You are absolutely right…have you ever seen those portal things?” Jason asked.

“Never. And though I do have curiosity about them, I am still not prepared to have an encounter with one. He says they are quite horrid.”

“So I said to him then, ‘You are still the only being who seems to be able to draw these things to those portals. Only
your
energy, so far, brings on this phenomenon. What I am trying to say is you may have concluded the assistant left because of learning what you are, but I just don’t believe that.’ And I let that sink in for a moment.

“So, Jason, are you willing to share your thoughts now, your true reasons for leaving?”

“It is true, I had started having some suspicions about him. But I just couldn’t believe it; even though everything seemed to be pointing in that direction. I guess I was totally resisting the idea. It was too bizarre and incredible. It
couldn’t
be real. But then after the incident at Highgate with the portal things…and then the way he reacted, almost nonchalant about the whole thing—it was just so surreal…I still didn’t want to believe it then but I just couldn’t deny any longer it must be true.”

“So—it is true then: you did leave because you figured out for certain what he was, and then the portal incident pushed you further over the edge, so to speak, not that I blame you, understand—and that was the reason?”

“No. That wasn’t the reason. Not at all. I didn’t want it to be true, for his sake; maybe for my sake too. Because I really liked him and I thought it would be terrible for him to have to exist like that. And that fact about him would change everything. The whole dynamic between us—would be completely altered by that knowledge. Nothing could ever be the same again. It was just so impossible to accept. But then I began to realize the enormity of the secret. One I was never supposed to know, apparently, or I reasoned they all would have told me in the first place. This incident wasn’t supposed to happen. It was nobody’s fault. But it meant I had stumbled on a huge secret they were intent on keeping—what he really is—and now that I had found out, they had no choice but to kill me. I reasoned this was the only way they had ever been able to keep such a huge secret safe from the world with any certainty—they had to kill anyone who found out. I had to get away. I didn’t want them to kill me.”

“And THAT was the real reason you left…! Hell’s horses! Everyone got it wrong. You, him, and the Geniers! I knew it! None of what I heard had seemed quite right. But Jason, the truth is: you DO have to find out the truth about him. That is the only way any of this can work. You can’t be of any real use or help to him until you know exactly what is going on. That knowledge is meant to come to you, but ideally in a gradual way and preferably at your own pace, once you’ve gotten to know him, so you can begin to slowly accept it. But—you have got to know eventually.”

“No one ever explained that to me!”

“Again—the Geniers are much too close to the subject, and too removed from the procedures. They are too used to the routine. They seem to have forgotten this process can be baffling to someone who is sorting it all out…and so…you felt you needed to get away from him—them—in order to save your life.”

“Yes. Exactly. I really believed—” Jason sighed. “I’m still not totally convinced otherwise—I thought they were all planning to have me killed.”

“But—then what prompted you to try to reach Augere after you left?”

“I believed he was in New Orleans to find a new assistant. I started to think maybe I was wrong and that I had misinterpreted things. And maybe he had also. I wanted to talk to him and explain the real reason I left. He had to know the truth—that it wasn’t because of what he was. I felt I needed to tell him that in person.”

“He would never seek out a new assistant so soon. He will wait years sometimes, between assistants. He can’t adapt to change all that quickly. And he likes to keep low the number of people who know about him at any one time, so he spreads out the time intervals between assistants.”

“I see.” He had gotten it all wrong. Part of his urgency, he now realized, was to get to Augere before he had found a replacement assistant.
It had to have been in the back of my mind to get my job back, no matter what I told myself. But somehow it all worked in my favor. I was compelled to go to New Orleans as soon as possible
.