Case #13 – Jesper: You Make Limoncello…
Ok, stay calm. Vampires don’t faint from lemons. I wave her away, look down at Jesper the Vampire…who’s face is frozen in awe, eyes now closed lightly, mouth gaping, fangs still partly retracted. He takes a shaky breath.
“He’s coming around. Ease up there, killer, he’s going to be fine. Just give him some room.” Lucky accident that I’m blocking her view and she can’t get around us. It gives me time to think. But as I’m drawing a blank, his eyes open to slits, golden light leaking out. Ohhhhhhhh, not expected.
“Was that expected?” Morena demands, gun still pointed.
I lie. “A little more intense but yeah.”
Intense my….I have to figure out what to do to keep her from seeing his eyes. It’s flipping me out so no telling how many times she’ll shoot me for it. This is soooooo not normal.
Jesper the Vampire, laid low by a lemon, suddenly smiles. “That’s quite a punch.”
My exhale is half-laugh and all relief. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Those things should only be taken under care of a, um, vampire psychologist.”
He laughs, grinning deeply, his fangs over his lips, pinching him just there. Even partially retracted, they’re the longest fangs I’ve ever seen. Damn, that sounds dirty.
“How do you feel?” I ask, probably with little of the scientific decorum I’d like to think I still have.
His head shakes slowly from side to side. “No words.”
Ok, so maybe it’s all over and fine now.
I can’t help myself as I peel open one of his eyelids. His entire eyeball is radiating, like the light was coming from inside his skull. I let his eyelid slide back and brush an errant lock of hair off his face. His pallor seems almost human. Was his hair always so…golden? Maybe I’d thought it auburn in darker light?
“Have you already fed tonight?”
Jesper’s fangs retract and he licks his lips, seemingly savoring the odd sensation of light. He made no move to move at all, was just stillness. “Hmm, yes.”
“Good. Your feeding will be a bit more intense for a few days, your fangs will be extra sensitive. Like you’ve gone to the dentist.”
He laughs, open mouthed.
“Jesper?” Morena. She sounds scared and yet calmer. Probably from hearing him laugh…well, most of the time, hearing a vampire laugh is more frightening than their growls. It means they are totally at ease. And as a human, you never really want that. But I remind myself she’s a rookie and doesn’t know enough to know to be afraid of it yet.
I take his wrist, feel a pulse, which isn’t entirely uncommon for recently fed vamps. I notice a signet ring on one finger and a silver ring on another. The silver ring has a raised circle with a dot in the middle. It makes me feel…uneasy.
“Yes, Morena. I am….unharmed.” He opens his eyes and for a moment, I get caught full faced with glowing amber orbs. Then he blinks and blue-grey eyes are appraising me. “Am I not?”
Uhhhh…..
“Morena, if you’re not going to shoot anyone, can you put that thing away and help me get him to the couch?”
She safeties her weapon and puts it back in its place. Then she helps me move Jesper over to sit on the couch. He’s lighter than he should be for his height and weight. He slumps there, head resting on the back of the couch. As Morena begins to lean over to him, I butt in her way and sit next to him on the couch, arm resting beside his head. The next part is tricky. A large part of me, probably the more rational part, wants to call this a night. But I’ve not yet shied away from a client in need and regardless of my reaction to him, he has no one else to work him through this….whatever this is. And my curiosity..well, yeah, cats and all.
He moves his head to look at me, smiling still, like he’s going to ask me for a cigarette.
I forestall that. “I need to ask you some questions.”
“As I do you.”
“Uh-uh, not how this works. You’re the patient, remember?”
“You already have my utmost attention.”
“Good.” I think. Of course, vampire senses being what they are, he can probably sense…ok, let’s not go there. I turn to Morena. This is going to sting. “He’s fine. You can leave now.”
“What?”
“Patient privilege. Can’t have you standing here while I consult.”
She looks ready to get her gun back out. “You listen here you little—.”
“Morena,” Jesper says softly and I can feel what’s coming. And so can she.
“Don’t,” she asks of him.
In Vox Compulsum, he simple says, “Leave us.” I’m immune to the voice but even I can hear the ripples of suggestion guided by champagne bubbles and jasmine in his voice. I watch Morena. She’s strong, very strong. She begins to step backwards, toward the door without a word but her face shows every ounce of anger she possesses at this moment.
“Bastard.” There’s no passion there in her voice; it’s all in her face. But she backs all the way to the door, then gives up fighting it and hastily leaves, slamming the door.
I notice the complete quiet and still in the room, his influence gone as easily as waves brushing away writing in the sand. He’s very powerful and very old to use his abilities with such grace and ease.
“She’s angry,” he says.
“She’s upset. There’s a difference.” I turn back to him, see him sitting upright now, all visible effects of the lemon gone.
“You’re a psychologist to human servants too?”
“You’ve heard of me?”
“I suspected she might contact you.”
“First off, she’s a companion, cohort at the worst, not a servant and I expect I’ll never have to explain the difference to you. Second, it doesn’t take a psychologist to see how worried she was that I’d harmed you.”
Oh, and the sheer jealousy on her face as she left? We gonna leave that out of the discussion I hope.
“My relationship with Morena is definitely…progressive.”
“We’ll get to that all in good time. But first, I have more questions for you. About these dreams.”
He settled into the couch, making himself more comfortable, his arm going up on the back as I moved mine down. His mouth curved in a half-smile, possibly from the movement. “Then ask away.”
Vampirony 
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