“I take it that’s not decaf you’re drinking.”
Morena Fourtenay pauses, hand to her back gripping that yet unseen gun, eyes narrowing. Well I thought it was funny.
“Who are you?” she asks.
I smile. She has set my business card in front of her on the table. I point.
“Ok, dumb question.” She eases her hand off the gun, back to the table. “Just how long have you been here?”
“The more interesting question is why are you here.” And why bring a gun to a coffee shop on a hot day?
She assesses me. I stand up and move over to her table. Put out my hand.
“Sophie Quinn.”
She takes a moment. I can see the wheels turning in her head. This is a mistake, she thinks. He’s going to kill her for this. Maybe literally kill her for this. What business is it of hers what he does?
She shakes my hand finally. As she starts to introduce herself, I put up a hand.
“Please. I always check my referrals. May I sit down?”
“Sure.”
I sit. I wait. Not much of a talker, this girl.
“Well, the coffee is good here but I imagine you had something on your mind when you contacted me.”
She starts to tell me about the dreams, no “I met Vampire X when…” which is patently interesting. Just He. Yeah, you heard that. In CAPS.
“Ever since the dreams started, he’s been different. Almost as if..as if he’s afraid.”
“How long has this been?”
“About a week or so.”
“Hmm. Vamps and sunshine don’t mix that well, at least not directly. I’ve never heard of a dreaming vampire either.”
“But what does it mean?”
“Do you know how old He is?” I suppose if it isn’t important for me to have his name yet, so be it.
Morena sits back, folds her arms.
“We, uh, haven’t talked about that really.”
“Hm.”
“What does that Hm mean?”
“You’ve only been with him a few months, eh?”
“How did–?”
“Vamps are notoriously long-winded once they break the four month window. Well, allowing for variation. After that, you’ll be begging him to shut up.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You know how your great uncle Charlie used to trap you and tell you ‘Well, in my day’ stories?”
“Yeah?”
“Imagine hundreds of years worth of those stories.”
“Oh.”
“Unfortunately, that makes this whole thing difficult.”
“How do you mean?”
“Vamps don’t trust easily. And because they’re so long lived, a few months is just a blink of the eye to them. No matter how good you think your relationship is, telling his secret to another human is tantamount to betrayal.”
“But I’m trying to help him.”
“You really are new to this, aren’t you?” It’s not her fault, really. I’ve had lifetimes with these creatures to know about them. She probably has gotten swept up in the danger and romance of it. Look at the TV, the book store, even our teenagers are being led to believe that vampires are these romantic, even glowing beings that when they meet just the right woman…ur…human, they can be tamed. They’re just misunderstood. Well, they are. More so now than ever.
“A few words of advice, Morena. He’s a big vampire, he can take care of himself.”
At 8:43AM, a striking tall latina with long raven hair, perfectly fitting t-shirt, jacket, and jeans, and no nonsense eyes that physically move two businessmen out of her way strides in. I think my jaw drops open. Morena Fourtenay doesn’t just enter the room. She owns it. Hercule’s dossier spoke a lot about her abilities with weapons and combat, her shining career, fast tracked then stonewalled, then reassignment and quitting . But this woman here looks anything like a quitter. And the dossier has no ranks for kick-ass-edness.
Part of the trouble with remembering past lives is that they creep in when you’re most vulnerable. For me, that’s the night mostly. Which is why I don’t mind working in the evenings. I actually prefer it. By day, I’m so tired that I crash and when I awaken, there’s light and movement and all the sights and sounds of a life in full view that distracts me beautifully. I’ve been on this quest, perhaps quixotic, so many lifetimes that my nights are filled with memories of vampires. Ones I couldn’t help, ones that hunted me, ones that even killed me…I’ve had so few successes. But my failures, they are grand indeed.
In honesty, I’d lost track of them after that one lifetime. I have tried off and on to find out what happened to them, so many things could have. But this lifetime is too new and the memories sometimes fade into fog if I try too hard to remember. It’s better to let them coalesce on their own.
Vampirony 