DraculaVille - New York - Book One (17 page)

“Turn him into a vampire?” She stopped and planted her hands on her hips.

He retraced his steps, scanning the area. “Pip? Gerri?”

“In here,” a muffled voice drifted from the dining room.

They shared a questioning glance and headed in that direction. They stopped on the threshold between the foyer and the dining room. The chairs had been pulled out, and a comforter draped the table and chairs. The only light came as a faint glow emanating from under the table.

She lifted the side of the comforter and bent to peer underneath. Pip and Gerri curled in a nest of what appeared to be every pillow in her apartment. A candle in a glass jar burned before them. She slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. Pip’s head was covered with one of her saucepans, and Gerri’s with a metal colander. They both had on robes raided from Talia’s closet, and some of her scarves draped their necks. Both wore enormous grins.

Stifling a laugh, she stood and turned to Drake. “You’re not going to believe this.”

He ducked under the makeshift tent. “What are you guys doing under here?”

“King Pip says you may enter if you wish,” Gerri said.

He disappeared into the makeshift cave, and Talia shook her head.

Pip’s voice called out, “You too, Mo….I mean, Your Majesty.”

She’d need more wine to do this. She went to the kitchen and poured a glass for her and one of blood for Drake. Then she poked her head under the comforter. “Here. Take these.” She handed the glasses to Drake who sat cross-legged under the table.

After she settled across from King Pip, Gerri tossed her some pillows to lounge on. Gerri had also resorted to wine to endure the playacting. Pip had the clown themed sippy-cup she’d bought him filled with blood in one hand and her kitchen whisk in the other.

“His Majesty welcomes you to the Kingdom of Romania,” Gerri said bowing her head. “You may speak and present your gifts.”

“Gifts?” Drake raised a brow.

“Empress Gerri says visitors to the king always bring gifts so the king won’t kill them.” Pip smiled.

“Empress?” Talia looked at Gerri.

She shrugged. “I got to make up my own title.”

“So what are you guys doing?” Drake asked, lips twitching.

“We’re playing Kingdom of Romania. I’m the king of the vampires.” Pip raised his chin. “Gerri is the empress of the humans. Her people revolted and tried to kill her, so she came to the king of the vampires for help. I’m going to give her some of my warriors to help win back her throne.”

“I see.” Drake took a drink of his blood. “That’s very good of you.”

Talia suppressed the smile that tickled her face. Talia jerked her head in Gerri’s direction. “Well, if it’s okay with you, Your Highness, we need to talk to the Empress outside of the bat cave here.”

Pip pressed his lips together as if considering the merits of this request. He tapped Gerri on the shoulder with his whisk. “I guess that’s okay. You may go.”

They crawled out, and Gerri removed her colander crown. “So what’s up? How did the dancing go?”

“That’s a whole story in itself,” Talia said as they headed into the living room. “The big news is that there’s another Vampire pack or flock or whatever on the Upper West End.”

Her friend sucked in a breath. “Oh, no. Did you have trouble?”

“Not really.” She glanced at Drake who removed the pot from Pip’s head. She sank onto the couch and relayed the story of their encounter with Carlotta.

“So, she’s offering protection if you give her the location of Maron’s group?” Gerri sat forward on the edge of the wingchair, elbows on her knees.

“So it seems,” Drake said. “I’m beginning to think it would be a good idea to have some affiliation with one of the vampire groups. I might be able to learn more about my new status and maybe avoid some unpleasantness associated with being a loner.”

“It makes sense, I guess.” Gerri sat back, lips pursed. “How will you find it?”

“I’m thinking King Pip here saw the location when he followed the pretty lady.” He looked at the boy whose eyes brightened.

“You’re going to go looking for it with Pip?” A chill of fear shot through Talia, and she rubbed her arms. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Not if we ride around in a taxi. I know the general area Pip wandered to. He can tell me if he recognizes the deserted store.” Drake sipped from his glass of blood then ran his tongue over his lips. “All I need is the address and I can give it to Carlotta. It shouldn’t be dangerous at all.”

“Yippie, I want to help,” Pip shouted. He smacked his fist in his hand. “King Pip won’t allow bad Vampires to live, only good ones. We’ll track them down and smash them to bits.”

“There will be no smashing,” Drake said, putting a calming hand on the boy’s shoulder.

Pip crossed his arms, pouting. “I’m not afraid.”

Talia bit her lip. She didn’t want Drake and Pip to get hurt, but the plan seemed innocent enough. “We know you’re not afraid, Pip. But Drake’s right. Find the place and leave the smashing to others.”

Gerri smiled. “You can write a death warrant for them and we’ll put the address on it to deliver to the vampire queen. Then it will be like you’re ordering her to smash them.”

Pip’s bottom lip retracted and he smiled. “I like that. I’ll order their execution.”

Drake sank his head into his hands, and Talia laughed. Who knew her friend had such a vivid imagination? “That’s right. Let others do the dirty work. Never do something yourself that you can delegate.”

Pip jumped up and started playing a king ordering an execution, waving his whisk around at imaginary soldiers.

“When will you start?” Talia turned to Drake.

“We have lots of time until daybreak,” he said. “We’ll start tonight.”

“Wheee,” Pip yelled and ran around the room slashing his whisk at imaginary foes.

***

Talia yawned as she pushed open the door to Saracin’s offices the next morning. These late nights were taking their toll on her. She tugged at her tight waistband as she strode down the hall. Drake’s delectable meals were also taking their toll on her figure. She didn’t dare step on the scales. She wished Drake had been awake when she left, but he and Pip had fallen into vampire hibernation. She wanted to know what they'd discovered last night.

“My, aren’t we a ray of sunshine this morning,” Felix said as she entered her office. He thrust a latte into one of her hands and a file folder into the other. “What happened to you last night?”

“You’re not going to believe this.” She placed the items he’d handed her on the desk and shrugged out of her coat. Then she gave him a rundown of their exciting discoveries.

“Oh.” He bit his bottom lip. “Another batch of vampires?”

“Right.” She settled into her chair and flipped open the chart he gave her. “What’s this?”

“More fabulous news. The Romanians wanted some deadlines put in the contract. If they aren’t met, the association with Saracin can be severed.” He crossed his arms.

“What?” She pressed her fingertips to her temples. “That’s ridiculous. Did Harvey tell them what tall building to jump off?”

“No, he agreed to it. Check out his signature on the contract in the folder.” He pointed to the documents on her desk. “It’s all final now.”

Her mouth went dry, and she shook her head in disbelief. This campaign was her idea. The Romanians didn’t have the right to take it and run to another agency just because Saracin missed one of their arbitrary deadlines. How could Harvey had done something so stupid?

“I’m going to kill him,” she muttered, flipping through the pages of the contract. She slammed the file shut and stood, ready to march to Harvey’s office and read him the riot act. Then her shoulders slumped. It was too late. He’d already signed the contract agreeing to their terms. Now it was her ass on the line. She had to make it happen or Saracin would lose the account. What a bunch of crap.

“He brought the file in a minute ago, and said now that they have the idea of DraculaVille, they can leave us anyway. It was the only way to save the account.” Her assistant rubbed his chin.

“Those bastards.” She sank back in her chair. Harvey was right. They were stuck.

She turned to the page that showed a timeline of events. No surprise that the first deadline was the production of the teasers Cosmin had mentioned at the meeting yesterday. She took a deep breath. Okay, that was doable. She ran a finger down the page, scanning the timing. It was tight. Not impossible, but tight. She would kill herself to make all this happen.

No getting around it now, though. Harvey had made the commitment and she wasn’t going to give up her commission. She slammed the file shut.

“So, we make it happen. Right?”

“No choice really,” he said. “They’ve got us by the balls.”

“Exactly. So we'll work our magic, as usual.”

“Okay, boss.” Felix pulled his smart phone from his pocket. “I called Anton to set up the photo shoot for Friday night. He’s fine with that.”

“Good.” She nodded. “We have to stay on top of this, Felix. I won’t let them screw us if I can help it.”

“The next deadline after the teaser ads is to provide them with architectural plans they can use in presentations to sponsors.” She made notes on her iPad. “Call Brent and tell him it’s a go. We’ll need detailed plans and drawings right away.”

“Got it.” Her assistant ran his finger over his phone’s keyboard. “Then what?”

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. According to the timeline, the Romanians wanted confirmation of a presentation booklet in two weeks and a teaser ad placement in four months. That meant the big focus for Saracin was production of those ads. The presentation book would take little time to produce. Its elements were already finished. Drake was going to be busy sooner than she’d thought.

Part of her tingled with suspicion. Why the stringent terms to the contract? It was very unusual. Everyone recognized a project of this magnitude could have unexpected setbacks. Were they trying to sabotage her? If so, why? This was a good plan, and Saracin was one of the few agencies that could pull off something this big. It didn’t make sense to erect so many boundaries that could practically doom the campaign to fail.

“You suspect something, don’t you?” Felix’s eyes narrowed.

She tucked her hair behind her ears. “I’m not sure. This is very unusual, let’s just say that much. The only other explanation is that they’re in an incredible hurry for some reason.”

Harvey poked his head into her office. “I can tell by your face you’ve seen the contract.”

“Why the early deadlines?” She leaned back in her chair.

He came in and sat across from her. “I’m not sure. Last night I got a call from the secretary. She said they like the idea, but they have strict needs in terms of timing. If we didn’t agree, they threatened to go to an agency that could meet their needs. I didn’t have a choice, Tiger.”

She bit her bottom lip. If she was Spiderman, her spidey senses would be tingling. “Any idea what’s pushing them so hard?”

“Economics is all she would allude to.” He shrugged. “They need dollars and they need them fast.”

“So, we kill ourselves making it happen, or they walk.”

“That’s the ticket.” He pressed his forefinger against his cheek. “Look, Tiger, you’ll have the resources of the entire agency behind you for this. Even if it seems crazy, we have to recognize that the contract represents a huge chunk of money. Whatever you need, just ask.”

“Okay.” She grasped her hands together on the desktop. “We’ve worked too hard to let someone else take over my ideas. Felix and I need a twenty percent increase in our salaries starting right now.”

Harvey blinked several times, then nodded. “Fine. We’ll do it. Just don’t lose this account. We’re now looking at a rough figure of five billion dollars in advertising and publicity expenditures over the next two years.”

Five Billion. She swallowed, stood and reached over the desk to shake his hand. No looking back now. They had a tough few years ahead of them, but she was determined to see this through. Harvey gave her assistant a slap on the back and left her office. If this deal went south, Harvey’d be more than happy to lay the blame on her. She wasn’t going to let that happen. It wasn’t the money, now. Her pride and reputation were on the line.

“Thanks,” Felix said. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I know this much, they can’t take back salary. But if we fail, they can kill bonuses.”

Felix pursed his lips. “True. Good thinking, boss.”

“Now let’s get busy. We need to make some magic happen.” Romania had just officially pissed her off.

Chapter 21

“Um, Drake?” Talia stared at the dining room table. An array of dishes spread over its surface with formal place settings at five seats. Black candles burned in the elaborate silver candelabra from the first photo shoot. The aroma of butter, garlic and spices hit her like a savory boulder, and her stomach rumbled.

What was going on? She peered into the kitchen where he stirred a pot on the stove.

Pip sat on a bar stool at the island, smearing cream cheese on ham slices and wrapping them around the lower half of a spring onion.

“Hey.” Drake turned from the stove and gave her a wave. “How was work?”

She dropped her purse and briefcase on the floor and climbed onto a stool beside Pip. “Strange.”

“How?” He poured red wine in a glass and handed it across the island to her.

“The Romanians have decided to play hardball. They made a bunch of timeline demands to the contract and we had to agree.”

“How will that affect the campaign plan?” He paused his stirring.

“It means if we miss a deadline, they can break the contract and go to another agency.” She raised her glass and took a drink. “If it happens, all our hard work and ideas will go down the toilet.”

He stared at her a moment then returned to his cooking. “Seems like the Romanians have some needs we don’t know about.”

A sheen of perspiration moistened Talia’s brow. She worried the same. Some strange unknown need pushed the Romanians. A hidden secret agenda. “Got any ideas?”

“Try one of these, Mom. Dad showed me how to make them.” Pip handed her one of his ham wrapped onion creations.