SNAP: The World Unfolds (16 page)

It was a nasty story. I felt bad that Jean-Louis lost his lover and I could understand his feelings for the Huszars, but this must have been quite a while ago.

“One question first. Jean-Louis and Stefan are ‘tight’ as you so quaintly said, because Jean-Louis is second in command. Sort of like Stefan’s son, in the regular world, except Stefan has no plans of dying. It may be more like Stefan’s most trusted advisor. Jean-Louis was one of Stefan’s acolytes.”

That brought Jean-Louis’ actions clearer. When I was miffed because I though I had seniority I was so far afield that I wasn’t even in the same game. Duh!

“What plans are they making?”

“I’m not privy to them, but I suspect they’re trying to find ways to neutralize the Huszar leadership.”

“That sounds a lot like killing them...which sounds like a war,” I couldn’t tell if Carola knew the plans and was wary about discussing them or if she was really out of the loop.

She made a moue of annoyance. “You’re not listening again. I’m not being coy, I don’t know. You might ask Pen, although I don’t know if she’ll tell you anything. She’s worried about Jean-Louis and thinks you might be putting him in danger.”

Wait a minute, here. I’m the one who’s under attack. I’m the one who’s prey for the Huszars. I’m the one who got pulled into this and I’m not even a vampire.

“He has been watching out, that’s because he’s finding you interesting. We’ve been there with Jean-Louis and his ‘interests’ and it doesn’t work for any of us. I didn’t finish his story.

“After Magda was killed, he vowed he’d never ask another woman to be his acolyte. He’d spend time with regulars—maybe even tell them he was in love—but find some way of dumping them after a few years. When they began to realize that they were getting older and he wasn’t, it was time for them to go. The time and emotion he spent on them took away from his work with the family. When Stefan started SNAP and it grew so fast and so big, Jean-Louis’ talents were really needed. We’ve all tried to keep him away from women of ‘interest’ and it’s worked for a few years. You’re the first one he’s been tantalized with in about twenty years.”

With a guy as dishy as Jean-Louis, they must have been beating the women off with a stick. Twenty years? I would bet my Great-aunt Fanny that there were piles of young, and not-so-young, women who’d wanted his picture under her pillow. Little did they know what he was actually doing at night.

“OK, just because he might be interested, why does that make me dangerous, unless the Huszars think that they can get to him...Oh.” I may have misread things, but this hit me like an asteroid and blew a hole in my anger. I deflated like a leaky tire.

“You mean he may do something stupid if he thinks that the Huszars are after me,” my eyes grew big at the sudden understanding.

Carola gave me a narrow look. “Well, you may be listening at last,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’ve spent too much time up here, Gregor and other will be wondering. If you want any other information, Pen’s the best one to ask.”

She glided out of the room, leaving me stunned, confused, abashed and generally stupefied. I wasn’t sure what I needed most; information about Jean-Louis and the family, just Jean-Louis, or my condo back in L.A.

What was I going to do? I was thousands of miles from home, in a country that didn’t speak English, with no idea where I was, no money, no friends. Sure, I could pack up and do a grand exit, but I opened my door and the demon on guard looked at me quizzically.

“Do you need something?”

“No, no thank you,” I pulled the door closed. It wouldn’t be much of a grand exit if I couldn’t get beyond my bedroom door. Running home wasn’t an option. I didn’t think having Jean-Louis was an option either, so I settled for huddling in the chair wrapped in a blanket. Too bad I was too old for my old stuffed elephant.

The fire was dying and the logs sighed as they settled into ashes. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind when I heard a soft rustling. Where was the sound coming from? It got louder, with no direction. It was like birds. A bunch of birds. A flock of birds flying around and around. No birdsong, just the rustling, rustling wings, around and around. Getting louder, getting faster. Was it coming from the windows, from the chimney? Were the birds in the room?

A pattering noise, like the beginning of a spring rain. No, it was bird’s feet, knocking against the windows and pattering across the sill. I tried to put my hands over my ears but my arms wouldn’t obey. When I lifted my right arm, it flailed around, waving circles in the air until I bolted awake. There was a tapping sound at the door and I ran for it, jerking it open and barreling into Pen, who was standing in the hall with the demon guard.

“We must have waked you,” she had a faint smile.

“I didn’t realize that I fell asleep,” I frowned. “I was having an awful dream. I dreamt there was a flock of birds flying around the room.”

The guard started. He tore into my room and raced for the window, speaking rapid Hungarian into his communicator. He ripped back the curtains and suddenly the outside was lit up like noon, I heard running feet and lots of what sounded like orders. Then just as suddenly, the light went out.

Pen had stayed in the hall and when the demon came back they had a rushed conversation in Hungarian before he turned to me.

“I’m sorry ma’am, the Huszars sent a scouting party over to look for any chinks in our security. They managed to fly in over the roofs and evade the movement sensors. You must have heard them probing the windows.”

“May I come in? I think the furor is over for tonight.” Pen walked through the door. “Carola told me that you had some questions.”

This was the first time I’d been alone and up close with Pen and her beauty was astounding. Her skin was almost translucent and where most of the others glimmered, she glowed. She had dark eyes and sleek dark hair worn in a chignon, accented with a diamond clip. She had changed after dinner and was now in a filmy white number designed in the Empire style. She could have sat for a David portrait. When she realized I was gaping she nodded. “Yes, I did sit for Jacques-Louis David. My portrait isn’t like Madame Recamier’s and it’s not in a museum. Stefan still has it. He indulges me. I’ve been painted by several people, even Matisse. All the sittings have been private and the artists were so well-paid that they never spoke of it.”

She was casually talking about artists I had only seen briefly in exhibitions. I finally got my jaw off the floor and working.

“I do have questions. I’m not even sure what I want to know, though.” We took chairs in front of the fire, now stoked by the guard. “I get so confused when I have these dreams.”

“These dreams are just letting you share our realities,” Pen grew serious. “As you’re not one of us, you can’t experience the substance of our lives, but the dreams will allow you to feel some of our world. This will make it easier to work with us—and for us to work with you.”

God, if their world was all loud noises, swirling mists, slavering animals, confusion and fear, I didn’t want to be part of it. Everything comes at a cost though, and maybe this was the cost I’d have to pay for private jets, castles, Parisian shopping trips. And for being near Jean-Louis.

“Yes, Jean-Louis.” Pen hummed. Damn, I didn’t know that these vampires were mind-readers.

My face must have shown astonishment because Pen smiled coolly. “We can’t really read minds, you know, we just have an ability to pick up body language and are good at reading faces. I don’t think you regulars have any idea how much you broadcast thoughts and emotions non-verbally.

“Now, Jean-Louis. Carola said she told you that we think he’s interested in you and we’re concerned about that.”

I took a deep breath. “She did tell me that. And she said that the Huszars could use me as bait, which makes Jean-Louis vulnerable.”

Pen’s eyes grew even darker. “It is worrisome. Any time one of us is threatened, all of us feel it. We may be in different bodies, but we’re of the same blood. If Jean-Louis is threatened, it’s deeper. Stefan set up the family carefully and picked Jean-Louis as his second leader. We watched other families, and particularly the Huszars, fall apart and have destructive wars for years over succession and power.

“Stefan wants to avoid all of that, so we have a structure, but we also have an open governance. Any one who has a complaint can request a hearing before the Council. It’s kept us functioning without much friction for years. If a family doesn’t have a way for dissidents to air grievances, or for individuals to salve slights, they fester. Someone’s hurt feelings can become backbiting and rumors lead to factions and war.”

I saw that vampires may have been different from us regulars, but underneath they had the same ambitions and hunger for power. I was willing to bet that their skirmishes and wars were a whole lot more dangerous, though. They could wipe a whole clan out. Were their pacts and treaties and alliances as intricate and byzantine as ours? Probably more so. They would bring in demons and shape shifters and beasts as participants.

“I’m beginning to see how I could make Jean-Louis and the Kandeskys vulnerable. I’m really just a pawn, or more like chum, but I’m certainly stirring things up. Should I think about doing something?”

The vampire’s great eyes turned on me. I felt she could see beyond my soul, an eerie sensation. I knew she wouldn’t attack me, but would she send me on a journey or a quest that would separate me from the family—from Jean-Louis—forever?

“It would probably be best if you went back to Los Angeles,” she snapped and my blood ran cold. I knew it. I was being sent away, not to keep me safe but to keep Jean-Louis and the family safe. A giant void was opening and I was the one being sacrificed to keep the world spinning upright. Tears flooded my eyes and ran down my face; I stammered “If you think that’s best...”

“You great ninny,” Pen’s mouth curled in a smile. Was she tasting triumph at getting rid of me?

“You mean I’m not fired?”

“No, you’re not fired. I don’t even have the power to fire you, only Stefan can do that, now. I think you need to be away from here to give Stefan and Jean-Louis time to come up with some strategy to neutralize this, this....oh what should I call it? Contretemps?”

“Contretemps? It feels like a lot more to me.” I shuddered.

Pen rustled in her chair, sounding like the earlier wings. “This has been a constant undercurrent for years,” she sighed. “It escalated when the current Huszar leader, Matthias, usurped Felix. Stefan and Felix had a, I suppose you could call it a non-aggression pact, which defined both the territories and types of hunting each family could do. When the Nazis invaded, Matthias saw a chance to break out of the stifling terms. He enticed a group of younger vampires into aligning with the Nazi SS and they began hunting Jews, Communists, Gypsies and peasants.”

Pen was living in the time, not so long past in her history, as she told the tale of seventy years ago. The Nazis were after the Jews, Communists and Gypsies, the Huszars were primarily after the peasants, but didn’t pass up the blood feast after the Nazi killings. When Felix realized what was happening, he tried to stop it but Matthias’ followers, including packs of werewolves, were too far into bloodlust to slow down. They turned on Felix one dawn at the edge of the forest and killed him. When they came back at nightfall, he was gone. Matthias was acclaimed leader as he consistently found fresh food.

“It’s been difficult.” Pen shook herself back to the present. “Stefan and Jean-Louis have tried and tried to sit down with Matthias and work out some kind of an agreement, but he’s just too rash and too vicious. He has the whole Huszar clan under his thumb—ironically with tactics he also picked up from the Nazis. They’re making plans now to turn some of the Huszars against Matthias and instigate a coup.”