THE VROL TRILOGY (56 page)

"Ah, it is my new invention," he said with a
guilty grin, "so I believe I shall use it whenever I desire the
pipe while in mixed company."

Jennie rolled her eyes, having become
accustomed to Draagh's toking ways. Bagatelle turned to go to the
kitchen, where an excited Liliana was waiting next to the toaster,
but had a disappointed look on her little face.

"Tio, how does this do what Jennie did to the
bad vampire's head?"

Bagatelle snickered and opened up a cabinet,
pulling a blender out and setting it upon the counter.

"My dear, please open the door there.
It is called a
refrigerator
.
Bring me some apples if you would."

Liliana gave him a disdained look, and
matter-of-factly saying, "Tio, I
know
what a refrigerator is. We are not cannibals, you
know."

Liliana handed the apples to the amused
military officer and then stood next to him with an impish grin,
waiting for something amazing to happen. As soon as he dropped two
apples in the container he pushed a button and created an instant
puree.

"Ryder Johnson's head! Ryder Johnson's head!"
she squealed in delight, while jumping up and down and clapping her
hands.

Shaking his head while chuckling, he turned
around to see Draagh and Jennie standing in the doorway to the
kitchen with smiles on their faces. He knew that somehow things
were going to be ok. Then turning back, he saw Liliana crouch down,
bending one knee and shooting a fist to the ground while she yelled
out loud.

"Liquified! Yeah!"

Finishing with the blender, much to his
niece's disappointment, Bagatelle turned and approached the other
two adults in the room and asked, "So, I should probably get
dressed then, right?"

Draagh blinked, which caused his head bubble
to disappear with a pop, allowing a bit of the pungent smoke to
waft into the kitchen, and followed up by saying,

"My dear son, as soon as you have gathered
that which you would like to take we shall be off to meet with
Krynos."

"The king?"

"Mmm, yes, of course," Draagh answered.

"And… he's a lycan?"

"Yes, that much is true, Luigi."

"In a castle."

"He does have a most impressive
domicile."

"In… the future?"

Jennie slugged her brother in the arm and
yelped, "Yeah! He's a lycan king who lives in a castle in the
future. Yes! Now go get your stuff. I'm hungry and it's almost
dinnertime."

"Ok, sounds good to me. Be back in a minute,"
Bagatelle called out as he dashed off to prepare for the unexpected
- and some fresh air.

Chapter
4 - Feral Kids

Max woke up in the morning - not on the cot
that had been provided for him, but on the hard floor, with his
back against a wall. He sometimes did that. He would climb out of
bed while sleeping just to rest on a firm surface, and until he
discovered his lycan heritage never really understood why. It was
an inherited genetic reflex that lycans had when they were in an
area that wasn't safe, and as he was in a strange, new world his
subconscious took over while he dozed. As he had slept in his
leathers, also a precaution, he sat up and analyzed his
surroundings.

During the night he had dreamt quite vividly.
He struggled to maintain the clarity of the dream before it faded
into the furthest reaches of his mind. He remembered being in bed
with Jennie, his wife lying with her head on his chest as she
customarily would do. But suddenly the bed split in half and the
room parted, with them being pulled away from each other - unable
to get back to each other's arms. He was the surrounded by a
massive forest of fir trees. It was a typical dream where one lost
something and could not get it back, always resulting in waking up
right before something of great consequence was about to
happen.

Not being able to remember anything further
of his dream, which was more akin to a nightmare, he stood up and
stretched just to work out the kinks. After picking up his sword
and strapping it and his Stinger into their appropriate bindings,
he set off out the door, walking down the stairs to find an empty,
but quite clean, nightclub. Sniffing the air, he detected scents of
various hominids, most of whom were outside in the street and up
above on exposed roofs of burnt-out buildings near his locale. He
decided he would stay inside for the time being. So he walked over
to a couch and was about to sit down, but remembered that numerous
normals and nekos had been engaging in some heavy petting on those
same couches the night before.

Eww... no way
, he
thought to himself. Not wanting to sit in what was potentially an
infectious cesspool of human male and female neko bodily fluids, he
went over and grabbed a barstool and scanned the countertop to see
if there was anything nutritious he could consume. While he looked
from his chair he heard a bit of shuffling upstairs, but figured
that whoever was up would eventually come down, so he remained
where he was seated at the bar and continued to look towards the
bar entrance. One thing was for sure - he wanted a cup of coffee.
He always liked coffee in the mornings and yerba mate in the
afternoons. In fact, he enjoyed preparing yerba mate for Jennie,
knowing exactly how she liked it. He really missed her, even though
he had only been gone less than a day.

It wasn't long after Max had gone downstairs
that Jessica was up and ready to start her day. Bouncing down the
stairs in a light-footed fashion, she entered into the bar area
where her new friend was seated.

"Morning Max! Did you sleep well? I can make
you some breakfast if you like."

Jessica was unusually high-spirited for
someone so early in the morning - similar to Liliana, who near-
bounced off the walls as soon as she would wake up.

"Good morning, Jessica. Um… yeah, I slept
quite well, thanks. Do you have any coffee?"

Max had a hopeful look on his face - a look
that turned to pleasant surprise when she informed him that Seven
Sins was the only place in Los Angeles that had any real coffee,
and Dons kept the whole beans frozen so they wouldn't go stale.

Jessica prepared some coffee by putting the
beans in a canvas bag and beating the crap out of it with a hammer
on the bar top, most probably waking up every living being in the
building, and perhaps some out in the street whom Max had earlier
detected by smelling their scents and hearing their snoring.

"Wow, Jessica. You really know how to make an
espresso blend, eh?"

Max watched as she slammed the hammer down
one final time, a bead of sweat dripping down her forehead from the
effort. She then took the canvas bag and emptied the contents out
into a small filter-like device, which she then placed into a
coffee maker.

"Dons has a water filtration system on the
roof. We had to raid a couple of enemy clans to get enough teeth to
purchase it. Got it from some guy who takes a boat back and forth
between here and Alaska."

"You know where Alaska is?" asked Max.

"Of course, silly!" chimed Jessica. "I love
geography and history and stuff. I used to hide in the ruins of
libraries when I was younger. I've probably read a thousand
books."

Jessica smirked and then sniffed the air, the
scent of freshly made coffee filling the room and awakening the
senses. Max's mouth started to water as he waited impatiently for a
cup of the hot, dark liquid, remembering his morning breakfasts
with his wife, daughter and Draagh. He wondered if they were
looking for him, but as there was no Socrates where he was he had
no reassurances that he would be locatable by his powerful
grandfather.

Getting a mug in his hand, he took a long,
slow sip of the delicious java and sniffed the aroma, finally
waking up to start his day.

"Hey Jessica, where's the rest of your clan,"
he asked as he cradled the hot mug in his hands, enjoying the
sensation of the hot liquid as it coursed down into his
stomach.

"Umm… they'll be up soon. Dons is the first
one up after me, and then Cassandra will come down from her
nest."

Cassandra was the neko he had met the night
before. The last he saw of her, she was doing an odd cat-like dance
and waving her paw-like hands in the air while alone on the dance
floor. Max wondered if she was a prostitute, and even if any of the
nekos in the club were charging men for their company.

"Hey Jessica - where I'm from there's no such
thing as a neko. I mean, we have cats in the place where I live,
but we tolerate them because they kill the rats. But humanoid nekos
- you said that they just started coming around?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I've always known
about them. It's what people say."

Jessica was a bit odd, but didn't seem like
one to lie about anything. If she was right, then Max was really
stuck in the wrong world. He paused for a moment, and then held his
cup out for a refill when it dawned on him that he hadn't really
asked any pertinent questions yet.

"Hey! I have a question."

"Umm… sure! What is it?"

"Do you know what year it is? Do you have
years and dates and stuff like that? Do you use a lunar calendar or
something different?"

"Max, you just asked three questions."

"Yes, but I…"

"Just messing with ya! Of course we have a
calendar. It's 2819, of course. Why? Are you from a different
year?"

Not wanting to create any confusion, he
decided to simply tell the girl that everything was the same for
him, and that he had merely traveled too far.

"Oh no, I was just wondering - and yes, it's
2819 in my calendar also."

Jessica glanced at him with a cautious stare
and said, "Well, that's good. I mean, I would've thought you were
crazy if you said anything different."

"Yeah, that would be crazy, wouldn't it
Jessica? Way crazy."

I'm in a world where there are cat people,
vampires are friendly, and there's an erratic mix of magic and
technology. Oh yeah, so crazy.

Max decided to choose his questions more
carefully from then on, and to avoid anything that could be
considered controversial. He went back to his coffee and started
thinking about food. He had some dried meat strips in his backpack,
but as he had earned some of the local currency the night before he
thought he would save his rations if at all possible.

"So Jessica, is there anything to eat around
here?"

"Oh Max, are you hungry? I'm sorry - I
usually nibble in my room before I come down. How about some eggs
and jerky?"

He could only imagine what kind of jerky they
had, but he graciously accepted. Jessica bounced out of the bar
area and went back to the kitchen, and wasn't gone for more than a
minute when Dons walked down the stairs, holding his head with his
hands. Before he could say a word, Dons greeted him, sounding like
he was in a bit of pain.

"Morning, mate. Hope you slept well."

"Good morning, Dons. Yeah, I slept great. Are
you ok? Looks like you have a headache or something."

"Right - I get them every now and then. I
forgot what they were called - Maggies or something"

"Migraines - they're called migraines," he
corrected Dons, but graciously.

Max then got an idea - he would get on Dons'
good side and acquire access to more information, if possible. He
could do that by secretly performing a salucantus on the fellow's
coffee. Getting up from his chair and going behind the bar, as
Jessica was in the kitchen, he grabbed a mug and filled it up half
way.

"Hey Dons, do you drink coffee? It might
help."

"Oh yeah mate, a cup would be great. I just
wish this damned migraine thing would go away."

"Max kept his back to the diminutive clan
leader, and slowly waved his hand over the cup. Finishing quickly,
he turned and handed the steaming mug to Dons.

"Here you go, sir. I have a feeling this will
help out."

He watched with a slight grin as Dons put the
cup to his lips and took a few sips. It was only moments later that
the man's expression completely changed from one of pain to one of
complete relief.

"Max, that was… did you put something in my
coffee?"

Max feigned ignorance and responded as if
surprised that the coffee had actually worked, "Huh? Oh, no. I
don't have anything to put in it. Nothing. It's just that coffee
constricts your blood vessels, and dilated blood vessels are what
make migraines. So it's simple science, really."

Max's explanation of what caused a headache
was spot-on, but he was lying about the coffee to a certain extent.
While caffeine did have a moderate effect of constricting blood
vessels, a migraine headache was caused by numerous factors - too
many to be properly analyzed without medical equipment, which he
was sure didn't exist where he was. So he simply commanded some
salubots to go in and take care of the pain via the coffee, helping
the clan leader in the process. He needed Dons to be in a good mood
so he would answer any potential question later on in the day.

They both sat there with their coffees, and
it wasn't much later when Jessica came drifting in, holding two
plates of eggs with some sort of dried meat on each one. Setting
the platters down in front of the two men, she sat with a look of
satisfaction on her face, waiting for them to eat and tell her how
they liked it.

"Not bad, Jess, not bad. You're getting
better at cooking," said the small, one-eyed man.

Max took a bite of his eggs, which were
tolerable, but when he put some of the dried meat in his mouth he
about gagged - it had light patches of green mold all over. He hid
his displeasure with the food and nodded his head enthusiastically,
making Jessica smile and lightly bounce on her toes. Whenever they
were both not looking at him he nonchalantly moved his fingers over
his plate and made bits of the rotten meat disappear, until it
looked like he had finished everything.