The next couple of weeks passed uneventfully. Anne-Marie was becoming more proficient in Czech although she wasn’t sure why she was bothering. Living the life she did meant forming friendships or social life outside of her ‘job’ was fraught with complications, and generally not possible. But the language lessons occupied some time and once she was able to understand people talking around her, she felt less like an outsider.
“I have another job for you.” Andrej came into the room as she was repeating a phrase back to the computer. “Hey, that’s pretty good. Your accent’s improving.”
“Thanks,” she said, with obvious pride. “So, what’s the job?”
“Remember a couple weeks ago when I went to Sedlec?”
“Hard to forget.”
He smirked. “I stopped in one of the old sections of town at a bookstore.”
“Oh,” she said, understanding at once what a ‘stop’ was for him.
“It, uh, turned out the woman who works there, who I targeted that night, was pregnant.”
“Oh Jesus,” Anne-Marie said, grasping the ramifications. “What happened? Was she all right?”
“Well, that’s what I’d like you to find out. I haven’t had a chance to go back and check on her. I’d like you to go over there, see if she’s working still or if not, see if you can find out what happened to her.”
“Why? What went wrong?”
“She passed out afterwards. They got help pretty quickly, and I think it was in time but I’d like to know for sure.”
“I’ll go now if you like.”
“You know I never would have touched her if I had known.”
Anne-Marie put her hand over his, nodding. “I know. I know you.” She wrote down the name and address of the bookshop and changed into more suitable street clothes from the slouchy loungewear she typically wore in the apartment, then headed out, promising to call as soon as she found out anything.
The bookstore was in was one of the older, less fashionable sections of town. The buildings were faded, like old forgotten relatives that no one bothered to check in on anymore. She had the cab stop a couple blocks away from the bookstore then got out and walked the rest of the way. She opened the door of the bookshop and stepped in, looking around casually, noting the man at the counter. She gave him a small smile as she came in, seeing him glance at her as he handed another customer his purchases. She approached the register as the other customer took his bag and left.
“Hello, I was in here a few weeks ago, and the woman who was working then was going to look for a book for me. I was wondering if she was here, if I could speak with her?” she told him, spinning the lie as she went.
“What was the book? I can look it up, see if it’s arrived,” he offered.
Anne-Marie thought fast. “Well, I’m not sure. It was something she recommended to me for a friend, and I can’t recall the name of it. If I could speak with her, she might recall.”
“I’m sorry, Winnie’s not in today. If you want to leave your name and a way to contact you I can give her the message.”
He was professionally vague, and Anne-Marie wasn’t sure how far she could dig without arousing suspicion.
“No, that’s all right, thank you. I’ll have to find another gift then, it will be too late for the book I think,” she said quickly and turned to leave the store. Once outside she pulled her communer out of her pocket and buzzed Andrej.
“Well?” he said.
“Sorry, not much to tell. All I could get without sounding like some freak was that Winnie, if that’s the same woman you saw, is taking some time off. I can try again in a week or so if you like,” she said.
“Better if I just go by sometime. Go do some shopping, I’m going to go rest for a bit.”
They clicked off their devices and Anne-Marie headed down the street. She was about to walk into another shop when out of the corner of her eye she noticed the clerk from the bookstore standing in the doorway of the shop, watching her. She frowned a little. She didn’t think she had said enough to make him view her with any suspicion. She pretended not to see him and walked into the bakery she found herself in front of. She thought it prudent to act like she had other errands to run in the area before hailing a cab and heading back to the other side of town.
She wanted to make it look convincing, so she spent some time walking around looking at the various offerings. Then she saw her favorite dessert: a chocolate confection dotted with raspberries and drizzled with white chocolate. To her dismay it was being taken out of the counter and boxed up for a somewhat disreputable looking man. In her old life, she mused, she would have considered him her type: unshaven, unkempt hair, dressed like a biker in leather and all black, and sunglasses, even indoors. Odd, she thought, that he would have developed a taste for such a sophisticated treat. His rough demeanor suggested it was not a normal treat for him and probably exceeded his budget. She tried not to stare, but she overheard him talking to the shop girl. His accent was strange, definitely not native Czech. She realized then her Czech was improving if she could tell the difference in accents. She kept walking around trying to find something to purchase. She finally settled on a couple loaves of bread, and some pastries. She didn’t want to overdo it since there was no one to eat it except her.
It was already dusk by the time she walked out of the shop and found a cab to take her home. She noticed again the scruffy customer from the shop who had bought the cake she wanted loitering on the other side of the street. Even in the fading light he had sunglasses on. She couldn’t be sure but it felt like he was watching her. She got into the cab quickly and gave the driver the address. As it pulled away from the curb she looked out the window to see the man climb into another cab, but she was around the corner before she could see what direction he went. He didn’t look anything like the crusaders she had seen before, but she couldn’t think who else might be watching her or Andrej. When she got back to the apartment she found Andrej in the living room.
“I thought you were going to be resting?” she said, coming in carrying her bags.
“I was going to, but after I talked to you…” he began, but was cut off by the door chime. “There,” he said. He pushed the button for the intercom and spoke to someone in Czech. Her Czech was getting better, but he still spoke too fast for her to catch what he said, and she couldn’t understand a syllable of the other person’s responses. Whoever it was, Andrej buzzed him into the building.
“Brace yourself, Neko is here,” he said.
Anne-Marie started. She had no idea what to expect, apart from expecting some tattooed, burly biker. Moments later there came the knock at the door. He must have either flown up or shifted into another form that allowed him to get up to the penthouse without using the elevator. No surprise there, Anne-Marie thought. Any way of avoiding contact with people was always the preferred way to go for vampires.
In a moment Andrej had opened the door as Anne-Marie stood nervously back. There in the doorway stood the man she had seen at the bakery, and watching her from across the street when she left. And he was still carrying the cake box. Andrej ushered him in quickly and closed the door.
“Good to see you again, but I admit I’m surprised,” Andrej said, indicating the living room with a wave of his hand.
Neko let out a low whistle. “Looks like you’re doing all right,” he said glancing around at the expensive furnishings.
Neko held out a still-gloved hand to Anne-Marie to shake. “Sorry about the glove, I get used to keeping it on for obvious reasons,” he said as she took his hand and shook it. He pulled off his sunglasses, revealing dark brown eyes, but like Andrej’s, they had a deceptively gentle look to them.
“I understand. It’s nice to meet you, after having you stalking me,” she said. Neko was not what she had expected. True, he was in old-style biker leather, but he was trim, muscular. His face was lean, but he looked like he hadn’t shaved for at least a week.
“And this is for you, I believe I managed to get your favorit
e,” he said grinning, handing her the cake.
She looked at him and laughed. “Thank you.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I read your mind in there, I was just curious what your favorite was,” he said.
Andrej said, “I should have known. How did you know it was her?”
“Oh, I followed her when she left the building earlier,” Neko said. “Those crusaders are hanging around like flies on… well, they’ve been hanging around a lot, thought it might not hurt to keep an eye on her.”
Anne-Marie looked from one to the other, feigning annoyance. Andrej shrugged as if to say ‘Don’t blame me.’ Pleased with himself, Neko smiled broadly.
“Come, sit,” Andrej said, indicating a chair to Neko while Anne-Marie took the cake into the kitchen. He poured brandy for the two of them and took a seat on the sofa.
“So where’s your bike? I didn’t hear it when you arrived,” Andrej said.
“Yeah, I left that outside town. Kind of attracts a lot of attention. I thought this might not be the time for it,” he said, rubbing his chin. He glanced back at the kitchen where Anne-Marie had disappeared.
“Did I scare her?” he asked.
“I don’t think so. She probably thought we wanted time to talk alone,” Andrej said.
“I’m impressed, you got one with good instincts. She have a sister?”
Andrej chuckled and swirled the brandy in his glass. “No, can’t help you there.”
“Figures. So how’d you find her?”
“She caught me feeding on a friend of hers.”
“Oh, oh, oh, bad move, my man. What’d she do?”
Andrej smiled a little, remembering Anne-Marie’s reaction. “Well, I scared her pretty good at first. But you know I don’t like to make a mess if I can avoid it. I just used my powers of persuasion and she came around pretty quickly. Even I was surprised at how quickly. The whole thing was a done deal in less than an hour.”
Neko laughed. “Damn, man, you sure have a way with the ladies. A little mind control never hurt anyone.”
“No, I didn’t have to do any of that. In fact, I couldn’t. She was resistant to that then, although I can get into her head more easily now.”
“Really?”Neko said, intrigued. “Resistant? That’s a rare thing. I’ve only run across a couple like that.”
“I don’t think I ever have before. Not to that degree anyway. But you say you’ve seen it before?”
Neko got a peculiar look on his face. “Yeah, but I don’t exactly remember where it was. It was a long time ago,” he said, and swallowed what was left in his glass. Andrej was quick to catch the deflection, but for the moment decided to let it go. He refilled Neko’s glass and sat back down as Anne-Marie returned from the kitchen. She didn’t seem to notice the look Neko gave her, but Andrej did.
When neither of them said anything for a minute Anne-Marie took a sip of wine and said, “Andrej tells me you two met in Greece.”
“Yeah, back in the day, when we were both young and crazy. I was born in Athens, still spend a lot of time there when I can,” Neko said, a little too eagerly. He seemed to be keeping a very close eye on her, and Andrej was cautiously watching him. Despite his avowed trust of Neko, he wasn’t going to completely let his guard down.
“I’ve never been there,” Anne-Marie was saying. “I’ve seen pictures, it looks beautiful.”
“Maybe we can all go sometime. Andrej and I could show you around,” Neko offered cheerfully.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Andrej said, thinking it over. “Leaving town for a couple weeks or so might help get the crusaders off our tails for awhile.” He was hoping the crusaders would hit the road in search of them, but he also knew they couldn’t dodge them for long.
Neko swirled the brandy again. “It always comes down to the same three choices, doesn’t it? Convert them, kill them, or keep running from them.”
“I’d like to know more about them first, find out what group they’re with and how many others might be around. If they are affiliated with a group, then no doubt they’ve been making regular reports, so just taking out these two or three we’ve been seeing won’t help. Their headquarters would send someone else, unless we found them all.”
“True. I remember the first time an entire clan of crusaders was killed by the vampire they were stalking; their methods changed. They reorganized, very secretive now. Each member is supposed to be able to contact just two other members, like an underground resistance movement.”
“You look all in,” Andrej said to Anne-Marie, seeing her nearly falling asleep in the chair. “Why don’t you go to bed? We’ll be up for awhile yet.”
She nodded. It was nearly one o’clock in the morning by then, and as fascinating as it was listening to Neko’s stories she had been up early that morning and could hardly keep her eyes open. “Are you going out? I just want to know if I should have anything ready when you get back,” she said before leaving the room.
“I don’t think so, not tonight. We have things to talk about. Better to stay in I think,” Andrej said, looking at Neko who nodded, looking more serious than he had all night.
Anne-Marie’s unease was growing, but she said nothing. She said a polite goodnight to Neko, gave Andrej a glance and a nod and walked off to her room. For awhile she could still hear their voices, but it wasn’t long before she fell sound asleep.
Chapter 12