Three Immortals Walk Into A Bar...

Levant

This is more than weakness, more serious than the scattering of my heart of darkness. It is an attack against my very substance, the destruction of my being. It feels like I am going to start crumbling into dust, pressed here against the floor, helpless and weak, overpowered by Gregor’s hand remaining on my shoulder, with my shadows nowhere in sight. The longer he touches me the worse it gets. I haven’t felt this close to death since I was staked in the heart, and only Maria was able to save me then. But Maria can’t save me now, and I don’t know what Gregor is going to do, and I feel more and more of myself slipping away, trying to get away from his light, and rejoin the shadows which have deserted me.

This might finally be the end.

The delay at the airport meant that I didn’t get the chance to dream with Maria again. My Mariabell. I think of her, rather than how I am trapped on the floor of this grubby bar in the painfully bright airport, my Maria, her dark hair and cute little nose and adorable overbite and luscious breasts and delicious blood and fierce eyes and stubborn love. Maria. I’m sorry that she’ll have to wonder what happened.

I’m more angry than sad, though. I am fucking furious, pinned down like a bug on a board. Gregor lets up that other asshole vampire first, then rather than letting me go he sits all the way down on the floor next to me like he is settling in for a nice long chat.

I growl, and glare, and feel the bright emptiness where my heart of darkness should be, and with every second I fade away just a little bit more.

I have to promise to go talk outside with the bastard before he finally takes his hand off of me. The moment that he lets go feels like I have been drowning and finally break the surface of the water. I pull the shadows back to me like I am taking in the first lifesaving breath of air. The painful light recedes and the comforting darkness begins gathering again within my heart.

I pull all the shadows to me that I can, but Gregor is still somehow in the way, and that other vampire is competing with me, trying to get the darkness to flow back to him, although it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to hurt me. I think he’s just trying to recover too, from whatever Gregor did to both of us. I don’t want to murder Clyde any more - I feel like having a good fistfight got it out of my system.

Then, the fucker vanishes. Blips out of existence like his power button got turned off.

What the fuck?

Gregor looks at me in amazement, like he is waiting for me to do the same thing. As if. That’d be convenient.

The guards show up and Gregor begins talking to them, smoothing the way for us to leave, apparently. I’m still on the floor for a second, until I can find the strength to stand again. I am very leery of being close to Gregor, so I’m glad when he gets the hell away from me, to talk to the guards. Let him do the fucking talking, I’m trying to come back to life here. I’m at least glad that he’s apparently arranging it so that I won’t have to fight my way out of here.

By the time he gets rid of the guards, I feel mostly restored. Not all the way. I clench my fists and feel the broken knuckles from the fight with Clyde. I inhale and feel a couple of broken ribs. That effete looking vampire hit a lot harder than I expected. I need sleep, or blood, and I sure as hell do not want the blood of this bizarre human standing here next to me.

He says that he’ll try to stay away from me, which is a relief. So I leave the bar ahead of him and start walking towards the exit. After a minute I glance back to see whether he’s coming, because I can tell that I am far enough away that he isn’t blocking my darkness any more. I feel the shadows clustering near me, as I pull them from every corner, every hidden alcove, and my darkness seems almost eager to return to me. It fills me, swirling around me, climbing up my arms and legs, tattooing my skin, covering me in its coal colored comfort. Ahh.

When I look behind to make sure Gregor is staying far enough away, I can’t believe what I am seeing. The ridiculous little human is just leaving the bar, and he reaches into his pocket, pulls out one of those goddamned face masks, and fastidiously covers his nose and mouth with it.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

I glare at him incredulously, and he just shrugs, probably smiling under the mask, and takes a couple of steps in my direction, so I spin around and continue walking.

Gregor

Wolk tells me that the guard I am talking to has a bit of a headache, and is not looking forward to the rest of his shift which will no doubt be full of confrontations with outraged passengers stranded due to the flight cancellations. So I take the opportunity to lay my hand against his shoulder, and am gratified that my touch behaves as it should, soothing his pain, fortifying him for the rest of his night of work. He and his partner give one last dubious glance at Levant’s intimidating form, then return to their other duties.

It was a bit shocking when my touch backfired with Levant, but I’m glad that I was able to use it to bring the vampire scuffle to an end.

“How’s he feeling?” I silently ask Wolk as I watch him walk out of the bar.

“He is gathering darkness to himself again, which has revived him. He has some injuries from the battle with Clyde, though. Fractured fingers and ribs.”

“Well, I sure can’t help with that.” My touch is anathema to vampires, apparently.

“Indeed.” I wonder how a vampire heals, and Wolk listens for a moment, then explains, “Either with blood, which can heal a vampire quickly, or with sleep, which takes more time.”

I look out at the bustling terminal , still full of passengers, probably those resigned to spending a very uncomfortable night just waiting here at the airport. I sure hope that Levant isn’t planning to attack any of these people.

Wolk listens again, and says, “It seems not. He has a certain reluctance to consider drinking blood. It is tied in with his emotions regarding Maria. I don’t have enough information to explain it more fully. I will let you know if I gain additional understanding.”

I nod, ready to leave the bar. I wanted to give Levant a little head start, so he isn’t bothered by my presence any more than necessary.

Wolk adds, “It seems that Clyde has another method of healing. He also suffered injuries during the fight, and these will be healed once he resumes corporeal form.”

Huh, that’s interesting. These vampires are full of secrets, things that I’ve never read about in fiction. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll write a vampire story? For now, though, I ask Wolk, “Where did Clyde end up, anyway?”

“He never left the bar. He is still here, in his mist form. He wished to observe your interaction with the security guards.”

Is that so? I look up, trying to see if I can discern any unusual mist or shadows in the room. Maybe?

Well, I don’t want to let Levant think I have given up on our conversation, so I head out of the bar, pulling on my face mask. He is a few yards ahead of me, and the expression on his face as he stares back at me is so funny. He certainly isn’t wearing a mask. He spins on his heel and continues stalking out of the terminal, and I am able to observe as the shadows subtly join him as he passes, caught up in his wake of darkness. It is completely fascinating to behold.

We make our way through the crowd, and down through baggage claim, where the carousels are mostly deserted, no flights having landed here for hours due to the weather. When Levant walks through the exit into the windy evening, he turns around and waits for me, hands on his hips and a ferocious scowl on his face.

He’d be so annoyed if he knew how adorable I find this to be.

“Where’s Clyde?” he asks when I stop within a few feet of him.

“Well?” I ask Wolk, and he points to a spot behind a sheltered bus bench. I look over in time to see Clyde rematerialize, which is another fascinating thing to witness. It takes a fraction of a second, during which I see a gathering of shadowy mist, which very quickly coalesces into Clyde’s form. His clothing is perfectly in order, his blond locks flow down to his shoulders and are lifted by the breeze, and he looks energized and eager for more conversation. People are all around, but nobody seems to be paying any attention, and I realize that doing this in the middle of a bustling crowd is probably perfectly safe. Everybody is too distracted with their luggage and children and transportation issues and smartphones to have noticed anything unusual.

Clyde steps over, also maintaining some distance between us but smiling at me, and his eyebrows go up. Heh, I think he’s amused by me wearing a mask. Levant glowers and waits impatiently, although where he might think he could be rather than right here at the moment I do not know.

“Well,” I tell them both, “the hotel shuttle pickup is nearby, shall we take one to a hotel and see if we can get rooms for the night?”

Clyde waves his hand dismissively. “That won’t be necessary. I know where we can go.”

“Oh?”

“The Adabelle. My hotel.”

Clyde

I follow them out of the terminal, then resume my form near a bus bench, thinking to walk towards them from there. But somehow Gregor turns and looks directly at me as I am rematerializing, and I see the astonishment in his eyes as he watches me do it.

How did he know? He obviously has never seen such a thing before, he looks entirely flabbergasted. But he knew exactly where to look.

I am very eager to get to someplace where we can talk. I am glad when Gregor suggests finding hotel rooms, because I would much rather use one of my own properties, where we can be comfortable. Bring this violent vampire to my own home? Absolutely not. But to one of my hotels? Sure.

I suggest the Adabelle, of course, my favorite, named for my favorite, and suitably appointed to provide for any comfort that either of my guests might need. Hopefully. Who knows what cranky old Levant might desire?

Gregor’s eyebrows lift and his eyes crinkle over his silly facemask. I saw this man recover from a bleeding gash in moments - I don’t think that he is afraid of a virus. I believe the mask is an affectation. Perhaps it is one of the things we can discuss later.

“Yes, that sounds wonderful, thank you,” he says, accepting the invitation. “Shall I summon a taxi?”

“No need,” I tell him, “we have a shuttle, it will come by to pick you both up in a few minutes. Just wait over there,” I say, indicating the shuttle area. “I’ll go on ahead, make sure that rooms are ready.”

Levant glowers, because that appears to be his natural state. He has resting bitch face.

Gregor spurts out a laugh behind his mask, then glances over at Levant, clearly trying to straighten his face.

Is he… listening to me?

He looks over at me and lifts his eyebrows and shrugs.

Oh boy, I cannot wait for this conversation.