“Ah, yes. Master Devereux the wealthy entrepreneur,” Elliott said, adopting an upper-crust British accent. “Always thinking about ways to make money.”
Devereux studied each friend and raised a brow. “Scoff if you must, but this particular company continues to delight stockholders. I use a lot of the profits to bankroll various vampire-protection enterprises, and to influence elections of reasonable politicians in the human world.”
“Ha!” Elliott barked. “You mean politicians whose brains you’ve controlled.” He raised a picture of a muscular male wearing a pouch and vampire fangs. “Speaking of politicians, isn’t this one of Colorado’s senators? I’m sure I’ve met him in the club before. I’d recognize that jugular anywhere.”
Devereux cracked a smile.
“Yes,” Elliott continued, “we’ve heard about your work on our behalf and we do appreciate it. But you’re acting like the father figure of the vampire community, the one who’s taking care of business while the children play. That doesn’t seem fair to you. You deserve some happiness.”
Happiness? Does that even exist?
“It is a path I have chosen. It was not inflicted upon me. At this point, I would not know any other way to be.”
Or what else I would do.
“So you’ve always been this stuffy and serious?” Laurence asked. “What about when you were a human teenager? I remember you talking about having a rebellious period.” He punched Devereux’s arm. “See? I was paying attention.”
“I don’t remember hearing that,” Elliott said. “And I don’t believe it. I think Dev’s always been a tight-ass.”
“I do not consider myself to be stuffy.” Devereux stared blandly at his friends. “Or a tight-ass. But I will admit to being serious. And, yes, I did have a time when I behaved badly as a young mortal. Then later, when I made the transition, I was as out-of-control as any other new bloodsucker.” He shook his head, reliving the memories. “There were many times I was so wild and thoughtless that I almost caused the capture and death of others. After that, I learned very quickly to rein in my instincts. I became a practitioner of various martial arts and meditations and taught myself to discipline my actions. I worked hard to expand my consciousness.”
“Yes, yes. Yada-yada-yada,” Elliot said, making a flapping-lips gesture with his hand. “We know you did, oh-great-and-wise guru. You’re world-renowned for it. But don’t you think you’ve let things get a little out of balance? Gone a bit too far?”
“Perhaps,” Devereux said with a half-shrug.
“Well, then,” Laurence countered, “this is a good chance for you to throw away your rule book and have some fun with three luscious women. What have you got to lose?”
Devereux sailed his arm through the air to indicate yet another group of women peeling off from the crowd gathered nearby, heading toward the booth. “As you can see, I do not need to be set up with blind dates. For whatever reason, I attract plenty of unwanted female attention on my own.” He made eye contact with each approaching devotee and they spun and retraced their steps.
Weary of the attention, he signaled one of his security guards to stand near the booth to keep the women away.
Perhaps it is time for me to crawl into a coffin and take a long nap. My staff can get along without me.
“Hold on,” Elliott said, nodding in the direction of the women. “We’re not talking about the groupies — human and vampire — who lust after you because of your erotic vampire hormones, or whatever it is that makes them go nuts for you. Of course, we all attract humans. And some of us,” he flicked his long red hair behind his shoulder, “are definitely ladies’ men—”
“Wait a minute,” Devereux chuckled. “You two are terrible with women. You are incapable of saying no. They twist you around their fingers. Why should I trust you with such a decision? I think you both hold the record for the worst relationship decisions made by vampires. Ever. If given the choice between a thousand healthy females and one walking disaster, we all know who you would pick. Even with your vampire abilities, your skill at ferreting out lies is dismal. I remember centuries of questionable choices.”
“Hey!” Laurence complained. “That’s not true. Well, maybe it’s true of Elliott...”
Elliott smacked his friend on the side of his head. “Lies, Devereux. All lies. We’ve had more than our share of triumphs with women, but even if you’re right about our success rate with females in the past, we’ve gotten better.”
Devereux raised a brow.
“Seriously. You can trust us. We’ve learned our lessons. We don’t believe anyone anymore. Mostly. But as I was saying, you have something special — some extra ingredient that makes all women lose their minds and want to tear off their clothing in your presence. Lucky bastard! You don’t appreciate the gift you’ve been given. I wish you could bottle it. Maybe I should drink your blood to see if the vibe will transfer to me.” He bared his fangs and pretended to aim for Devereux’s neck.
Grinning, Devereux swatted Elliott away. He really did appreciate his carefree friends. Existence would be unbearable without them. Even if they did make horrible decisions about women. At least his friends tended to give others the benefit of the doubt, no matter how convincing the evidence to the contrary. Despite the pain of their former lives, they’d kept their dead hearts open.
“But we’re not talking about the hormonal masses. What we mean,” Elliott retracted his teeth, “is someone you might actually want to be with. Someone important. Meaningful. I’ll bet you haven’t had such a woman for a long time. ”
Is there such a woman? I once thought there might be.
Devereux repressed the despondent feeling that washed over him and gave his friends a lighter answer. “It is simply easier to remain uncommitted. I have so much work to do, both in my individual businesses — like this club — and my self-appointed task of keeping vampires safe from discovery. I have never met the one you speak of. In fact, I no longer believe she exists. I do not have time for foolish games.”
I used to dream of her, but I was deluding myself.
“Foolish games, is it? After all the effort we put into this surprise? And don’t even try to pretend you actually spend time running this club. You have a well-oiled machine here, quite the efficient management team. You rarely come here if you can avoid it,” Laurence said. “I’ll have you know we’ll be completely offended if you won’t even meet with the three women we’ve scheduled. ” The corners of his lips kept quirking as he fought a smile, totally negating his efforts to appear stern.
“That’s right,” Elliott agreed with a toss of his hair. “So offended we might not ever come and keep you company in this tedious club of yours. It’s absolute torture to have to be here with all these succulent humans. Smelling all that blood and knowing there are so many of them and only one of me.” He smiled and looked at the clusters of women hovering nearby.
“Yes.” Devereux arched a brow. “It must be hell for you.”
“Come on, my friend,” Laurence said, nudging Devereux with his elbow. “Have some fun. You really have nothing to lose. You might even find the woman of your dreams. Or, at least a woman who can make you smile.” He sobered. “Seriously, Devereux. Indulge your old chums. We’re concerned about you.”
“There is nothing to be concerned about...” He studied a photo of a woman in a demon costume and started to dismiss the silly idea, but then intercepted an unprotected stray thought from Elliott’s mind and the words caught in his throat. They feared he was preparing himself for true death, that his lack of interest in the things the three of them used to share meant he had given up. They all knew it wasn’t unusual for old vampires to grow weary of existence and to yearn for the final night, as they called it. He hadn’t realized his existential angst had become so apparent. Well, that explains some of the strange looks I have gotten over the last few months from coven members. It would not do for them to question my state of mind.
What would it hurt to go along with his friends’ outlandish idea? He knew them well enough to know they had good intentions. Even if they held true to form and the dates were disasters, at least the experience would be something different. He toyed with the notion and tapped his finger on the table. At worst, he’d be bored. But what else was new? Lately he was bored wherever he was. If he were honest with himself, the idea of true death had occurred to him, albeit in a detached, academic sort of way.
“All right.”
“What?” Laurence said, a skeptical look etched on his face. “Really?”
“Yes, you are right,” Devereux admitted. “I have allowed myself to become too work-focused. It would be nice to relax, maybe even to distract myself.”
Laurence and Elliott exchanged confused glances.
“Well, good,” Elliott said tentatively, studying Devereux. “Wait — is this a trap? You’re being too calm. Are you agreeing, and then you’ll do something awful to us? Chop our heads off and hide them so we can’t reattach them? Even with our heads nearby, you know how long that takes to heal, and I really like this shirt. I’d never get that much blood out of it. Or maybe you’ll add the coup de grâce and rip our hearts from our chests to make sure we’re truly dead. I know how much you used to enjoy that.”
“No.” Devereux laughed. “No heart ripping. It is not a trap. I am accepting your sincere attempt to provide me with a pleasant evening, or to drive me insane with more evidence of your total ineptitude with women.” He saluted them. “I appreciate it. It is helpful to be reminded that isolation is not good for anyone, even vampires.”
“Hmm. Okay then,” Elliott said, appearing grudgingly convinced that Devereux was telling the truth. Back to being his impetuous self, he clapped his hands. “Let’s tell him what we arranged, Laurence.”
“Oh, yes! So, we’ve followed Charlie’s story line, the three visitations, starting at midnight.”
“Who have you selected for me? You said the first would be someone from my past. After eight-hundred-plus years, that does not narrow it down much.”
“It wouldn’t be any fun if we told you in advance,” Elliott said. “As in Charlie’s story, we want it to be a surprise.”
“So, I am to have three dates in the span of one night? How will that work?”
“This is the ingenious part,” Laurence said, bumping fists with Elliott. “You will meet each woman at a pre-arranged location, one hour apart. But, of course, you will move through time to keep on schedule. That way, you can stay with each date as long as you wish, and still be punctual for the next.” He gave a thumbs-up gesture. “I don’t know about you, but aside from drinking blood, I think traveling via thought is my favorite part of being an old vampire.”
Devereux grinned. “I must admit that is one of my favorite things, too.” Although his ability to shift through time and space made it too easy for him to retreat into the past — to avoid accepting and joining the current century. But so far he simply hadn’t found any reason besides business to want to engage with the contemporary world. Certainly, he enjoyed being wealthy and successful, but some essential spark was missing, and without it, existence felt hollow.
Elliott reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a paper. “Here. We worked it all out and made the arrangements with the women. Each will meet you at the time and place we’ve recorded.” He handed the sheet to Devereux. “Then, after all three assignations, you’ll come back here and tell us all about it! We’ll be waiting. How does that sound?”
Devereux was tempted to say it sounded ridiculous, but the hopeful looks on his friends’ faces stole his words. “It sounds like fun.” He forced a smile. Maybe it would be nice to get away from his life for a little while. Perhaps an adventure would shake him out of his lethargy, distract him from the sadness gnawing at his heart. It could be challenging to find ways to fill the endless years.
“Splendid,” Laurence said, patting Devereux on the back. “Everything is arranged. The moment you think about the first date being over, you’ll be immediately transported to the next coordinates. Elliott and I asked Houdini to whip up a little spell to keep you from getting cold feet during the process.”
“You used magic to bind me?” Devereux asked, incredulous. He raised his chin. “I thought you knew my word was sacred. And Houdini? Please!”
“Oh, now don’t get your panties in a wad, Dev,” Laurence said. “Of course your word is gold. But we also know about your legendary tendency to do exactly what you want to do. If you don’t like the first date, it’s totally within the realm of probability that you’ll bail and then withdraw for a while so we can’t give you a hard time. So, we’re using a little mystical tough love.”
“Yeah,” Elliott said, “and even though you don’t like him, you have to admit Houdini casts one helluva spell. Even you said he was good.”
Devereux sighed. “I do vaguely remember saying that. All right. I will keep my word.”
“Excellent!” Laurence said. “And you’re right on schedule.” He pointed to the large bat-shaped clock on the wall. “It’s five minutes ’til midnight and unless you want to disappear here in front of the humans, you’d better hurry off to somewhere private.”