The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

That Place is Not Safe

The woman with the crummy job came over to the dumbwaiter door and slid it up to access the fresh drinks inside. By unspoken agreement, I did my best Vampire silent sneak, my soft shoes inaudible on the plush carpet. She was focused on the beverages and had no idea I am behind her. I gave her a small dose of pheromones. Her crappy job just got worse. Now it's a lousy job with unrequited lust. The one man in the castle she suddenly and involuntarily wants to pat her bottom is not going to.

The poor young woman looked around, several kinds of surprised, her pupils wide, her face registering confusion at the maskless raccoon-looking man in all black behind her. My mask had to be off to bite her in the classic Vampire blood hunting one-two. The makeup is still around my eyes more than likely adding to her confusion.

"Are you...?" she started.

I cut off her question when I took her to me and put a fair quantity of Juice into an artery on her neck. I waited, my arms holding her tight but not too tightly. I needed her quiet while the Juice made its way north to her neurons. Denise monitored the big heavy double doors. If anyone comes out, their death will be premature. The young woman in my arms struggled slightly, confused at the sudden embrace and the scent.

She slowly relaxed.

"Listen to me closely." I said slowly as I searched for the right words in German, hoping now she spoke more than Dutch. "This is not optional. You must do this because your life depends upon it. Go wait by the front door in the lobby upstairs. Do not talk to anyone if they ask why you are waiting. Do you understand?" I asked

"Yes."

"She knows German. Too bad: That means she understood all that objectification of her in there." Denise sounded sympathetic as the woman who now has a chance of turning into a Vampire walked haltingly up the steps. She is torn, as Sylvie had been, between her Juiced in override and her body's basic need. Just like with Morgan so long ago, Juice is winning although with Morgan that had been a close thing. She also had Siren Song in her then-human head.

I realized I am going to need to set a 'vampire turn watch' on both her and Sylvie. Even if I get booted from Council over tonight's actions, I still have the means to do that. Jessica thinks I might be more communicable than average. Man! Vampires are dangerous! If humans only knew.

Oh. Yeah. We try to hide from that happening. Why we are here, in part.

"I figured German was more likely than Spanish, especially as mine is not Castilian Spanish and we are in continental Europe, not Mexico." I commented wryly as I watched the woman leaving.

We set to work pulling out the drink tray from the dumbwaiter. We jammed together into the small opening and peered about inside of the shaft for free-hanging rope or cables we could harvest.

"Nothing. May be old, but all the pulleys and cables are tied down tight." I said in the space, my voice sounded odd because of the small shaft upward.

"We'll tear the curtains into strips and make ropes." Denise decided, her voice similarly distorted. We extracted ourselves from the dumbwaiter.

Shortly after that, we had the two-door handles on the heavy doors absolutely stuffed with red, twisted, and braided former curtains. Silk rope manufactured tightly via Vampire hands. Mostly Denise's. The door handles to the conference room are large and were able to take a great deal of 'rope', thickly woven back and forth between them. If a Vampire was in there, they could probably get out. Flying Vampire powered kicks that would break the large handles out of the dense wood. Humans? Probably not.

So far, no one in the room has peaked out to see why the drinks are late. "They must be on a drink and food service schedule. They have no comm system to call for refreshments. How very efficient and pre-planned of them." I commented.