Belle Morte Bites (Belle Morte 4.3)

Cinema Room

Modern Day

"I feel like we should cut a ribbon or something," Jason said, as we stood outside the door of Belle Morte's brand new TV room, about to go in for the first time.

Once the donor system had been restored and things had finally got back to normal in the vampire world, Roux and Jason and I had started nagging Ysanne to update the House a bit.

Unsurprisingly, she'd been reluctant.

But we were from a modern world, and even though TV wasn't the most important thing, none of us really wanted to live without it.

Eventually Ysanne had allowed us to install TVs in our rooms, and from there we'd managed to persuade her to allow them in the donors' rooms too. Getting her to agree to a proper TV and games room had taken a bit more persuading, but Ysanne had ultimately relented.

For the last few months, part of the House and surrounding grounds had been sealed off, while an extension was built, jutting out from the back of Belle Morte, to accommodate this new room.

Now, finally, we were getting our first look inside.

"Do you want the honours?" Jason asked me, gesturing to the door.

"No, you can do it."

Roux rolled her eyes. "I'll do it."

Jason made a little drum roll noise as Roux reached between us and opened the door.

We stepped inside.

"Wow," Roux said. "It's more modern that I was expecting."

"It looks like Ysanne rejected your idea for track lighting," said Jason, looking at the ornate gold light sconces on the walls.

"You win some, you lose some," Roux said.

I studied the room.

A huge screen dominated the far wall, and a series of padded seats and sofas, upholstered in burgundy velvet, were arranged in front of it. Small stacked tables were in the corner, presumably so people could bring them over to the seating area for snacks and drinks.

A door was set into the wall on the left, and when I opened it, I found a smaller room with a pool table in the middle, and a rack of cues on the wall.

"This isn't a TV room, it's a personal cinema," Jason said, his whole face lit up.

"I wonder if we're allowed proper cinema snacks, or if we'll be stuck with Belle Morte health food," I said.

"We can't eat it anyway," Roux reminded me, her face mournful.

"Oh, right."

I'd been a vampire for years, and I was used to it by now, but I'd been human for a lot longer, and every now and then my memory slipped and I found myself thinking of things that I could no longer do. Like sunbathing. Or eating popcorn.

Jason sprawled in one of the padded seats, stretching his legs out and loudly sighing.

"I officially love it," he declared.

I took the seat next to him, while Roux wandered around the room, examining the framed posters of old black and white filmstars on the walls – the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo.

"So, who do you think will be the first to have sex in here?" Jason asked, smiling innocently.

I burst out laughing. "Definitely you, if only because you're the first one to think of it."

"It hadn't even occurred to you?"

"No."

"I bet you're considering it now, though."