A Crumbling Society

Part 2-24

"Ah, yes, my pet", Dusk looked me up and down, "he's handsome is he not? A great catch and a wonderful lover." She gave me the signal to go along with it after that last bit, I just blinked at her twice, blankly, letting her know "sure". The woman asked what my name was I wanted to answer but got the feeling that I shouldn't since I was the "pet". "His name, oh umm, his name is Tapfir, its old Valsyrian and rumor to be the name of one of our kings", she told her. "I like it", she expressed with desire, "and I like him", this time she eye balled me up and down. Dusk interrupted and asked what their names were since nobody did formal introductions. "Oh goodness, I'm so sorry, I am Sathe, no last name, I dropped it centuries ago. This is Ivan, he's new to our world, "stop being shy, boy, say hello!", she boomed. A groggy, squeak of a "hello" forced itself from his throat as if it had been used for years. He hardly turned towards us, keeping his eyes fixed to the floor right below himself, they flickered up once for a single second. I got the feeling he didn't want to be here, or even be a vampire, and there was a bit of disgust from his manners that he was with Sathe. It does suck that he's her pet now, many disturbing thoughts crossed my mind. Dusk mentioned how it was a pleasure to meet them and it got Sathe started on a lot of stupid vampire related topics. Ivan started sniffling which led him to sniff the air, a little to consistently, Sathe ignored him, and Dusk glanced in my direction. She definitely picked up on this too, now he was smelling really hard and was checking each direction. A few seconds later and his white eyes were glued, an empty stare that dug into me metaphysically, the look of hunger. I bumped Dusk's hand to signal her, and she glanced over, slightly shifting her head back in worry but not so much to alert Sathe. Changing the conversation, "Sathe, we really must be going, but, when I come back through, I'll exchange my contact so that we may catch up again soon". To my relief, Sathe accepted the deflection and agreed on the offer. She then mentioned some things they could do together, and this took a few minutes. If Sathe would shut up, then we could move about and get on with our visit, but everything is such a big deal. She was giving me the feeling that she never gets out, but she loves the attention too much. My attention was on Ivan, his eyes were flickering at Dusk as if he was angry with her. Then they changed to ease, timidly looking away for a minute and then back at her, she nodded towards him and barely gave a smile with the twitch of her lips. Sathe was completely oblivious to this and was still talking to nobody paying any attention. Dusk turned back and thanked her and grabbed my arm walking me down the hall to what looked like a reception area. Abruptly leaving was awkward, I do find it rude but, in this circumstance, it may have been our only option, Ivan lingered a stare before Sathe pulled him away.

"What was that?", I asked, because whatever it was confused me.

Acting funny she moved her head, "What was what?"

"With Ivan just now", I persisted, "all those looks and even I know he could smell me".

"Oh that", she said, realizing I saw the whole thing, "his power is telepathy, he told me he was starting to smell you. I didn't believe him at first, so I looked at you and tried without you knowing, but there was nothing. He is a newborn vampire, and I figured his sense of smell was at its peak, I asked him not to say anything".

"Uh, you just asked him not to say anything like it was casual, well, what did he say?"

"Ivan said that he wouldn't do that, he didn't want to ruin someone's life since his was ruined. I thanked him, hence the smile and then we came here", she finished while we entered a room, and a lady motioned us over.

I told her that it was nice of him to not sell us out and she told the lady that she was here to see their Guild Master. A round of questions about why and if we were sent by anyone started another conversation. Dusk played it cool and lied a little only to speed things up. She told the lady that she wanted to speak with Embris about playing for events and making special appearances. Someone who had no clue who Dusk was, there a bit of skepticism coming from her tone, then it clicked. The lady apologized so many times I cracked a smile on the verge of laughter. I got wacked with a boot to my leg to shut up, it was a bit painful but deserved, I guess. We got a slip that stated immediate conference with Embris since there was a celebrity. "Make your way to the staircase and head all the way to the top", she said pointing down the hallway in the direction to go. A second of thanking her and then the two of us heading back to somewhat where we came from, no sign of Sathe and Ivan this time. Stopping to take in the stairs we debated how many floors there were. Dusk bet fifteen and I bet twenty-three, she laughed at me and told me I've got a deal. Starting on more stairs, as if there weren't enough, the first few floors had different things going on. The base floor was basic, full of entry and exit customs, floor two seemed like a place for feeding. It was set up like a food court in a mall, different ways to get blood and multiple providers for it. Different brands and temperatures as well per the eater's liking. Third one had offers for jobs and other assessments, one of the bulletin boards was covered in flyers for "help wanted". Most of them were magic problems involving creatures or nighttime, it was pretty cool to read some of them. "Disappearance of demon baby", "Scorch Dragon loose", "Midnight Killer", they kept on, I got so enthralled Dusk had to get in front of me just so I would stop reading them all. The floors after this were all housing, each hall had a different color and decorations. As we kept a steady pace moving up, some of them had dead floral patterns, haunted, spiritual, hippie, and so on.