The Beast in Man (Vampires in Berlin: Book One)

The Beast in Man Part 11

Paul and Richard found that the first week of recording went terribly, with the rest of the band hardly talking to them; Schneider must have told them about his blood-soaked encounter with them in the middle of the night and the reality of the situation must finally have started to sink in for them all. Paul knew that if he hadn't had Richard by his side during that time then he would have exploded with sheer frustration.

Sometime during the second week, Olli was the first to start talking to them again, swiftly followed by Till, followed finally Schneider and Flake. It seemed as though they had finally realized that while their diet and habits had changed considerably, Richard and Paul still, essentially, were the same men. They both knew, however, that it would take longer still for the situation to fully be accepted; glances still were awkward and silences were fumbled and heavy, whilst conversations, though friendly, were stilted.

Tensions still remained between the band and Bob; the producer refused to have anything more to do with them than absolutely necessary. It seemed that whatever friendliness he'd displayed at the beginning of the recording sessions had all but disappeared beneath the weight of what had happened to Richard and to Paul.

"You think he hates us now?" Richard asked one evening, as he watched Bob locking up the recording studio, to trudge through the snow back to his own cabin.

"Who, Bob? Seems that way," Flake muttered, from behind the shielding confines of his latest book.

"It's not like I asked for his brother to do this to me," Richard said, as he pointed viciously at his fangs.

"I think he's worried what you're gonna do to his brother," Olli said, from where he sat by Flake's side.

Unlike Flake, Olli was not reading; instead, the bassist had been contentedly watching the snow falling swiftly to the ground outside, seemingly mesmerised by the fall of the fat white flakes.

"Well, what can we do? Kill him?" Richard asked, with a derisive snort.

"Kill who?" Paul asked, as he wandered through from the bathroom, still towelling his hair dry as he did so. "I've still got soap in my ears, or otherwise I would already have heard."

"Bob's brother," Richard explained, when neither Flake nor Olli said anything.

"For what? Making us vamp out?" Paul asked.

"Making me vamp out," Richard corrected, gently. "I made you, don't forget."

"God, this is like some freakish family genealogy test or something," Flake muttered, bitterly. "The who's who in the vampire world."

No one took any notice of him, yet Richard saw the hurt look pass behind Paul's eyes all the same, there and gone in but an instant, leaving only the memories of soft and wounded eyes behind.

"I don't think it's a good idea," Olli suddenly said, long legs crashing to the floor from where he'd had them propped up on the table.

"Why not?" Paul asked, in surprise.

"Paulchen, have you not paid attention to the Lost Boys, or something? Kill the vampire who made you and you die," Olli said.

"I think you're thinking of werewolves, Olli," Flake said, with a snort. "And the rule was to kill yourself or your victims were destined to remain as the living dead for all eternity. Did you not pay attention to either of the American Werewolf films?"

"Well, what happened in the Lost Boys, then?" Olli asked. "Something did."

"Kill the head vampire, and you return back to your human state, or something like that," Richard replied, with a shrug.