Dead Before Dawn: The Vampire Curse

Chapter 29 - Protection

Sometimes premiere after parties were dull, sometimes they were fun. The Tokyo one was a bit of both. He and Gian had started off together, which had been the fun part, but they had to do the whole schmoozing part too. For the second part they had to split up.

Max had been working the room for about an hour when he finally managed to escape for a breath of fresh air. They were on the top floor of one of the skyscrapers and there was a large open air section along with the main reception room. He found a quiet corner to gather himself and look out at the city.

"I hope I am not disturbing you."

Max had been so intent on looking out at the lights and not thinking about anything, that he had totally failed to notice anyone approach.

"No, not at all," he said, his polite face perfectly in place before he turned and realised he knew who he was talking to. "Sai," he said and smiled, "sorry, I've been doing the rounds and I'm in premiere mode."

"No need to apologise," Sai replied. "I am sorry to interrupt your moment of solitude."

"It's about time I was getting back anyway," he admitted. "I hope everything is okay after last night."

"It is mostly as expected, thank you."

That sounds like a rather loaded answer.

"I didn't know you would be here this evening," Max tried a different tac.

Sai was as finely dressed as the previous evening, but in a more Western style. She looked every inch the worldly socialite.

"Originally I was not," at Sai's words, Max was sure this wasn't just a casual encounter, "but after you left last night I dreamed."

"Dreamed?"

He began hoping very hard that she wasn't privy to what he and Gian had been up to after they got back to the hotel, because that would have been embarrassing.

"I am not often gifted with portents and omens, my skills lie in other avenues," Sai told him, "but occasionally information is granted to me. I have something for you."

She reached into the small bag she was carrying and brought out an object attached to a leather thong. When she held it out to Max he realised it was a tooth of some kind: a fang to be precise. It was covered in tiny carvings.

It seemed rude to not take it, but the moment his fingers touched it a shiver ran up his spine. The memory of the chains that had bound him while in Yulia's domain came back to him clearly and he almost dropped it. Only as the feeling settled did the instinct die. The sensation was different; not threatening.

"It's..." he started and then changed his mind. "What is it?"

"It is a charm," Sai told him, "one of my own making; a protection of sorts."

Max looked at it more closely.

"Protection from what?"

"Prying eyes."

He frowned, not quite following.

"When worn around the neck the charm prevents all who do not already know who you are from recognising you or remembering what you look like."

"That's possible?"

Sai smiled a little at that. For some reason the chains that had held him in the hunters' hideout seemed so much more plausible than what Sai was suggesting.

"Indeed," she said. "I could explain in detail how it works, but suffice to say, recognition and memory are not all as scientific as some wish us to believe. This interferes with certain metaphysical processes."