Why Lorie? Part II

Chapter 25: Disturbing News from Peter to Nicolae

It was the middle of April, 1911 and spring had finally arrived in Mystery Spell. The air was sweet but crisp, and flowering trees were blooming everywhere in a melange of whites, pinks and reds. The sun's rays permeated actual heat, awakening nature from its prolonged winter hibernation. Gone were the ice and snow, replaced by fragile new grass. A myriad of birds happily chirped and chattered while flitting back and forth through an almost painfully blue sky.

Drogo was idly laying on his bed, long legs crossed and arms behind his head. The bedroom window was opened, allowing a cool breeze to gently stir the gossamer curtains. It was Sunday morning, and the construction crew hadn't arrived yet. Drogo took advantage of the fact, and enjoyed the blessed yet temporary silence. His amber eyes were fixed on the ceiling while he allowed his thoughts to run all over the place without focusing on anything in particular. It was pure heaven. His reverie was broken by Nicolae's voice calling him from downstairs. Drogo sighed and frowned as he got up. He slowly meandered toward his brother's study. It was Nicolae's favorite room in the house and he had pretty much claimed it for himself.

"Yeah, what is it?" Drogo ran a hand through his thick blonde hair, making it stick on end. He casually leaned against the door frame and yawned.

"A letter from Peter," Nicolae waved a white envelope in front of Drogo's nose.

"What's it say?" Drogo didn't sound terribly enthusiastic.

"It sounds like things in Vienna are pretty hectic," Nicolae furrowed his brows as he perused Peter's neat script in black ink.

"Let me see," Drogo lunged forward and tried to grab the letter from Nicolae's hand, but his older brother was faster and easily pulled it away. Nicolae took a couple of steps back to read without further interruptions.

Drogo sighed. "Can you be more specific?"

"It looks like Josette and Viktor had an argument. It must've been pretty bad because Josette moved out.  The wedding has been postponed indefinitely," Nicolae lifted his grey eyes from the paper and gazed at Drogo.

"What? And Viktor allowed her to?" Drogo sounded incredulous.

"Apparently so," Nicolae continued. "Although he gave her a hard time about it."

"That's not surprising," Drogo interceded. "What about Lorie?"

"Peter says that Lorie is splitting her time between Josette and Viktor," Nicolae replied.

"Poor thing." Drogo cracked his knuckles before asking: "Where did Josette move to? Back to Paris with her parents?"

Nicolae shook his head. "No. She's still in Vienna... staying with someone named Isabelle Marchal."

"Never heard of her," Drogo shrugged.

"Apparently, she and her husband are French, but temporarily residing in Austria," Nicolae read on. After a pause, he exclaimed: "Josette is singing at the opera again! Which, according to Peter, was the main reason for which she and Viktor argued."

"Wow! Looks like we missed all the fun!" Drogo smirked, his voice full of irony.

Nicolae frowned. "I'm sure it was anything but.... Peter writes that he tried to convince Viktor to go easy on Josette and almost got his head bitten off."

"Knowing our dear father, I'm sure he means that quite literally," Drogo said wryly.

"But wait! There's more!" Nicolae put up a hand to silence his brother. "Viktor got in a fight with Paul Foret and was close to attacking him, revealing his vampirism... luckily, Lorie showed up just in time and inadvertently saved everyone from a total disaster." Nicolae peered at Drogo, his grey eyes widening.