How Not to Vampire - Season 2

3. The Secret Lives of Friends

Pro-tip for vampires #623: the rules always apply, except when they don't.

I hesitated for a long time on the steps on Lady Vera's House of the Dead, watching as Beatrice bounded down the wide palatial marble steps towards the waiting beast of a car that was the Rolls Royce Cullinan. The wind whipped at me, threatening to make its way inside of the warm top coat that Lady Vera had provided as we had exited. She'd probably added another thousand dollars onto my bill, but even though the thought made me uneasy, it wasn't the thing I was most worried about.

Claude was still inside, and I had no way of knowing if he was okay.

Beatrice had reached the car and opened the backwards facing rear-door of the powerful luxury car. It was the type of car that I had never dreamed I would ever be within a mile of, and apparently I was about to drive in one. All it took was me having to die.

Beatrice turned to look at me, an amused smile flitting across her lips.

"You coming Bobbikins?"

I considered my complete lack of options and then for the first time since my resurrection, the question I should have been asking from the minute I woke up, finally decided to make an appearance in my mind.

"Hey, do you have my phone?" I asked as I headed towards the car.

Beatrice patted her coat pocket. "Why? You wanna take a selfie or something, because believe me, that is definitely not allowed here." She rolled her eyes, obviously not too in love with that rule. "You'll get your phone back once you're in the car."

I kinda had to trust her, and as much as I wanted to text Claude, I was going to have to play it cool. I nodded to the chauffeur as I slid into my seat, slightly irritated that she wasn't holding the door open for us. So much for the five-star treatment. I tried not to act too impressed with the leather interiors and all the accessories. Beatrice settled back in her seat. The chauffeur took that as her cue to guide the car down the driveway and away from the house. Only then did Beatrice pull my phone from her coat pocket and held it loosely for me to take.

"I keep my promises," Beatrice said with a wink.

I waited for my phone to boot up and stared at it for a long moment.

"Are you kidding me?" I said, exasperated. "There's no bloody signal!"

Beatrice had gotten comfortable with a bottle of sparkling water and scrolled through her own cell phone like she had no fucks left to give, and was I really going to mess with her? No, I didn't think so. She obviously had a signal and wasn't above flaunting it.

"Your phone is probably blocked. You should get a signal once we're back on the main road," Beatrice said smugly, dashing my plans for contacting Claude. "Oh, hey! The King posted those photos from last night! You wanna see?"

No, I didn't want to see. I was too pissed off... but my curiousity won out. I leaned in, and Beatrice showed her phone to me. She and a tall black man wearing white fur coat, embraced each other for the camera. They appeared to be in the middle of a club.

"Isn't that the rapper? The King?"

"Yeah, he's one of us you know," Beatrice said. "Sweet guy."

"Great. Of course celebrities are wrapped up in this." I glowered, impatient. "So what's the plan?" I finally asked, resigned to waiting. "You drop me off at Jaime's place, and I wait for Sebastien to show up?" I frowned. "Unless he's already there--"