The Falstaff Vampire Files (3 page)

“Um.” Hal was smarter than I could ever be in so many ways, but this didn’t seem to make sense. “If you kill the vampire how can it give you what you want?”

Lucy stopped and looked at me and then waved her hand to dismiss me. “It will work. It’s got to work.”

“What if you just piss it off?”

“That won’t happen.” She said it so quickly that I wondered if Lucy would admit to being afraid, even to herself.

“I’d be scared.”

“Come on, let’s go look. You wouldn’t be scared if you saw him in daylight. We keep the door closed because sunlight could kill him. But he just looks like a regular dead body until sunset.”

“Looking at a regular dead body out in the shed. Tempting, but no thanks.”

“This may be your last chance if Hal moves the box.”

“I hope he does move it. It creeps me out.”

“Where’s my cloak?” Lucy rummaged through Hal’s hall closet, tossing coats out onto the hall floor. “He’s going to have a big showdown tonight. Hal won’t let any of us come while he talks to the vampire. He said it was personal. But we’re going to come later. This could be the night we all become vampires. Get Hal to bring you along. Or you could pretend to sleep and then go watch them talk. I wish I could.”

She dug through the pile of clothes she’d dumped on the floor. “Here it is.” She pulled a velvet cloak over her shoulders and fastened it at her throat. Is it cold outside now? I haven’t been out since noon.”

“Yeah, it’s cold.” Had she been there naked with Hal most of the afternoon? Probably. I got a sinking feeling in my gut.

The door slammed as Lucy went out. Ned came over and started hanging coats back in the closet. I helped him. “Doesn’t anybody else have to work around here?” I asked.

“Lucy’s got a trust fund. I do freelance graphics,” Ned said.

“Oh, sorry, I meant no offense.”

“None taken.” The last coat hung, Ned returned to his computer and I went to the back of the flat and looked out the bay window as Lucy’s black-clad frame appeared in the yard below. She turned back to see me in the window and stuck her tongue out at me. Then she advanced on the grungy old shed, her lean body bending into the wind that came up off the ocean. She disappeared into the shed, shutting the door carefully behind her.

The windows had been painted the same green as the wood. Was that to screen out daylight?

A weathered, plain wood fence separated the yard from the open space of the park next to it and ran just a few feet from the back of the shed. More bushes and wild geraniums grew up to cover the half-tumbled down section of fence that faced the ocean. One night I saw a man in a huge overcoat crawling like a giant spider out of those bushes.

After we get married, I plan to seriously ask Hal to get the fence fixed. I feel nervous enough spending the night in the house. If Hal was moving his vampire out of there, I hoped he did it as soon as possible.

Chapter 8

Kristin Marlowe’s typed notes

August 4th continued

Luther finished his hour of whining
and left. I had no more clients scheduled for the day, and I desperately needed to talk to someone or at the least walk off some of my anger. My friend Larry Segovia lived about 10 blocks away on Lake Street. As a therapist, and an unattached gay man in his 40s, he understood about boyfriend troubles. Larry didn’t work Mondays, and he never minded company. If he wasn’t home, the walk out in the fresh air wouldn’t hurt me.

Larry’s door was opened by a cheerful-looking man about my own age and Larry’s. I was surprised because so many of Larry’s friends were younger. This man was not handsome, but commanding, with unruly gray streaked dark hair cut short but starting to curl already. Startlingly black eyebrows framed penetrating green eyes with sparks of hazel. What really caught my attention was the mischievous quirk of his mouth, as if he were just about to tell a great secret. I liked and trusted him instinctively without knowing why.

Of course, I’d been wrong before. Witness my reaction to Hal. But something about this man drew a pang of attraction from me that was welcome in that it dulled the pain of Hal’s betrayal. Larry’s friend was most likely gay, but I felt better just knowing there were still attractive men in the world. Oops, I was staring.

“Oh, sorry, I was looking for Larry,” I blurted out.

“He’s just gone out to run an errand.” He moved aside. “Want to come in and wait? I’m house sitting when Larry goes to Edinburgh next week.”

Suddenly I felt like an idiot. “I’m not a client, I’m a therapist too. I should have called, but—”

Some of my inner turmoil must have crossed my face, because the stranger leaned forward. “Seriously, why not come in and wait? Larry should be back any minute. Something about picking up his dry cleaning.”

I followed him in, introducing myself.

“I’m Abraham Van Helsing,” he said over his shoulder, leading the way down the hall. “But please call me Bram. Abe just doesn’t suit me. Honest Abe Van Helsing sounds like an accordion-playing used car salesman.”

I laughed and felt a little better.

We went into the little front parlor of Larry’s Victorian flat. “I’ll be house sitting when he takes off tomorrow for that conference in Edinburgh. Did Larry warn you about me?”

“No, this is kind of a spur-of-the-moment visit. He didn’t mention you.”

“I don’t know if I should be reassured or insulted.”

“Um, are you the new boyfriend?”

“Nope. The old friend from college.” He settled on the sofa. “Still, you’d think he’d say something about me. He can’t have that that many friends who’re researching vampire cults.”

I stopped halfway in the middle of sitting in Larry’s burgundy-colored wing chair. “Did you say vampire cults?”

Bram smiled with a bit of mischief in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to shock you.”

“No, it’s just that I have a young client who’s fixated on vampires, and she said something that bothered me today.”

“If you ever need to talk about it I’m always glad to discuss vampires.”

“Wait a minute.” I suddenly put the name and the subject together. “Wasn’t there a Professor Van Helsing in
Dracula
?”

“There was. That was fiction, but my grandpa from Hungary didn’t find it amusing. He was a trade unionist. But as a kid when I found Abraham Van Helsing in
Dracula
, I got interested in the culture. It’s a pretty good stand-in for whatever you’re afraid of. In the 1930s it was sinister Europeans like Bela Lugosi in the old movies. Lately vampires and blood-drinking are a metaphor for sex.” Bram settled back on the sofa. “Who knows? Even if it were my calling to hunt vampires, there would be the small problem that there really aren’t any, so I have to make do.”

“What are you researching now?”

“I’ve written a few books on the so-called ‘real’ vampires, the history of the belief in the old country. Now I’m interviewing kids who are drawn to vampire cults. If you ever want to feel old, try interviewing a few dozen teenagers and twenty-year-olds.”

I laughed. “The client who is into vampires is twenty-three.”

“There you go. Graduates of Ann Rice University.”

“What’s that?”

“People who’ve read every book, seen every movie. Some even do the RPGs.”

“Sorry, you’ve lapsed into Greek again.”

He laughed. “Role Playing Games based on vampires. So far it’s all wishful thinking. But show me a real live vampire and I’ll get out the stakes and silver bullets and go to town.”

“Or go to jail—you might have some trouble explaining the dead body.”

“Oh, the legends all say that the body disintegrates into dust once it’s properly destroyed. So convenient.”

I just managed a wan smile. “I wish I could have talked to you earlier. But for reasons that have nothing to do with vampires, I’m going to have to refer this client to another therapist. That’s part of what I need to talk to Larry about.”

“Well, I’ll be in town for two weeks, so if there’s anything a certified vampire expert can help with, let me know.”

“They have certificates for that sort of thing?”

“I’m self-certified.” He smiled and patted me on the hand. “Sorry, I can see you’ve had a rough day. But Larry will be back and have you sorted out in no time.”

“He has a way of doing that. Larry really saved my sanity during the months after my husband died.”

“He’s a good ‘un.”

“Are you talking about me, Bram? Hi, Kris.”

Larry came bustling in. He was short, olive-skinned and brown-eyed. As long as I’d known him he had cut his hair close to his head to minimize a receding hairline, and he looked younger than his forty-some years. His smile always lit up a room. Just seeing him gave me a psychic jumpstart.

“I’ll make a discreet exit here. I’ve been inflicting my family history on Kris, complete with its mythical vampire tradition.”

“That whole stake-in-the-heart of the older male has always sounded distinctly Freudian to me,” Larry said

Bram laughed and got up to go. “I promise not to bring back any vampires from my interview.”

Larry draped his dry cleaning over a chair and came over to give me a hug.

After hugging Larry hello, it seemed natural to hug Bram goodbye. “I’m glad to have met you, Bram, and thanks for the vampire insights.”

“Hey, who you gonna call?”

“You bust ghosts as well?”

“No, I specialize.”

“Okay, I will definitely call you if I run into any vampires.”

“Please do.”

I waited till I heard the outside door close before I turned to Larry. “Hal just got engaged to one of my clients.”

“Oh, Kris.” Larry gave me another hug and then leaned back on the sofa and rubbed his hands over his eyes. “I thought I’d heard everything. How did he meet her?”

“I have no idea.”

“What are you going to do? Aside from shooting Hal.”

“I haven’t decided whether to tell her. I probably should. I do know I’ve got to refer her to another therapist.” I sighed. “Most of the people I know will know about me and Hal.”

He shrugged. “You and Hal really are too good not to talk about. Older woman, younger man, reversing the usual gender clichés. Intriguing hints of Oedipal issues.”

“I didn’t really mind when they gossiped about us being together. But now—I feel like a fool—an old fool.”

He sighed. “As a middle-aged gay man, I wouldn’t know anything about that. If you think your client will accept a referral, I can send you a list of good local therapists who don’t know you.”

“Thank you.” Larry’s address book was legendary, and he gathered affection and admiration wherever he went. “I don’t look forward to telling her.”

Larry sighed. “You need to let her know that she’s engaged to a guy whose screwing around, and there may be others. I’d get tested—seriously.”

“You’re right. I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“She’s going to hate you. She may not want to take a referral from you, but I’ll email you a list anyway. Anything about her that would narrow the field of potential referrals?”

“Body image around her weight.”

“Just like almost every woman and gay man in America.”

“Vampires figure on her list of fears.”

“Now there’s a coincidence. No wonder you were chatting so cozily with Bram.” He patted me on the shoulder. “You’re not ready to joke about it yet, are you?”

“Not yet. I left a message on Hal’s voice mail, but we still need to have that last conversation.”

Larry shook his head as he walked me out to the door. “I wonder how he was going to tell you about his engagement. Perhaps slipping a wedding invitation under your pillow. You’re going to get through this, Kris. Call me any time. Look at the bright side—at least you weren’t sleeping with one of your patients.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel so much better.”

Oddly, it did.

Chapter 9

Hal Roy’s spoken notes

silver flash drive/voice recorder

August 4th

Meeting Mina gave me the courage
to think I could take control of the situation. Now she’s going to marry me and I think she’ll keep me on an even keel even when I gain the power I need.

Dad was a diplomat and Mom was one of those diplomatic wives who did whatever it took to help Dad. The bottom line is I need a wife who can help me with my work. Mina is all of that.

Wandering the night with Jack has given me a taste for robust, intoxicating women, and I keep putting off ending the affair with Kris. She’s warm and funny, sexy and exhilarating, but she could never be part of the life I want to make, the power I need to find. She’s too old, too big, and maybe even too smart to be an ambitious man’s wife. If Kris really thought about it, maybe she might figure out for herself that our affair never had a future. After all, I never gave her a key to my place, told her about Jack or introduced her to my friends.

It’s different with Mina. I want her to be a part of all of it.

Mina’s perfect—beautiful, voluptuous but elegant, and sensible. Maybe too sensible.

She might save me, if I can just hold onto her. I tried to explain about Jack, and she refused to meet him. But she didn’t run away either, even after I told her what I wanted. My only hope is that she can love me enough to see me through the change.

Chapter 10

Kristin Marlowe’s typed notes

August 4th continued

On the way home
I checked my voicemail—nothing from Hal.

I walked through the garden where a violent snip-snip sound led me to Violet wielding garden shears on some hydrangea bushes. Vi was short and wiry with a wild mop of mostly gray curls and sharp green eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses. She and her ex-husband bought the house with its garden and cottage in the 1960s, when such things were possible. When they divorced, she got the house. They had painted it blue, and Vi planted morning glories, blue hydrangeas and a small vegetable garden. She lived in the house, rented the cottage to me, and did a bit of bookkeeping for hire to make ends meet. Some of Vi’s vampire books had been published and brought her a little money. Her other passion was cats, but the cats don’t bring in any money at all.