Maurice Ch. 02

"I would be honored to have dinner with one as lovely as you." He said smiling at her and then winking at me.

What in the fuck was this? I had been fooled! Whoever this vampire was, he was almost as strong as I was mentally if not physically. I now understood what was happening, not only was Regina being followed, so was I. How could I not have known that? And how could I have been so easily fooled? To be perfectly honest with you, I hadn't been expecting to be followed this soon if at all and because of my lack of foresight and caution, I had just given whoever or whatever that wanted Regina a way to access her. I had to mark her and as soon as possible. As to how I had been so easily taken in by this vampire, I would have to give some serious thought to.

Regina stood back watching, I could tell that she wanted to do nothing more than go back to her room and had I understood the significance of her room, I would have taken her there myself and locked her in until it was time for her to go home.

"Hello Regina." I said smiling at her. Her eyes widened, at first I thought it was because of my now bald head but then I realized that she knew what I was. I don't know how she knew but she did, why she didn't notice last night I don't know except to say that it was because she was angry and frightened. Now she was just scared, that fear turned into terror as she looked over at the vampire holding Annie's hand and saw that he was as I was.

******

I tried to beg off but Annie wouldn't hear of it.

"Stop being such a party pooper and come on!" Annie insisted grabbing my hand.

As soon as we were in the hall, I missed the safety of my room and tried to go back in. This must be how agoraphobics feel I thought as Annie drug me down the hall and to the elevator chattering like a magpie the entire time.

We took the elevator down with another couple who politely listened to Annie's excited chatter, I bit my tongue so that I wouldn't tell her to "shut the fuck up" the couple got off on the second floor. I know that it was to escape Annie because I saw them come out of the stairwell and go out of the door onto the street.

When Annie caught sight of Maurice, she started waving and calling his name.

"Annie shut up!" I hissed "That isn't even him!"

"Yes it is." she said and called his name again.

When he turned around, I saw that it was him minus the shoulder length dark hair. He was now completely bald and I have to admit that it was an improvement. He didn't look so old but he still wouldn't have drawn my attention, he was still very ordinary looking.

Even as I watched him, there was something very odd about him but I couldn't figure out what. On the face of it, he looked like an ordinary mild mannered middle-aged man but one who had money even though he tried to dress as if he didn't. There was something not right about the man with him as well even though he looked normal too.

"Oh look! Maurice brought someone for me too!" Annie gushed as she drug me across the hotel lobby calling Maurice's name the entire time.

The thing that I noticed was that Maurice and the other man weren't friends, I don't know how I knew that, but maybe it was the body language. The other thing was this, the man appeared to be afraid of Maurice but he really wasn't, at least not much, nervous was a better word but whatever; I was scared and I wanted to run back to the room and I would have if Annie hadn't had my hand in a vise like grip.

She didn't let my hand go until we were a foot or so away from Maurice and whoever the man was. Something.... Something..... Oh fuck! They.... I was going to back away when Maurice called my name. I knew what they were, they were the things that.... That... they were vampires, both of them but of the two the tall, handsome one holding Annie's hand terrified me more than Maurice did. I knew him from somewhere but where? Why would I know a vampire? And how did I know that's what he was?

Before Annie noticed, I was in the elevator frantically pushing the buttons. I heard her calling my name just as the doors closed. As soon as the elevator reached my floor, I tore out of it like a bat out of hell and rand down the hall pulling the room key out of my pocket as I ran. My hands shook as I tried to put the key into the slot and then dropped it. I glanced around and saw no one as I picked the key up and managed to slip it into the slot. The whirring sound of the lock opening was like music to my ears. I pushed the door open and ducked inside relishing the feeling of safety that immediately surrounded me.

*******

Annie ran after Regina as soon as she realized that she was in the elevator. The vampire and I watched Annie leave without commenting. When the women were gone, I turned to him; we had a conversation to finish.

"Who the fuck are you?" I asked.

For a moment, I didn't think that he was going to answer.

"Tremaine at your service." he said with a fake smile flashing a bit of fang.

Tremaine? This did not bode well. Tremaine while not at the top of the heap wasn't too far below it, he was working for someone and there had to be something substantial in it for him. One such as he didn't work for free.

"So you're working as a lapdog these days." I said deliberately baiting him.

"I am no one's lap dog little man." he snapped.

"Really? Then how is it that you are spending your evening following me?" I asked.

He had no answer for this.

"Who is holding your leash?" I asked. "And what little doggie treats are they giving you?"

"The warning was just that a warning." he said. "You are interfering with something that doesn't concern you."

I raised my eyebrows at him, "Regina is my concern as she is my mate. I formally lay claim to her here and now. She is under my protection as is her cousin Annie. Tell your owner that I have received his message and I am sending one of my own, he is to stay away from Regina and her cousin or I will kill him and anyone that he sends to harm them."

Tremaine looked me over, started to say something and thought better of it. He nodded and walked out of the hotel without looking back. What the fuck was going on and what did it have to do with Regina?

I left the hotel after another moment and went back to the alley where I killed Baron. Someone or something should be there by now, maybe I'll find out something more about what happened in 1989. Surprisingly, no one was there which was odd because this was a popular spot. It didn't take me long to realize that the word about me had already been spread and no one was going to risk their life to help me. I went home hoping that Olivia had been more productive than I had been.

Dinner was in the oven when I got home. It was always like this, Olivia always made dinner even though she had idea of when or even if I would be home. It smelled delicious as always and I decided to eat before I went to my office. Tonight it was liver and onions with potatoes cooked in a gravy, I took my time eating as there was no need to rush. I was confident that Regina was safe as long as she stayed in her room and as frightened as she was there was no danger of her going out.

I rinsed the dishes and left them in the sink before heading to my office. I stopped by the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and a piece of fruit and continued on my way. I unlocked my office, stepped inside and turned on the light, what I saw brought a smile to my lips; there were two folders on my desk. A yellow one and a red one, the yellow one contained things that Olivia thought that I might find interesting, the red one contained pertinent information related to what I was looking for.

I picked up the red folder and then put it back down, if I didn't look at the yellow folder first I wouldn't look at it and that would hurt Olivia's feelings. As I suspected, it contained bits and pieces of trivia about 1989 New Orleans. I read through it and then set it aside to pick up the red folder.

There were a number of disappearances that year but that's nothing new, there were several unsolved murders also nothing new-all of these came from human sources as did the next few pieces of information. Halfway through the folder, the events of the paranormal world started. The biggest event was the North American vampire conference, I had heard about it but opted not to attend, I go to more than my share of meetings for my work.

Right after that article was another one that caught my attention.

TWO HUMAN MALES TAKEN FROM HOTEL ROOM, PARENTS FRANTIC I don't know what it was about that headline that drew me but I continued to read.

"Two human males were taken from their room at the Royal Sonesta on June 5, 1989. The human males, Daniel and Edward Hawkins were here visiting New Orleans with their family which includes their mother Dorothy, their father Paul and their sister Regina. If anyone knows the whereabouts of these human males, please return them to their family and no questions will be asked, all punishments will be waived. Anyone having any knowledge of this abduction please step forward, if the humans are found unharmed, you will be rewarded."

At the end of the article was a contact number.

There it was. This was how Regina came under the radar of my people but there had to be more to it, why was the supernatural world concerned with two missing human males? There was another article following the last one dated a day later. It was almost the same but there was an angry undertone to it.

"RETURN THE HUMAN MALES NOW! ANYONE WHO HAS KNOWLEDGE OF THIS ABDUCTION AND HAS NOT STEPPED FORWARD WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED!

Whatever was supposed to happen went to hell in a hand basket with the abduction of Regina's brothers. I wondered how it was that they came to be taken and why Regina would come back to a place that held such horrible memories, unless she didn't remember the circumstances.

I kept reading through the file and from what I could gather, Regina's brothers were never found dead or alive so what had happened to them? I needed to talk to Annie. I wanted to know how they happened to be here so close to Regina's birthday and what she knew if anything about the abduction of Daniel and Edward Hawkins.

*********

Annie didn't know what to do. I was shaking like a leaf and I had no idea of how to explain it to her without sounding like a lunatic. Yes I know that she loves vampire lore and all that comes with it but that doesn't mean that she believed in vampires. If I told her that Maurice and the other man were vampires, she'd have me 5150'd -put in a psychiatric facility against my will for evaluation.

"What in the hell is wrong with you?" Annie asked as soon as she was through the door.

"I told you that I didn't want to go." I said weakly.

"So you just turn ass and run?"

"Annie, I want to go home, you can stay if you want but I want to leave." I told her.

I know that I sounded like I was whining, I was and I admit it. It was the fact that I was whining that caught Annie's attention; I wasn't and never have been a whiner.

"Reggie, what's going on?" she asked as she sat on the bed next to me.

"Annie, I can't stay here. Something really bad happened here but I can't remember what it is, I think .... I don't know what I think but I know that I have to leave."

"But we've only been here for a night, and the money is non-refundable...."

"I'll pay for it." I said "but please let's go." I begged.

Before Annie could say anything, the phone rang. I listened as she talked and then flirted with Maurice Delgado.

"Dinner? I would love to! What time? Ten? No that isn't too late, I'll see you soon."

Annie hung up the phone and danced around the room, now here's the thing; remember that I said that Maurice Delgado was ordinary looking and that he wouldn't have attracted my attention on the street? Now that Annie was going to dinner with him, I felt.... Jealous is too strong of a word but I can't think of any other word right now that fit but I didn't say anything, and nothing and I mean nothing was going to get me out of that room.

I watched Annie as she hummed and danced around the room as she changed her clothes to something decidedly sexier but not blatantly so. Apparently she thought that she was going to get laid by Maurice, something else that irked me. Why it bothered me, I don't know but it did but not enough that I wanted to tell her not to go. By 9:45, Annie was out of the door for a late dinner with Maurice.

*******

It occurred to me that Annie might have gotten the wrong idea and it would be an idea that I would have to correct. Don't get me wrong, Annie was very attractive but my cock didn't harden at the sight or thought of her, I was protecting her only because she was Regina's cousin.

I was already in the lobby when Annie came down, as I said she was very attractive and if Regina weren't in the picture, I would have taken her to bed. Her manner of dress, a tight fitting top that showed of her breasts and a pair of jeans that accentuated her ass told me that I had assumed correctly, she thought that we were going to fuck after dinner.

I chose a restaurant not far from the hotel where I am fairly well known. Annie was chattering away about anything and everything that popped into her head. I only half listened and did that thing that all males do whether they be human or vampire, I made the appropriate sounds in the appropriate places. To be honest with you, she was chattering so much that I don't even think she would have noticed if I hadn't made those little sounds of acknowledgement.

Since I had called ahead, we were greeted at the door and taken to a table in the back away from prying eyes and ears. Believe me after realizing that I had been followed, all of my senses were on full alert and so far all was clear. Our server came over right away; I asked Annie if she would like an appetizer which she declined. We both ordered the red beans and rice of which I would eat very little of since I had already eaten dinner. I would take it home to Olivia, actually, I would order two extra servings for her, she loved the stuff but never left the house because she is agoraphobic.

After the server left, Annie and I chatted about New Orleans and what she and Regina had lined up. It was a good opening for me to start asking questions.

"How is Regina?" I asked.

"Alright I guess. She's been acting funny ever since we got here." Annie replied.

"How so?" I asked.

"I don't know exactly, she seems nervous and she wants to leave."

"Annie, did Regina ever tell you about her brothers?"

"Danny and Eddie? Sure what about them?" she asked as she broke off a piece of warm bread and spread butter on it.

"What does she say about them?"

"That they came here for vacation, something happened but she doesn't remember what. Oh and there was this scare when the boys disappeared but they showed up later."

"Where were they?" I asked.

"I don't know, Regina said that they snuck out of the hotel to go exploring and got lost."

Something wasn't adding up here, according to the articles, the boys had never been found.

"Then what happened?" I asked.

"Regina's parents got job offers that they couldn't refuse. Regina's mother worked for some rich family, that's who paid for the trip. Anyway, the man bought a new house that needed some work on it and hired both of them to work on the house."

"What about their other home?" I asked.

"The people they worked for had it packed up for them and shipped to the new house, from what Reggie says, they had a gate house that they lived in until her parents died."

"Where are the boys now?" I asked.

"Not sure, they do some work for the government but they call Reggie on a weekly basis."

I was about to tell Annie to stop calling Regina "Reggie" but I bit my tongue. By the time dinner was over, I knew pretty much everything that Annie did but I knew one thing that Annie didn't, there was something very, very wrong. I wasn't the only one who had tampered with Regina's memories and I wasn't convinced that whoever was calling her on a weekly basis were her brothers. I had one more question.

"Annie, why did you choose to come here out of all of the places that you could have chosen?"

I watched her expression change to one of confusion, I realized then that someone had tampered with her too. As close as her and Regina seemed to be, I highly doubted that Annie would have chosen to bring Regina here if she knew what really happened here.

What in the hell was going on?

I walked Annie back to the hotel, up to her room and thanked her for a very pleasant evening; she was disappointed when she realized that our evening had come to an end. From there, I went home to give Olivia the red beans and rice that I bought for her and to go over the file again, maybe I had missed something.

*******

I was actually surprised when Annie came in just after midnight and judging by the way that she went into the bathroom she didn't get as much as a good night kiss. I have admitted that I was relieved but I didn't take the time to examine the reason why I was so relieved, I had other things to think about.

Annie didn't speak to me when she came out of the bathroom; she glanced at me, got into bed and pouted. It was just as well, I didn't feel like talking anyway. Eventually, I closed my eyes and went to sleep but it wasn't a restful one, I dreamt of the vacation that had somehow gone horribly wrong where my brothers disappeared and we .... A sharp pain in my head woke me up. My pillow was wet from the tears that I had shed while I was asleep, what was wrong with me? Suddenly a psychiatric evaluation didn't seem like such a bad idea.

*******

I decided to walk home since it was a nice evening. I hadn't gone very far before I sensed that I was being followed but whoever my pursuer was, he wasn't interested in confronting me. I then remembered that in the file that Olivia had left for me, nothing was in there about the convent and I wondered why. The convent was always included in the vampire tour, Olivia would have known that which is why she probably didn't include it but it was unlike her not to do something that I asked of her.

When I got home, Olivia was already in her quarters but there was a thick file on my desk, it was all of the information that she could find on the convent. No wonder it wasn't with the other files, she was still working on it.

*******

Unable to go back to sleep, I got up and looked out of the window. We had a nice view of the quarter so I pulled up a chair and sat by the window. I'm not sure of what made me look toward the corner but when I did; my eyes met the glittering green eyes of the man from the casino.