Three Hours Pt. 03

The vampire's bottom lip quivered adorably as she shook her head. "You'll set me off again."

Lucy grinned and covered her mouth but stopped short of making the juvenile period joke. It still did the job.

"Very funny." Bess scowled, too irritated to cry. "I'm telling you, it's mind control, I'm sure. It feels overwhelmingly real, but this is crude manipulation."

"So this... other vampire's mind control is the reason I'm not scared of you?"

"I hope so. Or I'm in love with an idiot."

"Is there anything we can do about it?"

Bess's shoulders drooped. "Nothing."

"Then... shouldn't we make the best of it?"

"Of course." Bess said, rather stiffly for someone standing naked in the shower.

Lucy turned off the water and towelled them both dry with a soft cotton bath sheet.

"The question is why, right? I'm sorry, but that's what you said before. Who do you think is doing it? I'm nobody, Bess. I'm a fuck up on probation, there is no logical reason for someone to do this."

"Dear sweet summer child." The vampire rolled her eyes and almost snatched the bath sheet from Lucy before folding it away. "Why do people amuse themselves by hurting each other? Why does the mob keep everything in the family? Why does immortality appeal to everyone without a shred of self awareness?"

"Am I supposed to answer any of that or..."

"We will get to the bottom of this, I promise. I'm not having innocent bystanders dragged into the shadow war. Let's get you something to eat and you can tell me a little bit more about Mack."

"Mack?" Lucy stammered.

Bess led her through the house and up a carved wooden staircase to a master bedroom. Lucy stood awkwardly and watched the vampire throw on some silk pajamas.

"Can I borrow a robe or something?"

"Help yourself dear. What's his legal name?"

"Mackenzie Fulton Driver."

"Birthday?"

"May fifth. Bess..."

"His parents?"

"Bess!" Lucy snapped. "You're talking about Eli's family too here. What is this about?"

"Any questions you don't already have answers for?"

"Okay. That's harsh, but okay." Lucy flipped through the wardrobe and found it mainly full of formal wear a couple of sizes too small. She settled on a satin kaftan and wrap tie trousers. They were short in the leg but the waist was accommodating enough. "His family's from Baltimore. I think. His folks are retired, they spend a lot of time in Florida."

"And this gang trouble, this robbery, nevermind what you told the authorities, what do you really know? Was it local? Did he tell you the true objective?"

Lucy didn't know much about Mack's final doomed job. If she'd ever asked too many questions she would have felt the back of his hand. The same went for his cousins. His goons more like. She sifted through the little things that might matter.

"The dealing was separate from his gang. I mean, they all knew about it, but the drugs were small time, cover for the real work. They were all related, they grew up together I think. Cousins. They stole things to order."

"That's the ticket Lucy. What else can you tell me?"

Lucy paused. "I don't want to keep secrets from you. But can you please promise me something before we go any further?"

"Darling..." the vampire put down her hair brush and moved right up close again.

Lucy bit her lip. She didn't need to say it. Bess knew.

"You didn't ask for any of this, but it's trouble, Lucy, I can smell it. I think you know these fuckers aren't normal. They will not stop. You're already putting up with blatant violations of the restraining order while the wretch is in federal prison. What happens in ten or fifteen years when he gets out on parole? How long until his son gets dragged into the family business?" Bess's eyes were hard now, pure determination. "I will protect you and Eli. I promise."

"I didn't get to follow the trial or anything, I was inside too, remember? I never even got summoned as a witness but it was in the papers. It was some big house they robbed. They were after jewelry and they kneecapped the housekeeper. They left her for dead, but she survived to testify." She frowned in concentration. "They booked a hire car, and left it in New York state, I remember the bill. I remember the driver was just some punk. And afterwards..." afterwards they shot the kid. Laughed about it. Body was never found.

"Concentrate on their faces. Try to remember details, any names that came up in their conversations."

"I love this," Lucy said. "First we're gazing into each other's eyes and all you care about is how hard you can make me come. Next you want to pick through my fucking nightmares."

"So ist Liebe und so ist das Leben," she smiled. "Both love and life will be free from care so long as I endure, I swear by the blood. Now concentrate. Give me what I need to keep you safe."

"This is all crazy. Please just tell me..."

"I will," Bess said more gently. "When you're ready to hear it."

"I feel like I'm going to throw up." Lucy easily remembered all their faces. All their filthy habits.

"Alright. That's plenty for me to go on." Lucy was relieved to hear it. "We're outside time, safe in my magic, I can share the truth with you. It's a lot to take in, nobody should have to deal with any of this drama sober, but you can't get drunk because of the baby. I'll feed you instead."

Bes found a pair of bedroom slippers for Lucy. "Put them on, the kitchen is cold."

She followed the vampire back down stairs.

"I bet it doesn't get enough use to be worth heating." Lucy said. "What's sadder than a vampire's kitchen?"

"I use it more often than the upstairs bedrooms. This is more of a business address."

"No need to get defensive."

"It's haunted. The ghost prefers the kitchen windows left open."

"What?" Lucy stopped dead on the stairs. Bess kept walking with a tell tale snigger that gave the game away. "Oh very funny." Lucy hustled down the last few steps.

"The staff cook in there but the smells linger. I'm a sensitive flower, you know?"

"Garlic bother you?"

"Erm... no. Just the crippling envy."

"Oh Bess, I'm sorry. Fuck. How many times am I going to put my foot in my mouth tonight."

"No comment."

"You don't have to cook."

The lights flickered on and the vampire rolled up her sleeves. "I know. Sit there. I'll make you a sandwich." Bess gestured to a chrome bar stool, and Lucy sat. It was cold. The window above the sink was open a crack, but Bess pulled it closed and flicked on a gas ring. She cracked an egg into a cast iron griddle pan with her left hand while adjusting the flame with her right.

"So what's the deal with my ex?" Lucy asked.

"Deep shit is all. So when I'm not self harming by indulging in lost mortal delights, I run Boston. I'm a despot to others of my own kind, officially the eldest and the strongest vampire in Massachusetts."

Lucy watched the eldest strongest vampire in Massachusetts neatly cut a couple of slices of crusty bread and slather both with butter while the egg sizzled on the stove. Then cut perfect, wafer thin slices off a beefsteak tomato with a razor sharp knife.

"That's complicated enough," Bess continued, "but it isn't the half of it. All the modern conveniences you enjoy are miraculous, no? I still marvel at them nightly, but it's tainted, you see, all of it is tainted."

She slid the griddle across onto the cold ring and let the heat of the pan gently finish cooking it.

"There's a war going on between science and superstition, that is, between newer magic and older magic. It threatens to tear reality in half. It almost has before, but I don't want to digress. Here in Boston there's a truce. The technocrats know damn well the supernatural threat here is real, so the cowards mostly stay away. The elite traditionalists are caught up in containing said threat."

Lucy struggled to follow that. It sounded like every other person in Boston could be living some weird double life. "Science isn't magic," she scoffed.

Bess opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again. She assembled the sandwich and poured Lucy a tall glass of orange juice to go with it.

"Then we have the changing folk. You care nothing for history, so I won't bore you. The fact is that this land has been spiritually wounded, brutalised by colonial violence and forced 'civilization'. On top of that, heavy industry has since poisoned the ground, and the rivers will never be the same again. Werewolves are sensitive to all that. Most have a burning hatred of all cities. Blood drinkers are the lowest of the low to them." Bess smirked. "Shame for the poor puppies that my kind is actively preserving their miserable Gaia beyond the most pessimistic prophecies of their accursed ancestors."

Lucy chewed thoughtfully. "You want me to figure it out from all that? I don't have a clue," she said.

"The changing folk are a dying breed. For decades, there were none in my domain, even on the outskirts. Then, about fifty years ago Feelan Driver brought his clan to town from Maryland, and they have been nothing but trouble since. They don't answer to their own kind, so it's not like they're out for my blood for the sake of duty. The trouble runs deeper than that. It's a contempt for their heritage, some level of anarchy I suppose."

Lucy put down the sandwich. "What the hell. Are you serious?" She couldn't take it in. "What do you mean? Changing folk, like changing into wolves, monsters... You're saying Eli is..."

"Give yourself half a chance to process this, Lucy. There's always a reason when she gets into my head. Always. I feel at peace with it now I know her intentions are benign. This time. I'm supposed to care for you, protect you and your son. For some reason, Minerva believes that it's important for the city, and she's never wrong."