History of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Castle Series Book 4) (15 page)

“You do?” I asked, momentarily thrown off. I was so caught up in my own news it was hard to change gears. “Well, I have news first, and you’re never going to believe it.”

“Let me tell first,” Lilly said. “I’ve been waiting for hours for you to get home.”

She was bubbling with excitement and so was I. I gripped her hands and we both started to giggle. “Okay, you first,” I told her, “but tell it quick because I’m about to burst.”

“We’ve been invited to a dance in Mansfield,” she blurted. “And there’s going to be a swing band and everything.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant by “we’ve” been invited. She was grinning from ear to ear. I didn’t want pour cold water on her excitement, so I hedged for more information by saying, “Walter invited you?”

“No, not exactly,” she said, looking a little sly. “It’s Lev who can get the tickets. But he’s allowed to have four, so he thought it would be fun for the four of us to go.”

“You mean you’re going on a double date with Lev and another girl,” I insisted.

Lilly’s face fell. “Don’t you want to hear a swing band?”

“Sure,” I said with a shrug. “But I can do that on the radio.”

“I mean don’t you want to see and hear a swing band? Lev is a great dancer,” she assured me.

“Right.” I shook my head a little. “I suppose he told you that himself.”

“Come on, Lettie,” she said. “You know Mama and Papa won’t let me go unless you’re with me. Please?”

My sister’s face was aglow with excitement, probably at the thought of Walter holding her in his arms under the guise of dancing. But the thought of Lev Wilson having his arms around me made me cringe. I didn’t care if he was a good dancer; there was just something about him that made me want to run a mile in the opposite direction.

“You have to let me know now,” Lilly insisted, “because Lev needs to know if he should take the tickets.”

It sounded like an evening to dread. “When is it?” I asked.

“Next month,” she told me, beaming with anticipation.

“Doesn’t that leave plenty of time for Lev to find a date with another girl?” I asked. “I mean, aren’t there dozens of young women lining up just hoping he’ll give them the time of day?”

My sister put her hands on her hips and glared at me. “Do you really expect me to be excited by your good news when you act this way?”

“But my news is actually good news,” I insisted.

Chapter 20

Jessie

“Stop being such a prig,” Daniel said. “This will be our last glimpse of culture before we’re lost in the jungles of Borneo.”

I looked at the line of girls, all in various stages of undress with their negligees showing. “I’m not sure I’d refer to a brothel in New York as culture,” I told him in a low voice, so that the girls couldn’t hear. I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

“At least it’s a Manhattan brothel,” was my brother’s reply. “Just imagine the state of the girls in small town Ohio.” He gave an affected shudder.  “I don’t know what Grandfather was thinking. If he was still around, I’d probably try to stake him myself.”

We’d arrived in New York with no more trouble. Mrs. Denkler was sent on ahead to oversee the preparations of the house while the family stayed in New York for a few extra weeks. One evening Daniel asked me to head out to see the sights. I hadn’t realized that by “sights” my brother had meant the seedy underbelly of the city. In his defense, vice was often the only mortal activities that went on in the middle of the night.

“Just choose one, for pity sake,” Daniel snarled. “You don’t have to feed off of her if you don’t want to.”

I didn’t want to feed off of any of the girls. Or, more truthfully, I desperately wanted to suck the life out of every single one of them, but openly admitting that urge was appalling to me.

As expected, New York was infested with vampires. The Vanderlind name carried some weight in undead circles, so we were welcomed to the city with open arms. Everyone was appalled to hear of the fate of our patriarch. There was even some discussion of setting up a search party, or taking revenge on the mortals who had thrown him overboard. But mother insisted that she had seen him with a stake in his chest as he fell over the side. “Otherwise he would have simply flown away,” she pointed out. And to those vampires hot for revenge, she settled them by saying, “I knew my father best and he wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to put his immortality at risk to avenge his own foolishness. He knew the risk he was taking when he let that young man into his cabin.”

There was ample blood available for us to consume, which brought me great relief. I had barely been clinging to the threads of sanity when a porter finally summoned up the nerve to tell me that I must vacate my cabin and leave the ship.

Mrs. Denkler’s generosity had enabled me to save most of the second pint of blood I had concealed in my valise. Before disembarking the ship, I downed the entire bottle so that I would have enough fortitude to make it through customs. When we were offered refreshment at the house where we were to stay, I didn’t ask how the blood had been obtained. I just gulped it down, feeling grateful that I hadn’t done anyone an injury during the crossing. And that I hadn’t ended up alongside Grandfather at the bottom of the Atlantic.

“You’re stalling,” Daniel said, jolting me out of my reverie. “If I’d known you were going to be such a prude, I would have come by myself and left you to rot with Mother’s stuffy friends.”

It was true, our host and hostess were not the most modern of people. But they had been members of the undead for over two hundred years, so I found it excusable that they hadn’t exactly stayed current with the times. Spending another evening listening to stories about the death of Casanova was quickly losing its appeal. But I would have preferred that to a whore house. I’d never lain with a woman, even though I was as eager as the next seventeen years old fellow. Somehow the thought of a prostitute threw cold water on my desire. They all looked so world weary, even though some of the young women couldn’t have been much older than me. There was a dullness in their eyes that spoke of a numbing of the soul. As a mortal, I had dreamed that my first time would be with my wife, whoever she might be. But I had also dreamed that I would be allowed to marry for love and not to increase the family fortune. Or extend our bloodline.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” Daniel grumbled. Striding over to the group of young women who were putting their wares on display, he plucked a girl out of the line. “Here,” he said, grabbing her by the arm. “She looks about your speed,” he said, shoving her in my direction.

The girl took a few stumbling steps and then fell into my arms. She looked up at me with large, luminous blue eyes and said, “I’m sorry. Pardon me.”

I helped her to her feet, unable to avoid noticing that she was quite lovely, like a pale flower in the moonlight. “It’s not a problem,” I assured her. “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” she said, in a half whisper, blinking rapidly. “And I am happy to go with you. I’m happy to do whatever you ask. But you’ll have to be patient with me, sir, because…” She turned her head away from me to conceal her embarrassment and shame. “This is my first time,” she said in a voice that carried a small tremble.

My first impulse was to protect her. I wanted to take her in my arms and fly away from there to someplace safe and clean. But then she leaned into me, as if a little unsure on her feet, placing a hand on my chest. I could smell the men on her. And not just from a night of customers, but days and days of sweaty sailors and straying husbands climbing on top of her and partaking of the service she provided. The main room of the bordello was illuminated by only one lamp and that light was covered with a red scarf. It was intended to look like part of the atmosphere, but I suspected it was mostly to make the girls appear a little younger and a little less worn than they would in the daylight.

“I’m ready,” the girl told me, tentatively taking my hand. “As long as you promise to be gentle.”

Using my night vision, I could see that she wasn’t actually a young girl at all. She wore her hair in a girlish style and she had a petite figure, but I would have placed her age closer to twenty-seven than seventeen.

Sensing my hesitation, the young woman tugged on my arm again. “Don’t be bashful,” she told me. “We can experience this new adventure together.”

“No, that’s okay,” I told her, gently disengaging my arm. “I wouldn’t want to turn anyone from a fresh flower to a soiled dove. Although I appreciate your willingness.”

“You don’t want to share your first time with me?” she asked, somewhat surprised. Her innocence routine had obviously not been questioned too many times before.

“No thank you,” I told her and then pressed a half-dollar into her palm. “I think you should probably leave this place while you still have your health.”

“Oh, if only I could,” she said, allowing tears to fill her eyes. “But I have nowhere else to go. And no one to be kind to me.”

“I’m sorry to hear of your troubles,” I told her, pressing another half dollar into her palm, “but I am not the right man for you.” I sensed she was about to continue to give me her damsel in distress routine, so I fixed her with my eyes and said, “Trust me when I tell you that I am not a person whom you would want to know more intimately. Now please leave me alone.”

She stared at me for several seconds, not moving or even blinking, before saying, “I understand. And wish you an enjoyable evening.” Then she turned and quickly hurried out of the room.

Daniel made a sound of disgust. “I don’t have all night to dawdle while you act fussy,” he told me. Grabbing a voluptuous red head by the wrist, he began towing her down the hall. “Wait for me, once you’re finished,” he called over his shoulder. “I might go back for seconds.”

“I’m sorry about Crystal,” the Madame said, stepping forward. The older lady had her hair piled high on her head and she had painted a red circle on each cheek as a substitute for any kind of blush reflex. “She’s new to our establishment and maybe a little too untested for your liking. But I’m sure we have plenty of girls who can please you,” she said, indicating the females like a butcher displaying a case full of meat.

Glancing down the line of women and girls, I spied one female who had withdrawn into the corner, furthest away from the lamp. She was older than the others and standing at a peculiar angle that spoke of suppressed pain. I could tell just from looking at her that she was unwell. She’d done her best to cover her malady with plenty of rouge and powder, but I could detect her sallow skin underneath.

Noticing my glance, the Madame perked up. “Has someone caught your eye?” she asked.

“Yes,” I told her. “I’d be happy to get to know the young woman in the corner a little better.”

The Madame frowned. “Are you sure?” she asked, arching an eyebrow in my direction. “Bernadette has been unwell lately, so maybe you might be happier with a different girl.”

“No,” I told her with a polite smile. “Bernadette will suit me just fine.”

The older woman shrugged. “You know your own mind, young man,” she said, then snapped her fingers at the female in the corner. “Bernadette,” she called. “Somebody give her a shove.” Another girl goosed her and Bernadette’s eyes fluttered. “Bernadette, you have a customer.”

“Oh,” the woman said. “Oh, good. And such a handsome man to take an interest in me.” I could tell by the way she moved across the room that she was in immense pain, but she tried to carry it off as if she wasn’t.

Bernadette did her best not to hobble as she led me down a dark passageway to the rooms where the girls plied their trade. Someone, presumably the Madame, had been burning incense to cover the stench of unwashed sheets and human misery. I had to wonder, if this was a high-class whorehouse, what were the low-class whorehouses like? The thought made me shudder.

Mistaking my actions for trembling, Bernadette squeezed my arm. “Don’t worry, sweetie,” she said. “I’m not going to judge you. You can be as quick as you like.”

Chapter 21

Colette

Our mother picked us up from school the next afternoon and drove us out to the castle. “It doesn’t seem right for you girls to arrive on bicycles,” she said, “when applying for work in such a fancy home.”

Lilly and I did our best to clean up in the back of the car while Mama drove. I was so nervous I was practically shaking. We were going to go inside the castle. Sure, it was only the servants’ entrance, but still, we would be inside. I should have been tired because I kept waking up all night with crazy, and wonderful, and frightening dreams, but I was too excited to feel tired. In fact, all day at school I was practically bouncing off the walls.

As we drove up to the castle, I was surprised to see a gate was being erected around the building. I guess that was probably to keep the family’s vicious dogs from running wild. I hadn’t said anything to my family about the dogs. I didn’t want to risk that my parents would refuse to let us work at the castle, just because of some unruly pets.