In the Company of Vampires

“Where are your troublesome trio?” he asked, looking around.



“They’re out where we tried summoning Loki, ostensibly to ready the area, but I heard Isleif telling Eirik that the woman he was with last night didn’t like his thong tan lines, so I suspect they’re really out there working on their all-over tans.”



Ben’s gaze was steady on mine. “Do I need to point out just how odd it is that you have three Viking ghosts who enjoy nude sunbathing?”



“Not at all. Nor do you have to mention the fact that their choice of sacrificial offerings is on the eccentric side.”



He closed his eyes for a few seconds. “Do I want to know?”



“I have them right here.” I pulled up onto a nearby table a small foam cooler that Eirik had presented me with a few hours earlier. “Sacrificial item number one: a pink bunny vibrator.” I held up the adult toy, flicking it on. It buzzed loudly, the pink rabbit moving up and down against the shaft of the toy in a manner that could only be described as obscene.



Ben stared at it. “You’re joking.”



“Alas, no. Item number two: a magazine featuring breasts that could in no way have their origins in nature.” I waved a bright red magazine with the title Busen-Extra in front of him. His eyes widened.



“Good god. No, they don’t look natural at all.”



I quickly tossed the magazine back into the cooler, straightening my shoulders as I did so. Ben didn’t say anything about the fact that the move thrust my breasts out, but I did see a tiny little smile form. “The final sacrificial item is over there.” I pointed to the end of the trailer, where a huge four-foot-tall triangular tube leaned against the hitch. The upper part of the package was torn, exposing shiny foil.



“A giant Toblerone?” Ben asked, squinting at it. “It looks partially eaten.”



“It is. Evidently Finnvid got a bit peckish on the way back to the Faire.”



Ben looked from the cooler to the chocolate to me. “They’re insane.”



“I admit that they seem that way, but they are Vikings, and to them, these are desirable things. Eirik and Finnvid had to wrestle the magazine away from Isleif.”



Ben’s eyes narrowed on me. “Why aren’t you more upset about this?”



“Because of the epiphany I had.”



“Ah, yes, that. What was it about?”



“Well, it was obvious to me that there’s no way on this good green earth that Loki would want a vibrator and a porn magazine. The chocolate might sway him, but going on the assumption that he can get as much chocolate as he wants, I started thinking about what would actually tempt him to answer a summons. And then I hit on it, the one thing that would be sure to draw him out from wherever he’s hiding.”



Ben thought for a moment, enlightenment dawning in his eyes. “That might do it.”



“I thought it would. Do you mind taking me there? I looked it up and it’s about an hour’s drive.”



“I don’t mind, but I had wanted to talk to David about de Marco.” Ben pulled out his cell phone, frowning at it. “He hasn’t answered my text message.”



“I’m sure he will. I’d really like to talk to my mom, Ben. I need to know for sure if Loki is involved with her or not.”



He pulled me against his chest and gave me a quick kiss. “Then we will go to find Tesla immediately. Let me get a different hat from Imogen’s trailer, since mine is covered in blood, and then we will leave.”



“Great. I’ll go get the Vikings.”



He paused halfway across the common area. “Do you have to?”



“They were sent to help me with Loki. I assume that Freya knew what she was doing, and they will help me somehow. I admit I can’t quite see how yet, but I’m sure they’ll be helpful. Kind of.”



Ben rolled his eyes and proceeded on to Imogen’s trailer. I toddled out to the far pasture, yelling from a few hundred yards away for the Vikings to put on some clothes so we could tackle Loki.



“You will offer him the sacrifices after all?” Eirik asked as he trotted up, clad in a pair of biker shorts that molded to his body in a way that had me averting my eyes.



“No, I really do think that you guys can enjoy the sacrifices yourselves.” The vision of the obscene rabbit came immediately to mind. I banished it, along with any ideas of how the Vikings might care to use it. “We’re going to a small horse farm about an hour away. Which means we’re going to need to get you guys transport, since I noticed that David reclaimed his car sometime during the early hours of the morning. Perhaps Imogen would drive you. . . .”



“Not until Finnvid is done spurning her,” Eirik interrupted, and then added loftily, “We will have our friends take us to this horse farm.”



“Friends? What friends?” I asked, unable to keep from being a bit suspicious.



“Does it matter?” Eirik asked, pushing me toward the trailers. “Where is the town?”



I told him the name of it, and gave rough directions gleaned from a quick map search on my cell phone.



“We will be there, goddess. In an hour?”



“It’ll take you that long to get there. Let’s say two hours—I want to talk to Imogen before we leave.”



“Remind her that I am spurning her woman’s time,” Finnvid said as he marched off with the others. I thought for a moment of pointing out that the towel he’d wrapped around his lower half wasn’t exactly clothing, but given some of the bizarre costumes I’d seen in town, I figured no one would notice.



Ben was giving Imogen a rundown of all that had happened in the last twelve hours. She sat huddled over a cup of tea, a large bottle of painkillers next to her.



“Fran! Thank the goddess. Please tell Benedikt he may touch me.”



I blinked at her. “I beg your pardon?”



“My belly. The cramps are very bad this time, and he can ease them, only he said he wouldn’t without you saying it was all right, which is just silly because I am his sister! You can’t mind if he rubs my belly.”



“Of course I don’t mind.” I looked at Ben with a new appreciation. “You can make cramps go away?”



“I told you that I have some healing powers with people close to me.” Imogen hurried over to a white leather couch, lying back on it with her hands on her upper stomach.



“If you had told me five years ago that I never had to have cramps again . . . well, things would have been different, that’s all I’m saying.” I watched with interest as Ben knelt next to Imogen, placing both hands on her abdomen, kneading gently. She tensed up for a moment, then sighed and relaxed.



“Oh, that is so much better than the medicine,” she purred, a blissful look stealing over her face. “Thank you, Fran.”



I laughed. “Don’t thank me. Thank Mr. Magic Hands. You are totally on call for cramp duty with me, Ben. I always have a couple of hellish days.”



He smiled, lifted Imogen’s hand to kiss it, then rose and went to find his hat as Imogen chatted about the situation with Naomi.



“Do you wish for me to come with you?” she asked as she put away the pain meds and poured me a cup of tea.



“I would prefer you stay and talk to the watch for us,” Ben told her, putting on a black leather fedora that matched his distressed jacket. “They will no doubt be here in the next hour.”



“What do you want me to tell them?”



“Just that we’ll be back later. We have to find where Miranda is staying, and then David will no doubt wish to locate Naomi.”



“I think you should leave her to the watch,” Imogen said, her face tight with worry as she reached out, like she was going to touch Ben’s shoulder, but stopped, casting me a sidelong glance.



Why is she acting like I’m the queen of jealousy? She has to know I’m not going to get mad if she touches you.



You are my Beloved now, in deed as well as name. Moravian women do not, as a rule, touch Dark Ones who have a Beloved.



Why?



It is a sign of disrespect.



“Imogen,” I said, interrupting Ben as he started to explain that David would not tolerate allowing the watch to mete out the justice David felt was his. “I am not jealous of your relationship with Ben. I am not a typical Beloved. If you want to pat him on the arm, or shoulder, or kiss him on the head like you always used to do, then you go right ahead and do it. We might be a couple, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be his big sister.”



“Oh, Fran!” she cried, hugging me with a strength that belied her petite size. “Thank you for accepting Benedikt! You are the best thing that could ever have happened to him. To us. I’m so happy!”



“That’s why you’re crying?” I said, laughing as I hugged her back.



“I always get weepy at this time of the month,” she answered, sniffling, then reached out to hug Ben. “I will stay here and handle the watch for you. Go and find Miranda. And you will call me if you need my help, yes? ”



We promised to do just that. The drive to the farm where Tesla lived could be a bit hairy at times, since Ben didn’t have a helmet to protect his face from the sun, although he did have leather gloves to keep his hands from being burned. But his face . . . I worried about that until Imogen bestowed on him a black silk scarf and pair of wraparound sunglasses. He wrapped the former around his lower face, slid the latter into place, and with my arms firmly around him, we headed off on his motorcycle to a farm region north of Munich.



Tesla was an elderly white horse, a Lipizzan I had saved from being turned into whatever it is people turn horses into these days—dog food, I presumed. Just how Tesla came to be with me is an odd story, and even odder is the mystery that surrounds him, a mystery I never did have time to fully investigate. But strangest of all is his relationship to Loki, one that I would never have imagined in a million years if Loki himself hadn’t explained it to me.



“Mikaela!” I greeted the woman with short black hair as she emerged from a neat little house surrounded by pastureland. She was followed by two little girls, both of whom had inherited her husband Ramon’s copper hair and quiet, studied demeanor.