The Death Thief

Breakfast with Half-Breeds

I awoke to the smell of bacon. Had the savory scent of cured, sizzling meat not tantalized my nose, I may have very well remained in some sort of mild coma.

Wrenching myself out of bed was an easy feat since I spent the night fully clothed on top of the covers instead of nestled deep within the fine linens. Tossing my legs over the side of the mattress, I discovered a little clock framed by ornately carved wood sitting on the nightstand. I struggled for a moment to decipher the arms of the old analog timepiece before determining it to be almost one in the afternoon. Still, bacon called to me and after a short trip to an en suite bathroom to freshen myself up, I headed out the door and into my strange new surroundings.

Once in the hallway, I had the addition of voices to pull me towards what I hoped would be a bountiful meal. I passed a few rooms with closed doors and eventually found myself on the second floor in a large, open foyer. Two staircases on opposing sides of the grand room wound their way down to the first floor. I followed the closest one down, my hand gliding along the smooth, polished wood of the elegant hand rails and my eyes turned up to the ceiling to admire the way the afternoon sun glinted off a majestic chandelier dripping with crystals.

From the foyer, large archways opened up the house. To one side I saw a sitting room with several shelves crammed with books, a fireplace with a stack of logs waiting to be burned, and a grand piano seated before a bank of windows. To the other side I saw what appeared to be more of a lounge with dark wood walls, a wet bar, and an impressive collection of liquor. What I wanted though, was ahead of me. Between the two staircases and past the foyer was a little hall that eventually opened up into a long dining room which had an equally long table inside it. To my great delight, the entire stretch of the table was covered in every type of breakfast food imaginable.

"Good morning, Delilah," said Zelda as she rose up from her seat across from Scarlett. "We just sat down for breakfast, please join us."

"I hope you didn't wait to have breakfast just for me. If my clock was right, we're already well into the afternoon." Though, I honestly feared they had gone through this whole grand display for me, my stomach threw out some of my traditional manners and urged my feet towards a large stack of sausages. Although to call it a stack would be an understatement. There had to be enough sausage there for a small army. Same for the bacon. And to my great surprise there was even a roasted haunch of ham. The pile of pancakes, basket of fruit, and bowl of hash browns, were all a far more reasonable size, but when it came to meat, there seemed to be an endless supply. Which just made me feel all the better about digging in.

"May I?" I asked, my salivating tongue making those two simple words rather unintelligible.

"Of course," said Zelda with a smile. "And don't you worry about the time. We always have breakfast around now. Vampires tend to keep different schedules than the rest of us so we have to shift our day a bit. Though, I must admit, I have gone a tad overboard with the menu today. I just didn't know what you'd like so I made everything." She clapped her hands together and sighed with pride as she surveyed the smorgasbord.

"Will the others be joining us then?" I asked, while I buttered a biscuit.

"What others?" she asked with a tap of her finger on her chin. "Lord Antonov and Natasha? Lord Antonov won't be getting up until around 6:00pm. He risks daylight a bit more as we approach summer. He can't keep his nights too short as he does have business ventures outside of town that he needs to attend to. As for Natasha, she tries to keep her hours to our lord's as much as she can."

I gave her a nod before taking my hefty plate over to a chair next to Scarlett. The silent blonde gave me a twitch of a smile as I sat down. Before her sat a plate of barely touched spinach omelette, whole grain toast, and some smoked salmon.