Darkness surrounded Trotuş’ head when he peeked in through the flaps. “Mr. Sturdza is here,” he whispered.
“I’ll be out in a second,” I replied automatically. My personal guard wouldn’t have bothered me unless it was something important. Ştefan showing up out of the blue definitely fell into that category.
Trotuş disappeared, and I extracted myself from Jesse’s arms, careful not to wake him. I sat on the edge of the cot and rubbed my eyes, realizing I had fallen asleep. We had probably missed dinner too, but it didn’t matter. We could always find food at the mess hall. The potential problem had to do with Ştefan. Well, no better time to face the wolves than the present.
I ran both hands though my long hair, hoping it didn’t look like a mess, and slipped out of the tent in time to see the visitor approaching on the path between the tents. Colonel Oprea accompanied him, his shoulders stiff in the light campaign gear. Once again, I found myself thinking he hadn’t been the right choice for leading six hundred pandurs on enemy ground. He didn’t lack training or devotion, but he did lack experience. The Little Council had insisted on choosing someone who had never left the country so there would be no danger whatsoever for him to fraternize with the vamps. I had done my fair bit of travelling abroad, and I swore my guards were better fit for the job.
“Liana!” Ştefan opened both arms, grinning widely.
I met him half way and returned the hug. Regardless of my concerns, I was happy to see him. We had known each other since childhood, and for a long time, everyone had expected us to end up together, including ourselves. That hadn’t happened, but we had remained good friends. “What are you doing here? Why wasn’t I informed you were coming?”
“It was a surprise.” His white teeth glinted in the moonlight.
“Umm… okay…” That sounded odd, but I would get to the bottom of it, eventually. “Let’s sit outside,” I suggested. “The air is too stuffy in the tent.” And Jesse was sleeping in there, but I didn’t say that out loud. The two men didn’t like each other much.
Spânu and Trotuş volunteered their folding chairs, the ones they used when they sat on guard, and they moved a few steps away to give us some privacy, but not before bringing a tray with drinks for us. Ştefan was a VIP no matter where he went, and although the pandurs got their orders from me, it didn’t stop them from showing their respect towards our future president.
“We’ll talk later, Colonel.” Ştefan dismissed Oprea with a wave of his hand, and this one saluted and left, assuming we had some Little Council business to discuss.
“How are things at home?” I asked as soon as we settled down with a glass of flavored, local wine in hand.
“It’s cold.” Ştefan pretended to shiver. “The meteorologists claim it’s the coldest winter this century.”
That didn’t say much since we were still at the beginning of it. I looked around at the tall trees surrounding our camp, and I stifled a sigh. They would enjoy a Christmas while I was stuck here with all the flowers in full bloom. It didn’t feel like Christmas at all.
“By the way, your mom sent you some homemade ginger bread. It’s in my bags.” He gave me a puzzled look. “I didn’t know you liked gingerbread so much.”
I didn’t, but Jesse did. And mom liked him, even if she had only met him briefly.
“You brought it all the way from Bucharest?”
“Yes. With stops in London, Sydney and Auckland. Good thing I have diplomatic immunity and they never searched my bags.” He smirked.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have…” I said ironically.
“You know I love your mom. She practically raised me. I would make her an honorary Sturdza member if she weren’t a Cantacuzino already.” Ştefan toasted with his glass, and I did the same. My mother rocked and so had his while she had been alive. “She said to make sure you eat well and bring her a full report when I get back. I can’t say no to the Little Council.” Many retired members had reprised their seats in the council since the beginning of the crisis, our parents included. He gave me an up and down look. “You look fine.”
“Thanks. How’s Denisa?” I turned the conversation to his wife.
“She’s… not so fine.” He rolled a shoulder. “She gets bigger by the minute, and now she worries the birth may ruin our Christmas. But you can’t rush these things, especially since she wants a natural birth so she won’t remain with a scar. Which is weird, because the last time she swore she would never go through the same pain again.”
Ştefan shook his head like he didn’t understand her. He often didn’t, but they made a nice couple. They looked great on the promotional materials made for his campaign.
“How are the elections going?” I asked.
“Good. I have a rating of seventy-five percent. Rodica estimates that by the time people get to vote, I’ll have a solid ninety.” He paused. “I’d be happy with an eighty-five.” He smirked, hearing me laugh. “Did you know I’ll be the youngest president we’ve had in, like… ever?”
“Can we stop discussing your ego and talk about something more productive?” I asked, still laughing.
“Okay, okay.” Ştefan pretended to pout and focused on his drink for a few moments. “I’m not delusional,” he muttered. “I know I owe it to favorable circumstances. The vamps managed to pass through our custom security check just when President Stănescu resigned. Of course people would turn to someone who knew how to handle the situation.”
“You wished!” I mocked him.
“As a matter of fact, I would,” he replied testily, but quickly overcame his annoyance. “Hopefully, I will, soon.”
“Any progress with designing better tests?”
Ştefan shook his head. “We still can’t tell the new breed apart from regular people if they’re really young. Our scientists are working on it, but it’s going slowly. It’s not like we have that many subjects to test our procedures on. I was counting on your help.” Disappointment echoed in his voice.
“Believe me, we’re trying…” I sighed. “We can’t seem to be able to catch one alive. It’s like they have a built-in mechanism that doesn’t allow them to surrender and be captured. We don’t want to kill them! Well, we do… but we’d be willing to make an exception if someone agreed to speak to us. We spread the word we’d give a free passage off the island in exchange of some useful information and still nothing. No one’s talking. And the regular vampires we interrogated don’t know anything either.” I huffed, frustrated.
“I know you’re doing your best.” He rested a hand on my arm soothingly.
Obviously, it was not enough. I looked at his hand and pulled my arm away.
“How’s Radu coping with everything?” he asked, pretending not to notice.
“I’m not sure. He spends most of his time at the vamp camp.” It made sense, considering that our mutual friend and former Little Council member had become a vampire. “He leads all the raids, I was told. We don’t speak much, but I guess he’s fine. Otherwise, Max would have said something.” I shrugged. Still, I couldn’t help feeling that Radu avoided me. It was an awkward situation.
“How is Maxie?”
“You better not call him that when he’s around,” I warned him. Rodica had used the nickname first, and it had somehow stuck. “Max is… Max,” I said in lack of a better word. “Did you see him?”
“Not yet, I’ll go there next. I wanted to check on you first.” He smiled and tugged playfully on a lock of my hair.
No matter what had happened between us, we would always be friends, so I returned the smile. “As you see, I’m fine.”
“I see,” he murmured, watching me pensively. “And how’s your doctor?”
“He’s fine too. He spends his days patching up our pandurs so at least he gets to feel useful.” Unlike me was implied.
“You know, when it comes to work, competition is not healthy in a relationship,” Ştefan lectured me.
“Oh, so that’s why Denisa is a housewife,” I bit right back.
“What can I say? She’s highly decorative,” he joked, referring to his former supermodel wife.
We stared at each other in silence. We could joke all we wanted, but it didn’t change the fact that we experienced a crisis, and it had nothing to do with the two of us. We were both past that.
“Really, Ştefan, why are you here?” I asked quietly.
“I needed to get away for a bit, and this was my last chance to do it before the elections. After I become president, I’ll be too busy running the country, and they probably won’t let me leave anyway in fear that something might happen to me.” He didn’t look happy thinking about it. “Besides, we’re at war. I’m here to support the troops’ morale.”
Only Ştefan would use such excuse to go on vacation.
He put his glass down and got up. I followed his lead.
“I’m going to say a quick hello to Radu and Max, and tomorrow we’ll have a proper council meeting,” he said.
“Yes, sir!” I answered with a mocked salute.
He grinned. “By the way, do you know who sends his regards?”
“Who?” I asked warily.
“Captain Nour.”
“No kidding,” I muttered, making a sour face.
“Well, it was more on the lines of…” He looked at the sky, trying to remember. “Tell that spoiled girl to move her ass and do her job quicker because there’s just as much tanning our pandurs can do on Bondi Beach.” He ended with a laugh.
“That sounds like him all right.”
“Between you and me, I heard he’s started his own cleaning operation in Australia. Oh, well… whatever makes him happy while he waits.”
Happy indeed. Captain Nour was not an easy man to please.
Ştefan leaned in to brush his lips against my cheek and with an “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he found his way back to Colonel Oprea and left.
When I turned around, I found Jesse standing in the entrance of the tent. With wide eyes, he looked like he’d been standing there—on the other side of the flaps—for a while. Bella’s pointed nose peeked from behind his knee.
“I taught you badly,” I scolded him with a mocked scowl. “Eavesdropping on people…” I didn’t ask him how much he understood as his Romanian was better than I had initially thought, and this was the language we used at the camp when we didn’t have foreign visitors. If Max stopped by, everybody would politely switch to English—some pandurs even spoke German—but in Jesse’s presence there were fifty-fifty chances to hear either language, and no one minded it. He was one of us.
“What did he want?” he asked in a low voice.
I wondered the same thing. “I’m not sure. We’ll find out tomorrow.”
He reached out and ran his hand along my arm. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, of course.” I leaned into his touch, smiling, and I meant it.
At this point, Jesse’s stomach growled, reminding us we had skipped dinner.
“Hey, did he say something about gingerbread?”