What We Do In The Shadows: "Jen..."
Summary: There are unexpected consequences when Laszlo seeks a new human familiar...
Part XLIV...
The Cravensworth crypt within the old residence...Approaching eleven...
"Laszlo? Lassszzlo...?" plaintive call.
"Yes, me lady wife? What's about?" From the opposing coffin...
"I'm afraid..."
"Oh, my dearest...Nothing to fear...Truly."
"Van Helsing's minion...The Cicely perhaps...Laszlo...?"
"Darling we're quite safe. Plenty of daytime support. All will be well..."
"So said that guy Pompey in that television show of 'Rome' just before the fat Egyptian kid had his head cut off..." sigh. "Will you sleep with me tonight?"
"Gladly, dear...Just...I'm a bit stout-fitting for two in one coffin."
"We can leave the lid open...Though you ought to lose some weight."
"I have tried, dear. Curse of immortality..." he emerges from his coffin in 19th century nightshirt and opens the lid of her standing, at angle, coffin...She now out of modern business suit and in 19th century nightgown, with cap, eyeing him with sad eyes...
"There, there...Nandor may not be the brightest light bulb but he is our best fighter." Laszlo notes, trying to ease into the coffin's space. "And Ginny is getting intel on this fellow who visited...Perhaps not the Cicely at all, just some feeble, if over-confident vampire hunting ordinary human."
"Van Helsing was an ordinary human and he nailed Dracula...And many others." Looking away, shaking head.
"Sweetheart..." pat.
"Laszlo...?" Turning back... "You didn't summon him? Your soul, I mean. You don't hate me?" she asks, sadly.
"Not even my soul hates you, Nadja. And I didn't summon Van Helsing."
"Thank you." Embraces him. "Dammit, close the lid, it's cold. And you could've worn socks, Jen darned enough pairs for you. Your feet are ice!"
He pulls lid as closed as possible.
"You did lock the crypt door? Laszlo? Did you lock the crypt door?"
"I'll go and check, just a mo..."
"Our existence in danger and you didn't lock the crypt door?!"
"I'm going to check now..." he emerges, rolling eyes at the camera.
"Close the lid! I want a little privacy!"
"Yes, dear...Certainly." Closing lid.
"Is it locked or no?"
"I'm just going over...One mo..." he calls.
"Oh, you don't remember? Something like that, that our lives could depend on?! You forgot, didn't you?! Laszlo?!" call from within coffin
"Darling, please..." he reaches door of vault...Locked.
"It was locked. It's fine, dear." Calls.
"Uh-huh. I'd like to see the film tomorrow. I bet you didn't lock it. Laszlo, where is your head these days?! Moron!"
He acts out dumb show of being staked and receiving peace at last...Thank you know who...He mouths...
"Laszlo?! What's taking you so long? Stop partying with the human boys and come back to me..." mournful tone.
He puts up hands in wry plea, shaking head to camera...
"Lasssszzzllooo...!"
...
The living room of the old residence...
Where a dutiful Nandor, now in one of his simpler old uniforms...
If one is to meet the enemy in battle, one should show the respect of proper attire...
Thanked a sardonic Colin for his attendance...
"No problemo..." Colin grins to camera, seated by Nandor. "I'd love to see you do battle with a girl armed with a stick...Or some wuss human hunter."
"I trust I can trust you to assist me by at least draining him or her..." Nandor eyes him.
"Absolutely. Would I pass on that feverish Slayer or fear-soaked or foolhardy courageous energy?"
"Good, then. I trust I shall vanquish any foe attacking us tonight."
"Cicely's never been beaten...Herself or in any reincarnation...Nor was Van Helsing by all accounts I know. Good luck." Grin.
"Thank you." Dutiful nod.
"Whatever...Where do you want the ashes scattered?"
Nandor eyeing him... "My homeland, if you would be so kind."
"Ah...The rationality of a true general...They said the true greatness of a commander is how he handles defeat."
"I hope for victory...But I know how wars can go..." shrug. "Will you do so, should I fall?"
"Sure..." mocking bow... "An honor, sir...As they say in books and movies at least." Nod.
Certainly a gleeful pleasure...Oh you enemy... Pity though he has to have some nobility to him, even in this form...
Rather have him trumpian. Boasting to the end he could never lose due to his 'stable genius' as a commander...
But I'll gladly dump your ashes in that dung hill of an ex-country...And piss on em.
And I'll see you happily in Hell as well, after. Along with the Cravensworths...
The one thing still not quite nailed down yet...The one piece I need to make it all worthwhile...
The three of you in Hell...With me...Forever...None of that wussy last decades redemption and escaping your Fate.
And my poor Henrietta, safe in Heaven where she belongs. You did me a service there, in a way, Nandor, killing her before she could condemn herself. But I'm long past being the type to count such favors against debts. And cutting me off from her forever is a debt nothing can really forgive.
But you won't escape...No kindly Dutch vampire redeemer...And your f-ing traces of Humanity that opened an escape route for you won't save you. I'm the Anchor that will drag you with me down to Hell, all of you.
"Thank you, Colin Robinson..."
"Anytime, a pleasure..." grin.
...
Mexico City...The Gran Ciudal Hotel...
"Nice..." Susan looks about the foyer as Dracula and Guillermo carry in the bags.
"Very. I've stayed here a few times when visiting the city." Dracula/Dr. Acura notes. "You should call your family, Guillermo while Miss Susan and I register. I'm sure your aunt Rosa will be relieved to hear you and she arrived safely."
"Yeah, probably a good idea, Gui..." Susan agrees, eagerly.
Hmmn...Dracula seems to want a moment with her? Guillermo ponders.
Geesh, he not gonna release her from thrall now? I really don't want her cursing me in the middle of the hotel and in front of my family...Sigh.
But he good as said he couldn't...
Hmmn...The two had already moved off to the registration desk as he stood...
Well, may as well...
"Well...If it isn't Guillermo?" a somewhat familiar, if elusive, voice addresses him...He turning suddenly.
"Mrs. Afanas?" he blinks at the rather changed if just barely recognizable figure before him. The former familiar and widow of their powerful vampiral guest, now in a rather lovely pink suit and blouse, sunglasses elegantly in hand beaming at him. Her remarkably youthful and softened features belying her ninety-nine (actual) years.
"I'm visiting a few friends here in Mexico City." She smiles. "In fact, I think we're both visiting one. Sorry to hear your dear aunt, my old friend Rosa, is so ill."
She did say she was a vampire hunter's daughter...Guillermo eyes her. And I imagine ours is a rather small, if international, community...
...
"So Doctor...?" Susan smiles at Dracula. "How long have you known Gui's aunt?"
"Decades, my dear...Forgive an old man's vanity if I am imprecise as to the exact date. Might I ask in turn how long you and Guillermo have been together?"
"Oh, long enough, though not that long...I have my vanity too, Doctor." Smile.
"Miss...Room 413. Doctor, yours is 802." The returned desk clerk offers key cards. "Would like help with your bags?"
"Not for me, my boy, thank you. I tend to travel rather light." Dracula smiles, raising his relatively small bag.
Hmmn...Could be just big enough to carry a little native soil...Susan thinks.
Though he sure takes daylight well enough...
And it could just as easily hold stakes...And holy water...
Though I think I'd get some kind of "back-off" vibe...
Could be he's clever enough to just have clothes and a toothbrush in there...
"Uh, you can have mine taken up..." Susan notes to the clerk, offering her and Guillermo's modest luggage, taking her key cards as Dracula did his.
"I see your fiancée has met an old friend of mine..." Dracula notes, looking to where Guillermo stood talking with Mrs. Afanas.
Susan looking quickly...
So...That's why the doctor wanted to separate us...
"She's also an old friend of his aunt. Mrs. Afanas..." Dracula waves.
Guillermo looking over to see a sight he'd never expected to see from his study of vampiral lore...If more the fictional, romantic sort.
The famed Dracula happily waving to an old friend with a lovely young woman, though in thrall, not his own servant by his side, he quite the urbane modern tourist in a fine suit.
Still, Bela Lugosi's Dracula had spent his first night in London at the theater charming his new neighbors...
"So you know...?" Guillermo begins.
"Count Dracula? Certainly...He and my husband had a rather interesting rivalry/friendship for centuries." She smiles. "Dr. Acura!" she waves, calling. "How nice you were able to come!." Lowering voice... "We'll speak later, when your lady friend is unable to listen, all right?" she eyes Guillermo quickly.
....
The dining room and bar of the Gran Ciudal...
Dracula's suggestion of a light snack and nightcap before retiring having been eagerly accepted by Mrs. Afanas and Susan...
"So last week I was in Palm Beach, doing the tour of those lovely little 1920s hotels, the ones all in pastel...?" Mrs. Afanas continues the tale of her travels...
"Oh, yeah, I was down there once, Ginny sent me to look at some property her husband had a finger in." Susan notes. "Those are beautiful, we should go sometime, Gui."
"Yeah..." Guillermo nods, anxiously.
So clearly this is some kind of vamp hunters' get together...All for Auntie?
Well, just gotta wait till either Dracula Reformed or the wife of the super vamp I killed fill me in...Or maybe that's Auntie's job. Though the Missus A did want to speak...
"Lovely...Barren, my husband always wanted to see them." Mrs. Afanas sighes. "But I felt his presence with me throughout. And earlier when I was in Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and at the Universal Studios of Orlando."
"Barren Afanas, your husband...Who stayed with...Gui's friends and landlords?" Susan, carefully.
"Indeed. They were so kind to us..." Mrs. Afanas smiles at Guillermo. "Thanks to them, my Barren got to see much of New York before he passed on. Even got to try pizza pie..." beaming at the memory.
"Really?" Susan eyes Guillermo...Who nods.
"That's wonderful to hear. Barren always needed a chance to get away and travel." Dracula notes. "He was so oppressed with his work in Europe. A rather high-level executive and diplomatic position in the European Union..." he explains to Susan.
"It was very nice for both of us. I'm only sorry he didn't see more but I am seeing it for him." Mrs. Afanas, wiping a slight tearing.
"I am sure his soul is free and traveling with you." Dracula, patting her arm. "Yes, I'll take another glass of that excellent red wine, thank you, Miss. My dears, I heartily recommend this one." As their waitress pauses by their table.
So Dracula does drink...Wine...Guillermo thinks. "Another diet Coke for me, thanks."
"But what is this the good doctor tells me? You two are betrothed?" Mrs. Afanas smiles at the beaming Susan and the rather nervous Guillermo. "How pleased Rosa will be to hear this. But have you told her? She hadn't mentioned it to me last we spoke."
"Uh...No, not yet." Guillermo, sighing.
"It's just been a short time since I got Gui to ask me." Susan smiles. "We haven't even settled on a ring or a date yet."
"Well, waste no time, young lady." Mrs. Afanas, firmly. "Life is short, even for those who might believe they can live forever."
"Where are you off to, after you've seen Rosa?" Dr. Acura asks.
"Well, I still have the entire Midwest and Western US to see. Not to mention Canada and Hawaii..." smile. "But I may see a bit of Mexico first. It's such an interesting mix of old Spain and the New World." Mrs. Afanas nods. "What about you, dears? Will you travel? Broadens the mind and I would recommend some while you're both young and have your health. At least you will travel for your honeymoon, won't you?"
"We haven't decided..." Guillermo, hastily.
"But here we are, travelin' now." Susan beams.
"Indeed." Dr. Acura nods. "And as Cicely says..."
Guillermo blinking...
Who...?
"...travel broadens the mind."
"Cicely...?" he eyes Mrs. Afanas.
"My grandmother was British..." she smiles.
Susan eyeing Guillermo, then Mrs. Cicely Afanas, carefully.
What the hell...Am I right about...?
Gui?
Not wanting to be racist but...Somebody got some 'plainin' to do...Quickly...Tonight.
Fortunately there's no escapin' my web, Guillermo, she eyes him.
"How did you all meet, Doctor?" Susan, benign smile. "I mean you and Mrs. Afanas and Auntie Rosa."
"A long and likely boring story...But if you're not too tired..." Dracula smiles, raising a finger.
"Not at all." Susan nods.
"On a battlefield, no less...Eh, Cicely?" he smiles. "In the Balkans..."
"Oh...You mean like the Serbs and the Bosnians...? In the 90s?" Susan asks.
"Serbs, Bosnians, Croats...Romanians...But it was the 80s." Dracula nods.
I'd ask if he means 1880s but I don't think I want to know Auntie Rosa is actually that old...Guillermo thinks.
...