The Vampires Student Part II:
"Friends and Fiends of the Night"

Chapter 1: "Special needs"

Gillian sat in the back of the sleek black car and stared silently out the window. Gavner Purl, who sat beside her, had the decency and sensitivity to leave her in peace.
It was a long drive.
Their silence was only accompanied by the asthmatic breathing of the vampire. They had left the city lights behind them, and the car was sliding a long time on straight roads through the darkness, when Purl cleared his throat.
"How did he take it?"
He – that was Larten Crepsley, and the question fully outspoken would be: How has Larten Crepsley taken it that you, Gillian, have left him to finish your apprenticeship with Gavner Purl?
"Surprisingly conceived." Gillian played over and over in her mind, what her vampire master had said and done, when she had opened to him a few hours ago, that she would leave him. "He has made bare moves to stop me."
To say it out loud, made it even worse.
It was true.
What had he done to stop her?
It gave her a pang, as she recalled his face. So calm and unmoved.
"Do nothing out of it, dear," said the Gavner and patted her knee.
Gillian forced a smile, and then faced the window.
The old vampire took the hint. He took his hand away from her knee and leaned forward to the driver: "What are you doing? Why do you drive over the bridge, the road is too bad, you will damage the car! "
"But we save several miles this way."
"I don`t care. Take the street around the bridge. I can not stand the rumble of the wheels. "
"As you wish, Sir."
Gillian barely registered that the car slowed and turned around.
She stared into her own face, reflected pale in the black window.
Her large dark eyes looked sadly at her under black bangs.
She could not bear it long and looked away.
She could not even look herself in the eyes anymore.

After an eternity, like it seemed to her, the car drove into a curving driveway and stopped beside a fountain, which, however, was not working, in front of a big mansion. The driver got out and opened first the door for Gillian, and then for Gavner Purl.
The old vampire beau took her hand and smiled: "Impressed?"
Gillian looked up at the facade of the house, ornate and entwined with ivy. Behind each of the hundreds of windows a light burned for her welcoming.
"Wow. It's a beautiful house. And so big. "
"Of course. More rooms than I need. You see, I have enough space for a small student. Shall we? "And he offered her his arm.
Gillian slipped her arm under his and he led her up the many steps to the entrance.
The driver followed them, with Gillian's little luggage under his arm. He pulled out a huge bunch of keys and unlocked the portal.
Gillian felt like Cinderella in a fairy tale, as the old vampire took her to his house. Everything she saw was amazing: the great curving staircase that led to an upstairs gallery, and the darkened oil paintings on the walls, the huge chandelier which softly strummed, as a breeze from the entrance portal made it swing, the sight of an adjacent room full of antique furniture.
"If you would please follow me, Miss," the driver said, pointing up the stairs.
Gillian let go the arm of Gavner, who breathed a kiss on her hand before he retreated into the adjacent chambers.
Gillian hastened up the stairs and followed the driver into countless corridors and hallways into the bowels of the house. When they finally arrived at her room, she asked herself, how she ever should find her way back. Any normal person would have problems to find the way in this huge house, but Gillian was not used to have solid walls around her at all.
Most of the time Gillian and Larten Crepsley had lived in a tent or a trailer, and her time as a human she had spent in a small apartment.
"If you need something or have questions, ring for me," said the driver, after he had put her bag beside an bed.
And what a bed!
Such enormous beds Gillian only knew from television: it was a huge four-poster bed with posts at each corner that supported a canopy of heavy midnight-blue velvet.
Gillian breathed an overwhelmed "thank you" before the man closed the door behind her and left her alone.
The room had a connecting door leading to a parlor, with chairs and a comfortable-looking sofa, and it bordered on a private bathroom.
Gillian was enthusiastic about the tub and immediately filled it with hot water and squeezed almost a full pack of bathing soap into it. She sniffed at the many creams and soaps and perfumes, which were neatly lined up on a shelf, ready for her.
She slipped out of her shabby dress, carelessly let it drop to the floor, and tentatively dipped a toe into the bath.
The water was way too hot, and therefore just right for her.
Slowly, she climbed into the tub and gleefully plunged into a mountain of suds.
Sighing, she closed her eyes in the hot water.
That was exactly what she needed.
In her life with Larten Crepsley she often had to settle with a cold shower or a just a cat wash. Sometimes there was not even that for days, when they were forced to stay in cemeteries or in dilapidated old houses.
The Cirque had offered more convenience and comfort, but the showers were built makeshift in a trailer and however nothing at all like THIS.
"I could have had this much sooner," Gillian thought and grinned.
Then she dipped her head under the water and disappeared in the foam.