Helen went up on the roof around 8:00 p.m. She thought it might be a little early for Nikola, but he was there with his omnipresent bottle of wine.
He poured a second glass for her when he heard her walking across the roof behind him. She sat down and began sipping the wine, enjoying the view of the lit waterfall.
"How are you coming on the patents?" she asked.
"I've got a lot of the drawings done and Henry is scanning them into the computer. He's assisting with the forms- forms and forms and forms. Yuck. Can we talk about something else?"
"I've been enjoying our 'conversation'."
"Me too, but now I'm stuck. My next step was going to be asking you out on a date, but that's not going to work."
"A date? Why won't it work?" Helen was both interested and wary.
"Where would we go? It's not like we can share a meal together. We each find what the other one eats . . . shall we say 'unappetizing'? And how many hours in travel time would it take us to get to a major city to see a play, a concert, or any type of performance? Helen, you didn't think the cultural isolation thing through before you set up shop here."
"Oh. You do have a point, but I was thinking about work, not social interactions beyond friendship. A walk in the garden?"
"With the kids around. How romantic. Same goes for dancing on the roof. It wouldn't take ten minutes before we had company."
They sat in silence a few moments while Helen digested that. He really had thought about it, which pleased her. But she couldn't think of anything to suggest. There wasn't much privacy at the Sanctuary except in one's quarters, and she was certainly not ready to entertain Nikola in her room or spend the evening in his.
Nikola continued "We could do a weekend somewhere, take in some shows, find some quaint little shops, share a room, and see the sights?" He looked at her hopefully.
"You've gotten ahead of yourself, Nikola. I'm not spending a weekend alone with you. Besides, we both have work to do."
Nikola sighed. He'd hoped she'd agree to the weekend away together, although he knew the 'rooming together' proposition would get shot down.
"I wish I could take you to a ball" he said.
"A ball? I wouldn't have expected that from you. Have you ever actually been to one?"
"Of course. I was quite the toast of the town for a while in New York, and the parties were fantastic. I didn't go to that many, I was working quite a bit, but the ones I did go to were the epitome of conspicuous consumption."
"I can't imagine you enjoying a room crowded with people."
"Hey, vampire; plain old human germs don't have a chance."
Helen laughed. "Well, unfortunately there aren't any Society people down here to throw one for us."
"Remember what it was like? Every day or two you would get one of the fancy embossed invitations and pick out which ones you would grace with your presence. Then you'd get all dressed up, pick up your date and ride together in the carriage with the horses clip-clopping up in front. The early summer air was soft and fragrant with the scent of early flowers, the moon and stars visible above."
"Until one of those new-fangled noisy motor cars came along and spooked the horses."
"Come on, Helen, play along."
"Oh, all right."
"You could see the lights and hear the music and bursts of laughter as you approached the house. The gentleman would assist the lady down from the carriage and they would go in, dazzled by the bright light after being in the dark."
'And the lady might lean just a moment longer than necessary on the gentleman's arm as she exited the carriage."
Nikola smiled. "She might. Inside were the ladies in their beautiful gowns, with their jewelry throwing off sparks of light as they mingled and danced. The gentlemen were all in tails, tuxedoes or uniforms bright with epaulets, braids, medals and swords."
Helen leaned her head back and sipped her wine. "And the most handsome gentleman of all was the one at your side."
"And the most beautiful lady of all had her hand on your arm. There would be champagne and delicacies to sample. The orchestra played beautiful melodies, old and new, and the couples swirled around the dance floor. There were galops and waltzes and even a polka or two."
"The ladies competed to fill their dance cards with the names of the handsomest, most dashing gentlemen."
"And sometimes they danced with someone totally inappropriate and scandalized everyone; like a lowly foreign inventor." Nikola was watching Helen out of the corner of his eye. She seemed to be enjoying this.
Helen said "Everyone exchanged the latest news and watched to see if they could tell who was cheating on their spouse and with whom."
"When the room became too warm, the gentleman might find his partner and escort her out for a walk in the rose garden in the moonlight. And in private he might try to steal a kiss."
Helen laughed a little. "I do remember that. He might or might not be successful."
"And for the last dance, the gentleman would reclaim his partner, and around they would whirl. They would make their goodbyes to the host and hostess, and he would escort her out to the waiting carriage. The air would be cool, and they would snuggle together under the carriage rug."
"But not too much snuggling."
Nikola pouted a little. "Everything would be completely- well mostly proper. The gentleman would escort her to her door, anticipating the touch of her hand, perhaps the touch of her lips."
"A small peck on the cheek perhaps, for a very good friend."
They sat together in silence for a while, smiling at their memories of such events; but they had never attended one together.
"Too bad we don't have a ball to go to" said Nikola.
"It is too bad, but I'm afraid those days are over." Helen finished her wine and stood up. "Do you want to continue to exchange messages?"
Nikola shrugged. "That depends on what else we can think of to do" he said with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.
"You are incorrigible."
"You can corrige me anytime you want."
"Good night, Nikola."
/
In the morning Helen's desk was strewn with peach blossoms- "I am your captive". A bit dramatic, she thought. There was also a message marked "urgent" on her computer.
The message was from a Sanctuary team in Eastern Europe. They had been investigating reports of a vampire in the area. They hadn't taken it very seriously at first, since Dracula was a big tourist draw in that region, until they had seen the corpses of two men who had gone cave exploring. The bodies were described as battered, half stripped, and drained of blood. They had been found at the cave entrance, rather than inside the cave, without any gear.
The team wanted guidance. Could it be a vampire, or was there some sort of animal or abnormal that could produce the same results, or perhaps a combination of human thieves and an animal? Did she have any experts on vampires she could send?
Just one, and I don't know that I can spare him right now. Helen called a meeting later in the morning with Will, Henry, and Nikola after Nikola was up. She showed them the message.
"There are a great many possible answers here. There are both animals and abnormals that could have produced the physical evidence, and human thieves could account for the missing items" Helen began.
"So you're pretty sure it wasn't Dracula" Will interjected dryly.
"Actually, I'm not. Persistent legends are often based in fact. I doubt the long-dead Prince of Wallachia is killing people, but there is the possibility that this was done by a vampire. I'm not aware of any surviving to the present day, but Afina survived, though in stasis. Nikola, do you have an opinion?"
"Did they send any pictures?"
She passed him two that she had printed. He looked at them, but shook his head. "I can't tell much from these." He passed them on to Will, who grimaced at the grisly, slightly blurry photos.
Helen said "I couldn't tell much from them either. We need two experts on site; one who has a broad range of knowledge and experience differentiating between abnormals and animals, and a vampire expert." All heads turned to look at Nikola.
Helen continued "Since I have the best likelihood of identifying what did this, I will be going. And just in case it does turn out to be a vampire, I want Nikola with me. Nikola, how far along are you on those patent applications?"
Will said "Wait a minute . . ."
At the same time Nikola said "I have submitted the ones most likely to be accepted by the patent office, but there are still several that I need to do, and I should probably look at variations and improvements as well."
Will stood up. "You can't run off to Transylvania with just him. If it does turn out to be a vampire, he'd probably join forces with it and try to take over the world. Again."
"Nikola is part of the team, just like the rest of us, and he's to be trusted just like the rest of us. And it's not Transylvania, it's a border region between Hungary and Romania. Keep in mind, there already is a team there; we will just be augmenting it. Anything else?"
Henry said "I'll boost the signal on a couple of walkie-talkies so you'll have more range if you end up in the cave, which you probably will, and pack your headlamps."
"Thank you Henry. Nothing else? Meeting adjourned."
Nikola stood up, and Will stepped in front of him. "You better make sure she comes back safely" he said seriously.
"I'm surprised you haven't noticed yet, William, Helen can take care of herself" Nikola said. He pushed past Will to go pack.
/
The flight to Budapest was uneventful. The three-person Sanctuary team met them at the airport, and drove them directly to Dagyleta, Hungary, where the bodies were being held. The team introduced themselves: Karl Hofstetter, a fit-looking man of about 50 and the leader of the team; Jerry Carou, a short wiry man and the only abnormal on the team, who called himself a 'wererat'; and Julienne Linderskolm, a blond thirty-something woman who provided tech support.
Helen and Nikola both examined the bodies; Nikola thought the dual pinholes in each neck could be vampire bites, but couldn't see any reason for the rest of the injuries, including significant bruising and scraping before death, cuts on their arms and hands, and broken necks. He thought if a vampire had attacked them at least one of them should have been relatively uninjured except for the bite marks. And while the bodies were pale, lividity showed they had not been completely drained of blood.
"If these two had run into a hungry vampire, I expect one of them would have been knocked aside, hard, and the other one bitten with only minimal bruising from being held still" Nikola explained. "If the second man had tried to pull the vampire off his friend, he could easily have sustained these types of injuries."
"These bodies aren't completely drained of blood, but quite a lot was taken from both. Could a vampire have consumed that much?" Helen asked.
Nikola considered. "Possibly, depending on the size of the vampire and how much blood was lost in the fight. At least one of the defensive wounds hit an artery."
Karl said "There wasn't any blood where the bodies were found, so we figured they had been killed elsewhere and dumped at the cave entrance. There were no drag marks, so they were carried there."
Helen looked perplexed. "Have there been any reports of large felines in the area? Any unusual tracks? The cuts could have been caused by any number of animals, and we don't know if the marks on their necks were related to their deaths, or if they died of broken necks or blood loss from their injuries."
Jerry said "I've been talking to the locals, they didn't say anything about any unusual animals or sightings in the area. And animals wouldn't have taken the men's pants, socks, boots, and knapsacks and left them in their sliced up shirts and underwear."
"So basically, anything usable was taken." Helen said thoughtfully. "I don't suppose any of it has turned up?"
Julienne said "No, I got a list of what they had with them from their families and checked the resale shops in the area."
"Tomorrow we will need to see the cave" Helen told the team. "Be prepared to go exploring. Julienne, you will stay above ground to provide liaison with the Sanctuary. Keep Dr. Zimmerman in the loop on whatever we find."
Julienne nodded. Communications was one of her responsibilities.
They went to the hotel where the team was staying and got rooms for Helen and Nikola. Nikola was a little disappointed that the small hotel had two vacant rooms available; he had had visions of sharing with Helen.
Helen had reviewed the files of the members of the team before she left the Sanctuary, so she knew their backgrounds and capabilities, but there was one thing she needed to see. She had the entire team come to her room.
Helen said "Jerry, I'm familiar with several types of Hyper Accelerated Proteans, but not yours. Please show us your 'wererat' form."
Jerry nodded and said "Sure." He took off his shoes and socks. Then he changed. His feet and hands lengthened and became clawed, his knees bent in the opposite direction, he grew short dark brown fur the same color as his hair, his ears enlarged and his face elongated into a long, pointy snout with two long sharp teeth in the front. The tip of a tail peeked out of one pant leg, but overall his changed body fit reasonably well inside his clothes.
Karl said "He's very strong and quick in that form; he can understand speech but he can't talk well. He can run up any vertical surface as long as it's not extremely smooth. He's too lightweight to be a major fighter, but he can do damage with his claws and teeth."
Nikola looked at the wererat closely, but said nothing. Helen wanted him to start getting used to associating more with the Sanctuary abnormals. Helen was pleased to see he didn't seem at all disturbed or disgusted by the young man's alternate form, just mildly interested.
"Thank you, Nikola and I needed to know what to expect if you transformed. If we were to become separated, we would need to be able to recognize you."
Jerry gave them a toothy smile, and changed back. "Okay, Doc."
Helen let him get away with the informality since they would be working together, and she already liked the young man; he reminder her a bit of Henry. She turned to Nikola. "Your turn."
Nikola didn't like being made a show of, but he understood the need. He vamped, letting them get a good look at his black eyes, fangs and claws.
The three team members stepped back from Nikola, surprised; none of them had realized he was an abnormal.
Karl whispered "Mein Gott, he is a vampire."
"He is the Sanctuary's foremost expert on vampires, for the obvious reason. Keep in mind if we do run into another vampire that Nikola is on our side. I'll want to leave early tomorrow morning for the cave. Anyone have anything to add?"
"If we do encounter another vampire, how do we kill it?" asked Karl.
"I would prefer to talk to him or her before attempting murder" Nikola said mildly. "After all, we don't really know what happened yet or why."
The team was giving each other concerned looks. Helen intervened. "Nikola is right, but if you are attacked, don't bother with religious symbols, garlic, or stakes. Shoot for center mass, and empty your gun into it. That won't kill it, but it will put it down for sufficient time for us to determine how to deal with it."
"Does that go for him, too?" Karl asked, pointing at Nikola.
Helen walked over and got into his face. "Nikola is one of my oldest and dearest friends; anyone who attacks him has to go through me first. Is that understood Herr Hofstetter?"
Karl backed up a step and nodded, but couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Nikola.
"Don't forget, he's on our side." She seemed to be saying that a lot lately. "We'll be leaving at 7:00 a.m. Does anyone have anything to add?"
No one did. The three team members filed out. Nikola remained behind and de-vamped. "Well that was fun. Want to bet one of them shoots me just to see what happens?"
Helen shook her head and said "no one is going to shoot you except possibly for me. Remember, 7:00 a.m. Nikola; go to bed early."
"You couldn't make that ten?"
"No. Go eat, take your medication, and get some sleep."
Nikola gave her a sarcastic salute and left.
