Chapter 4

Carmilla pulled them off of the train to a station inside of what looked like a hastily carved rounded cave. There were four tunnels from which to choose, none of which were marked, but all were clearly lit through by flame torches at the entrances and every twenty pace through.

"This one—and stay close." Carmilla said, pulling them to the fourth cave entrance on the far right.

"I thought we'd check in to the tavern, and then I could show you around." Carmilla said casually, as if they had just arrived at a weekend bed and breakfast, not the vampiric epicenter of North America.

"Oh—okay." Laura stammered, noticing that the cave hallway was taking them even deeper underground. She started to feel panic, a claustrophobia she'd never experienced before making her feel like she was walking into a crypt from that which she would never exit. It didn't help that it was a tight tunnel, forcing them to stay close if they wanted to continue side-by-side.

"So, there's a vampire tavern down here?" Laura hoped her intonation implied her worries about what may be consumed inside without having to actually vocalize it.

Carmilla snorted, putting her arm around Laura, feeling the smaller woman stiffen as her hand went to her waist.

"Everyone drinks from actual glasses. Or mugs. Vampire's honor." Carmilla holds up two fingers in a peace sign. "Besides, anywhere we go will have something for you. Rooms are always open for shadows and their guests. And you're my guest, so I guess you can consider yourself lucky, cutie."

I'm sharing a room with Carmilla. We're not even a couple, and I just let her sweet talk me into coming here, I keep letting her touch me, I can't even buy my own drinks because I didn't think about if there would be a Blood Bank ATM or whatever they use down here.

"Snap out of it Hollis. I promised I'd keep you safe. I mean it." Carmilla breezed out, continuing down the long, dimly lit tunnel. None of the other passengers off the train had taken this path. Laura noticed that while her voice in the cave had a slight echo, Carmilla's had none at all.

"I didn't even stop for cash."

"Everywhere takes Visa. Please try to relax." Carmilla removed her hand, as they had come to a heavy looking wooden door at the end of the tunnel.

"This leads us right out into the city center. Ready?"

Laura nods, suddenly wishing Carmilla's arm was back around her waist. She swears the vampire takes delight in opening the door more slowly and dramatically than necessary, following the dark haired woman through.

They step out into a cobblestone street, with what look like town houses and shops lining each side, with a river running through the center, small boats and gondolas running up and down. It looked like a gorgeous old world city, with the shop lights in the night sparkling, and only a moderate hussle-and-bussle on the street. There are people laughing as they come in and out of buildings, sometimes stopping to chat with one another.

Laura froze on the spot, taking it all in. What really took her breath away was the sky. It was an honest to goodness night sky, in a periwinkle blue hue with actual stars.

"Laura?" Carmilla asked, having given the woman a moment to acclimate, hoping that her ears wouldn't feel the pressure too much of being this far underground.

"It's beautiful. How?" She can only point up, entrapped by the gorgeous sky, even though she knew they had travelled in the tunnel downwards.

"Some warlocks figure that one out, only a few decades ago." Laura continued to gawk at the beauty of her surroundings. If she had been blindfolded and brought down to the city center and then presented with the scene before her, she never would have guessed it was full of…what did Carmilla call them? Shadows? Everything looked so normal.

"Okay, we need to start walking. The tavern's a bit of a hike and you know, underground, so we don't have cars." Carmilla returned her arm to around Laura's waist as she continued moving them along. They walked close to the water on the cobblestone, with Laura peeking into the little shops. They didn't appear to have fire torches like the tunnel had.

"You use electricity?" Laura asked, still in awe of her surroundings.

"We borrow it—you know what we're under, right? Why do you think their utility bills are so expensive?" Laura couldn't tell if Carmilla were kidding or not, amazed that some of the shops appeared to have regular food. A bakery, a restaurant where the clientele were using forks and knives, comforting her that there would be an availability of bloodless meals. Unless they were eating people—

"Five dollars for thirty minutes! Would the ladies like a ride?" A boat captain was docked where they were walking by, offering a ride under the artificial moonlight.

"I would like a ride." Laura said, amazed at the entire underground river that she didn't know existed until three minutes ago.

"No thank you! No ride needed." Carmilla rushed them past, pulling Laura closer.

"Laura, I want you to make sure you never, ever get on one of those boats without me with you."

"Why?"

"We're not up to that explanation yet, and you need to promise-"

"Okay! No underground boat rides."

"Good." Carmilla said simply, taking them past a clothing store with a wide variety of looks being showcased in the windows.

"So, there are like, vampire designers that live here?" Laura had a hard time wrapping her head around a vampire hunched over a sewing machine making this season's bloodsucker couture.

"Ha! If only. Cutie, as tame as I may be around you, remember that we exist as parasites. In every possible way. You know that we're not too far from JKF International Airport?"

"Yeah?"

"And you know how sometimes travellers' luggage goes missing between connecting flights?"

Laura paused for a moment, sure she should be horrified, but broke into a smile and a laugh. Carmilla joined her, happy to see Laura enjoying herself.

"Yeah, that's us." Carmilla said, continuing them down the street.

"Oh. My. Goodness. Carmilla. So you steal electricity, luggage from innocent, unsuspecting travellers…anything else?"

"Yes. And look, we're here." Carmilla says, opening the door to the tavern and deliberately not answering Laura's question with any explanations.

The younger woman was surprised at how nice the inside was, looking more like a hotel than anything she would have associated with the word 'tavern'. The decorations again were Victorian era, similar to the train they had rode on, with the entrance leading to a check-in desk, not a bar.

Carmilla's protective arm was keeping Laura's side glued to her own, as she approached the desk.

"One room please, private bath, breakfast included-all options, and four drink tokens." She takes out a small stack of credit cards held together with a money clip with a red crest on the top, pulling a black card out from the middle.

It did indeed say "Visa" in the corner, but the logo was in red with a little blood drop coming down from the "V". Laura looked up at her escort questioningly.

"What? Money is money. Don't pretend you've never heard of credit card companies as 'bleeding people dry'. American Express makes one for us too, but I like the rewards points."

Laura laughed, her head resting on Carmilla's cheek, letting her finish the transaction.

Why didn't I just run away with her like this when I had the chance? Why couldn't we have met like this, instead of in the middle of a disappeared persons report?

Once they were upstairs, Laura noticed immediately that there was only one bed, choosing not to comment, instead looking at the canopy over the lavish covers. There was no television, but there was a fireplace. It was perfectly warm in the room, so she couldn't imagine anyone actually trying to light a fire.

She walked over to the dresser, noticing a room service menu neatly typed on watermarked paper from what was clearly a typewriter, not a computer.

"Let's see, they have a European blend, a French specialty—Maybe this is a wine list? Chilean twenty year, from all organic, vegetarian fed…" Laura's face fell.

"Yeah. Not a wine list. This one's yours." Carmilla pulled the paper out of Laura's hands, replacing it with something more palatable.

"Carmilla, what are we doing here?" Laura stopped, part way through reading the menu. She both wanted to step away from Carmilla at the sudden reminder that the vampire could have her as an evening snack, and wanted to step closer because even if that were true, it was Carmilla.

"Hmm?" Carmilla was still reading her menu, trying to decide if they should skip dinner altogether and head down to cash in their drink tokens.

"Us. What are we doing. This is a lot less like a regular 'getting to know you' and feels more like—I don't know, some kind of nineteenth century vampire honeymoon?"

Carmilla didn't look up from the paper. That is the question, isn't it? What on earth am I doing with you.

"Laura, I want you to think about something before I even answer that. If you decided to back out now, and go upstairs, way upstairs into the human city and catch a plane home, would you honestly just be able to do it and forget any of this happened?" Carmilla looked up from the paper, her eyes staring right into a hazel, lighter set, staring right back.

Laura thought about it for a moment. Could she just go back to a mundane, regular, everyday life? Could she finish college and pretend that she didn't know that vampires and supernatural creatures exist? Would the deep seeded need inside of her to know everything and investigate and go deeper down the rabbit hole ever subsist now that it had been awakened?

"No." Laura said firmly. "But where are we in all of this?"

Carmilla sighed. Right. That. Laura was confronting head on what they had been avoiding: their not-togetherness, yet their complete ease at wanting to be together, knowing how it was right and wrong in a way that cancels each other out, causing nothing to move forward, stuck in the in-between.

"I could just be taking you here to drink from you, Cupcake." Laura gasped as Carmilla took a step closer.

"I could make you feel like that woman on the subway, except so much more because my blood is still going to be in your system for a few days, so you would feel even more than she." Another step closer.

"I could do that, or I could just seduce you. I could release my pheromones that humans find irresistible, and draw you back in." They were nose to nose now, with Laura keenly aware that they were at the foot of a bed.

"I can't do that to you, Laura. We're here because I know your life; I lived with you. But here's the thing: you don't really know me. You don't know how I live, how I need to live." She moves her hand up to cup Laura's cheek, watching her struggle to keep her eyes open while leaning into her firm touch.

"And I won't kiss you. I can't, until I know you've seen enough and you know enough for it to be a decision, not just a desire. We've already visited that part of it." Carmilla paused, hoping Laura would get it.

"I kind of want you to, though." Laura said, holding Carmilla's gaze.

"I know." Was the vampire's response, holding Laura's cheek, kissing her forehead instead of indulging in ill-thought out acts of passion. "But there's a lot more you need to know before you decide if this is just going to be a story that ends up in a book you write some day, or if it's actually going to be a part of your life. Because it will be, Laura. If there's any 'us' in the future, these are the kinds of places and the kinds of things you're going to have to deal with."

Laura thought about everything she's seen so far. None of it was terribly off-putting. Sure, she knew that Carmilla drank blood, but she also knew from late night conversations when they were dating that she didn't need to kill someone to feed, to the point where it had disappointed Laura that when she offered, Carmilla declined to drink from her body.

She was also not upset by her surroundings. It looked like any other village or small city, except breathtakingly beautiful. If she could get past having a girlfriend who ate people, this wasn't such a bad set-up. Sure, they'd have to sneak around, she'd have to do a whole lot of lying to her father about Carmilla's little quirks. But really, it would be fine.

Or at least she thought, until she heard the screaming start from down the hallway.