Nikola spent the night finishing the books from the library. He left the door to Helen's room open so he could monitor her breathing while he read; he didn't know what effects to expect from amett. When he finished the books, he napped in his chair for a couple of hours and felt fine in the morning.

He showered and changed. Helen was still asleep, so he left her a note saying he was going to the lab and would stop by later in the day to check on her. He took the two bottles they had purchased with him to the lab.

At Lab Two he straightened out a couple of scientists that were headed down the wrong path, gave a stern warning to one team that was still bickering instead of working, and did chemical analyses on the damureg and amett they had brought back. He was pleased he was able to completely determine their chemical contents with the primitive equipment in the lab and still have more than a half bottle of each left over.

But his mind wasn't entirely on his work. His relationship with Andrina was hurting Helen. He had to break it off with Andrina, but he was afraid his social skills weren't up to managing it without making her angry. "It's me not you" and "Let's be friends" were not going to go over very well with the dominant woman.

He could put it off for a while. Maybe he could pretend to be sick for a couple of days. No, vampires didn't really get sick. Well, he could avoid her until tonight anyway. He went home to check on Helen.

She was up at least, not dressed but sipping tea and slowly eating a baked apple at the table.

"Good morning" he said cheerily. Loudly he asked "Hangover?"

Her glare was weak and bleary-eyed. "Yes. I had no idea the amett was so strong."

He sat down across from her and gently placed the bottles on the table. "The damureg has the inverted nitrogen molecule, which is why I can get drunk on it. Both have an interesting combination of alcoholic compounds. They're complex enough that it will be cheaper to buy them rather than make them, if we decide to serve them in the bar. The amett will need dressing up though, what do you think would taste good in it?"

Helen's glare became stronger. "Nikola, this is the wrong time to talk to me about amett."

"Oh. Sorry."

They sat in silence for a few minutes while Helen picked at her apple.

Nikola started tapping nervously on the table with his long clawed fingers. "I'm going to see Andrina tonight. I'm . . . I'm going to call it off with her. I don't know what the consequences will be."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" She reached over and stopped his tapping by holding his hand.

He met her eyes. "Yeah . . . yes. Unless you think I should keep seeing her for our safety."

"I don't want you to see her, Nikola. If you were in love with her, it would be different."

Nikola just shook his head.

"Then we'll manage, no matter how she reacts."

Nikola nodded, and changed the subject. "Can we check on how Will is doing on the bar supplies?"

"The walkie-talkie is in my room, help yourself."

He fetched it and called. But instead of Will, someone else answered.

"Hey, this is Jerry, what's up?"

Helen took the walkie-talkie. "Is Will there?"

"Nope, he and Henry are on their way to Bucharest to catch a flight home. Will left me all the instructions though. I've got a house full of stuff waiting for pick up."

"How's Karl?"

"He's on his way home too. Julienne's around, she should be here with another batch of blood soon."

Nikola took the walkie-talkie. "I'll be by this afternoon to pick up what you have."

"Hope you have a truck, there's ten cases of wine, four cases of glasses, a couple of microwaves, one humungous wine rack and a couple of small ones, and we have a couple of refrigerators full of little blood baggies. We've got cold packs and Styrofoam containers to carry them in, corkscrews, little paper coasters and I don't know what all."

"No truck, probably just muscle. I'll see you later. Nikola out."

"How far is it to Saretu?" Helen asked.

"Four or five miles, I think. The hard part is there's going to be a lizard cave to get past, since every route to the surface has one to discourage human explorers. I'll just have to grab a couple of guards; they feed them so they should be able to control them."

"You're not going to try to do this yourself, are you?"

Nikola grinned. "Heck no, I'm a top Six, I'll get Kammick and the lab techs to help, and maybe some of the public slaves; I'll have to find out what it costs." Nikola stopped smiling. "At least I'm a top Six until tonight. After that . . . ". He shrugged.

Helen tried to reassure him. "It will be fine, Nikola. We'll manage."

"I'd better get to work. I don't know when I'll be back, I could be late."

"Do what you have to do. I'm going to finish reading the library books. And there are always dishes and laundry to be done." She smiled ruefully.

"I'm so glad you're the human. I'm terrible at laundry." They both smiled. Nikola rummaged around and found their headlamps to take along, since the tunnels near the surface would be deliberately dark and uninviting. He left for Lab Two.

He picked up Kammick, Eminee, and three other techs at the lab and explained what he needed done. He found out the humans in the feeding pens could be used for free, since they had no vampire sponsors and did no other work besides donating blood.

At the pens, the vampire pen manager offered him any of the slaves from the enclosure that was in the feeding rotation for tomorrow. They would all be well recovered from their previous donation and had nothing else to do.

Nikola went in and selected eleven of the strongest looking. None of them seemed upset to be picked; they were used to being used by vampires for odd jobs. Most of them actually seemed pleased when he explained they were going to the surface to pick up and bring back some goods. It was probably the most interesting and exciting thing they had had the opportunity to do in a long time.

Nikola knew the route from the map in the key room, but stopped at the guard training compound and asked Bronob about the difficulty of the route. Bronob was glad to help; Nikola was one of very few vampires who had shown any interest in guard training.

Bronob said "It's not bad, one of the trading markets is held there. I'll send a couple of my trainees with you to show you how to avoid the lizard pit."

Nikola and the two guards walked at the head of the group. He hoped eleven humans and five vampires- well six including himself- would be enough to lug everything back in one trip. He could always draft the guards as well, he outranked them.

The tunnels were wide and well maintained. They walked at a moderate pace for an hour and a half. The humans were lagging a bit by then; they obviously weren't used to regular exercise. Then the phosphorescent tunnel lighting dimmed, and the tunnel narrowed ahead.

The guards stopped and took out their flashlights. Nikola put on his headlamp and gave the second one to Kammick, instructing him to stay with the humans. The guards turned aside and faced the wall. They searched for a moment, then found what they were looking for, a small oval mark at their head height. One used his knife to prick his thumb and smeared the resulting drop of blood into the oval.

There was a pause, then a harsh grating sound and a large portion of the wall sank inward and slid aside. The guards led the way through, and Nikola took a good look at the mechanism on the interior side as his work gang filed through.

The passage sloped downward and was wide and well maintained, but dark. It curved to the left, and after what Nikola calculated to be 130 degrees, ended in a blank wall with an identical mechanism attached to it. One guard stepped to the side and pulled a lever, and the wall moved in toward them and moved aside. They trooped through and a guard closed the wall behind them with a drop of blood.

The tunnel was completely dark and appeared natural, but Nikola realized the floor had been smoothed somewhat since walking wasn't difficult. There were a number of side tunnels and intersections, but the guards led them confidently through the maze. Nikola looked for markers and at first couldn't find any, but eventually he saw a small pair of shallow parallel chisel cuts in the floor near the wall. Once he spotted them, he found them easily at every junction.

They exited a cave on a path that led down a long grassy hill to a small village. The path was wide and well worn. The humans started chattering to each other about the grass, the sky, the cottages, and everything else in sight. Apparently most if not all of them had never been on the surface before, or it had been a very long time. Even Kammick and the lab techs were swiveling their heads around trying to take it all in, although they pretended nonchalance.

By the time they got to the road that passed through the village, many of the residents had come out of their houses to stare at the group. Nikola spotted Jerry and Julienne outside one house, waving to him. He said "Buna ziua" politely to villagers as they passed. Several said it back, some just nodded, a few retreated back into their homes and locked their doors.

Jerry eyed the gang following Nikola a little nervously, but greeted him with a nod and a tentative handshake. "How are you doing? I can see why you don't need a truck, you've got a small army."

"Yeah, the stuff inside?" Nikola realized Jerry had been reluctant to shake hands because Nikola hadn't devamped, and his claws were quite long and sharp. Well, no damage done and Jerry and Julienne might as well get used to it.

Julienne opened the door and led the way. Piles of boxes and crates filled the small living room. Two old refrigerators ran noisily in a corner, with empty Styrofoam containers stacked nearby.

She and Jerry packed the blood in the containers while Nikola directed the loading of the humans and vampires. Eventually everything was in someone's hands and Nikola was just left with a small box of corkscrews to carry himself.

Nikola turned to Julienne. "Keep the blood supply coming. When is the Sanctuary vet going to arrive?"

"He should be coming in tonight on a red-eye. We've found some small pieces of property for sale in the area, but nothing big. Would it be alright to have several specialized farms rather than one big one?"

Nikola looked at her blankly. "I don't care, ask the vet for his opinion when he gets here. Don't start buying animals yet until I see what's popular."

Jerry asked "How's Helen holding up? It can't be easy pretending to be a slave."

"She's fine. Her biggest worry at the moment is getting 'dishpan hands' from the housework." And beyond that is none of your business.

Nikola shook hands with both of them carefully and followed his group up the hill. The trip back was far slower than the trip out. The humans had to stop and rest every hour, as did the guards who were carrying the large, old, very heavy wine rack.

Nikola led the way following the parallel marks and used his blood to open and close the side passage around the lizard's cave. He had deliberately made sure all the vampires were heavily loaded so it would be natural for him to be the one to open the passage; he wanted to be sure his blood would work in case he and Helen needed to get out quickly by themselves.

By the time they reached the main cavern the common market was packing up and workers were on their way home. Nikola led them to the room that would be the bar, unlocked the door, and was pleased to see three refrigerators plugged in and running and a jumble of tables and chairs, as well as some boards and supports to fashion a make shift bar.

He had everyone bring in their loads and stack them in a pile while he unloaded the blood into the refrigerators. He found a bathroom at the far end of the room, but he realized he was going to need additional plumbing. He would need a sink for washing glasses, and probably at least one more bathroom. He would have to talk to Andrina about it. The thought depressed him; he had managed to forget about her and the upcoming confrontation all day.

He dismissed the lab techs, and he and Kammick walked the eleven humans back to the pens. He had signed them out and had to return them personally.

On the way Kammick asked "Master Teslat? I'm pretty hungry after that, I'm going to stay and feed. Do you want to . . . ?"

Nikola thought about it. He was only a little hungry, but it might be better to be full when he talked to Andrina, and he ought to experience the pens. And Helen had already said it was okay. "Good idea, I think I will too."

The pen manager checked over the humans carefully for damage before accepting them back. Once that was done, Nikola followed Kammick to the booths. Kammick went in one and Nikola went in the next.

He closed the door behind him and found himself in a cubicle with two chairs, one slightly lower than the other. The door in the opposite wall was open, and in less than a minute a female human came in and closed that door behind her.

"Clothed or unclothed?" she asked.

He looked her over. She was middle-aged, but not bad looking, a little thin. She seemed clean and stood passively waiting for his reply. He hadn't realized there might be a sexual component to feeding from humans, but her offer implied she was offering more than dinner.

"Um, I've never been here before, can you explain the difference?"

She looked at him like he was an idiot. "You can feed on me with my clothes on or with me naked. If you want sexual interaction- and that includes hands, sir- you have to pay. Any of the pen workers can tell you the rate schedule for whatever you want. You pay them, they give you a chit, you give it to me, and then you get what you paid for."

"Where does the money go?"

"It pays for our food and clothes, of course, and any extra goes to the treasury" she replied impatiently.

Nikola considered. He had money, Helen would never know, would she? But that was how he got himself in trouble over and over, thinking no one would know. He was better off pretending Helen was following him around and would know everything he did. Besides, he only came here for food, he didn't need anything more.

"Clothed is fine."

She sat down on the lower seat, pulled the collar of her shirt away from her neck, and tilted her head. Nikola took the higher seat. He used his lips on her neck to find her pulse, then extended his feeders into the stream of her blood.

He fed slowly, not wanting to cause her discomfort. He brought a little of the blood into his mouth for the flavor. It was good, but no better than some of the animal blood he had had. When he was sated, he withdrew his feeders and licked the last drops from her neck to ensure clotting.

As soon as he released her she stood up, adjusted her shirt, and left without looking at him. Just another day at the office he mused. He went out his door and saw that the booth next to his was empty and Kammick was nowhere in sight. He considered finding out about the rates his dinner had mentioned, but decided he was better off not knowing. If he let slip that he knew the rates in front of Helen, she would want to know how and why he knew, and telling her it was just intellectual curiosity wasn't likely to convince her he was innocent.

He left the area of the pens and walked back toward Andrina's residence. She was expecting him, and she might already be angry at how late he was. What was he going to say to her?

His mind was still blank on the subject when he reached her door. He knocked, and in a few seconds Bertram opened the door, bowed slightly, and motioned him in. Bertram led him to the parlor, where Andrina was seated on the couch. She was dressed in a short dress in a blue and green swirled pattern that left most of her legs bare, with green sandals. Two glasses of starotsrvena were poured and sitting on the table.

She dismissed Bertram with a wave, rose and came over to Nikola, who took a step back.

"Wait, we have to talk."

"We can talk later" she purred.

"It's business; let's get it out of the way first." Before you get angry and won't listen to me.

Exasperated at the delay, Andrina just asked "What?"

"The room for the bar is going to need shelving and additional plumbing. We'll need a sink to wash glasses, and there's only one bathroom. That's not enough, is it?"

"Of course not. Are you going to let humans into the bar?"

"Yes, the more patrons the better."

"Then they'll need separate bathrooms. A partition to keep them off to themselves would be proper too. I'll see about it tomorrow. Anything else?"

"No, the good news is I have the first shipment from the surface. It's just stacked in the room right now. I'll start setting up tomorrow."

"Fine. Are we all done with business now?" She closed the gap between them and draped her arms over his shoulders. One hand caressed the back of his neck while the other ran through his hair.

Nikola shook his head and pushed her arms away. "I can't do this. It's not right."

"What do you mean it's not right. It seems very right to me, and you've already shown how much you like me. I know you enjoyed the blood exchange a great deal, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but that was only because you took me by surprise. Andrina, I'm sorry, but there's someone else."

Andrina's eyes opened wide in surprise. "There can't be, who else do you even know? Is it that little lab tech, Eminee?"

"No, and it doesn't matter who it is. I respect you as my boss and I want to keep working for you, but I can't be your boyfriend."

Andrina was very angry, her eyes narrowed, glaring at him with her lips pulled back slightly off of her fangs. "You used me. You little slimy half-breed, all you wanted was a promotion."

Nikola ignored her insults. "Well you're using me too, to straighten out your lab and get the bar going. Let's just call it even, okay?"

"Oh no, it's far from 'okay' and we're not even until I say we are. Don't tell me it's a human; you prefer a human to me?"

Nikola winced, she was getting too close. Andrina seized on his reaction. "It is a human! You actually want to be with one of those animals?"

"They're not animals and I can't help who I'm attracted to, it's an emotional decision not a rational one."

Andrina gave him a haughty look. "You're right, it's not rational. I can't believe I actually let you touch me. You will pay for this, Teslat; that is a promise. Now get out!"

Nikola left hastily. Well she hasn't actually done anything to me, yet. Maybe she'll be reasonable when she calms down. But he couldn't make himself believe it.

It was only the middle of the evening when he got home, and Helen was sitting cross-legged on the floor meditating. She opened her eyes when he came in.

"Nikola, you're home early, and you're not even drunk. What happened?"

Nikola sat down in a chair in the living room. "I told Andrina I'm not going to see her anymore."

Helen rose and sat down on the couch across from him. "Good. How did she take it? Was she upset?"

Nikola grimaced. "Upset doesn't nearly cover it."

"But she didn't demote you or anything like that?"

Nikola caught her gaze. "Not yet, but it's not over. By the look on her face when I left, I'd say it's far from over. I don't what she's going to do." He sounded worried.

"Well then there's no point in worrying about it, there's nothing we can do now. Did you get the bar stocks?"

"Yes, but there's still a lot of work to be done before we can open. If Andrina pulls her support I don't know if we'll ever open, we still need plumbing work and shelving at least."

"Is everything all right on the surface?"

"As far as I can tell. Jerry and Julienne are handling that end now, Will and Henry went home. The vet should be arriving tonight, and there are some properties for sale that might do for vampire farms. That's all I can think of."

His statement alarmed Helen a little. It wasn't like Nikola to repeat information she already knew or admit he might have forgotten something; he must be more rattled than he looked. She pretended she hadn't noticed.

"I finished the books from the library today, have you?"

"Yes, I finished them last night. I'll take them back tomorrow and see what else they have."

"Please do pick up some more; it can be quite boring here. Perhaps I should get a job."

"No!" The first thing that had leapt to Nikola's mind was the woman from the pens and her job. He realized he had overreacted. "No, at least not working for a vampire. What kind of job were you thinking of? Not babysitting in the common market again?"

"No, something more substantial. I haven't really thought that far ahead, although the greatest need might be setting up an underground school for the human children."

"I'll find out tomorrow if there are any laws against educating slave;, that is if anyone is still speaking to me." Nikola sounded depressed and a bit sulky. He had done what she wanted and he had a bad feeling the consequences were going to be personally unpleasant.

"Come on, Nikola it will be all right. Andrina may control Lab Two but she doesn't control the world. There are always opportunities for a sharp fellow like you. Buck up."

"You're probably right, maybe I'm overreacting. I'm going to have a little damureg before bed. Do you want some, or some amett?"

"No amett for a while I think. But I'll have a little damureg with you."

Nikola poured a couple of fingers in two glasses and gave one to Helen.

"Cheers" she toasted.

"Here's mud in your eye" Nikola responded. Helen laughed. Nikola's Americanisms still amused her.

She patted the couch next to her. "Come sit over here."

Nikola was surprised, but complied readily. Helen held up her glass and he clinked it with his. They finished their drinks. She snuggled up to him and he carefully put his arm around her, not sure if that was what she wanted. She leaned against him more and put her head on his shoulder.

Nikola took a deep breath, savoring the scent of her hair. No matter what she washed it in, there was always something unique in the scent that he loved.

"I must have been a good boy today."

"You were a very good boy today. I appreciate you giving up your vampire girlfriend and all that she can offer you."

"I didn't give up anything. I just needed someone to point out that I was risking so much for so little. Sometimes I lose my perspective."

"I have noticed that, over the years."

Nikola chuckled. "I really miss you when we're apart. Nobody else knows when I just need a little course correction."

"Well that's me, your personal GPS."

"Want to join me in bed tonight?"

"I'd like that. As long as you continue to be a good boy."

"One of these nights you're going to ask me to be a bad boy, and like Mae West, when I'm bad I'm even better." He started nuzzling her.

Helen sat up, smiling. "Nikola, you're still incorrigible."

"Well, I keep offering to let you corrige me, but you never take me up on it."

She gave him a look that raised the hair on the back of his neck. "Keep offering."

When they went to bed, Nikola crawled in very close to her, but not quite touching. She seemed to go to sleep very fast, and rolled over toward him apparently unknowingly. He adjusted his position with his eyes closed until they were cuddled close. They both must have been having very nice dreams, because Helen sighed contentedly and Nikola was "sleeping" with a big smile on his face.