"You need to tell me what just happened."
They were driving back from Lance's newly acquired estate, and Josef was waiting impatiently in the silence for Mick to speak up and say something about the meeting they had just shared. He hadn't expected his friend to keep up with what had been going on.
All in all Josef felt triumphant; they had gone into the meeting with reservations, the both of them unsure as to whether or not they were going to get what they came for. But luck had been shining on the pair, it seemed.
"Lance is going to find this rogue vampire for us." He said, with a small smile in his voice that he knew would irritate Mick.
"I made it that far. What I was to know is how. How on earth did you pull that off?"
Josef had been expecting that question. In many ways, Mick was frightfully predictable. He had been hoping, however, that he didn't get around to asking it until they had returned back to their hotel. He didn't want to answer when Mick was driving. Not because what he had to say would shock, but simply because Josef knew that Mick would have to think, when instead he should be concentrating on the road in front of them.
"Magic." He mumbled. "Sheer force of will." Mick rolled his eyes.
"Seriously. What is Lance sick with?" He kept glancing at his friend, and Josef wondered whether Mick believed he was going to tell the truth. He pushed the thought quickly from his mind; if there was one thing the two of them had, it was truth. There were no secrets between them - that Mick needed to know right now, at least. Josef's breath caught in his throat as Mick swerved to avoid a pedestrian attempting to cross the street.
"Jesus, can't this wait? You're going to kill someone." This was why Josef liked to drive around in a limousine where possible; the person you were talking to was not the person operating heavy machinery.
"No, you're not getting out of this." Mick replied, eyes now carefully trained on the road. "We're almost back, anyway."
"Well, then I'll tell you when we arrive." Josef grumbled, crossing his arms and sticking his bottom lip out like a sulky child. "I really can't deal with the added stress of your less-than-ideal driving ability while I try to explain."
"What are you talking about? I'm an excellent driver." As if to prove a point Mick pulled expertly into the underground garage of the hotel, and without braking, pulled smoothly into an empty space before cutting out the engine. "See? That, my friend, is an art."
"Marvellous." He said, not remotely impressed.
"So, tell me what's going on."
Josef took a deep breath and, stalling for time, stepped out of the car and headed toward the elevator in an eerily similar fashion as the day before. Once more, Mick followed, eager to have Lance's mystery solved. He was a firm believer in the idea that a problem shard was a problem halved, although this was only the case when said problems were not his. If Josef had an issue, Mick would almost expect to be told, but sometimes he was not as willing to divulge information about Beth. Josef could understand; he had spent many years alone between Coraline's first death and today.
"Lance is dying." Josef said, repeating what he had said earlier. "It's an ancient kind of virus that only seems to affect vampires. It is not avoidable, and seven out of ten vampires that come into contact with it die within two months." He paused, eyebrows raised, figuring that it would be easier to let Mick interrogate him, rather than trying to cover everything in one go.
"What do you mean it's not avoidable?" Mick asked as he unlocked the door to their room. He gestured quickly for Josef to go in ahead of him, and placed the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door before locking it once more from the inside.
"I mean that once you reach a certain age, usually about five hundred, sometimes a little earlier, the virus takes hold. I have not yet met a vampire that is older than that age who hasn't suffered the illness."
"How do you catch it?"
"It appears to be something to do with the vampire gene; we only call it a virus because it attacks and replicates within the cells. Almost like our immune system is attacking itself." Josef stood, and moved over to the mini bar to pour each of them a generous serving of blood-laced scotch. He took a sip, rolling the amber liquid around in his mouth for a moment, savouring the taste. When Mick said nothing, he looked up expectantly.
"Those symptoms Lance has," Mick began, "are they the only symptoms?"
"For now." Josef's voice had taken on a clinical tone. "Within the next couple of weeks the nosebleeds will begin, and then it will come from his ears, and finally his eyes, until he runs out of blood or his heart fails. Or both. It won't be quick and painless, that's for sure."
"But there's a cure. You said you had a cure."
"Ah, yes. I should have been clearer on that point. I have a cure for me, and not much more. I was kind of hoping he'd die before he found anything of use." Josef smiled thinly. "You never know, he might survive it."