I know I know, I suck! I left you all hanging for ages, Again!I've got a few chapters written and I'm still going, so hopefully I can start some sort of routine, though unless you're a vamp don't hold your breath!
Anyway, on with Chapter 10!
When I woke up I was still on Eric, and feeling incredibly crusty. I looked down and saw the wolf still laying there, so I had to be careful as I stood up. As I walked past she sniffed my ankle then put a paw over her nose and whined.
"Alright cheeky cow I'm going for a bath!" I snipped as I carried on walking.
Fortunately the first door I tried was the bathroom, I didn't want to go see Gran in this state. When I say 'bathroom' I mean that in the loosest possible sense. This room was bigger than most people's houses let alone bathroom! There was a huge walk-in shower (with several shower heads) in marble and glass, a large sink set into long unit with mirrors above it and floor length along the rest of the wall, a sauna, a hot tub with a waterfall into a bloody pool(!?) and a tub big enough for four. Not to mention all the hidden features I hadn't found yet. So far, no toilet. Not surprising bearing in mind vamps have no need for them. Fortunately I wasn't desperate to go, so a quick shower to clean off the dirt, a hunt for a shirt and some boxer shorts (don't even ask about his wardrobe. I've seen smaller shops) and I was off upstairs to find a loo and some food and see Gran.
"Hi Gran! Good to see you again." After finding a loo just upstairs on the first floor, I went looking in the most likely place to find Gran, the kitchen. She loved to cook, and if she needed to sit down there was the stools at the breakfast bar. When I found her she was sitting at the bar with a book and what looked like multigrain bread proving next to her, while something amazing-smelling cooked in the oven.
"Hello child! It's good to see you're back." She put her book down and got up to give me a cuddle, without even batting an eyelash at my body. This woman was amazing.
"It's good to be back, and be myself! How's everything been?" We both sat down at the bar to chat.
"It's been good, after reading the letters we were left, Pamela decided to take me into Fangtasia with her as it was a slow night. I spoke to a few of the girls and they're all struggling to do everything, they're at college, working, sleeping, studying, they barely have time to buy food let alone cook and eat! So we agreed they'd all give me half their tips that night, I'd go shopping and cook up some good home meals they can heat up quick or eat cold and still be healthy, then take them in each night an hour before opening, until we can speak to Eric about a permanent solution."
"Wow Gran, that's amazing! You'd be brilliant as a what's-it-called... A house-mother, you know one of those ladies who stays in the girls dorms at university and looks after them, makes sure they're balancing themselves."
"Oh girl I wouldn't dream of doing that, if I stayed there who'd look after you?" I loved this woman. She barely knows me, yet she cares so much she won't leave me to go and do something that she does think is a fantastic idea.
"Alright Gran, but if you change your mind I'm sure we could sort something out." While we were talking she'd taken out the source of the smell (turned out to be two roast chickens) and put in the bread, while I made and ate a chicken salad sandwich and a coke.
I left Gran to the rest of her cooking and went to the library intending to go back down to Eric and explore that amazing bathroom. I encountered a slight setback. In my concern for Eric I didn't see the password to enter the room. I was stuck outside. A few choice words ran through my head and probably slipped out of my mouth, but if confronted I shall deny it. Instead I decided to go and explore the rest of the house and see exactly what was around.
The ground floor as I've said was mostly open plan, with a large kitchen to one corner separated by the breakfast bar, the library through the door on the same wall, and as I thought an office and a home cinema on the other side.
The office had a beautiful mahogany desk beside the door, with a large executive chair behind it, and a few bits of stationary, the requisite pot of pens and pencils, but to my surprise a quill and inkwell, equipment for wax seals, and in the unlocked drawers on the right, tools for calligraphy and brush work. Filing that away for later contemplation I continued to look around (read: snoop).
There was a bookcase to the left stained to match the desk, that to my guess was pine, that held various binders and file boxes marked with a myriad of characters, including runes, hieroglyphs, cuneiform, Sanskrit, western letters and far eastern characters and more I couldn't recognise. I was pretty sure I saw Tolkien's Sindarin (Elvish) and Klingon in there too. Knowing Eric, what was written on the boxes, even in dead or fictional languages, was coded and completely unfathomable unless you knew each language's dialects, how his mind worked and had a decade or two spare to try to work it out, in such time you might possibly work out one box. I pitied the person who tried.
The wall opposite the desk had a screen showing the up-to-date stock market, and several maps. The maps had been laminated and colour coded (without a key, how shocking) that I guessed showed each kingdom and the areas within them. With how quickly power could shift in the hierarchy, having a map you could change with the wipe of a finger made much more sense than drawing straight onto paper.
The wall to the left of the door was all windows, but it looked like toughened glass, and I could see rails both inside and out that housed shutters. Mentally reviewing everything else I'd seen so far, this place could be locked up like a fortress if need be. I'd ask Eric more about that later.
The home cinema was amazing. Going up to the second level, the screen was opposite the door, and the floor rose in tiers to half way up the back wall with various seating (sofas, armchairs, even beanbags!) and the projector, along with just about every film in existence so far, and in a corner the machinery needed to play it, from blu-ray to a magic lantern that I was positive was a 17th century original. Not wanting to break anything, I left, despite my curiosity as to how Eric handled the old film reels, which would be covered in silver. Guess he wore gloves.
Moving upstairs, I found bedrooms of various colour schemes, all furnished tastefully and generously sized, but not what I was quickly coming to refer to as Viking-sized, that is, twice as large as usual. What I was noticing was although everything was obviously expensive or an antique from Eric's long life, nothing was garish, over the top or there just to show off his wealth, which to me said despite his outward image, Eric was a down to earth man, who knew how hard times could be, but also knew that every moment was for living, so while saving money is always a good idea, living just to save money you can't take with you is pointless. I also think despite Pam and his Area, he was very lonely, after all being surrounded by people subservient to you, above you or just out to get you can get very tiring after a while. Admittedly right then Gran and I were what Sookie would refer to as 'kept women', I fully intended to repay Eric, and Gran already was with her mission to help the waitresses.
Walking to the end of the corridor I found what would be one of my favourite rooms.
He had a gym. Why, I don't know, but I wasn't going to question it. Half the floor was wooden and slightly sprung, like a dance studio, complete with a wall of mirrors that side, and the other was rubberised, with assorted machines, including my favourite, the rowing machine. Eager to get started, I did some stretches and warm up exercises, then rolled up the sleeves on the shirt a bit more, tied the bottom up at my stomach(it was cotton so I knew it wouldn't damage it), sat down on the seat, and realised I had no shoes on. Cue swearing. Of course I decided to hell with a little pain and got started, slowly upping the resistance.
I'd seen the sun set through the windows in front of me (much like the office they were toughened glass and had runners for shutters inside and out) and I felt the void of Eric's mind come upstairs, so I didn't falter my winding down when he spoke.
"You have no idea how sexy you look."
I hooked the handle of the machine back in place and started to unstrap my feet.
"Yeah? Tell that to my feet." I panted. My muscles were pleasantly sore, telling me I'd had a good session, my feet however were screaming. With the hard plastic of the straps and the force I used, it's a wonder I hadn't drawn blood. As I finished speaking Eric blurred over and took my foot in his blessedly cool hands. Normally I hate my feet being touched, but this felt fantastic.
"What have you done." Eric murmured as he inspected the damage. Still panting I just shrugged.
"Why didn't you wait until I got you some shoes?" He questioned with disapproval written across his face.
"I was impatient. I had time to kill, I didn't feel like reading, and it was here. A little pain in my feet wasn't going to stop me." I took my foot out of his grasp, got off the machine, sat on the floor and flopped onto my back.
"You should have waited."
"Probably," I admitted. "Would you have?" I took his silence to mean he wouldn't have. I took a deep breath and started to get up. "Alright, I'm gonna go get washed up before dinner, would it be ok if I had another shirt and pair of boxers please?" I asked. He nodded just as we heard a shriek from down stairs.