Dark Matters

Chapter 8: Curiosity

Pacing down the corridor he realised that he had no idea what an elevator was. Obviously some device that would get him up to the next floor, so hopefully it would not be too hard to recognise. He walked to the end of the corridor there found two doors with two wings made of steel plates. There seemed to be no handle and while examining one of the doors, it opened.

A young man was inside and he was startled as he saw Dracula so close in front of him. "Gee, man, you gave me heart attack."

"Not really, but I can - if you want me to," Vladislaus smiled hungrily.

The mortal looked young and attractive, his blood was probably strong and delicious. Unprepared for the vampire's reaction blood rushed through his veins and made him blush. The fact that the Count was staring at his neck or more precisely at the pulsating vein under his neatly tanned skin made the young man even more nervous. Quickly, he rushed past the strange, pale man and stumbled down the corridor.

Following his steps, Dracula saw Claude leave the room with heavy steps and return to the main hall. Since the doors were closing he stopped his observations and entered the elevator. Two hundreds years ago the mortal would have ended as a prime meal but today he had been lucky. Vladislaus thought that maybe he should take care that his prey from now on should be extremely young and agile.

His last two snacks had been the Nightcrawlers and none of them had been nearly as promising as this young fellow or the cute dealer at the black jack table. In the past he had never been especially selective. First because he had not needed to feed that often and second since there had always been someone around to suit his taste. Some worker with strong blood both in taste and power - in his summer castle there had always been something in need of repair. More consciously he had searched for girls to play with. Although his tastes concerning their blood were quite different. Like Aleera he preferred young, inexperienced women while Verona was mainly interested in their even younger male counterparts.

And yet, in the past time he remembered he had taken less and less blood, stopped toying and had found barely the energy to dally with his brides. That was until he heard of Dr. Frankenstein and his experiments. The rumours had intrigued him and his brides had nearly gone mad with joy on the perspective that they might after all have their own children. Which was a mystery to the Count since during the first centuries of their un-dead existence they had seemed so glad to escape this purpose of their mortal life.

They always were so easily thrilled and lived out new ideas. Constantly busy with something and yet there had always been one of them at his side. Only later had he realised that he had been bored. His plan and Van Helsing's return had, of course, brought him more entertainment than he could have possibly wanted. On the one hand it had proved to be quite disastrous, but on the other hand it had brought him into this new world where everything was different, more difficult and there was so much he wanted to do and to know, so much to discover.

Shoving the unwanted memories and thoughts aside the vampire tried to focus on solving how to operate the elevator. Doing the next best thing he pressed the button next to the "Two" on the panel at the right cabin wall. The small room began to move and above the door a small arrow moved from the one towards the two.

The door opened once more and revealed a corridor that led to a double door covered with green coloured leather. A dark woven carpet with different dark red and brown colours separating the little hall that lay to the right and left of the elevator. There were leather couches of the same colour as the door lining the wall where the elevator doors opened, but also opposite of it on the right side.

On the left was a long counter with a man and a woman behind it. They were dressed in white and black, yet Dracula was sure they were working here. Something about their clothes was uniform-like. There were only two other men sitting on the other side in one corner and talking softly to each other. They looked briefly at the newcomer, while the other two were beginning to smile at him openly.

"Good evening, Sir! The Lounge is directly behind the green doors," said the woman as he approached her.

"Hey, why does he get permission so easily, while we were waiting for weeks to get in?" asked one of the two males from the corner.

Dracula did not pay attention to them, he just felt good about being allowed in where others were not. Smiling at the polite female he walked down the corridor.

"If you keep on being this impertinent, you'll never get in," the man behind the counter replied. The Count heard the girl giggle muffled.

The vampire wondered what kind of place this might be as he pushed open both wings of the door.

He was, however, not prepared for the sight that presented itself to him in the other room. Although it was the strange music with fast hard accords and this powerful female voice that got to his ears first, it was the woman in the middle of the room that caught his attention. Even the bouncers had their gaze fixed upon her.

Although he had seen barely dressed women downstairs, this one got through him like a hot knife through a piece of butter. She moved her body with elegance and dignity despite the fact that she only one piece of clothing was covering her erogenous zones. The young woman was not that well build on her front side, but that hardly mattered. Her body was firm and yet female. Alone those slim muscled legs typical for a dancer… Vladislaus could not even remember the last time he had had such legs wrapped around his hips.

In fact it had been a long time since he had had sex at all. In the past years he had just been too hungry and even before his demise he had not had a mortal woman in bed with him for he did not remember how long. Not that he had not enjoyed his brides, but in the end it had not been so much about enjoyment than about productivity.

Very much too his disappointment, the young dancer bowed a goodbye to her captive audience and disappeared with the last beats of the song through a series of flic-flacs. Dracula stepped closer in the meantime and almost immediately the curtain that took one beauty away revealed another. This time the woman had raven-black hair and was much more petite, even more than any of his brides. Still there was a cool, dominant air about her.

The song this time matched her type and movements. Slower, and the female voice, wherever it came from, sung different, deeper and yet softer. Vladislaus was so fascinated about her expression that it escaped him at first that she wore more than any of the other women he had seen in the casino. Tight blue pants and a dark blazer with high heeled boots. Despite the fact that she had closed her eyes as she moved her body with the precision of a ballet dancer to those strange musical sounds, the Count put on his best seductive smile.

Finally after one minute, her meanwhile open eyes turned in his direction. The vampire stepped closer and her gaze fell at him. Only that she did not react the way Dracula had expected. As if it was part of her performance, she focused on him, but her whole body language just seemed to say: "Stay away from me."

The Count almost did not realise that his smile vanished as he was trying to pay more attention to the overall message the woman was bringing along. The song was about unfulfilled lust, loneliness and suicidal tendencies. The dark haired girl brought the lyrics to life with her every movement. It made her reaction to him even harder to understand. She must at least once have felt these emotions to display them so well.

It was shortly before the end of her dance as he suddenly heard Logan's voice behind him.

"Your money lays ready downstairs for you to pick up, when you decide to leave. You are good for 50.000, now."

"It did not look that much", Dracula said with an arrogant grin on his face. It was so much fun to stir somebody's anger when he was incapable of doing anything to stop it.

"Since the game was interrupted so untimely, may I invite you to a drink on the house?"

Logan did not sounded as if he was offering anything, it seemed more to be a pathetic attempt to threaten the vampire.

"I doubt I'd like any of your 'drinks'," was his true enough reply.

"I thought no vampire could resist the offer of some nice warm and freshly harvested blood," the casino manager teased back.

"In that case..:," Dracula replied and followed the man who was heading to the bar in the Lounge. The vampire was wondering what was behind this offering. Was it just his sense of duty, despite the fact that he hated the particular guest or was he planning on something?

They both sat on the high chairs which had immediately been left by their former occupants when the couple arrived. Seconds later a glass filled with the most delicious smelling red liquid was placed in front of the Count.

"Welcome to the Casino Infernale," Logan said holding up a glass filled with cold milk.

"Thanks," the vampire replied amused. Briefly he inhaled the fragrance before drinking. There seemed to be nothing wrong with the blood. He could tell a few things about the victim that seemed to have been afraid a great deal. "Young male, quite nice, the scent of fear is just about right."

"We don't like cheaters in this place and we always put them to good use," Logan grinned with the meanest expression Dracula had ever witnessed on a mortal.

But now the vampire knew at least what this whole episode was about. But he remained unimpressed, maybe not completely, he was not afraid about any consequences for him, but the competence of the manager caught his liking. Maybe the self-conscious personnel was indeed better than those pathetic dwergers he had always used to occupy. And ugly outcasts of society had not proved to be the best choice also. Vladislaus became more curious on meeting other persons that worked for Lace - and the ruler of this city himself of course.

"Sir? Excuse me," he heard a young male voice next to him. Turning he saw that the boy was looking not directly at him but at the mirror that was at the back of the bar.

"Yes?" the vampire replied with an annoyed hiss.

"Sorry, just had to check if you're really the one without a reflection. I have this letter for you."

Unwillingly he leaned a bit back on his chair and watched his surroundings. This time he paid less attention to the current dancer, which was actually a real shame since she was a remarkable belly dancer. Instead he scanned the other persons for hostile thoughts. A few times it was as if he hit a wall instead of entering their current thoughts and emotions. He remained alerted and nearly forgot to take the letter.

"Well go on, read it, no need to panic, if Lace had wanted you dead, you would not have left that room downstairs," Logan said coolly.

"I'm not panicking, I just hate to waste blood." Dracula stared back at the manager. Finally the mortal gave up and left with an expression that were meant to cover up his loosing this eye-duel. The Count used the time to relieve the messenger of his document. The paper seemed to be old and had wax seal. A strange and very detailed dragon wrapped around a large L could be discerned on the small black wax.

He broke it. The notice was short and he saw that it was indeed signed by Lace. The handwriting was very graciously - artistic like those of the monks that had used to copy ancient texts or praying books.



'Very little and very quite,' Dracula thought unimpressed.



Not sure if he should feel offended or honoured he crumpled up the parchment and closed his fist around it. He had no choice. He would feel forever like a coward if he did not take this risk. He was almost sure that Lace was a man of his word, but to trust a dark mage owning his own city up to the last person in it was simply against his nature. With fast steps he left the lounge.

It seemed that they already knew about him anyway, he thought pacing down the corridor, and thus not going would not only appear as an act of cowardice but also foolishness. He felt his rage boiling up as he took the elevator down. Vladislaus was mad at Lace, but as walked back to the entrance past the corridor and into the crowded area he came to think that this might just been be the case because he hated to be not the one in power.

For if he had been the one doing the calling, he'd been afraid if he was the person that was called upon like this. The only thing that calmed him down was the fact that Lace, judging from what Dracula saw of the mage's actions was very much different from his. And this was something that was not necessarily to the vampire's disadvantage.

His momentary outburst of wrath was completely gone by the time he had got his winnings paid out to him. It was for sure a lot of money and so he took the tellers offer and had an account opened for him at the casino's bank. The service of this house pleased him once more as it was absolutely no problem not to reveal his name. He just had to keep a certain number ready that was handed to him in an envelope.

"I hope to see you again soon", said the teller.

Putting one tenth of his money into his inner breast pocket, Dracula replied: "I'm looking forward to it."

He was heading towards the tower as he recalled something and changed his direction towards the shop he had been to earlier. Since it was after midnight it was already closed, but Vladislaus sensed that someone was still inside and so he knocked at the glass door. The old man came looking and like the vampire had expected, he was let in.

"Well, Sir, it is late," the man said trying to sound polite about it.

"I'd like to acquire that coat I tried on earlier", he smiled in return.

"Oh, so you have been lucky in the Casino." The old guy sounded glad about it.

Leaving his old clothes in storage, he walked out to the street now with the heavy leather coat. That was much better. Although he was not bothered by the cold he felt less complete wearing only indoor attire. If he was about to walk into a trap he might at least do his best to present something for the coatroom. Everything else he would worry about after the meeting. The invitation made its way to his pocket, meanwhile neatly folded, and the Count continued his way to Lace's tower.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lace sat at his fire-place. Dinner was long over, but the Lady Rain still kept him company. It was of course only because he had invited the stranger. The mage had anticipated that or else he would have shown greater care hiding that he had sent out the invitation. In fact her presence might prove to be useful.

"Sanguina, can't you sit still?" he asked her.

"At least someone here should be a little bit worried!"

"That's what you want to call it!" Lace was already bored. The Lady Rain was such a bad actress.

So the ringing phone proved to be a welcome distraction. One of the servants brought it back to him. Anxiously he listened who might be at the other end. The mage hoped it was not another of Logan's calls.

"Yes, Lace here," he straightened his back in surprise as he heard the caller's voice. "What can I do for you?" - - "So, what sort of information?"

There was a long pause and the Lady tried to listen in, but naturally could not hear anything.

"Thank you - that is indeed interesting news."

He hung up and turned toward his guest with a satisfied smile. "My dear, you never guess who has come to my little city."