A storm is coming. Unseasonal, and about to bring darkness, more so that the hurricane earlier in the year, it is about to blanket New England in a heavy snow fall and thousands will be without power — electricity. In Collinsport residents have been preparing all day. For Samantha Evans the storm she has been preparing for could prove fatal as she awaits the setting of the sun. She has made a decision and she will not be deterred.
Three days was the morning. My focus three days old. Only it has been four days. In front of the old law offices of Matigan & Wiley (Nikki really needed to have put up a sign), Samantha Evans closes the door of her 1993 Volvo 240. She can’t shake the song, Jane’s Addiction’s Three Days from her memory. She is like an addiction. It is much too early for the winter storm — October’s leaves have not yet completely fallen. Six inches or more are forecasted, even here on the coast. She pulls her unbuttoned coat tightly to her as the chill wind blows in from the Atlantic. Snowflakes fall on her long lashes as she strides toward the front doors. The shadows of the evening sun — till the shadows and the light were one— elongate as the sun is setting.
It is time.
She sighs and takes the key she had been given by Nikki and unlocks the door. She steels herself for what she has too do.
The office is dim and dark. No one is there. Not even Esther.
Her boots leave wet footprints as she strides purposefully to the steps leading up to the second floor storage area.
Her hand slips into her coat pocket.
She advances to the landing.
The sun is hitting the horizon.
She enters the second floor storage room.
It is lit only by the dimming light falling from the large storefront windows of the office below.
She moves purposefully around the boxes and wooden crates.
She finds the coffin.
She stops for a moment and looks at the gray metallic container.
It is time.
She reaches down and opens the coffin.
Nichole Collins is lying in repose, hands crossed.
She is beautiful.
Sam hardens her resolve; she is not turning back.
The sun sinks below the horizon.
Nikki’s blue eyes open.
“Nikki Collins get out of that box right now!” Sam tells her sternly, “I can not understand why you lie in one of — these!”
“Sam.” Nikki looks up at her — so this is how the end comes, wood at the hands of a lover — how painful will the stake be?
In to those blue, blue eyes Samantha looks, “So dearest are we going to continue this little charade.”
Nikki reaches up a hand.
Sam takes it, grasps, and helps Nikki rise out of her coffin.
“So, I can assume David hasn’t sent you with a stake.”
“A stake?” Sam is stunned, “You think that of me?”
“You are — what, a member of David’s little group aren’t you.” Her silvery, musical voice hard and filled with disdain.
Nikki brushes past her and walks away toward the door of the storage room.
Sam closes her eyes and shakes her head in exasperation, then follows.
Samantha is taken by how sultry her languorous stride is even when she is not attempting such an affectation. Outside in the falling snow a rumble is heard as the large black convertible pulls up next too the door, heavy flakes falling in the headlights. A dark clad figure gets out. He doesn’t bother knocking, but just comes in the door.
He spots the wet footprints and turns his attention to the second floor landing to see Nikki at the top of the steps and Samantha Evans coming out the door of the strange room. He switches on the lights “Good evening, Nikki.”
He looks at Samantha.
“Sam?” He watches the two women with curiosity, “Have you come to explain things.”
“If someone will let me.”. Samantha says.
Nikki looks down and see Rhyaad, “Oh, good evening Rhyaad.”
“Nikki, we have to talk.” Sam says annoyed that Nikki continues to walk away from her.
“What is there to talk about?” Descending the steps.
Sam follows and gives Rhyaad a look as if to say will this never end.
Nikki walks toward her office, her hand giving an over-the-should off-hand backward wave to Sam, “I really don’t see why you have come out in this bad weather.”
“Is this beyond repair, Rhyaad.” Sam asks.
“Bad… it’s fantastic… cold and blustery and…” He stops realizing his words are inappropriate. “I’ll just take a seat.”
Nikki turns, and looks at her.
Then enters into her office.
“Beyond repair . . . no. I do not think so. Talk to her.”
Sam takes her coat off and drapes on Esther’s chair.
She strides to Nikki’s office. “Four days Nikki. Four days. You don’t answer the phone. You don’t answer a text.”
“Why should I need to, don’t you know everything already.” Nikki puts her chair back from the heavy wood desk and takes a seat.
“Okay — Okay, am I part of David’s group? Yes.” Sam says out stretched, palms up. “Is that what you want me to confess?”
“You were in church that is as good a place to confess as any, but you needn’t do it here. You don’t have to tell me anything, Sam.”
“Because you already know right? You know everything right?” Sam sits across from her.
“No, I don’t.”
“Oh really, then what is it you think you don’t know?”
Nikki sits silent, her blue eyes darkening even more.
Good Sam thinks watching then grow darker, “I can’t talk for the both of us, you have to tell me what it is . . . what is it?”
In the outer office Rhyaad sits pretending not to hear, but untapes his ears from his head and those points do twitch constantly.
“Did you love me?” Nikki asks, “Or was that just something you had to do for David.”
“You can ask me that question?” Sam sits back in the chair shocked, “Nicole Collins — how can you ask me that question? I have held you all night long, lain beside you when you are for intents . . . dead . . . and you — you can ask me that.”
“Really I have no idea what you are capable of.”
Esther walks in, seeing Nikki’s office door closed and Rhyaad sitting outside.
“Nikki Collins . . .”
“Why didn’t I tell you about David and the Society?”
“Nikki — ”
“If you loved me then you would have told me.”
“Wha’s goin’ on in there Rhyaad?”
“Nikki — I — didn’t tell you because — because I wanted to protect you.”
“Protect me?”
Not getting a response from Rhyaad, Esther shrugs, and goes to her desk to catch up on the weekend’s paperwork. She finds a woman’s coat draped over the back of her chair.
“God, Nikki there are things I don’t know — Things only David knows and he doesn’t tell us. I just know he told me you were in danger and —”
Nikki leans forward her eye teeth reveal their sharpness, “And so, what, to protect me, you pretend to like me, asked me out — go to bed with me.”
“Whose coat?” Esther asks moving it to the back of another chair.
“shhh…. I am listening, Esther. It’s Samantha and Nikki.”
“Oh goddamn it Nikki, what you think I am a whore? You think I could, would do that –” Sam said, watching Nikki’s eyes go a shade darker.
Esther nods silently, looking over her shoulder at the door, then back at her desk.
Nikki’s eyes begin to fill with anger — she tries to control herself but Sam has come too soon, she has just risen.
“You bitch. You think I would be David’s whore.”
“Aren’t you?”
Sam just looks at her. “Nothing has changed for me — at all. Nikki, look, you may have an eternity — I don’t. Every day we play this crazy charade is one less day I have with you. I don’t live forever. What do I need to do?”
“Just leave Sam.”
“What do I need to do for you to trust me again.”
“Sam I am telling you. . . . ” She feels the hurt, the anger, the hunger.
“Do you still love me!”
Nikki looks at her eyes narrowing, ‘Of course I love you why do you think this is so bloody hard for me . . . Loving someone I can’t trust!”
“Then i will show you.”
“What?”
Sam’s heart is beating very fast. She stands up and without a hesitation walks around the desk and grabs the arms of Nikki’s chair and turns her around to face her.
She looks into those very dark blue eyes, “Do it.”
“What?”
“Come on get up and Do It!”
“Sam.” She is so close, the heady scent of her is overwhelming; she can smell her hair; she remembers her taste; those lips, her gray eyes; the sound of her heart . . . She looks at the soft flesh of her neck.
“Do it!”
Nikki stands up, her chair pushing back, she looks into Sam’s eyes — she is intoxicated by the sound of her heart, beating now so fast — afraid and yet not stepping back . . . Sam’s breath is a slight gasp . . . the pulse of her life’s blood so visible along her neck, so, so close . . . God she smells so good, fresh from a shower — she has prepared to come to this moment . . .
Sam looks into those eyes, eyes she has not seen, not these eyes, the eyes of what Nikki hides . . . She is terrified and at the same time seductively drawn to those wonderful lips — she sees them part, the tip of her tongue . . . as Nikki’s mouth opens wide . . . So wide . . . She sees the fangs extend . . .
Sam closes her eyes, yes, my love — for you. She feels Nikki’s breath on her throat.
Nikki bites Sam’s neck.
Holding her in the embrace, she feels the warm blood flowing into her, she savors the taste of Sam’s blood; heady, with the sweet taste of her love, flowing into her.
The sound of her lips sucking hungry, she can hear herself. She closes her eyes, sucks, and shudders as her blood warms her . . . as she . . . Suddenly opens her eyes, and quickly breaks off the kiss and feels Sam limp in her arms. In one swift movement she lifts her up and hurries to place her in the chair.
“There — you have to know — no greater love than — ” Sam tells her, her eyes blinking heavily.
Nikki feels the warm sensation of Sam’s blood as it flows through her and she looks down at her. “Sam –”
Sam’s lovely fingers can barely make it to her throat, the tips now wet with blood, “Now — do you know!”
Rhyaad suddenly smells blood and gets up, going to the door and knocks. “Are you all right in there?”
Esther notices the concerned look on his face, turns to look behind her.
Nikki looks up at the knock, aware now of her surroundings, what she has done — her lips and teeth blood stained.
Sam sits in the chair her neck bleeding.
“Oh, God Sam . . .”. Nikki tires to put her fingers to the wound, “Rhyaad — help me. I need a bandage . . . something.”
Esther hearing these words rushes to her desk and gets a first aid kit.
Nikki’s fingers touch the twin wounds tryng to stem the bleeding. “Sam — forgive me.”
Esther rushes in past Rhyaad and pulls out a bandage, she see’s the blood in Nikki’s lips, the stain on her teeth, “What have you Done Nik!?”
Rhyaad comes in and stares for a moment, shocked. “Nikki!”
Then he goes over to Samantha quickly. “You weren’t ready for this… I am surprised at you! But… I can fix the wound.”
“Sorry for what? I had to prove to you — I trust you with my life . . . so you can trust me again.”
Rhyaad waves his hand at Esther dismissively, then bends over Sam. “This won’t hurt much…”
Esther does not want to look at Nikki, not his way, not with blood on her mouth as she fumbles with the bandage sticker. “Well NOW the cultists will be on our a**.”
Sam looks at Esther, smiles. She is pale.
Rhyaad bites his own tongue with sharp fangs and then proceeds to lick Samantha’s neck. A sharp burning-freezing tingling sensation would affect her.
“Esther please help me,” Nikki takes the bandage from her not certain what to do as she watches Rhyaad.
Oh God, Esther looks at Rhyaad licking the wound. “Leftovers? What is this? Stop.”
As he licks at the wound, the holes begin to close up, as the freezing fire spreads through her.
“Rhyaad?” Nikki looks at him.
He finally pulls back. Instead of holes, only puckered red marks remain.
Nikki watches as the twin wounds heal.
“Nikki — I feel — sleepy.” Sam’s eyes blink as she falls asleep in the chair.
Nikki leans forward and lightly kisses her lips.
Esther throws her hand down onto the medkit, “What is this all about then, hmm?”
Relieved Nikki looks over at Rhyaad, “Thank you — how did you do that?”
“It will pass.” He puts his hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Sleep for a day or so.” After she collapses he whirls on Nikki.
“Just what the hell do you think you are doing?” His blue eyes seem to burn holes into her. “You could have killed her!”
“I — ” Nikki has no excuse.
In silence, feeling his furious gaze She returns to her chair and puts her head on the desk, “She . . .told me . . . In order to prove I could trust her and I had to know . . . and it — happened.”
She looks up at him, “But I would not have killed her!”
“I told you I would teach you things! Now you have jumped into doing what you desire before you know if you can control yourself!”
“Trust her?” Esther asked totally confused, “You trust me without takin’a bite?”
“At least you did stop. What if you had not? You don’t wantto kill her, I know. But how many times have you done this? I’ve been doing it for thousands of years.”
Nikki raises her head and looks at Esther. “Esther — you were there. You know she was part of David’s society. You know they were watching me. How could I be sure what her intentions were?”
Nikki’s eyes fill with red tears. “I have no excuse.”
Esther throws her arms up. “I dun understand how this indicates trust.”
“On HER part… Sam’s part, it does.” Rhyaad agreed.
“She — can’t hide anything from me — the bite allows me to read her.” Nikki tried to explain the horrid truth, ” And she knew that — that was why she told me to do it.”
“I don’t do things that way. Not my bloodline. Still, she practilly offered you her life in exchange for a little trust. I say the greatest risk was the one she took.”
“Mind readin’?” Esther leans against the wall, placing her face in her hand and shaking it in disbelief.
Rhyaad has other concerns, “And what if those Temple people just ‘pop’ in ,as they are wont to do, and see you sinking your fangs into Sam’s throat?”
Esther takes her hand from her face, suddenly cognizant of what could have happened, “Yeah. If they find out, we’re gun have ta start fightin’ them off. The entire office’ll be under siege.”
Nikki sits and rubs her fingers on her forehead, not looking at wither of them, in remorse — she looks at Sam. She can taste her blood still. She knows how much the woman across the desk loves her . . . she felt her love physically the moment her teeth punctured her flesh — felt it, as if reading her soul. “I — ‘ Nikki does not know what to say. “God — I thought I had this all under control!”
She slightly rocks in her seat.
“It is why I sleep in that coffin . . . so that every night I wake up to the fact of what I am and what I can become.”
“Well . . . ” Esther looks out the window, as if expecting Chiyo to show up at any moment, “We can work with this. Get her a turtleneck. It’s gettin’ cold out there anyway. Have her take some time off of work to let the wound go away. As for you, this secret will just be between the four of us, and no one will know. That is assuming they cannot read our minds.”
Rhyaad shakes his head, he’s not been at all comfortable with Nikki’s particular regeneration arrangements. “I wish you wouldn’t… sleep in the coffin, I mean. You will have it all under control someday, Nikki. Someday you may even be able to do what I did. But it takes time.”
He looks over at the sleeping Sam, “Her marks will be gone quickly. A few days.”
Nikki looks at him and then at Sam — ‘I do it so that I will not ever come to think of myself as anything other than what I have become. I do it to remind me of how much I must remain in control.” Wiping away, and seeing the crimson of her tears on her fingertips, “I mean look what I did tonight? And I thought . . . I thought I had self-control . . .”
“That is a blessing.–they, cannot read our minds…right?” Esther asks.
Nikki looks at her, “I don’t know. I know that Ana can.”
Esther looks at Nikki stunned, “Well f***…”
“It disturbs me, Nikki. I would think that to rest in that coffin and rise up fro it would make you feel more a monster. But if you are sure it helps you control yourself.. perhaps I should not argue with that.”
“Rhyaad — I am a monster.” Nikki says and wipes her hand across her lips to remove a trace of blood, “Look what I just did.”
Nikki looks to Esther, “Ana reads my mind all the time. She also can speak to you directly in your thoughts.”
“Well what you did is nothing I haven’t done a thousand times, Nikki. The only difference is . . . I know I can control myself. I know my limits. I know how to hide the marks. You are not a monster. But you have needs and desires. Someday you will be able to reconcile all of this in your mind.”
“I have not bitten anyone in so very long — I thought that was behind me.”
Rhyaad sits back, still shaken by tonight’s events, “And there are ways to block mind-invasion. That is one of my specialties. I could teach you a few techniques.”
Esther is thankful to hear for him that there is at least some protection, “Make it so no f***er can get into any of our heads. Even Sam here.”
Nikki looks now at Rhyaad — she has a concerned expression, ‘You are certainly aware I have found I can throw my thoughts into others — and can sometimes read others . . . It started when I met Elizabeth.”
Rhyaad looks at Esther, “I can’t guarantee that. But I can teach you basic blocking techniques.” Then he nodded to Nikki. “It may be impossible for you. Those who have such powers are conductors, if I may use that term as an analogy. I don’t know. We shall see.”
“There are times when I get flashes of other peoples memories.”. Nikki adds and sits back still trying to regain control, her body still feeling the after rush of the biting and drawing Sam’s blood, “Can you help me with your blocking techniques?”
“I can try. But those who have your gift . . . It may not work. You know in electricity . . . there are those things that conduct and those that insulate? It’s something like that.”
“I fear it comes from Bathory — it started with her, I was able to read so many of her memories, it was almost overwhelming that night.”
He pondered that. “Then perhaps you should ask Elisabeth about the powers of her blood . . . now your blood. Though I still do not trust her, and never really will.”
“I guess she is the only one who does know that — what I would get from her bloodline.” Nikki reflects, “I am so new to all of this, you know yesterday was the one year anniversary of my turning.”
He nodded. “Yes, only Elisabeth can teach you what gifts she would bestow . . .Sorry, a dark anniversary.”
“So how did you heal Sam?”
Esther leans against the wall, and takes out a cigarette and lights it, remaining in silence as their talk is all so far above her.
“It’s in the nature of my blood. In all vampires of my line, and many in this world, our blood heals our wounds. In ones older than a thousand years, it can have a similar effect even on humans, though not without side effects. I know of a secret people in Vienna who make healing potions from vampire blood. i can make such potions . . . though I have not done that in a while.”
“Well I am very thankful you were able to help Sam.” Nikki looks over at her. “I broke off the kiss as soon as I was conscious I was doing it and hoped I had not injured her too badly.”
“Good. Better than I expected. As you once said, it’s like sex, is it not? You don’t want to stop. But you must.”
Esther looks up at the comparison of a Vampire bite as sex and gives Rhyaad an odd expression, “Well…that made a weird turn.”
He looked at Esther. “How so?”
Esther shakes her head, “I’m gonna get a drink.” and walks off to the fridge.
“In some ways yes, that is the best way to describe it –and she knew — just awaking up I am more vulnerable to my desires.”
He shrugged. “The truth can be disturbing…” He nodded at that. “Never bite anyone when you just get up. And preferably not until you have had some animal blood first.”
Sam suddenly begins to stir, she sits up and looks very tired, “Nikki — I fell asleep.”
Rhyaad smiles at her, “Ask Esther to get her something sweet if she has it. Cookies or cake or something.”
Esther returns with two beers, handing the awaking Sam a cold beer, “There ya go.”
Rhyaad raises an eyebrow. “I suggested sugar. Not alcohol.”
“Oh, thanks Esther.” Sam takes the beer.
“Oh, yeah. Cause I got tons a cake and cookies just lyin’ around. I can run to th’ store an get some?
“And Miss Friedman, you seemed disturbed by the comparison I made earlier? Really, do you not know why they call it ‘le petit mort’?” He grinned slightly at that.
Ester takes a deink, “the little death?
“It also refers to the orgasm, Miss Friedman.”
Esther sprays the beer across the room.
Rhyaad laughs.
Esther turns red. “Fine. I”ll go get yar cookies an’cake.”
She heads out into the outer office. Get’s her coat and steps out into the falling s ow.
“Oh, I must have been asleep, we’re talking about orgasms? I’m up or one,” Sam says looking at Nikki.
“Good idea”, he says, still grinning. “Ah, Miss Evans, well, not exactly. But sort of.”
Esther heading to the 7-11, but then, looking at the time, sighs and runs up to her house to see what she might have.
“Are we okay Nikki?” Sam says and takes a drink of her beer.
Nikki smiles reassuringly and nods, “Yes, love.”
“You are now.” Rhyaad agrees, “But what you allowed Miss Collins to do was very . . . dangerous, Samantha.”
Nikki reaches out a hand across the desk, and Sam does also, “Sam I am so very, very sorry — I should have never done.”
“It is alright Nik, I told you to. I came here planning to make you do it one way or the other.”
Rhyaad raised an eyebrow. “YOU came here planning to make HER bite you?”
Sam nods, “Rhyaad — yes. I knew she was weakest when she arises — and so, If I had to strip and lay on that desk she was going to bite me. Itbwas the only way I could prove to her I care about her and not David.”
He stared at the woman with obvious disapproval. “And do you have a death wish, Miss Evans? Just how long have you been in this ‘Ghost society’? Do they encourage you to throw yourself into the fangs of a vampire? Where did you get this idea from?”
“From being caught between a woman I love and a man I have respected for sometime and who cares more for Nikki than I think she possibly knows.”
“David?” Nikki asks.
“Well it was ill advised. And if these ghost people know anything, they would have told you the same thing. Be grateful that you love Nichole Collins…” He looked at Nikki… “Who is NOT a monster.”
“Nikki, David has connections now across the globe with these . . . organizations . . that handle the unusual and the abnormal nearly everyday. And yet he did not foresee you being attacked, he could not prevent it — and I know it has weighted on him.”. Sam taking a drink of the beer, now that Nikki will listen, tries to explain that David’s Society was not a threat to her, but rather is rather concerned about her welfare. “He is at this moment about to set a monumental disaster into motion, all because of you.”
Rhyaad nodded. “And unfortunately David has leaped to certain conclusions against the Harker family…. most unfortunate for the two families.”
Nikki looks at them both, “What is David about to do?”
Samantha is not certain how much Nikki knows begins by explaining, “There is another family as famous or infamous’ if you will’ in the type of work that David does. The Collins and the Harkers.”
“The Harkers, Medri and his grandmother?”
“Yes, they to have an large organization — perhaps not as large as David’s.”
Rhyaad nods, “And it is not their fault, Nikki.”
“My lawyer was from Harker & Hawkins, she was just murdered.”. Nikki tells Samantha.
“Nikki there is some agreement between the two families. I don’t know much about it, but what it means is basically the two can not join forces. David called a meeting with Medri to try and align the two houses to protect you — her had information that the person responsible your . . . ”
“Death and regeneration as un-dead.”. Nikki finishes her sentence.
“Yes.” Samantha says feeling a bit light-headed, “But the meeting went badly and Medri’s grandmother came in to stopped it. She and David had words. And now David has gotten into his head that the Harkers are somehow to blame for what happened to you because they will not break the accord.”
“What?”
He nodded. “I’m afraid what she says is true.”
“He asked for help and they refused. Gwen said something in the Church and from it, he believes they set you up.”
“Which is ridiculous . . . ” Rhyaad says, “But that is what he believes.”]
“He is — Nikki you do not know how powerful David has become. He was very powerful when he became a member of The Diogenes Club — but the Interfaith has given access to Global reach.” Samantha explains.
“I think a spy in Harker and Hawkins is responsible. Perhaps for both the ‘leak’ about Nikki and the murder of Gretchen.”. Rhyaad tells Nikki, but he looks over to Samantha now as she has mentioned a name he has heard recently, “Diogenes club . . . that’s another topic . . . .”
“Nik, he is calling in all manner of favors to — there is no way to say this but — to go to war with the Harkers to avenge you.”
Nikki shakes her head — ‘War with Medri? That is insane.”
“I tried to reason with him. Trask has too — althought Trask is acting very strange these days. But he has his mind made up — God Nikki he had a meeting in the White House.”
“It would be insane. We must get David to come to his senses, somehow.”
“Sam — why does he think?” Nikki asks.
“It’s the accord Nikki. I don’t know why or what it is — but Gwen said something that night in the Church and he has been like this every since.”
“As I understand from Trask, The Diogenes Club is sending a Very Valuable Member from the Ruling Cabal to talk to him about it.”
Nikki crosses her legs and sits to lean on the arm of her chair, “The Diogenes Club, my father was a member.”
“I met a member of the Diogenes club at Harker Manor.”. Rhyaad tells Sam, “He was looking for Medri.”
“Yes, that is how David got his membership.” Samantha says hoping not to kindle her emotions, “Because you father has remained missing for so long.”
“Nikki you have to talk some sense into David.” Rhyaad suggested.
“I still think we should actually do what was first suggested as a joke.” He looked at Nikki. “You remember.”
“Lock Gwen and David in a room?”
“Exactly!”
“So you are aware?” Sam looks at them.
“i knew David was upset, but going to War with the Harkers?” Nikki said.
“Gwen does not realize the seriousness of this… she doesn’t think David would actually do what he fumes and threatens to do.” He turns now to Samantha, thankful he finally has someone he can talk to about this matter who actually knows what David is doing . . . What he is thinking of doing. “Is David aware that Gwen is a witch? That Medri is a vampire slayer? That werewolves serve their family? Does he have any idea of what they can do?”
“Well — he is getting some push back. I mean that is why they sent Dr. Praetorius from London.”
“The man with the question mark card?”
The front door opens and Esther returns, stamping her feet to knock off snow from her boots, “Ugh. A bit chilly out there.” she is holding a small box.
Returning to her usual spot against the wall, she sets the “dunkin’ donuts” box on Nikki’s desk and opens it up. “There’s your sugar.”
He nods to Esther. “Thank you, Esther. Sugary foods are good for people who have just lost blood.” He indicated Sam.
Esther looks at Sam, a bit pale, but looking alright, as she takes one of the donuts, one with a chocolate coating on the top and leaves the rest for everyone else.
Sam looks at Rhyaad, “Oh well, you do know that The Diogenes Club has at their disposal Sorcerers, Conjurers, Wizards, Witches, Vampires, and Enchanters.”
Then almost as an afterthought, “And God only knows what the Interfaith have at their disposal.”
“Impressive. Why have Inot been invited?” He smiled slightly at her. “As for Gwendolyn Harker, she laid waste to a flock of Patricia’s spawn with her spells. I saw.”
Esther nods to Samantha, “Sam, there, have a donut.”
“That Interfaith… for all they claim to be, they just impress me more and more as so… *human*…” He says that with a tone of disgust.
Sam takes a deep breath, and then exhales in a long sigh, “Oh, I have no idea how they pick their Very Valuable Members, Rhyaad. I just know that David was just very honored when they told him he had been given VVM status, as they are apparently very, very selective of who is a Valuable Member as they call it. I know that they offered it to him when he was on a business trip in Prague . . . It was right at the same time he aligned with the Interfaith.”
Rhyaad shrugged. “Alas, the Doctor wanted to see Medri, not me. David claims that he is using the interfaith. But I wonder if it is not the other way around.”
Sam rubs her forehead, “They scare the shit out of me, to be blunt about it. ”
Esther finishing her last bite of the chocolate covered donut, says through the snow to get says, “Ok fine. Don’t eat the donuts that I trudged through the snow to get for you.
“Eat your donuts Miss Evans. And, if it helps… they scare the shit out of me too.”
Sam reaches over and takes a donut, and looks up at Esther, “Thank you, I am sort’a hungry.” She takes a big bite.
For a moment everyone seems to be watching her as she eats the donut rather quickly, “Wow that was good.” She takes another and then looks up, ‘I’m not certain why I am craving these things.”
Outside in the snow, catching flakes and looking at them, Gregory appeared. he had been wandering, as usual, as he had been since he watched the Doctor’s death. It all seamed a bit…. pointless now that the Doctor had died. He gravitated now towards his friend Rhyaad, appearing now outside the storefront window of Collins Investigations, pulling up the collar of his jacket, peering in, like a scene from a Dickens’s novel, before entering through the door. Immediately, he smelled Donuts and approached the officer. “Donuts?”
Esther smiles, happy to see Sam eating, “Good stuff ain’t they?”
Samantha reaching in to take another, looks at Nikki knowingly, “I know I am not pregnant.”
Upon hearing the door open Esther looks out into the outer office, “Hey, I forgot to turn the light off and lock the door again. Dint I…”
“All kinds of people wander in through your door, Nikki.”
The tall man in the red fez hat looked in the door, he looked like a man in need of a donut, “Gregory, so good to see you, care for a donut? But, they are mostly for Sam.”
Esther looks to Rhyaad and Nikki, “You know this fella?”
“Yes, do come in and have some donuts.” He nodded at Esther. Then a wicked little grin spread on his face. “He’s an alien.”
Esther rolls her eyes, “What . . . like a wookie?”
“No, your all alliens. Don’t be so egocentric.” Gregory says.
“Well, I do know Dr. Praetorius.” Nikki said watching as Sam seemed less pale, thankfully.
Esther tosses the while alien discussion with a “Bag.” and leaves to go an lock the front door. She also turns out the overhead lighting, leaving the room illuminated solely by her desk lamp.
As she returns to her usual place against the wall, she scoffs at Gregory, ” Yer on our planet bud.”
“Even if we can get them together Rhyaad, if things have gotten to a point where David is looking to take retaliatory action, how can we be assured they will even speak to each other.”
“Two tribes go to war?”. Gregory asks.
“The important thing is getting them together – I’m certain things will work themselves out.”
Esther looks at Rhyaad skeptically, “You seem to be putting a lot of hope in this.”
“If they get violent, I can shoot them.” Gregory states firmly.
“Gregory! No shooting!” He looked between him and Esther. “The two of you should go out on a date.”
Wide-eyed Esther looks at Rhyaad, “What!?”
“I don’t get to shoot things as often as I used to. And their like humans, right? Humans are like Pavlov’s dogs. Eventually they’ll figure out killing each other gets them hot and knocked out, good behavior gets . . . donuts.” He quickly reaches over and snatches a donut from the box.
“Or something.” Gregory adds looking at his donut, “Biscuits, dog treats, whatever.”
“It’s best not to compare them do dogs. Well, at least not Gwen. David does seem a bit rabid.” Rhyaad contemplates the possible methods of arraign the meeting.
Esther shakes her head, “oh yes. Treat humans like canines. Ohyour gaining my trust immensely.
Rhyaad adds thoughtfully, “True…. dogs are much more trustworthy than humans. They don’t lie and give their loyalty so easily.”
“Gregory, you have hunted humans?” Nikki asks.
“Humans treat humans like canines, Pavlov’s classical conditioning is a tactic human behavorists use. You just arbitrarily dismissed your own species social science.”
Esther gives little credence to Gregory whom she suspects is a crank, “Bah!”
Gregory turns to Nikki taking a big bite of his Donut, “For survival purposes, I have hunted animals for food when necessary, yes, or hunted animals that were threatning for the safety of myself or others.. Not for recreation, not often.”
“Well, as I understand it, I am transformed and I’m another species altogether.”
“I refer to you as a “human-vampire”, my dear Nikki.”Rhyaad smiles at her.
Sam takes another donut, “Hey guys if you want one of these you better get one before I eat them all.”
Esther reaches over and grabs a glazed donut and leans back up against the wall.
“Okay, Nikki,” Sam says between bites, “Tonight, you’re coming home with me, okay — and you are not going to sleep in that . . . . box.”
Nikki looks at her and smiles, “Yes, Miss Evans.”
Rhyaad rubs his hands together, “Well…. then it’s settled. To avert the catastrophe of the century, we must trick Gwen Harker and David Collins into meeting, somewhere. Unless Miss Friedman has a better idea?”
He nodded to what Sam said. “Indeed. Coffins are for dead people.”
Sam agrees, “And you can sleep the sleep of the dead in a bed, okay”
“I have never slept in anything other. . .”
Esther taking a bite of her glazed donut suggests, “Surly there should be a mediator that can be brought in?
Rhyaad pointed at Nikki. “No biting!” Then at Sam, “And no opening the curtains!”
“No, it’s the bed for you and I will watch over during the day. I can paint.”
Suddenly, in the midst of eating his donut, Gregory recalls something, “Hold on, wait, it’s the Harker family? And Collins, it’s your family too?”
” . . . someone trained to deal with fighin’ people. Like married couples,” Esther continues.
Rhyaad nods, “Harker and Collins, yes, Greg. And related they are, by marriage.”
“Why dont you and Medri fix it?” Gregory asks bluntly.
“Well . . . I work with and counsel Nikki Collins. And I have lived in Harker Manor. And been . . . close . . . to Medri Harker.”
“What is even odder is that we are related not only as humans, but the Harkers have Dracula’s bloodline and I have Bathory’s and Dracula and Bathory are cousins.”. Nikki explains, “Bathory was turned by Dracula, so I have his bloodline in me also.”
“Yes, it’s all like a family drama, isn’t it?” Rhyadd adds.
Esther shakes her head at the whole inanity of the situation, “Fine. Yur all one big happy fuedin’ family from the foothills of Virginia, now that being said, Rhyaad here can mediate”
then adding growing tired, “I on the other hand, not being such a night owl, need to get back home to bed. If you will excuse me
“Me? Me? I…” he stammered.
Esther stops in the doorway and turns, “Yes, you. Yer on good terms with em both.
Ncollins looks at him with a wry smile, “Esther is right. You are the one who knows them both.”
“Well, I don’t really know David…. not really And Medri… I may know him too well . . .”
“Now as I said, I’m going home to bed.”. Esther walks out of the office, Night Nik!” she calls out.
“Good night Esther.”
Sam looks over at Nikki, she smiles, “Well, gentlemen, as Esther has indicated the hour is getting late. And I am going to take this lovely lady home and get her into bed.”
Cue Music and End of Episode