“I am willing to pay whatever you…”

  “If I decide that I can help you, it won’t be for the money. Now go and tell my friends that they can come back in here. This meeting is over.”

  The meaner she treated Tom the more he liked her vampire or not. Tom took the case and stood up.

  “Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

  “You are wrong! I do know how much it means to you. Leave now.”

  “Thank you again.”

  Tom realized his hand had stopped shaking as he turned the door knob.

  Tom walked back to her two friends sitting at the bar talking to Pasha.

  “Excuse me ladies, our meeting is over. You are free to return to your friend.”

  The girls smiled at him and they did check his neck. He could see the empty blood bag with a sets of fang holes on each end and just a small trickle of blood near the lips of the women. He removed his handkerchief and gave it to one of them.

  “Here ladies… keep it.’

  Hadiya took the cloth and wiped her lip.

  “Thank you ‘warm blood’.”

  The bartender leaned over.

  “Want another for the road or the walk later to my place?”

  Tom smiled. He liked all the women he had met this evening.

  “Maybe some other time... Your offer is most tempting.”

  Tom was teasing his protector. There really was no way he would want to be alone with Pasha but he wanted to be on the best of terms just in case he had to return. He left money on the counter that covered his drinks along with a sizable tip. Pasha stuck the money in her cleavage and smiled as Tom turned to the door. He wanted to break into a fast run but maintained the appearance that he was not worried and casually strolled out the door, up the stairs and returned to the street. His heart was pounding and hailed a cab for the ride back to the hotel.

  Chapter 13 Bad Luck

  The first thing Tom did was send a short text message that he was on his way back. The streets still had quite a few people around. Some were window shopping. Others were coming and going from the restaurant across the street. There was even a police man talking to someone just down from his location. He had no problem hailing a cab at ten in the evening. He climbed in back and gave the driver the address for the hotel. It was then that he realized he had given the bartender a hundred dollar bill as a tip.

  Maybe it was the beer, but he had a different image of vampires. These are creatures that didn’t even exist in his version of reality until now. He no longer thought of them as monsters. He now viewed them for the most part from his small sample, as victims just like him. Only instead of a wolf’s curse they had been unlucky enough to be attacked by another nocturnal predator. There are those who are killed and injured in car accidents every day. These poor people are just trying to get by. During his short time in their company, he realized that they were in many ways, just like him. He sensed that this Iolana was going to help him if it were possible and probably saw herself as attempting to save his very soul and any chance he would have had to live a normal life.

  ***

  As he paid the driver and climbed out, his sister was standing there waiting for him. He almost forgot to retrieve the empty medical case but the driver had noticed it and made sure Tom grabbed it. The driver waved and left the area as Elizabeth hugged her brother with tears in her eyes in the windy and chilly night air.

  “I was so worried about you.”

  “Hey, I’m fine. Let’s go back inside before you catch a cold.”

  “Did you meet this monster named Iolana?”

  “Yes and she is not a monster. She is just another unfortunate victim of a different brand of curse.”

  On the way up to the room, Tom filled his sister in on all the details. She did not like the part where she and the flight crew were going to be dismissed if this figure of the night called him. Tom put his phone on charge and sat in his sister’s room. They watched late night television. Tom searched the channels for any movie that had werewolves or vampires but as luck would have it, there wasn’t any on. It was almost five in the morning when his phone rang. Tom gently pushed his sleeping sister aside and unplugged the hand set from the charger and answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “It is I, Iolana, Iolana Hellenberg from the club. You asked if I…”

  “Yes, I remember, I didn’t have that much to drink. Can you help me?”

  “We are going to try… I will send a limo for you about one hour before sunset. It will take you to my jet. I will be there along with my two friends just after sunset and we will immediately leave.”

  “Where to?”

  “That is not a concern. Do you want my help or not?”

  “Yes of course, you are my only hope.”

  “Send your sister and your flight crew away as soon as possible. Bring only your luggage. We may be gone for some time.”

  The call ended but a ray of hope did ignited over the woman’s words. He woke his sister and made sure the jet along with the corporate flight crew and his sister were gone by the middle of the next day. He went to the bank and withdrew some cash. He had his passport on him just in case. He returned to the apartment and paid the bill in advance and went up to sleep the rest of the day until he got the call that a car was down stairs to take him to the airport. By that time he was already awake and dressed with an extra dose of the cologne his sister had purchased. The phone rang and he followed the luggage down to his ride. The Limo driver never spoke a word. He watched out the window and after almost an hour of travel, he could smell jet fuel and see aircraft hangers. If he was at the airport, it was a portion of the facility he hadn’t seen or noticed before. The driver said nothing until the vehicle came to a stop near a sleek two engine modern Gulf Stream jet. There were a few around and a man up in the cockpit doing preflight checks. The driver didn’t offer to carry his bags so Tom struggled to get his entire luggage on board and sat in the first class area. He figured it was like his jet and the luggage storage area would be beyond a business class section. Rather than bother the pilot, he carried his three bags back for storage during the flight. He opened the curtain of the business section and was surprised to see three beautiful coffins. He sensed that the ladies were not yet awake and quietly put his bags away and returned to his seat. He thought about the rear of the jet and how it was different from the corporate bird he flew into New York. This one had a much larger kitchen galley which didn’t make sense, and also a full bath with shower. That was a luxury that even his company didn’t implement on their aircraft. There was also a vast walk-in closet filled with women’s clothes.

  He took a seat back in first class and fanned the contents of a magazine. He heard someone approaching from the rear.

  “Hi Dreamboat.”

  It was one of her friends, the one call Hadiya. She leaned on the seat. She was dressed but he could see her hair was still damp.

  “Your baggage is aboard?”

  “Yes, I took care of that.”

  “Your savior is in the shower. We don’t carry that much water in flight. So as long as we are connected to the ground utilities, all three of us try to get in and out.”

  Tom had never considered that.

  “I understand.”

  “I’m going up front to check on our status. The others will be out shortly.”

  “Do you fly?”

  “All three of us have our pilot’s license. When you have all the lifetimes we have in front of you, you have the time to learn to do a lot of things.”

  “What happens if you have to fly in the daytime?”

  “We have special filters on the windows. We really try not to use them. We even have special clothes to wear if we had to leave the plane while the sun was out for some reason. Again, those are considered emergency options only. You have to excuse me, I have got to go forward and check our status.”

  “Tom smiled.”

  “Hey thanks for all your help.”

  “No problem cutie.”

  The single man in the cabin could be heard talking to Hadiya as she questioned him about the fuel status and the weather. He left and she shut the door. The lights dimmed a little as the engines began to wind. Chelsea came down the aisle next still drying her hair and entered the cabin in the second station seat. They were both talking about their flight plan. Tom was trying to listen but couldn’t make out their destination.

  A voice came softly in his ear.

  “No we are not laying in a course for Transylvania.”

  Tom looked up and smiled at Iolana. It was the first time he had ever seen her smile. She was brushing her hair and some of the water’s mist hit his head and body.

  “Thank you again for…”

  “Please, you are starting to sound like a broken record.”

  She took a seat across from Tom and crossed her legs as she continued to brush her hair. Tom admired her long sexy legs.

  “Yes, that is one good thing about being a vampire.”

  Tom jerked up to see her eyes. They were not red with fire but actually a deep blue and she was smiling at him as if he in some way, he had paid her a compliment.

  “What’s that?”

  “We never have to shave our legs.”

  A voice came back from the cockpit.

  “Iolana, we are ready to pull away from our parking space.”

  Iolana turned around.

  “Okay. Let’s get off the ground.”

  “Where exactly are we going?”

  “We are taking you to see some people who may know how to help you… Excuse me. We’ll talk later.”

  Chelsea came back and sat down across from him. Chelsea had several stylish red streaks in her hair as she bent over and fastened her seat belt.

  “Excuse me Chelsea, but I am curious where are we going?”

  “We are flying over to the ‘land of green sod’.”

  “Ireland?”

  “Yes. Our first stop is Shannon. We will spend the day there. It’s about a six hour flight and we will have extra tanks so we won’t have to refuel in Canada. We are going nonstop. I have relatives there. That will be our first stop to get some answers about your condition.”

  “Are you Irish?”

  “Actually I am part Irish and part Scottish.”

  “All three of you are so young and pretty. May I ask how old you are in human years?”

  “Oh, I am the oldest actually. I was born the same year as Marie Antoinette. You can do the math. I try not to think about that actually.”

  “And the others?”

  “Well Hadiya had just been turned into, you know, one of us night girls and was on the Titanic when it went down. Of course, being one of us, she just flew away and made it to land before the sun came up. Fortunately for her, she was from England and she did make back to her native soil in time.”

  “So the soil of your home is a real vampire fact?”

  “Yes and even now all three of us carry an emergency bag of it. That is why you will see at least one of us with a briefcase. You can’t be too careful you know.”

  “So evidently you don’t need a lot of your home soil?”

  “No, a pound or so could be used in an emergency to buy us another day.”

  “What about your social life? All three of you are young and pretty… Don’t you ever, you know, go on dates?”

  “We would never go out with one of our kind. That is for the brainless women. We can’t see ourselves being in some harem doing another’s bidding. We are too independent for that. No, for one of us to go on a date with a man it would have to be a ‘warm blood’. All three of us still dream of someday having a real home with a family.”

  “And you can’t see that with another vampire?”

  “Another little known vampire fact to add to your collection… Males try to overpower the will of females to have their way with them, but two vampires cannot have a child. It would take one vampire with a ‘warm blood’ partner to have a baby. One of the two has to have your kind of blood with oxygen in it for such a thing to be possible.”

  “But would the baby then be a vampire?”

  “No. The baby should be a healthy ‘warm blood’ if certain practices are followed…”

  “What practices?”

  Tom hated to see Chelsea called back to the cabin. She was going to relieve one of the others. He really wanted to learn more about their condition and what was fact and what was fiction. He decided that he would take a page from one of the magazines and just write some questions to ask while he had some time alone. Hadiya walked by and stopped long enough to blow in his ear.

  Tom looked up at her.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find some way to help you. Iolana is really going to try hard to help you and we will too.”

  She continued on back glancing back to Tom.

  They all seem very helpful and concerned. He could feel their interest in him as a person and it was obvious that they all liked him. Tom preferred their teasing to a vicious look of hunger with blood red eyes. He was sure he could not have handled any of them treating him like he was a carry-out order.

  Chapter 14 Good Girls

  Tom looked out the window as the moisture of the thick fog streaked back across the glass. He watched the flaps extend and he could feel the jet was dropping on approach to Shannon Airport in Ireland. He heard the squeal of the tires touching the runway. He watched as the jet pulled off the runway. He could see several ‘Aer Lingus’ jets lined up by hangers as what appeared to be a police car escort the aircraft to its place on the tarmac.

  Hadiya came from the rear dressed in a stewardess uniform and smiled as she stopped by Tom.

  “I need your passport.”

  Tom reached in his pocket and produced the small book.

  Hadiya took the official book and added to the others.

  “Thanks. We are going to leave the plane tonight, so customs will want to make sure we are legal. They may come aboard and inspect us or any cargo we are carrying. You didn’t bring any weapons did you?”

  “No.”

  “Also we made arrangements for a water line and ground support so we’ll have hot water in about an hour and electricity from the ground just as soon as we are connected. I’ve got to go and drop the door. We’ll talk to you later.”

  Hadiya went forward and greeted the officials coming aboard both in English and Gaelic. They seemed very friendly and she took them wherever they wanted to go. One of the men came over to Tom and leaned on the table and stamped his passport and handed it back to their only passenger.

  “You are a very lucky bloke… getting to travel with three such beautiful women.”

  Tom took the document.

  “Thank you and Yes I am.”

  “I can’t say I care for their business of selling customized caskets but we all must have a job.”

  “Yes that is true.”

  “Do you work for their company?”

  Tom didn’t know what to say.

  “Well I am hopeful I will be giving up my teaching job and become one of their employees.”

  The answer seemed acceptable and the officer caught up to the others already behind him in the back of the jet. Within a few moments, they had left the aircraft and Hadiya closed the door. The other women all came forward. And Iolana now finally sat across from Tom.

  “I told the girls to go out of their way to make you feel comfortable.”

  “Oh they have done that.”

  “Most ‘warm bloods’ would be in a state of terror being around us this long.”

  “I’m rather enjoying it.”

  “There is a pair of seats back by the coffins. They fold down into a bed and you can sleep there until we wake you. I’m sorry we can’t let you sleep with any of us. Our coffins have air tight seals to keep all the light out.”

  “How do you breathe?”

  “That is one of the reasons we drink blood of the ‘warm bloods’ or animals. Our bodies pull all the oxygen out and store it up like a camel stores water. We need very little during our sleep time to sustain us.”

  “Tell me Mr. Hart, which of the girls are you attracted to? They both think you are a ‘hottie’. That is really quite an honor. They would probably give up their own lives to protect you. I can’t say I have ever seen them take to someone like that before.”

  “Well if I were forced to choose right now, I’d pick the girl sitting across from me.”

  Iolana smiled.

  “Yes well I am not part of the competition at this point.”

  “For the record Miss Iolana Hellenberg , you may not be a ‘warm blood’ but I will argue with my dying breath that you have a warm heart and I cannot say ‘thank you’ enough.”

  This made it an awkward moment for the both of them. Neither knew what to say. It was like they together had just dug a hole that neither could climb out of. They were relieved to see the girls come back to them.

  “We’ve got water and soon it will be hot!”

  Iolana stood up. She looked at Tom still dreaming about really being wanted not because of his appreciation but of his feelings of the heart.

  “Alright then, we are going to change, hit the showers and turn in. We are now locked down for the day. Remember give us an hour before coming back.”

  “I will.”

  Tom looked at his watch and his eyes followed Iolana back with her two friends. For the first time in his young life he wondered about being with any woman and making a ‘lifelong’ commitment. Tom sat there looking out the window as the customs car stayed in position until the refueling tanker pulled up. A man signaled that he wanted to come aboard and Tom figured out the door and opened it. The man sat in the cockpit on external power during the refueling process. Tom had never watched that kind of operation and it did make the time go by faster. He closed the door behind the man when he left and watched the others put away their lines and disconnect the grounding cables. He wrote a few more notes and waited well beyond the hour before going back. The girls had moved his luggage out and set up the chairs into a bed. He undressed in the dim light and took a shower. The water was warm and comfortable. He extracted a few frozen dinners and a soda and fixed himself a meal. He realized that the meal was not raw and therefore seemed to lack his new acquired taste for very lightly cooked food. He slept in his shorts and T-shirt. The cabin air was comfortable and he nodded off quickly.