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"Are all shamans cryptic and patronizing?"
"We take a special course. It adds to our mystery."
Quinn shook his head. He loved the old guy and missed him. He didn't know if Sam would give him a straight answer or tell him he was off the rails. Which he very much might be. But if he could ask anyone, it would be this man.
"Do you know anything about vampires?" A cowboy asking about a vampire. What the hell must Sam think of that?
The old man chuckled. "Would you like to narrow it down? That's like asking whether I know about cars."
"Still driving that '68 Chevelle?"
"I will do so until the close of time."
"Yeah, not sure the warranty stretches that far."
"Quinn, I like talking to you, or not talking, when it is time for us to enjoy company. You have a purpose in calling, and it's important. Let's get to it."
Quinn cleared his throat. "I'm seeing one. Dating one. Sort of. A vampire, I mean. She's in some trouble." Briefly, he gave Sam the details. "Goes without saying this is just between you and me. I'm just wondering...how does she get out of this? I get the feeling she's no more than a kid in that world, so for all that she stays about three steps ahead of me on everything, I'm thinking you might have some insight...or know someone who can give us some."
"So you don't doubt what she is."
"She didn't leave me much choice." He thought of that speed trick, the slamming against the wall. But deep down, she'd been right. He'd already known.
"Has she marked you, Quinn?" Hearing Sam know exactly what the problem was kind of confirmed all of it, gave Quinn a lightheaded sense of passing into a different dimension. He settled himself down with a firm admonishment to focus.
"Twice. She won't give me the third, so she says."
"But you're thinking you want that. You understand what that means?"
"Can we talk about me after we deal with the important stuff?"
A significant pause, then Sam spoke again. "That was a potent answer to the question, Quinn. A vampire's servant always thinks of the vampire first, their own well-being secondary. You have always been a hard worker, a man who cares deeply for those who matter to him, and will do whatever is needed. I can give you some advice, but do not proceed on it without that third mark. She'll know you need that as well, or she'll go alone."
"She's not going alone."
"You also have much to learn about a vampire, even a young one." Sam's voice held grim amusement. "Are you aware that the vampires have divided our world into territories, and each territory has a vampire overlord? Groups of territories are under Region Masters, and the whole structure is directed by a Vampire Council. There are not many vampires, but because of their power and nature, they operate in a feudal way. Each territory overlord demands tithes from vampires in his or her territory and in turn the overlord ensures they are all complying with the rules of the Council to ensure the safety of vampire kind, for everyone's mutual benefit."
"How do you know all this? Never mind. You're going to say something like 'how do I know the sun shines or the rain falls'. You have a goddess and an angel next door, after all."
"If you are going to answer your own questions, you could do so silently, so you're not interrupting," Sam retorted. "What I was going to say is, if she is in trouble and fleeing one overlord, your only solution, albeit an uncertain and dangerous one, is to seek asylum in another territory, petitioning that overlord for protection and advocacy. Does she have any skills that could benefit the Texas overlord in any way?"
"We have an overlord?"
"Have you been paying attention? Yes we do. Or rather, the vampires in this territory do. Answer the question."
"She's a hell of a bar manager. She was making the other guy big bucks running several of his places up in the New York and New Jersey area. She's already turning my place around and she's been here less than two weeks. Do they have some kind of compulsion thing?"
He knew he'd just taken a ninety-degree detour, but Sam had a way of bringing out those subconscious concerns, pushing them right to the top of the list. "I mean, I've never fallen so hard and fast...but I want it to be real, Sam. I want it to be real like I've never wanted anything in my life."
Another silence before Sam spoke. "When I first met you, Quinn, I felt strongly that the energies surrounding you were taking you toward an otherworld path, but the path was not clear for a long time. Your subconscious knew it too, for I sensed you were preparing the ranch not just for yourself, but for someone else as well, even when you did not see it. You're a man who enjoys his solitude and quiet spaces, but the right person is a complement to that space and solitude."
What should have sounded remarkable sounded like something Quinn had always known, hearing the words said aloud. But he wasn't going to jump completely on the Kool-Aid train yet. He waited for the answer to the question. Sam sighed.
"Yes, vampires have some compulsion ability, to help them feed, to help their food forget, but to make a man decide to give up his life to one of them, no. That requires human consent. There is a lot of evidence to suggest vampire servants are a specific subgroup of humans, a switch inside them somehow triggered by the presence of a vampire. Perhaps the right vampire, much the same way certain people are attracted to other people."
So whatever he was feeling for Selene...it was real. That loosened things in his gut, made him feel much more sure of all of it. As long as she felt the same way, no matter what she said about vampires and humans.
"So we need to go visit this Texas overlord. You don't have a name, do you?"
"Caleb Buford Dorn."
"Butch Dorn? You're shitting me."
Quinn had met Butch Dorn years ago at a cattlemen's convention in Dallas. It had been a brief meet, the two of them hitting the bar at the same time and shooting the shit for a couple minutes. Quinn was as straight as they came, but he remembered the guy was a handsome bastard, with piercing gray-blue eyes, dark, short-cropped hair and a magnetic personality that seemed to go along with the large and successful spread in southwest Texas he owned, Blood Rock Ranch. Quinn also remembered that every time he'd seen Butch had been at night. During daytime he had a guy who represented him at the meetings, his right-hand man. What was his name...Dixon. Dixon Conner.
He leaned forward, flipped through the giant rolodex of business cards he insisted on keeping. He knew he should put them in his phone or on the computer, but he liked looking at the designs on the cards, and he'd remembered Dixon's. There it was. Christ. Talk about hiding in the open.
Dixon Conner, Ranch Manager, Blood Rock Ranch. The two Rs for "Rock" and "Ranch" had a stretched, sharp point. Almost like a pair of fangs, if you held it back a bit and knew what you were looking for. The card was red, the lettering black. He remembered arguing a couple points of order w
ith Dixon over beer afterward, and he'd also asked about his boss, because it had been hard to get those piercing eyes out of his head. Now he thought about what Sam had said, about certain people gravitating toward vampires, and shifted uncomfortably. He remembered Dixon shooting him an odd, long look before they parted, and giving Quinn his card with a friendly, "Call if you're ever in the area."
World was full of crazy intersects, wasn't it? Almost made him believe what Sam had told him, countless times. If you step back and could gaze at the universe like a god, you'd see all the threads cross other threads. They all circle, weave and spiral in ways that make the universe like a rippling flag.
"Son of a bitch," he murmured. He realized Sam had been silent throughout his whole revelation. "Sam?"
"Have you found what you needed?"
"Yeah. Think so. You said this would be a dangerous way to go. Why?"
"Humans often craft societies that give the illusion of civility, rules, structures. Vampires have strict rules and structure, but violence and death are as much a part of their world as breathing."
Quinn thought of what Selene had said. Vampires are more about power and politics, where people end up dead or wish they were.
"Do not be misled by whatever you know of Butch Dorn. What you know of him is what he has presented to the human world. A vampire overlord is dictator to the vampires within his world. They live or die on his word. He also might decide to torture them for several years in his basement just to reinforce a point of order."
"Selene seemed pretty worried about what would happen if this Laurent character finds her."
"She should be. I wish you had not been drawn into this, Quinn. Though where you are meant to be is not always in line with the wishes of those who care for you."
"Hey, don't worry about me, pal. I've weathered my share of knocks."
"Yes you have. I can't assist you in this because I have no influence in that world. If I was simply a mortal with no connections to the magical realms, what I know of vampires would win me a death sentence, for they are very particular about who knows about them."
"Should we be worried about this phone conversation?"
