“Well hello Johnny,” he greeted me in that ageless central European accent of his. “How are you doing my boy?”

Vaclav put down the book gently, and stood up, revealing his height and inhumanly slender frame. He was a good eight inches taller than me and probably twenty pounds lighter.

And I'm no heavyweight.

He was of course wearing his typical, even cliché Edwardian smoking jacket and other antique paraphernalia. He made his way around his desk and walked right up to me, giving me a gentle hug. I didn’t flinch, not anymore. It was just the way he was, not threat intended.

When he pulled back, he nodded towards his new girlfriend.

“I see that you've met dear Stephanie,” he said.

I turned to look back at her.

She smiled in a way that I found supremely creepy. I tried to smile back to Vaclav.

“She seems very nice,” I replied.

Vaclav nodded, glanced over at his desk and then back at her.

“My dear, it seems that the room had gotten is rather dry, could you go and get something for us to partake in.”

“Of course,” she told him. “what would you like?”

“The scotch,” he told her, then tossed a questioning glance back at me. “Fine with you?”

“I could take a finger or two. Not more than that. I need to drive back.”

“Of course.”

Vaclav had quite the collection. Some of it, or so he told me was nearly as old has he was.

Stephanie turned and left the study. It felt suddenly empty, almost gnawingly so. What a strange feeling. I turned back to Vaclav.

“Have a seat over here by the fire Johnny,” he invited, motioned me to sit”

The fires was pleasantly warm, and I forgot about that hollowing hunger I had just felt. He sat opposite to me.

“How long do you expect your visit to be?”

“Well, Not that long,” I began. I should be back around 10, so probably only for an hour at the most.” By then I was beginning to suspect I would be in a hurry to get home.

“Then one shot should be all right,” he decided.

“Just as long as she doesn't mix up the glasses.”

“Oh, you'll find she never does that,” Vaclav replied, a bit of a predatory smile on his lips. “She’s young, in her new life, that is, but she’s adjusted quickly. Quite impressive, really.”

I had glanced at Vaclav as she watched her leave, the unmistakable look of lust in his eyes. Perhaps I wasn’t the only one in the room to feel Stephanie’s absence so strongly.

“I thought you were seeing, what, that conservative pundit wasn’t it? Nan Carothers.”

I’d heard she’d produced another book assailing the so-called ‘Liberal Elite’ and their coddling of the re-animated. Pretty strange considering she was a vampire herself. Had to be a certain sense of self-loathing there.

He nodded.

“She decided that she needed to get out into the world again,” he said in a bit of a distant tone.

“Seriously?”

“We both needed a change,” he told me. “I needed someone a little less rigid, in her beliefs I mean, a little more fresh, again, beliefs. I’m sure you understand.”

“What have you found this time?” I asked him. “Another conservative? Defense lawyer, tow truck driver?”

He narrowed his gaze at me as if he was trying to figure if I was joking or not.

“Not so troubling as that,” he offered.

“What then?” I asked.

“School Trustee. Catholic school board,” he replied a bit of a smirk on his lips.

I smirked back.

“Good for you,” I told him. I began to change my opinion. And he thought that she was going to be less rigid than Caruthers. A Catholic school vampire. My mind reeled.

Stephanie had to be a real treat. As if on cue I heard the sound of clicking stilettos.

I turned my head, and there Stephanie was. she had returned effortlessly carrying a tray holding a dusty bottle and three tumblers.

Only one drink, I told myself.