“What about vampires?” she asked.
“There’s a surprising number of vampires in this area,” I said. “There’s a rumor that this is the place for vampires to find their flock. Honestly, I’m starting to believe it. I’ve seen a lot of matches happen here. More than anywhere else I've ever lived.”
She asked a few more questions about vampires, flocks, and how things worked. I got the feeling she was asking me all the questions she wanted to ask Mila but was too shy to voice.
Marduk walked in as I explained how vampires share souls with their flock.
“Why the hell are we talking about vampires?" he asked, setting a drink carrier and five large bags of goodies on Bec’s desk.
I stood up and rushed to move my chair and the other one in the small front area of the office to the desk so we could all sit together and use the desk as a table.
“How did you get these drinks here on your motorcycle?” she asked, pulling one out of the carrier and opening the top.
“Magic,” he said, with a completely straight face.
She paused with the steaming cup halfway to her mouth. “Really?”
I bumped him with my shoulder. “Don’t do that. She doesn’t know you’re joking. It’s rude.”
I felt regret coming from Marduk. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That was unkind. I took Danzig’s bike so I could pack everything inthe panniers. Then I drove carefully and didn’t take any sharp corners.”
She nodded. “Oh, got it. It must be fun to ride a motorcycle.”
“You can ride pillion with either of us,” I offered.
“Pillion?”
“That’s a name for a passenger on the back,” Marduk explained. “Sometimes they’re also called backpacks.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I like pillion better.”
“I remember back when the term meant the padded section behind a knight's saddle for a lady to ride,” I said. “Later, it was used to refer to a lady's saddle. Now it’s a motorcycle term.”
She tilted her head at me. “I guess if you’ve been around for hundreds of years, you end up seeing a lot of things.”
“The first one hundred years was a little bit of a blank,” Marduk said.
“Why?” she asked.
I answered, “Those were our growing years. It takes roughly a hundred years for us to reach maturity. You know how humans don’t remember when they're babies or toddlers? Well, it's the same for us, only longer.”
She held up a finger, as if she needed a moment to process. “You’re toddlers for a hundred years?”
I grinned at her. “Are you picturing little human children?” She nodded. “We grow up in our snake form. Makes us more likely to survive. A lot of creatures would love to eat a young Jörmungandr because we have a lot of magic and no ability to use it. Being snakes made it easier for us to hide whenever Mom needed to leave us alone, which wasn't often. According to her, we were trouble magnets.”
“That woman is a saint,” she said, making both of us burst out laughing.
“Probably,” Marduk agreed. “We sure caused her a lot of headaches during the 1500s. I have a vivid memory of hercoiling her length around both of us once and squeezing until we stopped fighting. Then she said we were all going to sleep like that because she needed one good night's rest.”
“I’d forgotten about that until now,” I said.
Marduk gave me a wry grin. “That’s because you started it.”
That sent Bec into a fit of laughter. Because Bec kept laughing at our stories, we kept telling them. Time passed quickly, and we were only interrupted by two phone calls. I thought we’d spend the entire time there without a single person walking in until a young human woman opened the door and peeked her head inside.
“Um, is Jim here?” she asked, looking anxious.
Bec was quick to jump up and shoo us away from her desk. “He’s not in at the moment, but maybe I can help you.”
