Weekly Drabble #257: The Heat of the Evening (Patreon)

This week's chosen prompt is 'too hot outside' from uberdrops and with it, we return a post-apocalyptic (and very well baked) setting, last seen in #117 and earlier. Enjoy!

~The Heat of the Evening:

When dinnertime rolled around and Lauren wasn’t back, Dietrich began to worry. He’d been looking into Odavay, but hadn’t yet turned up any leads that jumped out. Tracking was usually easier than a full investigation, but he didn’t have the reputation he did just from just being able to follow his targets. That was the easy part, especially for a vampire with heightened senses.

Leaning back in the desk chair in his and Lauren’s quarters, Dietrich rubbed his eyes. Everything Anichka had given him on the dead merchant was in front of him, though a lot was still under guard at the crime scene as the local police pursued their own investigation. Anichka would get what they had soon, but for the moment, Dietrich was looking at Odavay’s dealings with the Red Room’s.

He was still running with his belief that Jakob’s death wasn’t an accident. Someone had staged a double murder to eliminate the man. At least that was his theory; it was possible that his companion had been the target, but in Dietrich’s experience hookers that crossed someone didn’t usually warrant such an elaborate or thorough set-up to get disposed of. They usually got given a hot shot or had their throats slit and then were dumped in an alleyway, written off as another victim of the trade. He wasn’t prepared to completely rule out that possibility, but if what Anichka said was true, then Odavay was much more likely to be the target. He’d been killed in a way that wouldn’t look suspicious and wouldn’t leave enough forensic evidence to contradict the narrative of the scene.

It was a good story, too. A hard-working, wealthy man hires a companion for the evening for a little relaxation. Some wine and some slake get added to make the night pass smoother.The dose is wrong, or they mixed drugs and alcohol improperly, but the end result is the same: hooker and client pass out in the hot tub and drown. The bath acts just like a slow-cooker over the next few days. A messy end, but a believable one. He didn’t buy it. That natural suspicion – some would say cynicism – was why Annie had asked him to look at the scene and why he was on the job.

He didn’t mind. He and Annie went way back, even before the Fall. Even if she wasn’t giving him and Lauren safe harbour, he would have done this for her. He just knew he was going to be fending off Lauren’s complaints about him working. Then again, he was usually fending off her complaints. The ‘little princess’ had very particular ideas of how things should go and wasn’t afraid of commenting on anything that contradicted that. She’d softened quite a bit since he’d kidnapped her (though he preferred the term rescued), but she still had a sharp tongue, but when it was directed towards him these days, it was more playful than cutting. Usually.

Though she was never, ever going to let him forget that she’d used to have “nice things” back at the Cloister... even if she’d have to be dragged kicking, screaming and spitting back there. There were days when he regretted his rash decision, wondering if her life would have been better if he’d just minded his own business like he’d told himself to. He’d known her future husband’s reputation, though. He’d gone through wives and concubines that failed to produce a ‘perfect’ heir like an exaggeration of Henry the Eighth before he’d decided to purchase one. If Lauren could have borne him that offspring, her life would have been one of luxury above what she’d had in the Cloister. If she couldn’t, if, regardless of age, even the slightest ‘imperfection’ in her child caught the old man’s eye, she’d have become a head shorter in the time in took the general to snap his fingers.

When he’d expressed those doubts, she’d cuffed him upside the head and told him he’d made the right decision, even if she had to go without “nice things”. I wasn’t the person I thought I was,she’d said, leaning her head on his shoulder as they’d watched the moon rise. I wasn’t even a person. I was an investment, just like one of the cows the helots keep in the pastures. I’d rather be on the run with you with my eyes open than dressed in silks and blind.

Thank you, he’d said, kissing her forehead.

But I really liked the silks, she reminded him. And the jewellery. And the fawning. You could fawn over me a little more, you know.

I know.

She’d waited a moment, then abandoned subtlety. You could start now... then shrieked with laughter and kicked as he’d swept her off her feet and composed impromptu (and very bad poetry) for her.

Dietrich looked up at the clock and frowned. He’d lost track of time. It was getting close to dinner. Lauren should have been back by now, to show off what she’d found and complain that none of it was equal to the “nice things” she used to have. He got up and left their quarters, looking through the rest of the Red Room, but she was nowhere to be found and no one had seen her since she’d left.

He stopped at Anichka’s office. “Have you found anything?” she asked.

“It’s a little early for that,” he told her. “I’m still going through what you gave me. As soon as your friends in the police can get me more of his files, I’ll know more. Have you seen Lauren? She was supposed to be back by now.”

“No. She probably got distracted in the market.”

“Maybe.” That would be like her, but he still worried. Despite her protestations of being able to look after herself, Lauren had grown up pampered, with guards between her and any potential threat. That was an outlook she still slipped into, considering Dietrich her protector now, even though he’d told her – and she knew from experience – that he couldn’t always been around. Merchant Home was as safe any place in the Wastes, but there would still be plenty of predators here that would snap up a morsel like the young woman if they got the chance. “But she’s usually good about watching the time.”

“Humans are usually less attentive to that than they think,” she pointed out. For vampires, losing track of time could mean the difference between life and death if you were caught outside when dawn hit. As a result, they tended to develop very accurate internal clocks, something few humans had. Lauren in particular, Anichka guessed. Dietrich had shared their history with her. The woman wasn’t a hardened survivor by any means. She was, to use a not-entirely-genteel term, candy. She didn’t seem like Dietrich’s type, but he cared about her and from what she’d seen, the human cared for him, too. “She’ll probably be back soon. If she’s not, I’ll ask Bill to have his people take a look.”

Dietrich nodded. “Thank you. I’ll head out myself, just the same.”

Anichka tilted her head. “You two have gotten close.”

“I... suppose we have.”

“When I first heard that you’d stolen a 3-mark bride from the Cloister, I didn’t know what to think. At first, I thought it was someone looking to snatch back their daughter.” Dietrich wouldn’t have taken a job for some low-life looking to circumvent the Cloister’s fees. Anichka had known him long enough to be certain of that. He wasn’t that kind of man. Like humans, vampires could run the gamut of honourable to vile and everywhere in between. Anichka knew she was morally greyer than some, but not as dark as others. Even Dietrich had deep red stains in his history, but he was better than most. Better than her. “But now I do.”

“And what do you think?”

“I think she’s one of a few people that you’d willingly walk out into daylight for.” That was a very small and exclusive group. It had taken Dietrich ten days to recover when he’d done it for her.

“It’s hardly that much trouble. Just a few extra layers is all.”

“Dietty,” she was the only person in the world who got away with calling him that, just as he did calling her ‘Annie’, “I’m not talking about going out when you’ve got a mask and jacket on.”

He paused. “Maybe you’re right.”

“I’m always right.”

“Even that time in Vladivostok?”

“The exception that proves the rule. Now,” she said, making a shooing motion. “Stop taking up my time and go look for your wayward lady. But when you find her window-shopping, just remember that I told you so.”

“And if she’s not?”

“Then I’ll trust you to deal with the situation with judgment... and remember that I’ll be letting the police know to keep their eyes open so I will, once again, be right.”

Dietrich snorted, tipping his head to Anichkha before he left to dress. It was a hot, sunny day just like all the others, and he’d need to be prepared to handle it. The Fall hadn’t been good for his people, but they’d adapted to it, just like the rest of the survivors. Just like he had to a different life, and Lauren was doing now.

The world changed, and they changed with it or they died.