The Vampire's Apprentice

“So where exactly are you trying to go?” Alain asked.

They had just left San Francisco, exiting through the main road. Alain had used some of his personal money to purchase a map of the area, which would hopefully be enough to get them to wherever it was Sable and Az wanted to end up.

Sable shrugged. “The next town over. I have no preference.”

Alain’s brow furrowed. “That’s not really a help to me. I need to know exactly where I’m leading you if we’re going to get there properly.”

“I just told you, it makes no difference. I do not know where anything is in this country. I simply need to keep moving.”

Sable and Az were already weird, but they just kept getting weirder with every statement. Alain found himself wishing for another pack of cigarettes.

“My lady, if I may make a suggestion?” Az asked, coming up alongside them. “Perhaps a small town would be the best destination for us, given your stated goal.”

“And what goal would that be?” Alain asked.

“Were you not listening when I said I wish to rule over everything?” Sable questioned.

Silently, Alain amended his earlier wish for a pack of cigarettes to a carton of them instead.

“But yes, a small town makes sense,” Sable agreed with a nod.

“How small are we talking?” Alain said, pulling out the map. “There’s a town called Los Banos that’s a few days away on-foot. If we take a train-”

“No trains.”

“Alright, no trains.” Her aversion to trains was stupid, in his opinion, but she was the one with the diamond, so who was he to judge? He could deal with some blisters on his feet and aching legs if it meant getting his hands on a diamond that large. “In that case, we’ll be on the road for a few days, most likely. That’s assuming there’s no rain, which… well, it’s California; it hardly ever rains here.”

“Are you sure about that, traveler?” Az asked, looking up at the sky. “It seems very overcast today.”

“Trust me, we’ll have to worry about the sun and the heat more than any rain,” Alain answered. “But it won’t be an issue, since there’s plenty of spots along the way to rest and get some water.”

Both of them nodded along with his words. Alain took a breath. “Alright, then. Los Banos it is.”

–

They spent most of the day walking, only stopping when the sun had started to set. They ended up setting up camp in the middle of a field, Alain putting up a small tent while Az set up a larger one for himself and Sable. As they worked, Alain couldn’t help but note that neither of them were sweating at all. That made sense for Az, but Sable was clad in what had to be a pretty thick dress – it was a wonder she wasn’t sweating bullets under the heat, despite how cloudy the skies were. He certainly was.

Alain crawled into his tent, then pulled his boots off with a grunt and set them aside. He gave a small sigh of relief when he noticed his feet hadn’t quite started to blister yet. They’d walked for around seven hours, stopping intermittently for food and water, with few breaks in-between those. Again, that made sense for an experienced outdoorsman such as himself, but he was surprised that his two traveling companions weren’t having difficulties.

“Must be hardier than they look…” he muttered to himself as he shrugged off his double-barrel and set it aside. His Colt stayed on his hip, though – he wasn’t about to part with it just yet.

Once he’d had a chance to relax a bit, Alain stood up and marched outside, planning to get a fire going. He was surprised to see that Az had already started one, with small bits of tinder he’d found scattered around. Sable was sitting on a smooth rock a short ways away from the fire, leaning in to warm herself by it. Alain blinked in surprise, then moved closer, taking a seat across from the two of them.

He wasn’t much one for small-talk, but with little else to do, his hand was forced.

“So,” he began. “What country are you two from?”

“Romania,” Sable answered.

“Ah.” He paused. “...Where is that, exactly?”

“Eastern Europe,” Az said.

Alain nodded. “And what brings you both here? You’re pretty far from home, all things considered.”

“Family troubles,” was all Sable said. “My parents are no longer around, and my sister is being… difficult. We both thought it best that I leave for greener pastures for a while.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Alain offered. A thought occurred to him, and he sat up straighter. “You drink?”

“Ye-” Az suddenly cleared his throat, and Sable paused. “...No, not really.”

There was that weirdness again. Still, Alain was unperturbed – the diamond was a convincing argument, after all.

“I’ve got some whiskey in my bag,” he said. “We can share it if you both don’t mind sipping from the same bottle.”

“Whiskey?” Az questioned. “What’s that?”

Again, Alain paused, though he soon caught himself – maybe they simply didn’t have whiskey in Romania or something. That’d be far from the weirdest thing he’d heard today.

“Hang on, I’ll be right back,” he said.

With that, he disappeared into his tent for a moment. When he returned, he was clutching a mostly-full bottle of whiskey. He uncorked it and took a quick nip from it, letting out a sigh when he felt the pleasant warmth settle in his stomach.

“You two want to try?” he said, offering them the bottle.

“Hm. The only alcohol I drink is wine,” Sable said dismissively.

“Yeah, well, I don’t have any of that. It’s whiskey or nothing.”

“I will try,” Az said.

Alain nodded, then passed him the bottle. Az sniffed the liquor inside a bit, then before Alain could stop him, raised the bottle to his lips and took a deep sip. Alain expected him to be left a sputtering mess, but to his surprise, Az seemed perfectly fine – he simply lowered the bottle and wiped his lips with the back of a hand, then passed it back to him.

“It is pleasant,” was all Az had to say.

“Uh, thanks,” Alain said. He took a big sip of it himself to make sure it was actually as potent he remembered, and just about choked on it. Still, he recovered quickly, if only to save face in front of his traveling companions.

“So, Alain,” Az began, getting his attention. “Question for you.”

“Yes?”

“If one wanted to learn more about the way this country is run, where would one go?”

Alain brought a hand up to his chin in thought, then shrugged. “No idea. Library, maybe? Or perhaps a courthouse. You’re asking the wrong guy, really – I never went to school anymore once I hit thirteen. I started working in the fields instead. I can read and write just fine, though, which is more than a lot of the other field hands I’ve worked with.”

“Quite,” Sable said. She sniffed. “I can smell your alcohol from here. It smells vile.”

“Don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it,” Alain said. He raised the glass to her, then took a swig from it. Safe to say that so far, he liked Az a lot better.

“So, big man,” Alain said, turning back to the giant. “You’re her butler?”

“Indeed,” Az confirmed.

“How long ago did that start?”

“A few weeks, I believe.”

Again, Alain paused. “...Seems pretty sudden. There a story there?”

“Not much of one.”

And just like that, the conversation was dead again. These two certainly weren’t much for small-talk, it seemed. Maybe it was a Romanian thing.

Alain was beginning to really dislike Romanians thanks to these two.

Off in the distance, a coyote barked. Both Sable and Az were on their feet in an instant, but Alain stayed where he was, drinking his whiskey.

“Relax,” he said. “It’s just a coyote.”

“How can you be sure?” Sable demanded.

“Because I’ve encountered enough of them to know what they sound like, and that was definitely a coyote. If you don’t know what that is-”

“I know what a coyote is!”

“Alright. Wasn’t sure if they had them in Romania.”

To be fair to him, they didn’t seem to have a lot of things in Romania. Manners, for one.

“Anyway, it’s no big deal,” Alain assured them. “If it gets too close to camp, I’ll take care of it for you.”

He patted his Single Action Army revolver for good measure. Across from him, Az’s expression tightened.

“I was meaning to ask you about your weapons,” he said. “How do they work?”

“What, you mean guns?” Alain asked. “It’s… complicated. A lot of chemical reactions, or something like that. All I know is I load the bullet into the gun, then I pull the trigger, and then whatever I’m aiming at dies provided my aim is true.”

“And these weapons are common in this country?”

Alain couldn’t help but snort in amusement. “Yeah, you could say that. Damn near everyone owns a gun. I own two, myself. Would own more, but I can’t carry any more than these two around with me. Lots of guys who have their own homes and land own an entire arsenal. Rancher I used to work for had dozens of the things lying around. And those are just the ones in private hands – the entire military is armed with these things too.”

“This country’s military is powerful, then?” Az asked.

Alain nodded. He wasn’t sure why Az was suddenly so interested in the capabilities of his weapons or the military, but considering this was the most conversation he’d gotten out of the two of them yet, he was inclined to answer, if only to stave off the boredom for a bit longer.

“This country’s military is still pretty unproven,” Alain answered. “We just won our independence from Britain a little over a hundred years ago. We’ve been getting established ever since then. I don’t think we’ve fought a major war against an outside power yet. We did just get done fighting a pretty big one against ourselves, though.”

“Against yourselves?” Sable asked, suddenly interested in the conversation. “Explain.”

“Ah… well, to make a long story short, the north and south parts of this country had a big disagreement over slavery and states’ rights. The south seceded and the two parts went to war. It was pretty bloody, despite only lasting for a few years. But now the country’s back together again.”

Sable gave a dismissive huff. “To think that a leader would allow his country to split in such a way… intolerable weakness.”

“Plenty of people here would agree with you,” Alain offered. “That guy’s been out of control for some time now, though. I would avoid bringing it up if you go farther south, though – wounds are still pretty fresh down there. A lot of guys won’t appreciate being reminded of it.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Az said. “Thank you.”

Alain simply nodded, then went back to drinking. The conversation died down after that, but that was fine.

He was perfectly content to drink in peace for the time being.

–

A few hours later, Alain came stumbling back into his tent, the empty whiskey bottle slipping from his grasp and falling to the ground, thankfully not breaking when it landed. He let out a tired groan, then collapsed onto his bedroll and shut his eyes, intending to get some sleep.

But then, outside, he heard voices.

“-can’t just do it like that!”

“-not? You need to eat-”

Alain blinked, bringing a hand up to rub at his eyes. A heavy yawn escaped him, and his vision began to swim from a combination of the alcohol and his own exhaustion.

“-only been a few days since I last-”

“-he won’t miss a pint or two-”

“-not going to turn him!”

“-won’t if you’re careful-”

Alain let out another yawn, then closed his eyes and rolled over onto his side.

Whatever they were talking about, it didn’t sound super important or like it involved him in any way. Even if it did, he was way too tired and drunk to worry about that at the moment.

And so he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, confident that nothing would happen while he slept.