Mark rose to his feet and followed Vinnie. As the limo took off from the council building Mark sat next to the still visibly high Jean-Claude. “We should drive around the city for awhile before we go see Jaime. Jean-Claude is full of that drug. I’m assuming he will come down a bit if we burn up time. I wouldn’t want Jaime seeing him in this shape.”
“No,” Vinnie replied as he drove through traffic. “Jaime needs to see him under its full influence. Besides you just want to put off explaining about that fang bite on his wrist and that normal biological sexual reaction as you put it,” an amused Vinnie told him. The limo suddenly stopped. “We are here. Home sweet home for at least for Jaime and her hubby. All out!”
Mark got a sick sensation in his stomach as they bundled a very woozy Jean-Claude into the elevator of his condo. The young Latino at the front desk gazed at them in stunned silence then simply let them pass without any interference. “Oh Juno, we will be seeing Jaime in a few minutes!” Mark moaned as the elevator made its assent to the penthouse.
****
“I warned him,” Jaime angrily said as she waited in her living room with Mark and Vinnie. After an initial shock at seeing Jean-Claude’s condition, Jaime had immediately sprung into action. She called a trustworthy doctor to come at once. As she made her call, the men took Jean-Claude into their bedroom and put him into his bed. Now they were waiting till the physician had finished his exam. “I warned him,” she griming repeated as she listened to Mark’s explanation of what they had uncovered and what had happened today between her spouse and the vampire.
Jaime had surprisingly taken in stride Mark’s explanation of the erotic reactions both had undergone during Mark’s blood testing. She waved off his anxious explanation about the side effects of vampire feedings. “I’m a sex demon my dear. I get the stimulation aspects that come in acquiring sustenance. It is similar to what I refer to as my occasional espresso sipping from other human’s inner sexual vibrations when I’m running low on my energy. From my past experiences with Jean-Claude’s powerful sensuality, you received a double shot but with a drug-induced side chaser to boot,” she absentmindedly replied with her eyes focused on their bedroom door. “I trust my husband,” she softly said before adding, “and you.”
Their conversation had barely finished when the doctor came out of the bedroom. “Well doctor?” An anxious Jaime asked the somber looking man. “Be frank with me doctor. I’m not made of glass. What is in him and how bad is it?”
The middle-aged physician gazed at her. “You’ve already seen that he is under the influence of a powerful narcotic. I’ve examined him. I ran a fast drug test. No need to go into its long medical name but it’s a powerful, supernaturally created hallucinogenic and its side effects include distortion of reality.” He moved to sit down on the couch next to Jaime. “Mrs. Roué there is a high level of that drug inside him. Based upon that fact, it is my medical opinion that he has been using this substance for quite sometime. An amount like he has inside of him is only tolerable when a person’s system is used to taking this drug over a period of time. If he had been given this quantity today without any prior use of it by him well, the shock to his heart would have killed him.”
Jaime stiffened. “I hear what you are saying doctor but know this fact. He is not a user. He was used,” she sharply responded.
The gray haired doctor nodded. “I understand. I’m going to be straight with you Mrs. Roué. As I just said, he has a high drug concentration in him. He’s going to have to be weaned off this drug by slowing decreasing his daily doses. It could take time but it will be painless.”
“Doctor, time is a luxury we do not have,” Jaime replied. She glanced at Mark and Vinnie. “If he is unavailable for more than a week, Tortego can tell everyone my husband is unfit to continue in office. He would happily step into his position as chief executive.” She turned to the physician. “I know what my husband would want. Can he be clean in a week?”
The doctor sighed and shook his head before replying. “He can. It will be an agony for him. He will suffer but yes he can do it. Physically the body’s need for it will fade in about three days. The psychological craving,” he paused then continued, “that will be with him for a longer period of time. I can give him something right now to counteract the drug’s effects. He will begin suffering very soon after that injection.” The doctor gave Jaime a serious look. “I know you are part sex demon so let me be very clear on another issue. No allure can be used on him Madame. His body needs a clean break from anything that has a drug-like quality. Not even to relieve the pain he will surely experience. Do you understand?”
Jaime closed her eyes. “Goddess help me,” she murmured. She thanked the doctor then rose off the couch. “If you will excuse me gentleman I’d like to spend some time alone with my husband.” She looked at the doctor. “Come in after a few minutes and give him whatever he needs to nullify the drug that is inside of him.” She left them and walked into the bedroom.
The three men said nothing to each other. After a few minutes the doctor got up. “It will be hell on them both,” he said as he moved toward the bedroom. “He will become quite violent when the cravings take hold of him. He is a werewolf, which means that he is already unusually strong. The agony will suffer and his desire to get high will drive him into a mental frenzy. I’m warning you that will dangerously magnify his strength. When he fights back, and he will gentlemen, I doubt she could she handle him by herself?”
“I will be by their side every second,” Mark quietly replied as he tried to hold in check an urge to find Tortego and murder him in the most violent manner possible.
“I will hold the fort at headquarters till you get Jean-Claude ready to return,” Vinnie whispered to Mark as they observed the doctor return to his patient. “I’m calling Julio in to help me.”
As Vinnie placed his cell call, Mark stared out the penthouse window upon the city below. “I will kill him,” he murmured as he thought about Tortego.
“Mark can you come in here please,” Jaime yelled out to him from her bedroom. “You go cover the office I will man this fort here,” he said to Vinnie as he swiftly moved to join Jaime and Jean-Claude.
****
“Ah mon cher it happens,” the young girl softly said as she dressed. She gazed at her reflection in a nearby mirror then over at the naked young blond man in the bed. She hid her smile knowing it would only enrage him.
Sebastian kept silent. “Just go,” he muttered.
“Oh my darling it is nothing,” she purred as she took some money from the table next to the bed. “Mon petite you are so handsome and beautifully built. I had much fun with you just now I swear.”
“Go,” he growled. “You have your Euros, so get out of here you whore.”
She shrugged and left him lying in the hotel room he had rented in a seedy part of Paris. Sebastian gazed out the window. Since his escape from New York City these bouts of impotence had occurred at ever increasing intervals. Thoughts of his cousin’s betrayal haunted him during sexual encounters making performance usually impossible. As the sun slipped over the horizon, Sebastian again found his mind occupied with images of Jean-Claude. Memories of their teenaged escapades in the demi-monde flooded into his brain. In particular he mentally recalled that night they had first slipped back in time and his cousin had lost his virginity.
Sebastian envisioned every second of that experience. He visualized the highly intoxicated Jean-Claude sexually entwined with that whore that Sebastian had hired, lying next to his cousin, kissing him and all that followed that night. Without realizing it, Sebastian reached down and began stroking himself into an arousal. The images of that evening and the sexual liberties he had taken with the unconscious Jean-Claude, replayed out in his head. “Ah Jean why did you not love me enough to save me from execution. Je vous adorais…mon beau loup…ah my cousin…you lying naked next to me,” he groaned before he suddenly climaxed. Once finished, he lay silently on the bed. “We will win this
war and you will beg me to forgive you,” he snarled. His despair at what he was still feeling for Jean-Claude only served to fuel the part of him that hated his cousin. He visualized Jean-Claude quivering before him and felt another flush of arousal. He reached down and masturbated again.
Afterwards, after first donning a disguise so he would not be recognized by any supernatural being on the streets, he left the room. He occasionally glanced around to be sure no one he knew was on the street. Officially he was dead. His parents would be enraged that he risked discovery. Assuring them that he only visited human whores who did not know his name would hardly assuage them. As he walked, he reminded himself that soon there would be another full moon cycle. He made a mental note that, after he had undergone his transformation, he would need to hunt for the woman that had just left him. He was not about to have his current incapacity become the subject of her gossip among the other whores of the city even if she did not know his name. A vicious grin came to his face contemplating her terror when he stalked her. Sebastian quickened his pace towards his home hoping his cousin was suffering as much as he was doing.
Cold Turkey
Jean-Claude listened as Jaime gently explained what had been happening to him. The werewolf took it all in without saying a word. Their bedroom grew silent. Jean-Claude glanced at Mark. “But he is a priest … perverting my communion … defiling his sacred vows,” the stunned werewolf muttered as he tried to wrap his head around how any priest, even one such as Tortego, could pollute the holy sacraments in such a way.
Mark quietly listened as he observed the look on his friend’s face. He knew only too well the shock of being disillusioned about a religious figure. As a young boy in Rome he had, like all Romans, held Vestal Virgins in the highest regard. To his young mind the white veiled sisterhood of Rome’s chief goddess-protector were symbols of all that was pure and honest. When he was a teenager he learned otherwise from his Uncle Augustus. They had fallen into a discussion about Mark Anthony. As Jaime and Jean-Claude spoke with each other, Mark mind recalled how his uncle could not help but boast to his nephew how he had masterfully gotten the best of his once mighty rival.
****
Rome approx. 32 BC
“I tell you Marcus,” Augustus crowed with undisguised glee in his voice. “The look on the faces of those senators and especially the people of Rome when I read out Anthony’s will. They were horrified by the fact he wanted to be buried in Egypt. That was the moment I had Rome behind me and his doom was assured.”
The teenaged Marcus gazed at his uncle with confusion. “But how did you get it? Didn’t he give it to the Vestal Virgins for safekeeping as all Romans do with their wills? Those documents are private and sacrosanct until the person is dead. No Vestal would defy her vow to give you it. Ah I see,” Marcus innocently laughed. “You found a copy he left somewhere, right?”
Augustus grinned and shook his head with amusement. His blue eyes gleamed. “Dear boy the Chief Vestal herself gave me the original.”
“But their vows!” Mark exclaimed in horror at such sacrilege.
Augustus sighed. He gazed at Marcus for a second then spoke. “Time to grow up boy. The Vestals are women. Some can be charmed. Some can be brought. Some my dear nephew will do much for a romp with a lusty soldier while I look the other way.” His features took on a graver look. “One day you will be Rome’s First Citizen. Never be so foolish as to forget that even our most distinguished religious personages are but human. Humans can be corrupted. Not all of them, but quite more than you’d realize my nephew. Let that be your religion in private. In the public eye however, you must continue to appear as one who is moral and an upholder of our traditional Roman family values. With a reputation for the latter, you can manipulate people in such a way that, when you remove or punish opponents, those idiots will think it was your religious duty to do it.”
****
“Well,” Mark muttered as his mind returned to the present from those past memories. “Uncle Augustus turned out to be a god so he would know best about that subject!”
“Mark?” Jaime’s voice said. “You agree right?”
The vampire blinked. “Sorry, my mind wandered for a second,” he sheepishly admitted.
Jaime sighed and began speaking again. “I was telling Jean-Claude what would happen next. He is concerned he might fight us at some point during his withdrawal. I told him you agree with me that we two can handle this by ourselves, right?”
Mark considered the situation. Jean-Claude was weak right now but, as he went through the cravings that came with withdrawals, he would strongly fight them. The doctor had warned them about this risk. Mark knew that his friend’s werewolf strength might be more than a match for them. Jaime was devoted but without her ability to use allure as a weapon she would be of little help. Reluctantly he realized they had to increase their firepower during the next few days. “Okay honestly I think we need help. I have a suggestion in that area. Try to keep an open mind and not dismiss this out of hand.” He quickly explained his logic and his choice for an assistant.
As she heard Mark’s words Jaime’s face was a study first, in stunned amazement followed later by anger. “You are insane,” she sputtered as she thought about what he was suggesting. “I will not consent,” she vigorously insisted. She faced her spouse. “Tell him that is the stupidest thing you have ever heard.”
The werewolf gazed at them both. “He is right,” Jean-Claude hesitantly muttered. “I hate the thought but he is right on this matter.” He tenderly gazed at his visibly distressed wife. “Mark would never do anything to hurt us. Knowing that fact then how can we not trust him my darling.”
It was only when she heard this from Jean-Claude’s that her features finally displayed an ill-humored resignation. “Call her,” she quietly said as she went to her husband and hugged him.
****
“So you thought contacting me was a good idea,” Viola fumed as she defiantly stood in Jean-Claude and Jaime’s living room. She stared at Mark with a look of complete amazement. “You actually thought I’d give a damn about this situation,” she angrily spat out. “He killed Sebastian. He let a werewolf from our extended clan be executed. Oh, by the way, you might recall that I was sleeping with that guy too!” She glared over at Jaime, who was seated next to Mark, visually daring her to try and justify her husband’s actions in that event.
Mark inwardly sighed with frustration. He had called Viola to come over to the dwelling. When she arrived he had patiently explained both Jean-Claude’s situation and their need for her physical services during his cleaning up period.
“Look Viola both Jaime and I cannot control him alone. He is strong. When he goes into full withdrawal he will go crazy and get even stronger. We need your help. Besides, Jaime has Andre to care for as well. We gave his nanny the week off. This must be a secret that is not shared between too many people. Will you help us or not?” He gazed at the Roué she-wolf and waited for her answer.
“If it helps,” Jaime stated. “I was against calling you into this mess.”
Viola sneered at her. “It does not help. Trust me on that score,” she sneered. Though, despite her words, a small part of her did enjoy hearing it.
Mark took in the sight of the two women. At first glance one would think they had nothing in common. Jaime was dressed in simple forties styled blue skirt. Her white blouse had puff sleeves and a demure Peter Pan collar. Viola was outfitted in her typical skintight black leather jeans with a fitted matching bomber jacket. Alice in Wonderland meets the ultimate biker chick from Hell. I wonder if it came with whips and cuffs, the private eye thought. Still, the two women had much in common. Both were strong individuals who stood their ground and could be highly effective in tight situations. Mark recalled their help during the siren case. If not for them he might be either dead or a sex slave. He shuddered at that later thought then spoke again. “So you in or out?”
“The more pertinent issue is this Viola. Does the vampire, Torte
go get away with fucking over your crown prince or not?” Jaime interjected.
Viola shot both of them a look clearly displaying her irritation at hearing the matter put in those terms. “I may have issues with Jean-Claude over what he did or did not do in reference to Sebastian,” she slowly responded. “Still, I’m first and foremost a loyal Roué wolf. I will back his play against that undead scum,” she snarled. Mark winched at the term undead scum in reference to another vampire but wisely said nothing. “So how are you two explaining our fearless leader's absence at work?” Viola asked as her body’s stance relaxed.
“Vinnie is going to work with Jean-Claude's secretary to prevent any meetings today. Later we will just say to everyone that Jean-Claude has the flu. Julio is on call if needed too,” Mark explained with a self-satisfied air about his plan.
Viola gazed at him with amusement. “Yeah that will work out so well. Tortego will surely not get suspicious at all when he hears that stupid line. Maybe you think he won’t just come over to see how Jean-Claude’s doing?” She looked at Jaime. “I can see our vampire here might be that stupid since his human spouse probably screwed his brains out of him by repeatedly slamming Mark’s skull into their bed’s headboard. But honestly I gave you more credit in lying.”
Mark clenched his fists quietly telling himself that a sharp retort or an insult would be counterproductive. It did not help to see Viola smirking at him. He felt his vampire nature rising but quickly slammed it back down inside of him. If goading him with insults got her assistance he would endure whatever she said about him.
Jaime stayed silent for a second then spoke. “Viola it is the best that we can come up with right now.” She rose from her chair and came up closer to the she-wolf. “I have a child who still needs me during this hell. More importantly, I have the man I love about to go through a nightmarish agony thanks to that son-of-a-bitch,” she harshly stated. “I will be enduring quite a lot for the next week. I do not have to endure your snide remarks about my spouse, Mark or myself! If you have a better idea, which clearly you must, then say it now or shut the fuck up!” She stated with a barely controlled rage in her voice.
The Case of the Parisian Vendetta: A Mark Julian Vampire PI Mystery #10 (Mark Julian Vampire PI Mysteries) Page 9