Vanilla Lace

Bill was pushed further front until he was face to face with a familiar face. He had noticed two familiar scents. One was Tom, and the other was none other than Franz Bruckner.

“Doctor Bruckner?” Bill’s eyes widened.

“Bill,” Franz said. “Are you hurt at all? What happened to you? I heard you were here for a while.”

The old doctor’s hands raised to touch Bill’s shoulders and arms, as if checking him for any injury, but the guards that were looking at them immediately pushed him off.

“Do not touch the subject,” one of them said sternly.

The other spoke, pulling Franz to a chair around a long table.

“Tom, what is going on? Where is mama? She was here, wasn’t she?” Bill looked around frantically, trying to find his mother that was supposedly here as well.

Before Tom could manage a reply, another guard grabbed his arm and pulled him to another chair across Franz. The older twin hated being manhandled, and growled slightly at the end just as he was forced to sit.

The first guard went over to Bill and pulled him along, and the other quickly helped, grabbing a hold of the boy’s other rake thin arm. “Just cooperate with them,” he said. “And control yourself. You’re very strong, you know—”

“That’s enough,” a voice said. Bill instantly recognized it as the one that he had been hearing over the past two days. A man who was roughly the twins’ height walked into the room. He had bleached blonde hair that was thinly gelled back, and was sporting a white doctor’s coat. “Just restrain him.”

Bill stared at the man’s serious face, but when their gaze met, his face softened and a smile formed.

“Where is my mother?” Bill asked, making it sound more like a statement. He was forced down, not trying to struggle because he knew he was still going to end up back here again. These people were not predictable.

“Good evening, Bill,” the younger doctor said. “I’m Lenhard Eckhel, your doctor at this observatory.”

The blonde man sat across Bill, whose wrists and ankles were locked down on the chair, held back by leather belts at his waist and chest. He stared hard at Lenhard with slightly swollen eyes. “I said, where is my mother?” He turned to look at Tom. “Where is mama?!”

Tom swallowed, looking regrettably at Bill. “She’s in Vienna,” he said.

“What?!” Bill exclaimed. He turned to glare at Lenhard after gazing briefly at Franz for an answer. “Where is she? Where is my mother?”

Lenhard gave a soft laugh. “She called your brother, and we put her on the line. Pity she was unable to hear you. It wouldn’t be nice, would it, if Simone found out her son is turning into a legend of the night, a vampire?”

“What did you tell her?!” Bill demanded to know, his eyes clouding up and his brown pupils turned black.

“Nothing,” Lenhard said. “Your good brother protected you once again. I also put in a few good words for you. I told her that by the end of the week, you would be back in Vienna, safe and sound.”

“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Bill gritted his teeth, wriggling in place painfully.

Lenhard smiled. “I’m not hurting anyone, Bill. I’m just doing my job. I only want to find the cure, save you, and help His Royal Highness get rid of the remaining vampires.”

Franz gave a defeated sigh, rubbing his face slightly. Tom maintained his cool and looked on, making sure nothing hurt Bill again. It was all he cared about, despite his brother turning cold-blooded and pale with every passing second.

“You’re not touching Analiese,” Bill fumed, showing off a black look to Lenhard, who was looking very much unaffected by the young vampire’s exasperation.

The blonde doctor ignored his statement and launched into question, leaning in to stare interestedly at Bill. “Tell me about this Analiese,” he said. “Is she related to your first vampire experience, the one you mentioned earlier?”

“I’m not saying a word!” Bill spat, struggling in his restraints.

Tom stared at his younger brother, and he sighed softly. “Bill, there’s no turning back now. Just tell him what he wants to know and let him do his job. Then, you can come back with me to mama.”

Bill’s neck turned, and he gazed at his brother with a neurotic gaze. “I love her, Tom!”

Lenhard’s gasp was so audible that everyone turned to stare at him. With a sarcastic smile on his face, he said, “Is this a romance story now?”

“Eckhel, stop it,” Franz said, shaking his head after. “They’re just young people—”

“Don’t interrupt, old man,” Lenhard retorted, but his voice was calm. “You’ll have your turn to speak later on. You’ll have to explain to him about the seriousness of it all.”

All eyes were on Bill again as soon as Lenhard laid his icy blues on him. At that moment, Bill wore a slightly glassy look as his senses picked up something out of the ordinary. Someone was here. Maybe two. He could smell havoc a few walls behind, and his curiosity was entirely piqued.

“Now, if you will start—”

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Bill announced.

Lenhard sighed. He expected Bill to behave, and so he decided to grant him the permission. He had no rights to handcuff him, since he was officially under the Austrian Embassy’s protection, and he was not a criminal for he had done nothing against the law.

“Be fast,” the doctor said, and he waved his hand at the guards. Bill exchanged a mutual glance with Tom, who was eyeing him all along. Tom recognized Bill’s look, a look that said that he knew something was out of the ordinary.

Two out of the three guards followed Bill out of the room, the same ones that escorted him to it. The door closed behind him and Bill was led further down the corridor, taking a turn and into the bathroom he went.

The embassy was quiet at night since everyone returned home. It was lit all over, but only the doctor and the guards remained to settle Bill’s case for the sake of His Royal Highness, with a few more surrounding the building at designated spots.

One of the guards followed Bill in, and Bill glared at him slightly and took his time and went over to the standing urinals. He looked around for a while, going from left to right like he was scrutinizing them.

The guard frowned, “What do you think you’re doing?”

Bill stared sideways at the well-built man. He disregarded him and went on before settling on one right at the end.

“Don’t take your time,” the man said, crossing his arms. “We don’t have all night.”

“But I do,” Bill replied sarcastically, unzipping his pants as he read the sign on the wall in front of him. The guard had his back to Bill, and all of a sudden, they heard noises, a light scuffling outside.

Bill could hear everything clearly, and his hands shook as he quickly zipped back his pants. He knew they were here, and they were here for him.

“Arnold?” The guard inquired. He turned to glare at Bill for a while, his hand on his shotgun that was hidden in under his belt. “You’d better stay here—”

Before he could finish speaking, the door burst open when he least expected it. The man was flung against the wall as soon as it hit him. Bill was standing, frozen in place as he caught sight of two bloodied men who were as pale as the moon. The vampires had their fangs bared, and Bill immediately knew where they were from.

Frowning as he stared intently at the stranger’s lips, he saw that he had a bitten off thumb in his teeth grip. He instantly spat it out onto his hand. “This should get us another way out,” Fabian muttered under his breath.

With no words exchanged but just a mere shake of the head, an obfuscated Bill followed Fabian out of the room as Karl decided to finish off the guard that was unconscious on the floor.

Fabian looked over his shoulder and shouted at his partner. “Hurry up!”

Karl looked at the body and gritted his teeth as he leaned into the guard’s hand. With one swift pull, he ripped the thumb out from in between his teeth.

The silver-haired vampire seized Bill’s back of the shirt and tugged him along with him harshly. “Hurry up, boy,” he grunted. He was surprised Bill willingly left with him. Quickly, he read from his mind that he would rather leave with them than be stuck here.

Bill was looking at the two vampires with wide eyes, trying to let everything sink in. Were they kidnapping him or saving him? He had no idea, and he would only find out after he escaped the embassy.

“Who are you?” Bill’s voice raised. He was unable to penetrate their minds, and he was too distracted at the moment to even try to do so. It all happened so fast.

The teenager was pulled along with the two vampires through the long corridor at an unusually fast speed. “Stay close,” Fabian said to the two beside him. “They’re coming.”

Bill and Karl could hear many more footsteps, and they raced along around the corner. “Which way?” Karl exclaimed when they reached a cross junction that led to different places.

“Stop!” Someone hollered from their south, right behind them. Bill turned, and right at the end where they came from were two more guards. Briefly, he wondered why there were so little people.

“Bill!” A familiar voice shouted from his east. The teenager turned to see Tom and Fabian running towards him with four more guards behind them. “Stop, please!”

Fabian groaned and sped towards the north with Bill. “Split up!” He told Karl, who automatically took to the west.

Blood was dripping with every few steps the vampires took in their separate paths, and when each of them reached an automatic door, they used the severed thumb to unlock it by scanning it on the scanner.

Fabian and Bill glided through the next room. The guards followed closely behind and managed to follow through, but by the time they reached the two, they had already gone down the elevator.

Karl scanned his own severed thumb again and again, but he could not get it to open. He gave a loud groan as he recalled that the guard in the toilet was holding his shotgun in his left hand. He was a left-hander, unfortunately for Karl, and that right thumb he bit off was useless. He was stuck.

Soon enough, he was caught up with, but he decided he had not failed yet. He lunged at the two guards and had one helplessly writhing under him as he ripped at his neck. Unfavorably, he was not fast enough and was fatefully shot down with a nebulizer the second one beside him quickly aimed at him, and all that he emitted was an agonizing cry while he collapsed, his face burning with madness.

From the ground floor as they were escaping, Fabian could hear the painful scream that was of Karl. The high vampire’s eyes widened, his jaw clenched as he shouted, “KARL..!”

Bill stared at Fabian in confusion. He did not understand what had just happened, but he was sure that something bad had happened to Karl. He should have been out by now, but he wasn’t.

“NO!” Fabian swallowed a large lump in his throat, hands clenched in fury. For a split second, he released Bill and ran over to where he escaped from. He wanted to save his dear friend, and had momentarily forgotten about his main plan to kidnap Bill and return to the hideout.

Guards soon overwhelmed the lobby, and Fabian could hear the gates closing at the entrance of the embassy. He couldn’t afford to be locked in, and he quickly made a turn to bring Bill to safety with him.

When he spun around, he saw no one. His eyes watered slightly from grave disappointment. By now, his thoughts had gone astray, and his plan was foiled entirely. He had lost Karl, and now, he had lost Bill.

* * *

Every few seconds, Bill would turn over to look if anyone was following him. Back there, he did not hesitate a single second when he escaped the embassy. Surprisingly, there was no one at the guardhouse and he made a run for it while a distraught Fabian was distracted by the loss of Karl.

He couldn’t remember for how long he had been running, not stopping a single moment as he crossed bridges, passed buildings and climbed ledges.

There was only one place he had in mind, and it was Halle. He had been thinking about it so much during the past two days, it being the only prominent name resounding in his head besides Analiese’s.

“I want to go to Halle.”

He remembered Analiese saying that so clearly in his head. He couldn’t understand why, but she sounded like she desperately wanted to. It was his next destination, and he was making sure he got that as soon as possible. He only hoped he could find her there.