"There's no way." I scoffed, but pulled in as Alexandre instructed. The hotel was meant to be a tourist trap. A restored Inn, actually, that flopped badly. The last I had heard it had filed a loss the last couple of years and was looking at bankruptcy in the near future. I drove into the small underground parking area, or should I say the small under hotel parking area, since it was situated under half of the rooms.
"Perfect!" Alexandre hissed, and even I picked up the scent in the tiny enclosed space quickly, even with my window rolled up.
"Damn." I whispered and parked near the trail's end. Alexandre jumped out of the car excitedly, nose in the air again and raced to the side of the building, then back to me to grab my hand quickly.
"Let's go. We may be able to convince someone inside to help." Alexandre said giddily. I hesitated, but he pushed me along. We walked around the painted brick building and entered through the glass front doors, and I had a brief giggling fit caused by the absurd thought of two vampires walking into an inn in this sleepy little town. Alexandre looked at me strangely, but I only shook my head, trying to stifle the laughter. The idea was preposterous, and a year ago, I never would have believed it would have even been real, more like the plot of a silly fantasy story. My smile quickly faded when I took in who was behind the desk.
"Well isn't that Carys?" The woman gushed looking me up and down with a faux cheerful smile. She came around the desk quickly, holding her chubby arms out for a hug. I froze and Alexandre's gaze immediately sharpened and became a polite mask. I saw him making quick calculations in his head and thought I'd better try to diffuse things before he made a rash move. Meanwhile, the woman scooped me into an uncomfortable, tight hug and then made a 'whoops' noise as if just noticing my belly, which she had obviously made note of before. She patted it with pretend delight, babbling questions about how far along, etc and then gripped my hands to tut at the lack of ring. I stiffened and clenched my jaw, knowing everything was going to be town gossip the moment we turned our backs on her. Alexandre's face had hardened to stone at my reactions and I gently gripped his arm, pulling him to me.
"Alexandre, may I introduce Anne, she was a member of our church." I felt Alexandre's muscles twitch ever so slightly. Following my lead he smiled politely and extended a hand.
"Hello Anne, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Alexandre, Carys' fiance." He enveloped her hand in both of his and dazzled her with a smile.
"Oh, you must be the baby's father..." Anne was fishing for details rather openly, eyeing him up and down, taking in the designer clothing and making mental notes. I clenched my teeth. "We were so worried about you Carys, you just disappeared. We prayed for you and everything you know." She put on what I assumed was supposed to be a holy facade. At this moment, I dearly wished vampires did have sharp fangs to flash instead of just slightly sharper and longer teeth overall. I'd dearly love to flash them at her and watch her faint. Instead, I heard Alexandre clear his throat and take over.
"I'm afraid that's my fault, really, you see when I found her, I had a special team of doctors start looking after her, and she's still under their care." Alexandre stated apologetically, leading her back towards the desk. Her ill fitting heels scrubbed the carpet annoyingly.
"Oh, that must be why you look so pale. You should try a tanning bed Carys, does wonders for me." Anne reported. I eyed her orange skin with internal skepticism.
"Dear Anne, we're here for a very important reason. Do I have your attention?" I could feel Alexandre's presence change as he began trying to influence her.
"Mmmhmm." She mumbled dreamily, staring into his brown eyes. I was zero percent surprised she was easily influenced. Her own brown eyes fluttered lazily and she shook her bleach blond salon curls slowly. I rolled my eyes.
"We are looking for a woman who stayed here and traveled as part of a film crew, a photographer perhaps..."
"Oh yeah, I know who you're talking about! Said her name was Fran? Franny? Actually owned that news van! Can you believe that? A woman owning a news van?" Anne shook her head and tsked like it was a disgrace. I looked at Alexandre with wide eyes.
"You wouldn't happen to have any information in your records about this woman? A name, credit card number, anything?" Alexandre's voice was gentle, but I could hear the pressure being exerted on Anne. She blinked slightly and frowned then smiled softly.
"No, no credit card, she paid cash. But we did get her name and licence plate number, during registration..." Anne replied dreamily. Alexandre's shoulders tensed and he glanced at me swiftly.
"Good, good. Go get that for me." Alexandre said and Anne suddenly bustled off behind the desk, her summer dress whooshing behind her. I let out a long repressed snarl.
"Insufferable church gossip." I sighed. Alexandre looked at me and then in the direction Anne had gone.
"Should I bite her?" He asked conspiratorially, leaning on the desk.
"No, she'd probably enjoy it too much. Or you'd get rabies." I replied as Anne came back from around the desk while Alexandre laughed. Anne presented him with a postcard sized piece of paper.
"This is what we took down on her." She said brightly and handed it to Alexandre. He smiled wolfishly at her and suddenly her expression changed.
"Now listen Anne... You're going to forget we asked about this, and you're going to forget that you gave us this information, understand?" Alexandre's voice turned hard and menacing. Anne swallowed and nodded. I could see from her expression, he had tranced her into some terrifying image. He glanced at me again before continuing.
"You are however going to remember seeing us pass through briefly as Carys showed me her home town. However, you will not be able to talk about it, us, or anything that we spoke about, anything you saw or heard in any way. Not even in writing, nods or shakes of the head. No secret code or methods of communication. Nothing concerning our visit will escape you. Whenever someone brings us up, you will suddenly be struck dumb for no apparent reason, with all the juicy secrets you learned today burning inside you, incapable of escaping." Alexandre's icy smile sent shivers down my spine and it wasn't even directed at me. Anne gulped audibly. "Do you understand?" Alexandre asked.
"Yes." Anne's voice quivered. Alexandre's appearance changed again.
"It was nice speaking with you Anne, perhaps we'll meet again one day." The nice gentleman was back, gently cupping her hand in his. She blinked as if confused, and then smiled weakly.
"I'll tell your momma you said hi." Anne said to me. I could tell she was planning to say a few more things, but in my head all I could think was 'no you won't'. I smiled a genuinely tickled smile, aimed at Alexandre over her shoulder, though Anne thought it was meant for her.
"We'll be seeing you Anne." I said, and held out a hand for Alexandre. He chuckled and walked around her to grab my hand, swinging it lightly as we walked out into the already fading afternoon light.
"It gets dark early here." Alexandre observed. I murmured an agreement.
"It's the mountains." I replied softly. "So what's next?" I asked, but he'd already pulled out his phone.
"Now, I call my private investigation team and see what they can dig up on our lady friend. Then, if we get lucky..." Alexandre suddenly diverted his attention to the phone, dropping my hand briefly to read off the information on the card. With a cheery look he gripped my hand again and squeezed it and nodded at me, saying his thanks before hanging up.
"Sounds like there's a good possibility they can locate some information for us." Alexandre said softly and I jumped into his arms, causing him to grunt, but laugh lightly as he squeezed me hard. I kissed him and placed my forehead against his.
"Have I told you lately I love you?" I asked. He chuckled.
"I don't think this is for the right reason.." He offered and I laughed, rubbing my nose against his.
"I don't know, avenging your bride, sounds like a good reason to me..Didn't knights used to go on noble quests? Everybody loves a knight." I answered and hopped down out of his arms so we could walk the rest of the way to the car.
"Don't make this out as anything so noble Carys." Alexandre sighed, and took over the driver's position.
We ended up at another hotel, sleeping in each other's arms, waiting for the return call. A call that came about five hours after we checked in. I could tell Alexandre was still tired, but he sat up with determination and started dressing.
"Let's go. Believe it or not, those damn cameras being everywhere finally did some good." He growled. I was dressed before he was.