Three Immortals Walk Into A Bar...

Gregor’s

My beloved is amused. “An experiment?” he asks the vampire. The storm is strengthening outside, the wind howling, and lightning flashing incessantly. But with the darkening shades covering the windows, this does not disturb the vampire, so the men do not pay attention to the weather conditions.

“Well,” Clyde says, “I don’t know about you, but I am dying of curiosity. I must see what you can do.”

Gregor’s brow furrows. “I don’t know if you were able to pay much attention after I let go of you, but I was really hurting Levant. He was sort of… dissolving. I hated to do it, but I couldn’t let go of him until it seemed like it’d be safe for everyone else. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Clyde pauses. “Huh. No, I guess I wasn’t paying attention. I was too busy trying to restore myself.” He considers. “Still, I have to find out. I’m willing to risk it, if you’re willing to do it.”

Gregor asks me, “Is this going to be safe for him?”

“Probably, as long as you don’t touch him for too long. He is older than Levant and more powerful. There is something… qualitatively different about them. I will let you know if you should stop.”

He looks back to the vampire. “Do you know that you are different from Levant? Are there different types of vampires?”

Clyde notices the diversion. “Were you just, um, talking to your ‘guardian angel’?”

Gregor smiles. “Yes. Wolk was telling me that he’ll stop me from touching you if you are in danger. But he also said that you are more powerful than Levant, and older.” He quirks his head sideways. “How old are you, anyway?”

Clyde diverts too. “So you’ll do it?” he asks, with an excited grin on his face.

“Yes, I will. But you didn’t answer my questions.”

Clyde laughs. “You hardly answer any of mine.” He stands from his seat. “Look, I can’t wait, I just want to give this a try. First experiment, then talk. Okay?”

Gregor shakes his head and smiles. “Fine. What do you want me to do?”

Clyde stands, hand on chin, regarding my beloved. “Okay, just stay right where you are, all right?”

Gregor nods, takes one more sip of his brandy, and puts his glass on the side table. He puts his hands in his lap, and sits still, watching Clyde expectantly.

The vampire takes one step towards where Gregor is sitting, and pauses. “I can already feel it,” he says, evaluating the shadows around him.

“Feel what?” Gregor asks.

“It is like he is almost tasting the darkness,” I tell him. “He has a sense for it, like an additional ability to detect his surroundings, more than sight or hearing or smell. The darkness is quite tangible to him.”

“I can feel your… interference,” Clyde responds to him. “Whatever it is that you are doing, just by being in the same room. It’s because of your aura?”

“That’s what Wolk tells me. I guess it is too bright for your shadows.”

“How big is it?” Clyde asks.

“My aura? I don’t know.” He looks to me for answer.

“Your aura is not as tangible as that. Your soul is contained within your body, but it emits a light. The light varies depending on the circumstances.”

Clyde notices him looking at me. I am in my man form still, sitting on a chair near Gregor, and when he regards me his head turns sideways so he can see me. “You’re doing it again, aren’t you?” Clyde asks. “Talking to him?”

Gregor smiles. “Yes. He says my aura emits a light that varies depending on the circumstances.”

“Hm,” Clyde muses. “Okay, so ask him this. Is it bright enough that the light is touching me right now? Is that what I am feeling?”

“Essentially,” I tell Gregor. “It isn’t normal light, of course, not made of photons like the light in your material world. It is comprised of something entirely different.”

“Out of what you are made of?” he asks me.

“Yes, and out of the energy that I use.”

Gregor turns to his new friend. “Um, yes, but it isn’t normal light, he says. It’s made out of whatever he is, and of the energy that he uses.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

Gregor smirks. “How should I know? All I know is that I can see him but not touch him, and that apparently whatever it is, is also within me, which is why I can see him. Aren’t we supposed to be experimenting now, and talking later?”

Clyde holds up his hands with a grin. “You’re right. Okay, how about this.” He turns and walks to the far side of the room, all the way to the back wall, as far away as he can get from Gregor within the suite. He lifts his head, feeling the air and the darkness around him. “It feels a bit better, the further away from you I get. I wonder if this is psychosomatic, though? Am I just imagining it?” He paces back and forth against the back wall, sensing, feeling, tasting and touching the shadows, drawing darkness to him. He takes two slow steps in Gregor’s direction. “No, I think it definitely makes a difference.”

Gregor watches this with fascination, and some amusement. He wonders if the experiment is going to comprise nothing more than Clyde walking around. He had thought more touching would be involved.

“No, darling, he has a plan.”

“Okay,” Clyde says, coming to a halt. “Stay right there. Don’t move.” Gregor see a shifting in the shadows around the vampire, and his eyes widen when a very tangible ribbon of darkness comes unfurling from him, and rising in the air, moving across the room towards my beloved.

“What is that?” Gregor asks, tensing up slightly.

“Just my darkness. I won’t try to hurt you, I just want to see what happens if I touch you with it. Just a little. Please don’t be afraid.”

My darling watches with astonishment as the ribbon winds its way across the room towards him, looking solid enough to touch. “What is that thing?” he silently asks me.

“Darkness. There is no other way to describe it. He somehow manipulates the shadows, transforming them into a malleable object, which he can control with his will. I agree with you, this is incredibly fascinating.”

Clyde clenches his jaw, and furrows his brow, and closes his fists. “Hm,” he comments, “it’s harder to control the closer it gets to you.”

Gregor waits, unmoving.

“Okay,” Clyde says, “I’m going to touch you, just a little.”

The ribbon extends close enough to touch Gregor’s forehead, and his eyes widen as it draws near, until it finally pokes a tiny fragment of itself right over his eyes, next to where he was injured earlier.

It instantaneously evaporates, not just the part that was touching Gregor, but the entire ribbon, and all of the other shadows gathered near the vampire. Gregor’s aura reacted even more strongly to the touch of the darkness than to the vampire’s physical touch, blasting out a brilliant light in a huge radius.

Clyde staggers back and leans against the wall, seeming to need it to hold himself upright.

“Well, shit!” he says, but he seems more elated than dismayed. “Did you feel that?”

Gregor shrugs, “Not really, I just felt the slightest touch on my head, soft like a piece of cotton fluff, then I saw it disappear. That was very strange looking. Your shadows just … poofed. Are you all right?”

Clyde laughs weakly, and the shadows in the room start slinking back towards him. “Give me a minute,” he says, fortifying himself once again with darkness.

“What happened?” my beloved asks me, as he watches the vampire recover.

“Your aura reacted very strongly to the touch of the shadow. The entire vicinity was filled with your light.” I chuckle slightly. “It even touched poor Levant in his vault while he dreams.”

“Oh no!” he thinks, “I hope I didn’t disturb him?”

“Not really. He is deeply engrossed in his dream at the moment.”

“Ah! Is he dreaming of his Maria?”

“Yes, they are dreaming together.”

My darling smiles, and Clyde sees this. The vampire seems to have fully recuperated, and he resumes his seat on the chair across from Gregor. “What is making you smile?” he asks. “Laughing at me?”

Gregor looks at him. “No indeed. It is that Wolk just told me that Levant is happily dreaming together with his beloved.”

Clyde laughs. “That old grouch has a beloved? Shocking!” Then he tilts his head. “What do you mean dreaming together?”

“I guess that he and his love are able to share dreams.”

“Can they?” Clyde says with a smile. “Can your guardian angel see what they are dreaming?”

“I can,” I tell Gregor, “and it is actually quite amusing. Levant is showing Maria all of the earlier scenes from the airport today.”

Gregor laughs out loud. “Apparently Levant is showing her what happened today when he met us, from his perspective.”

“Haha!” Clyde laughs. “That I’d love to see!”

“Well?” Gregor asks me.

I am happy to oblige, and I begin describing the dream, how it is a re-creation of everything that happened in the bar, but that Maria is present in the dream, watching, even moving around, getting closer to Gregor and Clyde to inspect them carefully, and making comments to Levant about what she is seeing.

Gregor relays the description to Clyde, and they are both enjoying themselves greatly, hearing their earlier actions detailed in this way. I am enjoying it as well. I am pleased that my beloved has this unusual new friend. The scene here at the hotel amuses me, we three men sitting in the same room, all incredibly different entities, yet able to enjoy this conversation together.

“The limousine has arrived at the shuttle stop,” I continue my narration, “and when the driver exits the vehicle, Levant sees that he is a werewolf. He begins to circle around the car to reach him. Clyde watches from above until it is clear that Levant intends to attack the driver, so he materializes to stop the assault.”

Gregor relays this to Clyde, who chuckles to hear my accurate description of his actions.

“Maria, watching this, begins laughing hysterically.”

So do the two men. “What?” Clyde shrieks with delight. “Oh boy, I don’t know who Maria is, but I think I love her too!” I watch with interest as his shadows appear to react to his humor as well, roiling in the air around him.

Gregor adds, laughing almost as hard, “Oh, poor Levant! Even Maria is laughing at him!”

Clyde manages to stop laughing, and gets a contemplative look on his face. “How meta is this?” he asks Gregor.

“What?” asks my beloved, puzzled.

“How twisted and self-referential. Think about it! Levant is reliving the day in his dreams for Maria, who is presumably asleep also, but aware of the dream and learning of us through it. Your guardian angel is spying on them, and telling everything to you, about what we ourselves are doing, and you’re telling me.”

Gregor bursts out laughing all over again. “You’re so right! We’re watching her watching him watching us!”

With a great deal more hilarity, I continue relaying the dream until Levant has arrived in his vault, and Maria joins him there, and he begins to take his sweet revenge for her laughter.

“The demonstration of today’s events has ended, beloved, and the dream has shifted to more intimate activities. Shall I continue?”

Gregor laughs, and looks at Clyde. “Apparently our appearance in the dream is over, and Levant and Maria are dreaming about sex. I try not to pry too much, so I don’t want to hear anything else.”

Clyde grins. “Well, I do! Free erotica?” Gregor shakes his head, grinning, and waves his hands negatively. “Alas,” Clyde says, “apparently I’ll have to make do without.”

Gregor picks his brandy back up and takes another sip. Clyde sees this, and then checks his watch and realizes that the hour has grown very late. “I’m keeping you up, my friend,” he says apologetically. “And you never got any dinner! Let me order something for you, then I’m sure you must be tired.”

Gregor shrugs. “Nah, I’m not hungry. Or tired.”

Clyde looks at him speculatively. “Really? Is that…?” He leaves the question hanging.

Gregor smiles. “Oh, now you want to talk?” He chuckles. “Fine. Yes, it’s normal. I do eat, and sleep, sometimes, but not really very much.”

Clyde’s blue eyes shine with anticipation. “Oh ho! I have some more questions then!”

Gregor says, “Oh, so do I!”