"Yeah. Very subtle." In a fine demonstration of nature over nurture, Litha waggled her head exactly like her father did in moments of cognitive dissonance. He pressed his lips together impatiently. "Come on, sweet. Daddy's losing patience."
"If they're not a danger, how did we end up with a plague of vampire virus?"
He shrugged. "Accident of biological chemistry. It's an anomaly that only affects the human residents of Loti Dimension, so far as I know. That's three. You can either take off or stay for the show. Your choice. You're the bashful one." He smiled in challenge, daring her to stay and watch.
"Thank you. More questions for you later." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and disappeared.
The remaining eleven humanoids eyed each other.
Sol calmly took out his phone and speed dialed a number. "You're needed in private dining now."
Litha popped back in next to Storm. He jumped a little less than usual and thought, in another fifty years or so, he might start getting used to that. "Litha?"
"Hmmm?"
"You want to tell us how you managed to pick up five French-speaking vampire who have normal-colored eyes and are unaffected by a flagpole through the heart?"
Glen laughed. "Lucy! You got some 'splainin to do." Everyone was silent. "Well, I thought it was funny."
She pointed to the one who had grabbed her, whose fingers no longer showed signs of having been burned. "I was on my way here when that one grabbed me."
The idea of one of these vampire putting their hands on his wife infuriated Storm. He wanted to pick up the flagpole that had been tossed aside and put it through his chest again. Even if it didn't do anything more than further damage to the vamp's favorite shirt, it might make Storm feel a little better.
"Okay. Please don't take this wrong, but how did you get away?"
"Singed him. He's lucky I didn't turn him into a crispy critter 'cause I kind of felt like doing it."
"Would that work?" Ram asked.
"I don't know. I burned his hands, but they look okay now."
"Do you know anything else about them? Other than the somewhat sketchy facts the damn demon left behind?"
There was a brief knock on the door. Crisp swept in, made a slight bow and said, "Dinner is served."
Everyone in the room who wasn't a vampire simultaneously said, "No!"
The mess maître'd opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. He backed away and would have closed the door except that Monq was entering.
Monq took a look around, briefly wondered who the five newcomers might be, and let his eyes come to rest on Sol who said, "To sum up, these five vampire are - according to Litha's demon..."
She interrupted. "He's not my demon. He's my father."
"...according to Litha's father, they're the real deal and not the - and this is a quote - watered-down, diluted diseased version we think of as vampire. They chased Litha here, presumably from another dimension. Ram rammed a flagpole into that one's chest which resulted in the vamp saying, 'Ow. That hurt'. He proceeded to pull the stake out then attempted to flirt with Elora."
Ram targeted Javier with a murderous glare. The vampire noticed. His eyes widened as he splayed his hands toward Ram and said something.
Glen said, "He says, 'What?'"
"My dad was busy, but he gave me three questions." Everybody turned to stare at Litha. "Basically they're from a version of France in another dimension. He didn't say which one. They're not a danger to us. At all. The virus is the result of a chemical reaction that is specific to this dimension."
There was silence for a few minutes while everyone absorbed that.
Sol broke the silence by clearing his throat. "Suggestions?" He threw the question out to the room in general, but was looking at Monq when he said it.
Monq pursed his lips."So now I get an invitation to your party?" He glanced at the vamps. "Well, obviously we need to keep them and get information."
"Ideas on how we keep vamps who can take a railroad tie through the chest and just complain that you ruined their shirt?"