of flesh? - away. Then he smiled his frighteningly gracious smile at them again. "What can you do for me?"
"Pasha," Serge whispered. Sufficient grog had warmed them up enough so that their limbs and lips worked again. "Except for Santa and his wife, there aren't any other grown-up vampires here. It's just those creepy kids. Why are we the only other grown-ups?"
Victoria had shown them the workshops and the dorms, and now she was taking them to the stables. Ahead of them, her red velvet butt swayed enticingly. Pasha was far too distracted to care about Serge's worries. "Because we're the only ones who've ever been smart enough to figure it out," he whispered back.
Victoria turned long enough to flash a toothy smile at him.
All other thoughts melted from Pasha's mind as they followed her into the warmest area in the castle. Serge nearly wept with relief when he felt the heat. But Victoria didn't stop there, to his dismay. She led them through the stable with its huge, empty, immaculate stalls, and back outside again, onto an enormous ice field.
"There they are," she said, and pointed toward the distance.
Her guests huddled together against the frigid wind, and squinted into it.
"Reindeer," Pasha muttered, sounding bored.
Serge said nothing. Opening his mouth to speak made his teeth hurt.
Pasha's boredom didn't last long. Even from so far away, the vampires could detect that there was something about the reindeer that was not like any other animal, not deer, nor elk, nor even moose. And then they found out what it was. At one moment Pasha and Serge were squinting at a herd far out in a frozen pasture, and in the next moment, all of the animals were standing in front of them, terrifyingly large, shaking their antlers, snorting and pawing the ground as if eager to get going.
"My god. Do they really fly?" Pasha asked Victoria.
"They do."
"How?"
"Research and development. Nick has the most incredible R&D department in the world." She giggled. "Literally, in the world. You'll have to meet Rudolph."
"There's really a Rudolph!"
"Oh, yes."
"Does he have a red nose?"
The lowered lashes rose, allowing Pasha to see the deliciously evil glint in her cobalt-blue eyes, and the flirtatiousness in them. "Yes, but Nick is trying to fix that. It was a mistake in the breeding."
"Mistake? But everybody loves Rudolph's red nose!"
"They wouldn't," she purred, "if they knew it came from heavy drinking."
It took a moment, but then Pasha burst out laughing, followed a moment later by frozen Serge, who quickly closed his mouth again for fear his tonsils would freeze.
Blood, she meant.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny red nose because he drank blood.
"Are you saying that Rudolph is a vampire reindeer?"
"A prototype," she whispered. "Priceless. Nick's never been able to repeat that one success. Don't mention it to him. It makes him cranky to be reminded of it." She smiled, showing neat pointed incisors. "And we don't want to make Santa Claus cranky, do we, boys?"
"Noooo," agreed Pasha, fervently.
Serge shivered at the thought.
"Come on," Victoria urged them. "I'll show you our private quarters."
"I have just the job for you two," were the first words they heard when they entered the plush red chambers. Nicholas stood in the center of the room, dominating all he surveyed. "How would you like to accompany me on my Christmas Eve travels, as bodyguards?"
"Great!" Pasha forced his gaze toward the husband.
Serge felt such a rush of relief that for a moment he almost thought he was warm. He'd been convinced they were going to die, joining all the other adult vampires who were not there.
"You do know what tonight is?" Nick inquired of them.
Both of the visitors looked confused. There was something about the atmosphere that made people who were not accustomed to it lose all track of space and time.
"It's Christmas Eve," Nick told them, gently. "We leave in an hour."
ZIMBABWE, AFRICA
"Go," Ingrid instructed Damian.
"I can't just leave you out here by yourself!"
He sat behind the wheel of the Land Rover, staring out in disbelief at where she stood alone in the moonlight. There was nothing around them. Nothing visible, that is. He knew - as she must - that the deceptively empty landscape teemed with animals, most of which could kill a human who made such an inviting target.
Ingrid raised her cell phone in one hand and her rifle in the other. "I'm not alone."
"A lot of good those are going to do you against the whole pack of those damned dogs. Not to