Three Immortals Walk Into A Bar...
Basement

Levant

She manages to flip the scene, all at once, much to my shock, and I find myself in her position, the ribbons of darkness around my wrists and ankles, while Maria looms over me in the vault.

I sometimes will fight her for control of our dreams. Sometimes we wrest dominance back and forth, changing the setting to our own preferences in a rapid sequence. It is amusing to see the scene shift so swiftly it looks like someone is changing channels restlessly on their television. But I’m not fighting this, I just fling my head back as she lowers herself -

-Zzzzzt

WTF? I think I just heard my cell phone vibrate. Is Maria texting me?

No, of course not, she can’t, she’s right here with me. I wrap my hands around the ribbons binding my wrists, clinging to them as she -

-Zzzzzt

It’s Maria texting me again? But wait, she’s here, she can’t be awake and texting, and the only other people who have my number are her sisters. Oh, and Tepes. The ribbons fade, and Maria fades, and the dream fades, and I am still here on the bed, in the vault, in the darkness, my arms and legs spreadeagled on the bed.

But I am alone. I feel utterly bereft to lose her so suddenly.

I shake my hands out, feeling for all the world like I really just had been tied down, and lean over to the nightstand next to the bed to look at my phone.

I have two text notifications. One is some kind of annoying public alert. The other is from a number I don’t recognize. Has to be a wrong number, right? But I open the notification, and see a ridiculously long block of text:

“This is Gregor. So sorry to disturb you. But there is a hurricane warning in this area and all the hotel guests must be evacuated to the basement. They will be right outside your vault, don’t be alarmed if you hear noise, or happen to come out of the vault and find that you have company.”

Oh for Christ’s sake. He woke me up for this? I would have never known, I’m sure this vault is strong enough to withstand anything. I put my phone back down on the nightstand, grumpily roll over, close my eyes and try to find my way back to her. I’m not done with that dream yet.

Clyde

The elevator will be too slow, so I go straight to the stairs, Gregor following along behind me. Before I even make it halfway down the hallway, my cell phone rings, and I glance at the name before I answer. It’s Ada.

“Did you hear?” she asks.

“Yes, we’re about to evacuate the guests to the basement.”

“Should I come and help?”

“No, no, I can take care of it,” I tell her. I do not take the time to update her on what’s going on with Gregor and Levant. I had texted her earlier to let her know that I was heading to the hotel for the night, but hadn’t given her any details. I am eager to share with her everything I have learned, but now is obviously not the time. “I want you to get everyone at home into the vault in the basement. You should all be fine there.”

“I love you,” she murmurs. “Stay safe.”

“I’m the Master of Shadows,” I tell her, smiling. She knows this. “I’m always safe. Take care of yourself, my love, I’ll come by to check on you when I can.”

By the time this conversation is over Gregor and I have made our way down the stairs into the lobby. “Everything okay at home?” he asks.

“Yes,” is all I say. No more questions and answers for now.

The night manager is waiting at the front desk for instructions. A couple of guests have made their way to the lobby, apparently also having received alerts on their phones. I announce loudly enough that everyone down here can hear, “We have to evacuate to the basement until the tornado threat passes.”

I tell the manager to pull the fire alarm, and the claxon begins sounding, loud enough to wake up all the guests. The two werewolf guards come in from their posts out in front of the hotel, looking very windblown, and I direct them to go to the second and third floors to knock on doors and make sure everyone is out of their rooms. The rest of the night staff comes in from the back, to join the gathering crowd.

Gregor starts shepherding people towards the basement stairway. I wonder how much time we have, whether a tornado will really blow this way. Maybe Gregor’s guardian will be able to provide us more information about the storm once we are all down there. Gregor knew about the alert before my cell phone did. This could come in handy.

Gregor

How nice that Clyde has loved ones at home. I confess I am surprised about Levant being in a loving relationship, but not Clyde. I’m glad he’s happy.

There is a quarter of an hour or so of sheer chaos as the hotel guests are rousted from their beds and sent down the stairs. The werewolves appear to be very effective at making sure people do as they are told. Understandable. I mean, look at those guys!

Once I get down to the basement with the first batch of guests, I look first to the door behind which lies Levant’s vault, and am pleased to see it still closed. He didn’t respond to my text, so hopefully he’s just planning to stay inside there all night and ignore us all.

The people start milling around, and I realize that we should do something to make things more comfortable. This could be a long night. I ask some of the adult guests to help me start moving some chairs out from where they are stacked along the walls. At least we can have some seating arranged for everyone.

Clyde comes down soon, sees what we are doing, and directs his staff to assist. He has the werewolves take down some cots, and the housekeeping staff makes them up with linens, in case anyone wants to try to sleep.

Before too long, we have some fifty people down here in the basement, both staff and guests, while Wolk continues to keep me updated. The weather continues to be very unsettled and dangerous, he tells me, and I relay every piece of information to Clyde as well. It is still unsafe to leave the shelter of the basement, so we all settle in for what looks to be a long night.

It amuses me to think of Levant, dreaming in his comfortable chamber, while everyone else in this building crouches on chairs and cots and makes do as best we can.

“This business trip sure is turning out to be more of an adventure than I anticipated,” I think to Wolk, once I have settled into a chair, nothing left for me to do.

He is leaning against the wall next to me, his arms casually crossed, and he nods silently in agreement.

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