With You

  Varjak and Julien had arrived in Wisconsin in the late evening. 

  Varjak spent the night and morning searching the main streets of Verona, but did not find Kate. 

  In the early morning he forced himself to take a break; after all, it wasn’t best to leave Julien on his own for too long, considering what had happened to Ben when he wasn’t supervising. 

  He appeared back in Julien’s small hotel room at four in the morning. 

  The first thing Varjak did was to slide into his room invisibly to check up on him. 

  He was asleep, and there were no traces of the undead in any crevice of the room. 

  He waited a couple of hours in the living room for Julien to wake up. He had a shower and washed his usual garb, drying it and ironing it all out. 

  You didn’t sweat as an undead, but general debris built up quickly when you were on the run.

  “Morning,” came a wispy Americanness from the other side of the room. 

  Varjak looked up from ironing his trademark green trench, in nothing but his boxer shorts.

  “Oh er, morning Julien. Time’s it?”

  “About ten now. You woke me up a few hours ago when you had a shower, but I fell back asleep.”

  “Oh. Sorry.”

  Julien smiled. 

  “Did we get anything in for breakfast, or will I have to go downstairs?”

  “Oh yeah, you have to eat. Um, yeah, you’ll have to go downstairs. Hey, want anything ironed?” said Varjak, ejecting a puff of steam from the iron.

  “No, I’m fine, thanks.” 

  Julien went to the open kitchen area and switched on a plastic kettle. 

  “Any luck finding Kate?”

  Varjak pushed the flat of the iron against his withered trench, picked it up with two hands and shook it off. 

  “No, not yet. When I’m dressed and you’re ready, we’ll both go out. You should be okay with me.”

  “I sometimes wonder,” said Julien, pulling a mug from an upper cupboard. “You might find it weird of me to have joined you so eagerly after what happened to my brother and nephew.”

  Varjak began to redress himself - he started with his jeans. 

  “I didn’t give it much thought, actually. A habit of mine at times.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to, I’m not a hugely important figure in your current proceedings,” said Julien, relaxing against the breakfast bar once he’d made up a coffee. “Anyway, the reason was because I knew the moment I told you about my discoveries that it was likely my existence wouldn’t go on for much longer anyway.”

  “You can’t just assume that,” said Varjak sharply, buttoning up a periwinkle shirt. “The undead don’t spy on me round the clock.”

  “That’s true. But it won’t be long until they know you know about the narrowed down locales. Or, they will look at Arnaud’s family line and see I am the last alive, then see if I have any information on the Necrosis. Either way I’m sure my involvement in the situation hasn’t upped my life expectancy. But I’m okay with that.”

  Varjak stopped buttoning. 

  His head carefully moved to regard Julien. 

  Julien stared back with a lack of understanding.

  “You know, you humans can be so damn silly. You know what I’d give to be in your situation, having hot human blood in my veins and a normal nine to five job? And yet you seem perfectly willing to give your life away.”

  “Hey, I didn’t say I was suicidal,” said Julien. “The research was entrusted to me, and I could have said no. If I need to risk my life to save humanity, I will.”

  “Yeah, I know. Sorry.” Varjak rustled on his trench and swept a final hand through his buttergold hair. “But hey, onwards and upwards. Have your coffee and let’s go find Katey baby.”

                                                              ***

  Julien and Varjak left the hotel half an hour later. 

  They caught the bus to the general centre of Verona, deciding to gradually branch out from there until they went into the countryside. 

  They moved to the front of the bus, and it was when the doors opened to the mid -morning sweetened air that Varjak’s expression grew very grave indeed. 

  “An undead, I can smell them,” he whispered to Julien. 

  Although he was visible (it would have been awkward turning away a person from sitting next to Julien had Varjak been invisible, and there was no need) he needed to whisper this. 

  “Uh okay. S**t. Do you know where?” Julien said back, as the two stepped off the bus onto the sidewalk.

  “This way.” 

  Varjak began to run to their right, down a shop-ridden boulevard. 

  He stopped, causing Julien to abruptly halt at his back. 

  “No wait. I can’t be visible, not if it’s a bad undead. There’s a subway across the street, I’m going to get lost in the crowd in there and come back invisible. Okay?”

  “Sure,” said Julien. “But Varjak, if it is a bad undead, how will you guarantee my protection?”

  “I’ll be there, and invisible. You’ll have the element of my surprise in your repertoire.” 

  And with a last half-grin, Varjak darted across to the subway. 

  Two minutes later, he was a floating non-entity above Julien’s head. 

  “Don’t get alarmed, but I’m flying above you,” he hissed down to Julien. 

  Julien started, then gave a nod.

  “I’m going to take out my phone and pretend I’m talking to that,” he whispered to Varjak, as a couple of teenagers skate -boarded past. 

  “Good plan,” said Varjak with commendation. “So, keep moving in this direction. Don’t worry, I’ll keep constantly flying behind you.”

  Julien put his Nokia to his ear. 

  “I’ve got that.” 

  The two moved down the street. 

  It was busy in the street, despite the early morning. 

  They came to a corner of the boulevard, and had the option to continue forwards or turn left. 

  “Christ, it’s strong now. Okay, it smells like they’re on your left. I would go and check it out but I’m not leaving you in such a vulnerable position. So we’ll discover who it is together.”

  “You’re sure this is a good idea, Varjak? We could leave now and not risk our lives for no reason,” said Julien.

  “We have no choice. If it’s Kate, we need to try. I can’t save the world without her.”

  “You know, you probably could,” said Julien. “Practically speaking.”

  “Julien, quit the jabber and move down the street. If it goes wrong there’s only so much the undead can do without exposing themselves.”

  “Yeah, like run and tell James Stokes where we are.”

  “Julien.” Varjak’s tone was of warning. 

  “I’m going,” said Julien with light impatience, stowing the phone away and turning the corner. 

  He moved an inch. 

  Without warning a brunette bluster of hair burst into his face. 

  He caught the woman as she fell into him. 

  Her skin was so cold to the touch it hurt Julien, and he flinched his hand away as though stung. 

  “Kate!” cried the upper, strong American voice. 

  “Who?” asked Kate, staring up at Julien with curls clouding her face. 

  She blinked at Julien, having expected to have found Varjak standing before her. 

  But the voice hadn’t come from him, she was sure of it. 

  Unable to contain his excitement, Varjak landed with elegance on the sidewalk and wobbled out of invisibility. 

  Upon seeing each other, the two ran and grasped at each other, clutching the other’s familiar clothes, hair, musty dust scents. 

  “I didn’t think I’d ever find you,” said Kate, holding the back of Varjak’s head and pressing him to her. 

  “Don’t be silly. When Varjak Swinton’s around, he’ll do all the finding,” said Varjak, moving closer and closing his eyes against Kate’s shoulder. 

  After a moment or two, the pair parted and grinned at each other. 

  Even Julien uncharacteristically wiggled his brows at the pair, as though their emotion was that evident. 

  “I have so much to tell you,” said Kate, breathlessly. 

  “We have just as much to tell you,” said Varjak, then barely considered for a considerable moment before kissing Kate square on her mouth. 

  Kate’s body flooded with a thousand sunshines and she didn’t think to stop him. 

  Varjak pulled away after just a moment, but hundreds of years could have lifelessly passed then and Kate wouldn’t have noticed. 

  “Well, no time like the present. You look awfully nice for a runaway, by the way. Dinner date standard, even.”

  Kate’s blush surpassed flattered and entered the realms of shame. 

  Only then did she remember her original plan.

  “I just had a feeling I would run into you, obviously.” 

  She looked at Julien, as though he was a rude interruption to their world. 

  “Sorry, who are you?”

  “Kate, this is Julien Lambert, Ben’s uncle.”

  “You’re the famous Kate he likes to whinge about,” said Julien, sticking out a hand.

  Kate smiled, and accepted the handshake. 

  “Sorry, if I’d known who you were…”

  “I get it, kid, it’s fine. But we do have a lot to tell you and it’s best we discuss it well out of the public view. Shall we go back to my hotel room?”

  “Yeah, come on then,” said Varjak, and they all began to move. 

  Kate rolled her eyes as they turned back around the corner. 

  “Another hotel room? Seriously? I hope we’re not getting ambushed in this one, Varjak.”

  “Oh, you know me, always prepared for an ambush,” Varjak laughed hesitantly. 

   The trio walked along the increasingly crowded street, each with minds purposeful and driven so that they resembled a similar trio around not so long ago. 

Reviews

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I feel like everything I say against common sense comes back to clear itself up and make me look like an idiot. I read this passage last night, but fell asleep afterward out of sheer exhaustion. I liked that we were reassured of Varjak's hygiene. I was surprised when they were hunting the undead sent and it actually turned out to be Kate, even though you warned us that it might be. It's just against all odds and was comical. I want to kill Kate if she ever leaves Varjak for that chav, Ian Miller. EVER.