The vampire stirred as the last rays of the setting sun disappeared behind the hills. The pale face twisted a moment, and the body shuddered. Finally, the eyes shot open, black and dark as a starless night.
“You’re up,” I observed, pulling on my pipe.
He stretched a little, sitting up in his coffin.
“Where…?” he began to ask.
“Castle’s cellars. Quiet little place behind forgotten doors. River runs through it,” and I pointed to the stream running between us. “Marvelous work of engineering setting his fortress at the peak of a waterfall. Has that added little benefit that, under your condition, you’re going to have to stay over on that side of the room for now.”
He sneered.
“This is your fault!” he pointed his finger at me.
“True,” I mused, “but you would be dead without my interference.”
“Without your interference I—”
“Would have been staked with the others this morning after breakfast. I sacrificed a lovely meal of bacon and eggs to spirit your coffin away before my friends got to your nest. You’d think you’d be grateful.”
“I’m only like this,” shouted the vampire, “because you traded me in for your own miserable life.”
“Hardly miserable. Besides, you’re the one who said you wanted to live forever.”
“You damn, masquerading cheat! If I ever get my hands on you…”
I was already leaving the room, and so I missed the conclusion of his threats. Re-shutting the secret chamber and grabbing a bottle of wine from the rack, I brought it up with me to toast our victory against the fiendish, nosferatu nemesis.
Tale Told 