A Girl's Guide to Vampires

knocking on my castle door, either,' I said. 'If we don't have to race off, I'm going to take a nap. I'm going to need one, since you volunteered me to be the evening's entertainment. Wake me up in time to go to the bar.'

'Aha!' she leered, wiggling her eyebrows. 'Going to hang out at the bar in hopes a certain hunky non- vampire puts in an appearance?'

'Well, of course I am. If you were me, wouldn't you?'

'Naw.' She shook her head.

'You wouldn't?'

'Wouldn't need to wait for him, because if I had been you, I would have kicked me out of his trailer and spent the rest of the day riding him like a bucking bronco. Have a nice nap. Think I'll take one myself. I've got my eye on Henri, the guy who operates the dungeon room, and I'll have to get some sleep if I want to dance the night away with him.'

Three hours later I woke up Roxy to tell her we'd received a phone message from the mysterious Mr. Dante.

'Go 'way,' she mumbled, refusing to come out from under her sleep mask.

'Come on, Rox, you have to wake up! Dante's secretary called, and we've been invited to a late tea. If you don't get a move on, we'll be late!'

'Wha'? Dante? He called?'

I rustled around in her wardrobe, pulling out the one dress I'd insisted she bring with her for any fancy events we might attend. 'Here, go wash your face and put this on. You want to look nice when you meet Dante, don't you?'

She lifted a corner of the mask and peered at me. 'This wouldn't be a cruel joke, would it?'

I put my hands on my hips and glared at her. 'Do I look like I'm joking?'

'No. You're wearing your good dress.'

'Right. Now get dressed. The taxi will be here in fifteen minutes.'

Thirty-five minutes later we drove past the gatehouse to Drahanská Castle and up a graveled road. Torches had been lit along the way—real torches, not electric lights. Roxy and I were impressed.

'Must be nice to have the servants necessary to keep torches lit,' I mused.

Roxy grunted her agreement, her face pressed to the window of the taxi as she peered out into the falling darkness. I knew from my guidebook that along the front side of the castle were immaculately groomed lawns and what looked like a formal flower garden, where the GothFaire would hold their All Hallow's Eve festival. As the gravel drive curved around toward the back of the castle, we passed all sorts of black, bulky shapes that indicated outbuildings.

'Look at that,' Roxy whispered, awe evident in her voice as we passed the family burial grounds. Torches blazed on a small, vaulted building made of stone. The light from the flames cast sharp focus on the intricate carvings engraved in the stone mantel that arched over the door, topped by two stone eagles with outspread wings and heads tipped back to shriek their eternal agony to the sky. 'What do you think it is?'

'Mausoleum, by the looks of it,' I answered back, annoyed to find I was also whispering. I cleared my throat. 'If you think that's something, look up ahead.'

She turned to look where I was pointing. The silhouette of the main part of the castle cut into the darkening indigo sky, the pointed spire of a turret on one side balancing off the gabled tower on the other. The whole place positively reeked of history, which wasn't surprising, since it had been the seat of the lords of Perstejn—a ruling family for several centuries—between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The windows, narrow and high, were framed in the local white stone that we saw everywhere.

'Glorioski,' Roxy breathed as the taxi came to a halt before two dark doors recessed into the wall of the building, flanked on either side by lit torches. 'What do you think it costs to keep all those torches lit?'

'Don't ask,' I replied, craning my head back to try to see all the way up to the top floor.

Roxy handed the driver a handful of local currency, and we headed for the door. Before we could knock, it was opened by a small, tidy woman with sleek blond hair. 'Miss Randall? Miss Benner?'

We nodded. She smiled a smile that didn't touch her eyes and moved back so we could enter the building. Roxy hoisted her bag—filled with all twelve Book of Secrets novels—higher and flashed me a grin.

'Remember your parry manners,' I hissed.

We were escorted down a bewildering maze of dark passages, lit with electric lights, I was glad to see, figuring that an old building like this would be a fire hazard. We climbed a black staircase and came out into what I assumed was the great hall of the castle, passing under vaulted wooden arches from which ragged banners swayed gently in the air. Wood paneled most of the walls, although occasionally I caught glimpses down dark stone passages that I guessed led to older, unremodeled sections of the castle. The woman told us as she took our coats that her name was Gertrud, and that she was Dante's housekeeper. 'He will be with you in a short time,' she informed us as we were ushered into a cozy room lined with mahogany-framed, glass-fronted bookcases.

I looked around with amazed interest. 'Have you ever seen so many old books in your life?'

Roxy did a little spin and clutched her bag to herself. 'I can't believe we're really here! I can't believe we're really going to meet him! I wonder what he's like, what he's really like. Do you think he's old or young? Do you think he likes American women, especially petite American women with curly dark hair and a beguiling manner?'

I laughed and bent over to peer in an environmentally controlled case at the open page of an illuminated manuscript.

'Honestly, Rox, I think he's a man like any other. If you just act like yourself and don't pester him with questions, I'm sure he'll like you well enough.'

'Truer words have seldom been spoken,' a lovely warm voice said from the doorway. Christian stood smiling at us, a small leather-bound volume in his hand.

'Christian?'

'Joy. You look lovely in that dress. Garnet suits you.' He turned to Roxy. 'And you are in a very attractive dress despite telling me you did not care for them.'

'Are you here to meet Dante, too?' Roxy asked, confused.

The light bulb finally went on over my head.

'Your middle name wouldn't happen to be something starting with the letter J, would it?' I asked.

He set his book aside and came into the room, taking both my hands in his, kissing the backs of each. 'It is Johann.'

'Do you know Dante?' Roxy asked. 'You could have told us you knew him. Geez, I would have told you if you were in my place!'

'Rox,' I said, gently disentangling my hands from Christian's. 'Meet Christian Johann Dante, famed recluse and author of the Book of Secrets novels.'

Christian made a formal bow to Roxy, who stared at him in stunned silence for a minute, then flung her bag away, shrieked, and threw herself on him, wrapping her arms and legs around him as she babbled about what a fool she'd been. Christian looked upward to heaven when Roxy grabbed his face and started kissing his cheeks. I laughed at the look of consternation on his face as Roxy squealed again. He swung her around once, then gently set her on her feet.

'Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod!' She jumped up and down for a moment, then grabbed her bag and flung herself at his feet, scrabbling for her books, muttering about finding a pen worthy of the great Dante's fingers.

I smiled one of my best patronizing smiles and patted her on the head. 'So much for remembering your party manners.'

It took Roxy a bit of time to calm down, but eventually she did, aided by some of Christian's aged brandy. He spent a goodly amount of time apologizing for misleading us as to his identity, but we both assured him we weren't in the least upset.

'As if we could be upset with you,' Roxy said with worship in her eyes. She sat next to Christian on an embroidered settee, her body language that of an acolyte before an idol.

He laughed, the sound soft and pleasing as it echoed around the room. 'Last night you told me I was a beast because I would not have your name tattooed on my buttock, and today I can do no wrong.' He shook his head and grinned at me. 'I believe I preferred being a beast.'

I had a hard time dissuading Roxy from monopolizing the conversation by grilling him as to past and future