"Haven't you heard of tape and wig caps?" Greg asked, as if I should have known about that already.
"Fine," I said.
"I think you should buy all three," Franklin said, waving Merrill's credit card. "You'll have three styles to choose from, the lengths might be fun to play with and you can change your look. This is close to your natural color," he pointed to one of the shades offered. How many women can say they got wig help from experts? If I took all three, the total came to more than seven thousand dollars.
Greg didn't wait for me to back out or change my mind—he placed all three wigs in my online shopping cart, Franklin provided credit card information and they asked for next day delivery. Holy cow.
I didn't have any lessons with Merrill later so I went to pack my bag; the Vampire King said I was to spend the night and the following day. My toiletries were the only thing I left out. Greg and Franklin had picked up eyeliner and an eyebrow pencil for me on one of their shopping trips. No, I don't like drawing on eyebrows. At least there were the tiniest beginnings of hair in all the right places now. If I ran my hands over my head, I could feel the stubble. My poor eyelashes, though—I could see the barest hint peeking out and the same went for the eyebrows.
Merrill drove me to Wlodek's manor the following evening. I wore a hat and had another packed in my smallest bag. I'd decided not to dress up all that much. Right then, I didn't really feel like dressing up for anybody. I hadn't heard from Gavin either. Maybe he was waiting to hear from me. After I'd learned from Merrill that he and Gavin agreed to my beating, well, he could keep on waiting.
Rolfe answered the door before we arrived. I'm sure he heard the car drive up with his vampire hearing. Charles was standing expectantly behind Rolfe, waiting to take us up to Wlodek's study. We walked up two flights of stairs to Wlodek's private office and I found the two misters inside, waiting for me.
I didn't greet Wlodek, nod politely, or do that little bow. He'd lost my respect. I know—it's such a precious commodity and all that. It was all I had left—they'd stripped just about everything else away from me. Merrill said a few words to Wlodek instead and left after telling us he'd be back to pick me up the following evening. There was probably a lecture coming when he did.
Henri was the mister I'd seen in New Mexico. At least I had a name to put with his face and scent, now. He'd been inside the meeting cave the night I was beaten, too. That wasn't humiliating. His brother, Gervais, looked quite a bit like him. I knew Henri was the older of the two but not by much. Wlodek didn't look pleased when he introduced them to me and Charles took us to an empty bedroom afterward so we could work. The brothers both had black hair and deep brown eyes. They were also older than Charles—as vampires anyway. Not even close to Gavin, though.
"I watched you change so swiftly," Henri said, once Charles left us alone. He and Gervais did their best not to stare at my hairless state. I figured Wlodek had brought them up to speed on that.
"My timing has improved every time I change," I said, ignoring their curious glances. "I can mist immediately, now." It had become instantaneous; I'd proved that to Merrill two nights before.
"We wish to improve our time," Henri said bluntly. He and Gervais wore such hopeful expressions.
"Honey, I'm not sure how to go about that," I said. "But let's try something, first. Don't worry, when I touch you while I'm mist, you'll go to mist, too. You'll turn back as soon as I let you go."
Henri was looking very interested now. "I wish to do this first," he said. I nodded at him and turned to mist. Gervais sighed in jealous pleasure. Going to Henri, I touched him and he immediately became mist. It's strange; while I'm mist and turn someone or something else, they look like a part of my mist. I can see, hear and smell, still, but as tiny droplets or whatever, I don't see myself. I let Henri go after a bit and he rematerialized. He did a little exclaiming in French and it sounded like excited words and not profanity. I turned back.
"Your turn now," I nodded at him, so he set about turning to mist and Gervais timed it. He was invisible when he turned and Gervais was nearly jumping up and down; Henri had cut an entire minute off his time. As soon as Henri became solid again, Gervais wanted to go. We did. It was the same as before. Once we were both back to corporeality, he tried turning again. He cut more than a minute off his time. Henri turned again and he was even faster, this time—three minutes instead of the five that it normally took. Just as an experiment, I turned while Henri was still mist and received a small shock—while I was mist, I could see his mist particles. They were a pale green in color but I could see them. I did the same when Gervais turned next and his misty droplets were nearly the same color.
"So," I said after coming back to myself, "can you see each other if you're both mist at the same time?"
"No. We are invisible to each other. Why do you ask?" Gervais wanted to know. I lied. "I just thought since you're brothers, and all," I said, shrugging a little.
"Ah. No. It is unfortunate as it might help at times, since we cannot mindspeak." I nodded in agreement at that and we kept working.
We worked through the night until we were exhausted, but the brothers couldn't get their misting time below two minutes. They were still so pleased with that they dragged me out of the bedroom, found Charles and insisted we talk to Wlodek.
"Honored One, we have cut three minutes off our time," Henri was very happy. For a vampire, he seemed downright giddy.
One of Wlodek's eyebrows rose quite high. "Demonstrate," he commanded, dropping the inevitable gold pen onto the blotter covering his desk and leaning back in his chair. Henri obliged while Gervais timed it. Gervais handed the stopwatch to Wlodek when his brother's turn was complete. Wlodek's eyebrow went up another notch. Gervais turned next, just to prove he could. Wlodek gave me a speculative glance before turning back to the misters. "How did this occur?" he demanded. His question was aimed at the brothers instead of me, which was fine. I really didn't want to talk to Wlodek if I didn't have to.
"Lissa turned to mist and then turned each of us to mist with her," Henri explained. "We were faster, immediately after. Perhaps we became a part of her for a moment and then came away with a little of her ability."
"I will have to research this," Wlodek said softly. "Charles, bring those records," Wlodek nodded to Charles, who scurried away. "It is nearly dawn and I realize this has exhausted all of you, changing so much. Go have blood and then retire. We will not wake you tomorrow evening; we will wait until you rise in your own time." Wlodek gave us a brief nod, didn't meet my eyes and we all trooped out of his office.