Page 7 of A Vampire in a Pear Tree
“You are the best greeter in the Hour, and far more knowledgeable than me.Besides, I have to check the druid dancers are sober.Remind me to warn the inns they are no longer allowed to sell them barrels of anything alcoholic, especially mead.They get way too smashed on mead,” I told her, unable to keep from turning to scan the people strolling along the boardwalk.
“I thought their interpretive dance of how you and Finch met and fell in love was touching,” she said as I started off to a garden behind the biggest inn, where the druid tribal-dance team was residing in three yurts.“Although their version of the consummation of your relationship was a bit raunchy.”
I sighed, remembering the banquet Finch and I had thrown for everyone the night before to celebrate the opening of the Hour to tourists.The druids had insisted on performing a dance that was wildly inappropriate at best.“They really have a lot to answer for.Right, I’m off to deal with them and the missing popcorn machine.Yell if you need anything.”
I confirmed with the shop owners that everything was a go with them, and was heading for the inn when Finch began muttering in my head.
What’s wrong?Why are you speaking in Czech, which you know I don’t understand?Has something gone awry with the tea shop?They were fine half an hour ago, when I checked to make sure they were ready for the onslaught of tourists.
Come home, Tat.
Huh?I paused as I was about to verify that the three carriage drivers were ready to ferry tourists around to the various scenic points in the Hour that we’d included on the Romantic Underworld Horse-Drawn Carriage Experience.Why?Are you moving up your Lord of the Hour speech?I really do think that would be better after the Dinner with a Vampire event.It’ll have more impact then, don’t you think?
It has nothing to do with that blasted dinner you insist will be popular—
Might I remind you that those dinner tickets sold out in under four minutes?Four minutes, Finch.Everyone loves a sexy vamp, and you’re the sexiest of all.
To my surprise, I didn’t catch a sense of pleasure at my compliment, or even appreciation for the fact that we were madly in love despite being banished to the Hour.Instead, irritation, frustration, and even anger rolled around inside him.We have visitors.Please come home so I don’t do something I’ll regret later.
Has one of the tourists bothered you?I asked as I switched directions and quickly trotted through the town, my heart sinking when, from the shadows of the hot goat yoga salon, a brassy note greeted my appearance.The eight members of the marching band emerged, and immediately kicked into the only song they seemed to know.
I bolted, dodging tourists and residents as I headed to the small castle that we’d had built when we took over the Hour, a little more than a year before.Dammit, the band found me!I’m coming in hot, Finch.Have the drawbridge ready to be yanked up the second I get across it.
He sighed in my head.Just tell them you don’t want them following you.
It’s not that easy.They insist tourists love this sort of thing.One of them saw something similar on TikTok, and now they are convinced they are enhancing the tourist adventure.Why are you so annoyed?Did a tourist breach your inner sanctum and ask you to make them your eternal king or queen of the night?Because I’m happy to tell them that you’re quite taken, and you’re not eternal nighting anyone but me.
He didn’t answer, but I could feel him thinking several dark things.
The sound of “Tequila” followed me as I raced to get sufficiently ahead of the marching band so I could lose them, but other than them hitting some choppy notes as they picked up speed when I ran full out for a side door, they stuck to me.
By the time I hurried into Finch’s library, located on the ground floor of the castle with a view over the town, I had imagined all sorts of outrageous scenarios, but I wasn’t prepared at all for what I saw when I came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the library, the band triumphantly finishing as they crowded in after me.
Finch, gorgeous as ever, but particularly handsome in the tuxedo I’d managed to talk him into for the fancy (and expensive) dinner for eager tourists, stood next to two men, one tall with dark, curly hair, the other slighter, bearing an apologetic expression.
“—and I really don’t like repeating myself, so if you could take yourself and your wife off, I’ll get back to the business of leading the Hour,” the first man was saying, shooting me an annoyed glance when I tucked my hand into the crook of Finch’s arm.“It would appear you have musicians accompanying you.I do not have musicians.Leo!”
“Yes, sir.”Leonid of Corinth, assistant to the Greek god Troy Ilios, wore an almost permanent expression of martyrdom.I gathered being Troy’s flunky wasn’t all it was cut out to be.“I’ll look into a marching band for you, as well.”
“These ones appear winded,” Troy said as he gave the band a once-over.“Make sure that my musicians have some stamina and don’t stand around panting like they ran a marathon.Now that your wife is here, we can proceed.I assume you have things here in this castle that I don’t recall being consulted over before it was built.Leo will send your belongings on to you.Now, where is the media room?I have accepted a sponsorship that requires me to post videos every other day, and I want to get a few filmed before the light shifts.”
“Troy Ilios,” I said, making an abbreviated bow to the Greek god who had been the former head of the Hour.“And Leo, how nice to see you again.Are you here to see what we’ve done with the Hour?This is our grand opening to tourist trade, so things are a bit hectic—”
“They’re here to kick us out, Tatiana,” Finch said, his voice gravelly.For what seemed like the millionth time in the last year, I mourned the loss of my Ravenfall boon, the trait given to me for being born in the small, highly eccentric town on the coast of Oregon.
I really did miss hearing the colors in people’s voices.Finch’s voice was almost always a rich forest green flecked with gold, both comforting and sexy as hell.
“Why?”I asked, confused, glaring when one of the trumpets tooted a fast fanfare, turning my attention to Troy.“Is it because we made our own version of Axegate Walk?Finch went over the rules of the Hour with a fine-tooth comb, and we didn’t see anything that said we couldn’t change the Hour’s aesthetics—”
“No, no, I don’t mind that,” Troy answered, preening in front of a small mirror.“Some of the vistas will be excellent for filming direct conversations with my fans.I am simply reclaiming my position.”
The trombones made awah-wahnoise.
“Begone!”Troy told them before I could demand they leave me alone, and to my utter stupefaction, they listened to him, the band members shooting me cheeky looks before they all filed out.
“How did you do that?”I couldn’t help but ask.
“I am lord of the Hour,” Troy said, giving me a one-shouldered shrug.“All here heed me.”
