Franengeld

Previously in Frankengeld. After giving Alicia, Countess Von Hinterleitner, her tonic Damion and Helena have invited the vampire to join them at the Mystery Club. Everyone reported back on what they have found, the location of the crime scene, the whereabouts of the cart, and the origin of the letter. There being time before examining the cart for clues, Madam Minna arranges for two servants to put on a sex show, apparently an ancient Hinterleitner tradition. Afterwards the club members go to the Livery Stables, but the ladies are not permitted entry!

Now read on...

14th June in the year 1784, in the evening.

The owner of the stable seemed happy for Lord Scunthorpe to enter his premises, but not the rest of us. This was going to be a wasted trip if our best observer of 'clues' could not see the cart.

I opened my mouth to complain but Alicia spoke first. Her voice was deep and gentle, the words slow but with a compulsion that made them hard to ignore. They flowed over him, drew him in, flattered him and commanded him. We were not the target and yet could still feel the power.

"Good man, you will invite us in," she said. "All of us, so we may view your fine establishment and your vehicles."

His eyes softened and I could see his mind struggling to come to terms with the opposite of what he wanted us to do. His mind lost the battle, just as mine had against Alicia's master.

"Please enter, all you good people, and view my fine establishment," he said.

We hurried past him through the door before time could undo the enchantment. Alicia hung back until the last and, as she passed him, she stroked his cheek with one finger. He turned and followed her inside, entranced. Her cloak slipped to one side revealing her gossamer thin nightdress, and much of her charms, but he made no comment. He just licked his lips, then sucked on his pipe in an agitated way.

It was not a fine establishment. Lit by just a couple of dirty oil lamps the place was a mess. Wagons, in various states of disrepair, were parked haphazardly as if simply abandoned once brought into the building. Tack and spares were lying about in piles. I nearly tripped over a spare wheel that had slid down from its position with the others. No wonder he didn't want people looking too closely. I began to wonder what conditions he kept his horses under, if this was how he treated his vehicles. Alicia whispered to him, and placed his hand over one breast, and he led us to a wagon set apart from the rest of the chaos. Then she brought the ostler back to us, leaving Freida and Philip, to examine the vehicle.

Helena and engaged in conversation with the ostler, who seemed to be happy to stand with us. Alicia took his hand from her breast and moved it down over her quim.

"Thank you for letting Lord Scunthorpe examine the cart," I said. "I hope this is not an inconvenience."

"Well to be frank Herr Doctor," he said, seeming to recognise me. "I'm glad the officers don't want it used at the moment."

"Why?" I was surprised, for this man looked as if he tried to get as much money for as little effort as possible. Why would he not want his cart back in use?

"Everyone and his dog seems to have heard the tale. Every wagon I hire at the moment people check with me. 'It's not the one where those people were torn to bits by wolves, is it?' they ask.''

"Ah yes," I replied, "I can understand that might be annoying."

Tales have their own life, I thought. Once out on people's lips they change and grow as each person tries to get the best reaction from their listener. And if that means adding details that are not true, for the old doctor and his daughter were not torn apart at the scene, or even putting in whole new dramatic sections, then that's what happens. If my life becomes a story, I thought, how will I be remembered? And what untruths will become mixed with my tale?

Freida called me over to the cart. It was a four wheeled light vehicle with a single seat for a driver, and two benches behind that ran parallel to the sides. A good design for a doctor's cart for it could carry up to four passengers and, if a patient was very sick, they could be laid on blankets between the rear benches and transported to a hospital or other place for treatment.

"Here are claw marks," she pointed out deep gouges in the woodwork. "It looks as if some animal leapt onto the cart. And there are other signs too."

I studied the scratches, but found my eyes pulled to the deep stain on the leather of the seat. Medical blood was one thing, I could cope with that every day, but here was the blood of someone who might have been murdered for my benefit.

"Yes," said Freida, misunderstanding my gaze. "That is blood."

She ducked to examine the underside of the cart, then popped back up and looked around for our new friend.

Alicia, Philip and Helena were stood together in the centre of the chaos, looking around at the scene of neglect. Alicia still had her quim covered by the Ostler, which seemed to be keeping him in a submissive state.

"Alicia," she asked, very politely. "Could you examine this seat and tell us if you can detect anything, please? And Philip and Helena, can you keep the Ostler distracted while we do this?"

Alicia released the Ostler who started to come around. Philip whispered something to Helena, their heads together in a very intimate and conspiratorial way. If I was the jealous type I would have suspected they were planning an assignation, but no - they were about to use a strategem.

Until now Philip had remained silent, happy for others to lead, but now he started to speak, loudly, in his native tongue. The Ostler was baffled, clearly knowing no English, and turned to me to translate. Helena stepped in instead, which further baffled him, having to accept direction from a woman. Helena made spurious translations of Philips words and by this communicated to the man that Lord Scunthorpe wished to view all his other vehicles, even the broken ones. It quickly became a game with Philip saying things like 'the wheel is about to fall off this one' and Helena translating this as 'Lord Scunthorpe admires the roundness of your wheels.'

Alicia moved closer to the cart. "I can smell the blood from here," she said. "It is not young blood, but not old either."

So, the daughter had been the driver, and presumably her father rode in the back.

"I can smell something else," she continued. "Something very faint, it has been many days."

"Wolf?" I asked.

Alicia concentrated, moved closer to the gouges, and then recoiled. "Werewolf!" she snarled. Then corrected herself, "No! Not werewolf, but wolfwere."

Freida and I looked at her with blank faces. Sophie had mentioned wolfwere to me two days ago but given no explanation.

"We should retire to discuss this," suggested Alicia. "There is much to explain, and this is not the place to do it."

"I have made as good an examination as I can," replied Freida. "I agree. Shall we return to my house for a nightcap?"

"I have promised to return to talk with your mother," replied Alicia. "It suits me well that we return to your house."

I gave the ostler some coin for his trouble and implied that Philip might return. In truth I, personally, liked the design of the cart, but not the quality of the stables. I must think more about this.

We returned to Freida's house in much the same formation as before, and soon we were sat quietly sipping a nightcap of warmed red wine, the choice made by Freida in honour of our latest member of the group.

Then Alicia put her cup down and started to talk. "The werewolf is a deadly foe, a creature that dwells hidden inside its victim until the nights of the full moon. This we all know."

"Even a man who is pure at heart," I murmured.

"Yes," said Alicia. "Anyone can be infected and it is not possible to detect a werewolf when hidden. And a good man may be one, goodness is no defence."

"So what is a Wolfwere?" asked Freida.

"The werewolf dwells within a human," explained Alicia. "The wolfwere lives inside a wolf. When it transforms it is part wolf and part human, but in different ways to a werewolf. And it has greater freedom. It can emerge whenever it likes, except on the three nights when the moon is dark. During those days and nights it is trapped within the wolf."

She took a long drink of her wine. A little trickle of red dripped from the corner of her mouth. She caught it delicately with her finger which she sucked clean. I had never seen an action so erotic. It had an instant effect on me. Luckily it appeared that everyone was looking at her and not my lap.

"And like the werewolf, the hiding wolfwere cannot be detected," she declared. "The wolf looks perfectly normal, behaves normally, with perhaps just a little more intelligence and cunning than a natural wolf."

"That would fit with what I observed on the cart," said Freida. "It looked to me that there was an initial animal attack that killed or disabled the driver."

"The daughter?" asked Helena.

"Probably," replied Alicia.

Freida continued, "There was no sign of blood in the back of the cart, except for a single spread of four dots, smears almost, on one bench. A hand, steeped in blood had rested there for a moment."

"A hand, not a paw?" I asked.

"A hand. I am sure," she replied.

"The wolfwere in its human form?" this was Helena.

Alicia nodded, "I would judge that they turned into human shape to abduct the doctor. If they had done it in wolf shape there would have been much more blood. They would have dragged him with their teeth."

"They?" I asked.

"Wolfwere hunt in packs," said Alicia. "There are tales of packs that ravaged whole provinces in elder times. I have read of one such pack decimating a Roman patrol. And there is more."

We held our breaths. What more could be said? We were already dealing with a pack of dangerous were-creatures that Roman soldiers found hard to combat.

"They were females, and I thought I detected that one was in heat," said our vampire companion.

Freida looked puzzled. "Alicia, please excuse me, but I don't understand the significance of that."

"There are very few male wolfweres," Alicia explained. "When they meet they tend to fight to the death, unless they are father and son, or some similar relationship. And even then as the younger one matures he will often come into conflict with the older, a fight for dominance."

Here was my family, I realised, with horror. My father, Kurt, and his son, Karl, both wolfwere. Perhaps doomed to fight one day. And was I doomed to become one too? I realised that Alicia was still talking and paid attention.

"The few that do exist," she was saying. "When they meet a female, dominate it and add it to their harem. Older wolfweres can have fifteen to twenty females under their will. And the females do not become 'on heat' unless there is a male to service them."

"Oh," said Freida. "So what you mean is that this pack has probably got a male controlling them."

"I have two questions," said Helena.

"Only two, dear Helena?" replied Alicia, smiling. "Pray ask them."

"Firstly," said Helena, looking quite aroused. "Do they fuck each other as wolf or were-human?"

"Helena!" said Freida. "What did I say about using 'fuck' in polite society?'

So, I thought, not entirely the upper middle class lady yet.

"Sorry Freida," Helena giggled. "I should have said 'pleasure' instead of 'fuck'. But do you know the answer, Alicia?"

"I do not know," replied the vampire. "And I fear anyone who got close enough to be a voyeur would soon be caught and torn apart. What is your second question?"

"Are you sure they are female?" Helena asked.

"Yes," replied Alicia firmly. "I met a pack nearly a hundred years ago near Vienna. The females have a distinctive odour, sharpened by the presence of a male. I was nearly destroyed in that encounter. They are evil creatures, determined to dominate life wherever they find it, so I am glad I was able to help here by warning you."

Freida drew the meeting to a close. The discussion was over and it was clear what I must do. I need to find out more about my family, in particular my Father. This means a trip to Durishaus to look through his papers in the Red Room. I volunteered to do this task as soon as I was reasonably sure that Father wouldn't catch me investigating.

Madam Minna caught us in the hallway as we were preparing to depart.

"Countess," she said. "May I make you an offer?"

"Please do," replied Alicia.

"I am uncertain where you intend to sleep," Madam Minna continued. "But our family has somewhere you might find to your taste."

"I slept yesterday in the laboratory of the kind Doctor," Alicia said. "But I can see that this arrangement might disrupt his work. I am loath to impose myself on him and the delightful Helena for another day. What is your proposal?"

"We have a family mausoleum," said Madam Minna. "In the Carlsbruck cemetery. It is a well constructed building and quite spacious. Would you like to adopt it as your home?"

"That is most generous," said Alicia. "After all this time I find this..." she indicated the house. "... to be a little daunting. A quiet tomb might suit me well until such time as I get used to, once again, moving in grand society."

"You would not be disturbed," said Madam Minna. "The next occupant of the mausoleum will be me, and I hope such company would not distress you."

Alicia gave her a hug. Did I see a tear in the vampire's eye? Surely not, a creature of the night such as Alicia must be stony of heart. But then I remembered the hug she gave me when we invited her to be part of the Mystery Club. So perhaps there is more to Alicia than I thought.

"Damion," said Madam Minna, turning to me. "Would you come with us? I need an escort back through the dark streets after we have made Alicia at home."

I looked at Helena, who also needed an escort home.

"Don't worry old chap," said Lord Philip. "I'll make sure she gets home safely." And he offered his arm to her, which she took.

"Don't stay out too late," said Helena. "We've a busy day ahead of us. And don't do anything I wouldn't do."

This allowed for considerable freedom as I had witnessed Helena bribing the Burgomaster with mouth and quim, exposing her breasts to patients to distract them for surgery, and copulating with multiple satyrs. She had been the one to draw me into the small orgy at the Gelenberg tavern. Not to mention taking part in a most unusual fellatio duel. I smiled, and promised, "I will not stay out too late."

The cemetery was on the outskirts of Carlsbruck, near to the road that led to Durishaus. Madam Minna asked me to carry a large carpet bag for her and I obliged. The view, as we approached, was of rather a messy sprawl with graves in small clusters between enormous yew trees. At the northern end things became more civilised. Here were the many mausolea belonging to the richer families between curved, paved paths. These grand buildings, often with deep crypts, spoke of ancient times and had a grandeur that made you forget their purpose, the storage of the dead.

We entered the graveyard through a tall stone arch which displayed the town name, and the date 1523. This cannot be the date of the cemetery, it was far older than that with some graves dating back to crusader times, but possibly was the date of the arch itself. Perhaps, since many of the mausolea were of that period, it signified a time when building work in the cemetery was prolific.

As we walked to Madam Minna's family edifice I saw evidence of a recent burial in the common ground and had a flashback to the first year of my university course. A late night excursion to Engolstadt graveyard with Victor. The aim, to obtain materials for his studies. We hid behind a clump of trees until the funeral party had departed, waited another hour until we were sure all officials had gone home, and proceeded to dig. I say we but Victor sat on a nearby gravestone, and told me details of his theories, while I did the actual digging. It was exhausting and one of the reasons I turned my studies towards chemistry rather than anatomy. Flasks of chemicals are easier to lift than soil.

I wondered if Victor had taken advantage of the summer storms to vitalise his creation. He must be so close now to success. I was lagging behind in my work, but content that I would soon have something to test. After all my concoctions had achieved remarkable results with Herr Weil, and I had been able to reproduce Madam Schwartz's complex formula. I had the skills, it was just a matter of time and effort.

My musing was disturbed by Alicia clapping her hands in joy. "It is wonderful," she said. "A fine abode of great quality."

The mausoleum was well constructed, and had hints of both classical and Oriental styles but, I thought, it was excessive for Alicia to praise it so highly. It was after all just a tomb. Then I saw her face. This creature of the night had the same look of delight on her features that I had observed on Helena as we viewed our new home. I felt ashamed, Alicia deserved happiness just as much as any living creature and I realised I had not seen her harm anyone. I determined to treat her well as long as she stayed on the side of good.

Madam Minna removed a large key from her chatelaine and used it to unlock the crypt door. Inside, on each side of the entrance, were oil lamps. The kind that had a built-in flint and steel and a trigger to send a shower of sparks to the wick. She asked me to light them. They lit immediately, evidence this place had been well maintained, and by their light we could see finely carved memorials to family members lost at sea or for other reasons not able to be buried. Opposite the entrance a broad set of stairs, with a smooth ramp down the centre, led to lower chambers.

We explored the crypt and Alicia chose a suitable spot to rest. Madam Minna took back her bag from me and revealed quilts and other items to make the place more homely. We left Alicia happily setting up house after inviting her to return to Madam Minna's house for the next Mystery Club meeting tomorrow evening.

Madam Minna and I walked back arm in arm. The last light of the day was fading rapidly and I understood why she preferred not to travel alone. A woman walking on her own in the dark might be taken for a whore and propositioned. Or worse, be a potential target for robbery. Unlike Philip I was not armed with an obvious sword, but I was young and fit and I might have a small pistol in my pocket, we were unlikely to be attacked.

When we arrived back at Madam Minna's house she turned to me saying, "Thank you Damion. Would you like to come in and have a coffee?"

Part of me wanted to depart, to go home and to bed, but it would have been rude and churlish to refuse her. I accepted. "Thank you, Minna," I said. "That would be nice."

Inside she looked around for Mary, to order the coffee, but there was no sign of her. "Damion, follow me," she said. "I think I know where she might be and we can have our coffee in comfort."

I followed her and, to my surprise, she set off upstairs to what I presumed were the bedrooms, but - of course - I might be mistaken. There might be a more private withdrawing room on that level.

No, it was a bedroom. Madam Minna had taken me to her bedroom which suggested to me that I was going to get more than coffee before I departed for home. And it was an occupied bedroom. As we approached we heard a sound as if someone was energetically making the bed. Madam Minna called out, as she opened the door, "Mary, are you in there, turning down my sheets?"

Mary was in there but she he wasn't turning down the sheets, she was rumpling them. Johann was flat on his back on the bed and she was riding him in a most energetic manner, like a jockey trying to win the race of a lifetime. Sweat poured off her in the humid warmth of the evening, the lamplight shining on her glistening skin.