Ch. 21

“Rosemary, when are you going to tell me what’s in that bottle?” Michael complained. They had been flying for a few hours now, and it was starting to get a bit dark.

Rosemary, annoyed, replied, “I told you. When we find a place to rest. Then I’ll tell you. Now stop asking me or I won’t even tell you what’s in the bottle. Happy?”

Michael thought a bit, and then replied moodily, “Fine. But can we stop soon? I’m starving!”

“I see a cave down there,” said Rosemary. She swooped down and landed at the front. Michael climbed off and started to race into it, but Rosemary stopped him.

“Wait. I have to cast a spell to make sure no one will hear us,” said Rosemary. She took in a deep breath and chanted: ‘Eht erutares ni ereh, tsum ton wonk, tahw I ma tuoba ot yas, os tel ecnelis gnir, ni rieth raes litnu . . .’” Rosemary clapped and finished the spell.

Michael stared at her, but shook his head and asked, “Can I eat yet?”

Rosemary laughed and said, “Yes. You can eat while I tell you what is in this bottle. But promise you won’t spit anything on me when you ask questions? Swallow first.”

“I promise,” said Michael. He raised his right hand, put it down, and then ran into the darkness of the cave. Rosemary followed and made a fire so they could have some light. She sat down and gave Michael a chicken to cook over the fire.

Once she was sure he wouldn’t burn his chicken, she said, “The bottle is full of a potion made of wolf hair and dragon scales. It puts vampire to sleep for two years. As the longest sleeping potion ever made, my mother was the first one in her millennium to accomplish making in. Yes, it’s that difficult.”

Michael’s jaw had dropped, and he was drooling over his chicken, which was still cooking. Rosemary closed it and continued, “I need this potion to transport Veripema, Miss Darkness, and Lord Batwings to Saturn’s rings. Only vampires can live on them, and there is a large vampire prison on them. Even humans, with all of there fancy shuttles and spaceships, can’t find it. Then, they won’t be able to torment me, you, or anyone ever again. They might annoy the guards, but that’s it.”

“So if they swallow it, they go into a two year sleep? How will you get them to swallow it?” Michael asked. His chicken was done now, and he was getting it off the stick he was cooking it on. Once he was done, he started to devour it.

“There is another way to make creatures go to sleep. When I was with the mermaids, they gave me a riddle to answer. The answer was fairies. Now, fairies live in very magical places. The flowers they sleep on have so many magical properties, and the one that live a little ways out of Brno can be used as a sleeping potion.

“I will spray the potion on my aunt and grandparents, and then I will pour the contents of this bottle down their throats. They don’t know that I am a potion maker, so they can’t tell what they’re up against,” said Rosemary, smiling.

Michael thought for a minute with choking down a large bite of chicken before saying, “You’re a potion maker? I didn’t know that. It could be useful.”

“Yeah, it could. And how could you not know I’m a potion maker? How do you think I survived all those years without drinking any blood? I needed a special potion every month or so,” said Rosemary as she watched Michael finish his chicken.

Michael just grunted in reply, and then curled up in a ball to sleep. Rosemary took the spell off the cave and put a blanket that she had made over Michael. She sat in silence watching him all night until dawn when he woke up.

“Rosemary, aren’t we going to Budapest today?” Michael asked Rosemary. She nodded in reply. Then she took out her wings. She was also carrying a small bag.

Michael looked at the bag and asked, “What’s that?”

“It’s a bag of forint, or Hungarian money. We’ll need it in Budapest. You do want more food, don’t you? Well, this is what we buy it with. Now lets go. We have a long ways ahead of us. It’s been a week since we’ve seen real people, and it’s be a couple more before we get to Prague. Our only other stop in a city is Brno. Okay? Let’s go,” said Rosemary. She took off.

They were only flying for an hour or two when they saw Budapest. Rosemary landed a few hundred yards away from the road. She didn’t want anyone seeing her wings.

“Okay, so we need to clean up a bit. I’ve got a change of clothes for us. I took some from Susan’s house. Don’t look at me like that. They’re newer clothes. Nothing from more than five years ago. She does update her attire, you know,” said Rosemary. Michael shrugged and took out some jeans and a gray sweatshirt with regular tennis shoes. Rosemary found a purple skirt and a pink tank-top with silver flip-flops.

“You look good,” Michael said to Rosemary.

Rosemary shrugged and replied, “I hate these colors, but this was the best I could find. She doesn’t shop for anyone under sixteen. The only reason I found your clothes is because Medeleck doesn’t like to get rid of things. Let’s get going. We have a long way to go yet today.”

They started walking. After a block or so, they saw a few houses and started to jog. It only took then ten minutes to find the main buildings. Michael was disappointed that they hadn’t found any food stores yet.

“We have to go a little further on this road before we take a right. Then we walk two blocks and take a left. Then its about five blocks until we reach some actual stores. We’re going to Wal-M art,” Rosemary said. Apparently she had been there many times before. Either that or she had a map. That question will be answered shortly.

“How do you know this place so well?” Michael asked, looking longingly at a barbecue across the street.

“I’ve been here a couple times with Bodoleck. We took a plane then, so it didn’t take as long. Actually, we went the whole way by foot once. That was three years ago. I had a blast,” said Rosemary.

They turned right in silence. After a block or so Michael asked, “How can you afford this. I doubt that Bodoleck makes enough money to pay for the house.”

“That’s the funny part. Most vampires don’t work. There’s a rich trillion-are that pays for all our houses as long as we come to his banquet every year. I was wondering if you would come with me.”

Michael stopped. Rosemary looked at him, waiting for an answer. Finally he said, “Wait a minute. You want me to come to a banquet with probably hundreds of vampires in one room?”

“Yes.”

“When is it?” Michael asked.

Rosemary waited a minute, and then replied, “Halloween.”

“Why are you asking me now? Why didn’t you ask me way back in the church when I first found out you were a vampire?” Michael asked. He started walking again, and once they turned left, Rosemary replied, “Firstly, that was way too long ago. He didn’t even set the date. Oh, and ‘he’ is businessman Dekanire Dolob Dvorak. You know. He’s tall, he’s mean, he loves the colors red and black, he’s great friends with my grandparents . . .

“And secondly, you have have to go. Otherwise, Veripema might skip the party and drink your blood while Bodoleck and I are gone. It would be so easy for her to do that. Dekanire and Veripema, well, to put it simply, they don’t get along at all. She said no to his proposal, and since, they would rather go for a million years without drinking blood then say ‘hello’ nicely to each other.

“We’re here. Where do you want to go first?”

Michael, who was so wrapped up in Rosemary’s explanation that he didn’t even know where they were going, looked around and gasped. There were toy stores, clothing stores, flower shops, cafes, and of course, food stores.

“Let’s go there. The butcher’s place. They’re bound to have some meat, and I don’t want to have to wait until we get to Brno,” said Michael excitedly. He grabbed Rosemary’s arm and they raced into the shop while narrowly avoiding a group of strange looking people.

Once they were in the shop, the people said, “That was a vampire back there. I smelt her. What shall we do?”

“I heard the human say they were going to Brno next. We shall meet them there. She was the good kind. Don’t be kind to her,” said another one. And they left the scene and headed down the road.