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It was a fine morning in June. The clouds pink and wispy still. Dew shrouded every blade of green grass under their feet, making the soles of their shoes wet. Above them, the fluorescent street lamps had only just flickered off, their reflection suddenly vanished from the darkened water of Vistula River in front of them, quickly replaced by the gradually brightening sky, dappling the water now with speckles of grey and blue.
Lestat lifted his face up towards the emerging sun. Immediately, he was grateful for the UV400, polarized sunglasses that were protecting his eyes. The rays were still too feeble for humans but were already explosion of beams for his vampiric eyes.
His heightened senses picked up the images of humans for miles around him, stirring awake in their little houses and apartments. He could hear their sleepy conversations. Even those who didn't speak a word, their minds blared their thoughts loudly, as they yawned through their morning rituals.
There were, of course, people who had been up for hours, like the bakers, butchers and the breakfast cooks. The doors to their businesses opened wide to welcome early risers. Road workers and street cleaners had just finished their shift, were languidly packing up to go home.
Lestat turned around to look at his husband who had taken cover underneath the biggest, shadiest tree he could find. Today, his Louis was clad in cream-coloured, long-sleeved lyocel top paired with slim jeans and green sneakers. A pair of Ray-Ban wrapped around his eyes, and on his head was a wide-brim sun hat with drawstring dangling under the chin.
He, himself was similarly attired in light grey long-sleeves, on top of brown khaki pants and summer shoes. A safari straw-hat covered the top half of his head, only his golden ponytail showing.
As the sun rose higher, light tendrils filtered through the leaves, sending Louis tiptoeing further into the cool darkness beneath the canopy.
No one would blame Louis for this. Not even he, Lestat, who had immediately saturated himself in the flood of light, marveling at the incandescent orange glow that outlined his outstretched hands.
Both Louis and he, on separate occasion, had had a brief misadventure with the giant ball of fire in the sky, and returned with staggeringly different results. Louis got burnt to charcoal and needed blood infusion from three vampires to survive, while he, Lestat, got charred badly, but healed after a few days and was left with a sweet tan.
There were many explanations for this, but the short one was, he didn't get nicknamed the Brat Prince for nothing; always plunging head first into things that he'd been warned specifically not to do, and somehow managed to just scraped through with minor damage.
However, today, he had a very good excuse for commencing this romp. Louis and he were helping Fareed test his newly improved sun serum!
Being one with the strongest of blood and the most adventurous of spirit, he naturally had tested it several times before, along with others from his vampire council, the Children of Millenia- Seth, the eldest at six-thousand years old, had always been Fareed’s first choice to try things out. He'd grumble first then capitulate to his sweetheart’s every whim. Gregory's academic mind made him an eager candidate for any new experiments. As for Cyril and Thorne, they would have never let him, Lestat, test anything without them trying it out first.
Younger vampires had also trialed the latest version and returned merry and thriving after a full day in the sun. Needless to say, the serum had to be very safe first, because hell would freeze over before Lestat let any risk come to his beloved Louis.
“Amour, come to me.”
He smiled and watched as the love of his life took his first step into the illuminated concrete path, legs shaky like a baby deer, eyebrows furrowed as the sun touched his skin. Louis looked gingerly at all the technicolor around them, at the mist wafting up to the air from the grass.
“It’s wet… and warm.”
“Fareed and I browsed the weather report for many cities and decided on this one. A mild, spring day in Cracow, slightly cloudy and humid.”
He let Louis slowly take his time to get used to the idea that the sun would not burn him to crisp this time round. “We’ve never been here before, so it’s a brand new city for both of us!”
Louis swiveled around to look at the towering, immense Baroque-Renaissance structures behind them and offered, “I’d say that it’s actually a very old city.” He walked to the gate and read the bronze plaque aloud. “Royal Wawel Castle. Out of any places you could’ve landed us in, trust you to choose a palace.”
“Thick walls, cold rooms to hide inside, just in case.” He saw Louis’ face and comforted him quickly. “But as you can see, it’s working perfectly... We haven’t crumbled to dust in agonising pain yet.”
Louis was peering through the iron gate. “Hmm, a few hours until they open. I’d love to have a look inside.”
“Ah, but what are doors and locks to us vampires?”
Ignoring Louis’ protest about buying tickets, Lestat had flown both of them over the high castle wall, onto the expansive medieval courtyard, and not a minute later, they were meandering in the dark hallways. They took their sunglasses off, shoes echoing inside the cavernous exhibition rooms, while they browsed priceless artifacts.
Finding a donation box near the entrance, Lestat carelessly peeled a wad of Polish Zloty from his pocket and dropped them in. “See, I’m not a barbarian. I buy tickets.”
Louis was admiring the extensive display of Flemish tapestries collection. “This castle is much bigger than yours, baby.” Camera’s light flashed as he started taking photos.
“Well, considering that this used to be the Polish royal family’s residence for over five centuries, it should be.” Lestat huffed. “I was a small country lord. It’s not a fair comparison.”
The verdant eyes twinkled mischievously. “I heard that ‘Size don’t matter’ anyway.”
Lestat looked at him and burst out laughing, “Yes, luckily, you only ever heard of the saying and never had the faintest idea what it meant.”
His husband grinned, “And that is because… your ‘castle’ is big and you know how to use it properly, or are we talking about mine here?”
“What’s the difference?” Lestat winked. “What’s mine is yours and yours is mine. In fact, lemme show you-…” He leaned in for a kiss which his husband deflected.
“Not here, baby. Look, cameras everywhere.”
“Ah, the bane of modern invention. No privacy anytime, anywhere. For myself, I don’t care about getting caught on cameras, but alas, the council have set rules about this, and I must lead by example. If I don’t, Marius will find out and I won’t survive the nagging. Very well, mon cœur, we shall avoid the cameras.”
They took time appreciating the impressive collection of Royal’s armoury and treasury, marvelling at the 11th century Romanesque architecture and period furniture in the Royal apartments.
When Louis commented about how their living quarters at home could do with similar pieces, Lestat remarked drily that he hoped Armand wasn’t listening, as he wouldn’t put it past the gremlin to break in here tonight, help himself to the items, and then present those to them as gift, or worse, he'd decorate his New York townhouse with those, just for kicks.
In the shaded outdoor area of the castle, a bronze dragon statue stood on its hind legs and sporadically breathed out fire towards the sky. Lestat waited patiently as Louis perfected his dragon-in-action photos.
Standing under the shadow of the castle wall, they could see the sun, now high in the sky, and had already started heating the cobblestone courtyard.
Sensing Louis' trepidation, Lestat slipped a hand into his, “I won’t let anything happen to you, mon cher.”
Louis squeezed his hand back. “And neither will I, to you.”
“Ready? Hold on to my hat!”
As they’d discovered earlier, Lestat’s hat liked to detach itself mid-flight, so not wanting to spend precious time looking for rogue hats, Louis tightened the drawstrings under his chin, and grabbed on to Lestat’s hat. They grinned widely to each other, acknowledging how ridiculous they must have looked right now.
Lestat took them to air, a quick whoosh, and they arrived in the alleyway behind the Old Town’s market square. People had started pouring into it from all corners now. Locals and tourists, old and young, big and small, going about their business, chatting, laughing, frowning and arguing with each other. No one seemed to register the two young men who materialised out of thin air.
Lestat and Louis strolled slowly amongst the mortals, absolutely enthralled by the carefree, relaxed attitudes around them. It was bizarre to see the humans completely let down their guards! Normally, in the dark hours of the night, only the strongest and most brazen of mortals would put on this nonchalant attitude, while the rest would be wide-eyed and alert. But even the bravest people, upon sensing the apex predators in their presence, their confidence would crack, their fear leaked out like bad smell.
Louis watched in awe as two blonde children raced in front of their parents. “Look at them go. I didn’t know human children are so fast on their legs.”
Lestat bounced on his feet, worried, “They will fall and hurt themselves!”
“That boy makes me think of Viktor as a boy.” There was longing in those green eyes. “How I wish we were part of his childhood.”
“One of the many things that I regretted in life.” Lestat sighed with relief as the children had paused to gape at a giant head sculpture that was leaning on its side.
“At least we got to see Rose grow up.” They were passing the family now and the parents nodded at them.
Lestat nudged Louis. “The little girl just smiled at me. She’s missing two front teeth. Children are just precious.”
“Do you ever think about siring another one?”
“Another Viktor? I don’t know. What about you?” Lestat frowned as Louis stopped in front of a comparably bland-looking brick building. He read the signage. Church of St. Francis of Assisi.
“I think about it sometimes.” His husband gestured to the main door. “It's open. Shall we?”
“Alright, but only if you promise that we won’t have to go into every single one of them. There must be dozens in this square alone!”
Passing through the unassuming entrance, as soon as they stepped inside, their jaws appropriately dropped to the floor. Whatever it was lacking in size, St. Francis Basilica made up for it with the sheer quality of its art. Intense sunlight poured in through three giant stained glass window panels, practically painted most of the walls and floors in shimmery, candy-hues. Exquisite frescoes covered the rest in rich, vibrant pigments.
Mesmerized, Lestat seated himself on one of the pews, with Louis following suit. They sat companionably, absorbing the brilliant colours surrounding them, basking in the quiet tranquility.
“The last time I’ve been in a church, in the day time, was when Paul was still alive.”
Lestat put his hand around Louis’ shoulders. “For me, it'd be close to two hundred fifty years ago. I’ve been to churches at night, and I'd not call those visits enjoyable.”
“I go once or twice every few years... I'm actually rather fond of crucifixes.”
“Perhaps we should have a chapel built at the château, with murals and stained glass art like this… and crucifixes! It’d fit right in with Alain’s plan for the east wing. I can see it.”
“What I can see is Marius frothing in the mouth with his desire to paint the frescoes but also to beat you up for that proposal! A chapel inside a vampire castle! Only a brat like you would come up with that. Let’s leave churches out of our home.”
Lestat smiled and nodded.
At the donation box, Lestat peeled away some notes. “Gregory told me to prepare local currency in cash form as they’ll come handy. He’s right, you know. Pressing 'Donate' button online is just not as satisfying as hearing real notes and coins drop into the box.” To prove his point, he threw the cash in and listened to the sound with flourish. "Et voilà."
Outside, Louis looked at the statues of two men deep in conversation on the bench. “These two reminds me of us.”
“On our bench at Jackson Square in New Orleans!”
“Or any city, really. We do walk and sit on benches a lot, my love.”
“And chat for hours. Ah, but chéri, look, they are mathematicians from the 20th century. We've been chatting on benches for longer than these two had.”
They moved off to let another group of people take photos of the statues.
Louis said, “I agree about the satisfaction of holding a physical thing. As much as I like my E-reader, I prefer my dusty old books.”
“You don’t mind digital cameras though.”
“I love them.” Louis tapped his Nikon and was about to launch into how amazing his latest gadget was, except his husband was already distracted by something else.
Lestat’s violet eyes gleamed looking at a very old, dilapidated three-storey building, a dark purple entrance with a dozen tables or so on the kerb outside. He whirled around to Louis.
“A cafe named Camelot! I like it. Shall we do brunch here as mortals do, Louis?” It was about ten in the morning and the breakfast hour was in full swing.
“Alright, but let’s not order too much. I don’t like it when food get wasted.”
“Ah, but our children have taught me a trick, mon cher. Do you know that Viktor and Rose love to go out for dinner dates still? And when they do, they'd use some paper boxes to put the food in and give them to the people-… how do they call it... ah, yes, ‘sleeping rough’… I saw some of them in the alleyway. They’ll be glad to see the food.”
“You’re just gonna ferry the food back and forth to them?”
“Oui, drinks too. With our speed, it’ll only take a few seconds.”
“Won’t they feel strange if they suddenly see food in their hands? What if they won’t eat it?”
“There’s where mind-gift comes in.”
“I see. In that case, let’s order a lot.”
“Absolument.”
Sitting at their preferred table outside, under a giant pink umbrella, their hats and sunglasses quickly came off. Louis browsed the photos in his camera while Lestat ordered from the breakfast menu. Thick French toast with fresh fruit and organic homemade jam, omelette and extra toasts, baked eggs in tomato and sweet pepper, plus two cups of coffee.
On one of the tables, the family of four they saw at the main square had just had their plates cleared away, and the waitress had brought out coffees for the grown ups and milkshakes for the children. A beautiful layered cake studded with fresh strawberries and cream was placed in the middle and the waitress smilingly lit the candles and left.
Charmed, Lestat and Louis watched as the children sang Happy Birthday loudly with abandonment for their mother. When the young lady was about to blow the candles, the wind suddenly blew them off. The father was getting up to borrow the waitress' lighter, when lo and behold, the candles were all alight again.
Louis was smiling widely, so Lestat smiled too, whispering, “Nicely done, mon cher.”
The children restarted the song again and this time, Lestat joined in. The parents laughed joyfully as the kids clapped. “Now we can cut the cake!”
The mother cut two pieces of the beautiful cake and put them onto two plates. After some cajoling, her children took them to Louis and Lestat. The boy spoke shyly in English, “Today is my Mum’s birthday. She made this cake herself.”
Awash with emotions, Louis smiled. “Thank you for sharing with us. This looks delicious!”
Encouraged, the little girl poked her head out from behind her brother, “I hope you like it.” Satisfied, the two children ran back to their table and sat down to devour their portions of cake.
Lestat waved at the blonde lady. “Happy birthday, dear. Thank you for the cake.” He whispered as Louis started eating his. “You don't have to, chéri. They’re not even looking over here.”
“You’ll be surprised at what children notice.” Louis smiled. “I’m gonna finish every last bit.”
So, Lestat gamely ate it all as well, every chalky, pastey bit of it. “You know, Fareed is formulating a pill that he believes could let us enjoy human food. It would've been helpful today.”
“One at a time, baby. I don’t think we should combine the serum and the pill. What if they cancel one another?”
"We'll extensively test it out first. Louis, imagine the possibilities... When I was in David's body, I didn't have a great experience with eating. Wouldn't it be ironic if I enjoy human food better in a vampire's body?”
“It seems very unfair if we, the monsters at the top of the food chain, eat humans and enjoy their food. We've always been condemned to eternal life in darkness, but all of the sudden, we can also thrive under the sun? What's left of a human's life that we could be envious of?”
"Chéri, you are overly confident in our amenability as a species. Trust me, every blood-drinkers I know won't suddenly be shoveling meat-and-three-veg and go to the park for bikram yoga at noon."
Louis laughed. "This tells me you've only ever heard of bikram yoga and don't know what it means."
His husband smiled.
Not long after, the family of four waved their goodbyes and left. No one saw how Lestat got up, grabbed take away boxes from the pass, tipped food into them, ran to the main square and back again. His hand neatened down his hair while siting back down.
Louis already had the lunch menu propped open. “I think we could do well with a schnitzel, or a scynzel, as they call it here. Oh, carrot soup sounds nice.”
“Mon cher, I think they get a lot of soup. Something else, please.”
“Beef and cheese pierogi then, and a big bowl of fries. Also, cola and lemonade in cans.”
The waiter gave them a puzzled look, but wrote their orders down anyway, and took away their stack of dirty plates.
Louis lifted his camera up to snap a few photos of Lestat who immediately smouldered. “Don’t look at the camera, baby. I want natural poses.” He laughed when his husband doubled-down and batted his long eyelashes.
He was checking the photos when a gentle voice in asked in English, “Hello, would you like us to take your photographs, luv?”
They turned to see an old couple who looked about eighty at the next table. They were sitting down to chicken and watermelon salads and two glasses of white wine. The man sported shiny, thick white hair and the lady a short, grey bob.
“Sure, that'd be nice. Thank you!” Louis gave the camera to the old lady who took three photos of them. She asked Louis to check the photos, in case she needed to retake them. He assured her that the photos were perfect and thanked her again.
The conversation flowed. “Your accent sounds American. Do you live here or just visiting?”
Lestat exchanged glances with Louis and replied, “Yes, we’re Americans but we live in France. Here in Cracow for our honeymoon.”
“Oh, bless you. We are from England. We also honeymooned here you see, about twenty years ago.”
The man said, “We wanted to come here and see this place again before we get too frail, and they refuse to let us travel on the plane.”
“Oh.” Lestat did the math in his head and saw Louis coming into the same conclusion. Honeymoon at sixty?
The old man’s eyes were twinkling. “You'd be right to wonder. This is my second marriage and her third, but we‘ve actually known each other for more than sixty years. Our first marriage was at twenty years old, to each other! However, foolishness and jealousy caused us to divorce. It took us thirty-five years to find each other again. Now, I spend every day trying to make it up to her. We’ve been married twenty years now and never been apart ever since.”
The old lady pointed at Lestat and winked at Louis. “When you have someone look at you the way he does, don't let go of him. I’m certainly hanging on to mine.” She squeezed her husband’s hand and looked at him fondly.
Louis smiled at his husband, his eyes turned red. "We had our share of ups and downs over the years, but yeah... he's the one for me."
Lestat's bottom lip wobbled.
The old man said, “Perhaps twenty years in the future, you two could come here again and sit on that same table, and tell another young couple on their honeymoon about what we just told you. And when you do that, we shall be looking down at you from heaven.”
They looked at the 'older' couple speechless. Louis quickly pressed a paper napkin to his eyes and gave one to Lestat, lest their blood tears show.
The old lady smiled, “You two will be fine. I can spot soulmates when I see them.”
Lestat managed a weak reply, “We'll try our best to beat your record."
The old couple laughed, "That won't be hard. Try to go for sixty years... Ah, your food has arrived. Please, don’t let us babble on and interrupt your lunch.” The old couple smiled again and resumed their own lunch.
When they finally ‘finished’ their meal, Lestat went to pay for theirs and the old couple’s plus plenty more for coffee and dessert. He came back out to see Louis giving the old couple his name card, “-if the airlines ever give you any trouble, just contact me. I have friends who can help smooth the way.”
They said goodbye and when they were out of earshot, Lestat nudged his husband, “So, same place in twenty years for another honeymoon?”
Louis hooked their arms together and said with deep affection, “Human beings are remarkable sometimes, aren't they?”
They watched the great red ball of fire disappear below the Western mountains. The sky turned coral-grey and they both let out a sigh. It was not from relief, as there was no hardship to speak of, but rather a conclusion, to signify the end of the day.
Lestat brought his nose towards Louis’ neck and sniffed. “Ah, chéri, there’s a different smell on your skin today.”
Louis breathed in his husband's golden hair, “It's the same scent that clothes get after they've dried in the sun all day long.”
“You’re right, of course! I’m very fond of it.”
“This has been a beautiful day, my love.”
“It has. We should do this again.”
“Well, not too often... You know, I'm now pretty certain that I actually prefer the nights."
"I knew it!"
"Also, I’m absolutely famished, so we should feed.”
Lestat kissed Louis’ hand, “I’m sure Cracow could spare us a few drug-dealers.”
Louis watched two men coming up the hill. “We would need the whole drug cartel. Cyril and Thorne look starving. You know, they are getting so good at protecting us from afar! I didn’t see them at all today.”
Lestat smiled. “The headlines for tomorrow will read- Fifteen bodies found dead in a burnt out building... on the top-storey of… Cafe Camelot.”
“No, not that cafe! We still need to come here again in twenty years.”
“Ah, yes, you’re right again, of course, amour.”