Chapter 264 - Year Twenty-three Twenty-six

"Master Zance is waiting for you, Miss Diana," the maid said, gesturing towards the door she escorted me to. She was keeping her eyes meekly to the ground all the while, but it was hard to say if it was her natural demeanour or the way she was instructed to behave.

Twice as hard, because she was, just like any other servant I've met in the house until now, an android. The modern versions of them were human-like enough that a naked eye wouldn't tell a difference, but with aura-vision I could tell that inside of her brain was not squishy grey matter, but a bunch of electronic circuits.

They still made up a mind and soul, though. A greatest confirmation of that was the way the maid's eyes passed over the guardian shadow next to me without ever once focusing on him, and how she never acknowledged his presence. Nor did any other android in Zance's mansion.

A fascinating phenomenon that scientists of the world had cracked their head about for decades. How could it be that passing an image through photographs, image editing software, or just mirrors, weakened any glamour put on it—but truly sapient machines were still affected by it?

With JJ, though, even non-sapient machines were affected by it. He was a powerful vampire when we first met, but in the last few centuries, his abilities only improved. And good for him, because before they did, there was a point when surveillance cameras were a real bummer for his tendency to just stroll around places like he belonged while being invisible to an eye.

This all, though, wasn't the reason androids were so popular with vampires. No, it was as simple as a desire to have a company that won't ever die from natural causes. Modern ways of extending one's life were very advanced, and with enough money, three hundred years wasn't a limit—and no one was sure about the exact limit yet—but no youth could last three hundred years. Except for a magical one, or one that could be fixed with a bunch of new parts.

I nodded to the maid in thanks and walked through the door into a spacious and tastefully furnished sitting room. One of its walls was almost fully taken by an enormous screen that imitated a window with a scenery of one of the typical landscapes of the planet we were on, Kastor V—an endless sea of wheat under bluish light of the local sun, where the sky was almost as yellow as the wheat beneath.

A round table with two chairs stood in a middle of it, and Zance lounged in one of them, basking in the light of the artificial sun from the wall. This was as much light as he was going to get—according to my research on him, he had been turned less than twenty years ago. The riches he had came not from his own accumulations, but were inherited from his father.

He stood up to greet me with a smile that he must've thought to be very charming. If it had success with girls, then I maybe I had to report him to the local police for using glamour in malicious ways without consent… Or maybe not, because money was still a valid replacement for natural charisma.

And it wasn't that the vampire was that ugly by himself. He didn't look young—he must've been in his forties at the time of his transformation—but the wrinkles and salt in his hair didn't sit badly on him. Neither did his suit of clothing, which went with the latest local fashion that news sites boldly called Second Renaissance, because they just stole all the designs from the first one.

I, personally, loved it, especially the part where all the men had to wear tights. JJ in tights… h boy.

"I'm glad to welcome you in my house. I see the rumours didn't lie about your gorgeous looks, Miss Diana. That makes me sure that they didn't lie about your skill, either." Instead of going for a bow, though, he reached out a hand to shake.

"Once again, your 'gorgeous looks' turn men that appeared sensible enough from a distance into drooling buffoons," JJ said airily, shaking his head with exaggerated dismay. "How lucky the humanity is that you didn't decide to build a career in entertainment industry. You would've turned the world mad, ma chèrie."

I forced down a smile that threatened to appear on my lips from JJ's words before Zance could misinterpret it and shook his hand, taking it back before Zance could try to make this awkward.

"I have high hopes that you judged my skill based on factors beside my looks, Mister Zance… Otherwise, I would worry about the future state of the business you inherited," I told him, not hiding my sternness.

Zance needed me more than I needed him. It was an amazing side of being as amazing of a specialist as I was in my chosen professional area. Being too much of an ass with my clients wouldn't do me good, but I didn't have to take shit—or inappropriate advances—from anyone. It wasn't a secret that I was long and happily married, officially now.

And my husband was riiight here, too.

"Forgive me for my rudeness. I didn't mean it that way." Zance had enough self-awareness to look abashed. "Please, sit. Do you want any refreshments?"

We sat down, but I refused the second offer. "Let's move on straight to the business. I am a busy woman, as you very well know." I pulled a nondescript box out of my purse. Small it was, but there was more space on the inside, and from there I put on the table… another box.

That one, though, was longer and narrower.

Zance leaned closer. "Is that it? Is that really it?"

I arched a brow. "Do you doubt me?"

"No, of course not… May I take a look?"

I nodded. With almost reverence, Zance opened the long box and stared at what laid inside—a memory rod. Which was just a memory stick, but longer—and with more space in it.

"The original, unedited records of colonisation of Kastor V. You can check the dates on them yourselves. I did watch them, too, and can confirm that your great-grandmother really was one of the first settlers. Now… Considering how they also contain quite a few moments that would be very controversial by modern ethics, it's no wonder most of the copies were either heavily edited or deleted. This was harder to find than I originally expected, and it will affect the end price, Mister Zance."

He raised his eyes at me in outrage. "But your rates are already some of the most expensive amongst private archaeologists and antique dealers!"

"But even a drooling buffoon starts to squawk and bark when his greed is involved," JJ commented. "Will you ask the fair price, or make him pay more just for protesting, wife mine? As someone who was there with you, I can confirm that the search for these records wasn't a straightforward matter. Not to mention that he asked you to come here instead of the other way around."

'Oh, I'm not that spiteful!' I wanted to protest, but that would've broken JJ's cover, which would've angered Zance more, which would've led to me hearing more of his squawking and barking.

Which made me feel a little annoyed, and maybe just a bit spiteful… spiteful enough to raise the price just above the fair one. Well. I would just have to give the excess to charity. It wasn't like I lacked in money, anyway. If I just didn't love my job, I could've retired ten times over.

"And I could've raised the price twenty more thousand, and he'd still have to pay if he wanted to shake his competitors for whatever his ancestor did and their didn't. But I did not. See? I'm not THAT spiteful," I told JJ when we sat in a glider on an autopilot to the spaceport where our ship waited for us.

"Please, accept my deepest and most sincere apologies, ma chèrie. You are just the right amount of spiteful." JJ put his hands to his heart and tried for a sorrowful face, but his smile totally broke it. "Will you forgive me… or are you too spiteful for it?"

Instead of a reply, I pouted and poked his stomach. It brought him no discomfort, of course… so I pouted harder, and then the laughter that began to bubble inside of me couldn't bear it any more and broke out.

I was just too happy to be spiteful, at least with the dearest person in my life. My love, my vampire, my husband, my everything. No matter how many centuries waited for us, no matter how many changes, as long as he was with me, there always would be a bright side, even in the darkest times.

But today there were no dark times.. Today, I was living my dream.