Chapter 201 - Secrets Of The World

I couldn't refute that claim, and it was true that items like these would well in hands of someone who could fully appreciate them—someone like me, in this case. I put it to gather dust—in style—in my room, since I had no intentions to sell it without analysing all I could about this seal.

And because my knowledge of seals was poor and improved slowly, that could take a lot of time.

At least my knowledge of combat magic continued to improve. I practiced and practiced, and with Ghost watching over me, trained to borrow immense power of the earth and the sun. The earth was simpler, and much, much weaker compared to the star that warmed it; but the sun was a much more effective weapon against vampires. The pure radiance of it, there were aspects in it that contradicted vampires' cold undead nature so much that just a slight touch of them produced a violent thermal reaction.

In other words, it heated vampire bodies until they burst into flames.

Meanwhile, Prom Queen advanced with her own side of plans, and soon I got time and date for her. Four days after her original offer, I and JJ came to the studio of the show. I did my research of it beforehand, and had to say that while it was one of the popular ones, shown on the one of the most popular channels… it didn't have what I could call a reputation of being credible.

It was a sort of show where people talked about green big-headed aliens who really build the pyramids and buried the Atlantis. On the other hand, I knew that many people took that bullshit seriously.

Besides, it was never late to change one's ways and switch to talking about real mystique.

The studio was a buzz of activity when we arrived, with people so busy running around on their errands that the only one who noticed our arrival was Prom Queen. She met us with a bright smile and even brighter make-up.

"You're here! Just on schedule. Have you read the questions for the interview? There's still some time for edits if you want to change something, but you probably better do that while stylist works on you. Oh, and let me introduce you to the big shot here…" she grabbed my hand to pull me somewhere into the bedlam.

The energy of this place must have been contagious.

I jerked my hand free and walked alongside Prom Queen on my own free will. "Yeah, I read them. You did a good job of removing too provocative stuff if there were any originally. They are fine." As much as I could judge from my standpoint. From JJ's… "But you really focus too much on all that Dracula business."

"Yes. I understand where the fixation on it comes from, and see how it could be helpful to our cause, but can you at least reduce the amount of focus on that matter?" JJ's lips turned into a sour line.

"You should talk with the producer about it… But he was really enthusiastic about that part. Oh, here he is. Dmitriy Hagarov, the producer and the host of the show "Secrets of the World". Dmitriy, these are your today's stars. Diana, Jean-Jacques."

She led us to an office cubicle partially separated from the rest of the studio with three partitions. There, on a swivelling chair, surrounded by haphazardly lying around on U-shaped table stacks of papers, sat a bald man in his forties with a vaguely familiar face.

He rose to greet us with a polite smile, while his sharp eyes inspected our features. "It's good to finally see someone Alyona had been talking about so much. Somewhat disappointing, though. I hoped you'd look a little less human." He gave me an appraising look. "Though you, Diana, fit a classic image of a witch much better than Alyona does. All that black, and with your green eyes."

"Looking human is what hiding is all about, you know."

"It would be poor manners from me to scare your staff with my true appearance," JJ smiled, flashing his fangs.

I saw Dmitriy pale a little, but keep his composure, and knew that JJ lifted his glamour. "Well, that's much better. We'd need to add some white on that skin for the cameras, but the fangs, and the eyes… very good. That face would look stunning close-up. And don't worry about my staff—they were warned, and if they lose their composure, it's on them and what I pay them. But this would be truly sensational… I have to say, it wasn't easy to push this program through the red tape. I wanted to make an episode about that gigantic ball of fire that appeared in our city, and was blocked from high, high above. So much for the freedom of speech. Good thing the block seems to be weakening."

"Your superiors should understand by now that they can't stop that sort of news from spreading. Meanwhile, I have some objections about the questions you and Alyona made for the interview. Particularly," JJ pulled a printout out of his pocket, unfolded it and pointed at a part marked with a pen. It was a big one, "these."

"Questions? Oh, we are an hour and a half away from the shooting. Fine, what don't you like?.. These? But the public would love them. How could you talk about vampires and don't mention Dracula? He's an originator of all vampire culture."

"Too much is too much, Dmitriy. There was an unspoken agreement to keep this show away from gossip and personal questions. Dracula is popular culture for you, but for me he is a part of my personal history, and therefore, gossip. I allow use of some of that to push a better image of vampires onto people, but this—"

"Have good luck here, JJ," I muttered and in a whisper that only he would hear, added, "Just hypnotise him if he turns out to be too stubborn. Who would be able to blame you?"