Chapter 202 - Hot Talk

I never found time and/or spare money to throw at beauty salons and such, but letting a professional stylist do things with my face turned out to be a surprisingly relaxing business that made wonder if I should think about visiting a spa salon one day.

When I looked at the mirror by the end of this, I saw myself as someone ready to be shot in a movie about witches at this very instant. Stylist put some lighter tonal cream on my skin, making it look paler than normal, and contrasted that paleness with smoky shadows on my eyelids that made the green in my eyes pop forward and deep red lipstick. It made me wonder what stylists will make out of JJ…

Well, as it turned out, they added nothing new—but they sure pumped all he had up to eleven, to the point where I faltered in my steps when I caught the sight of his face.

It was made paler, almost paper-white, and when surrounded by these shiny golden curls of his, it looked glowing, just like his eyes. Some eyeliner was put on them, but not the "vampire shadow" I've seen on screen sometimes—just enough to bring out the brightness of them. His lips, so kissable and only a shade darker than the rest of his skin, were curved in a slight smile as he studied himself in a mirror.

All the while the rest of the people in the room—stylists, errand workers, and who else found a reason to be around—studied him like enthralled. Couldn't blame them, for more than one reason.

He must've heard me, or just caught my sight in the mirror, because he turned around to look at me before I could call out for him; and then I saw the same jolt I just felt pass through him, too.

"Ma chèrie," he stood up from his chair in a single smooth movement and glided towards me to take my hands in his. "You look even more stunning than usually."

I leaned a little closer, and lowered my voice to say, "And I really want to kiss you right now, but I was told that if I smudge that make-up, I would be killed in a slow and gruesome manner."

JJ hung his head in mock sorrow. "Oh, what a woe! I was told a similar thing." He raised my hand towards his lips but stopped just a breath away from touching it. "We will have to wait for it until the end of the shooting. It will give me something to anticipate while I talk about… Dracula."

"You suffer so much for me. When we finally have our privacy, I will have to thank you for it." I glanced at all the starry-eyed people around and felt the embarrassment of public displays of affection catching up with me. Out of spite for it, I kept my chin high and my hands in my boyfriend's. "Anyway, we better go. Time's ticking and all that. People here seem to be constantly late, and I don't want to catch their illness, too."

⠀⠀

The interview area had a long black leather couch where I and JJ sat (at a respectable distance from each other), and a chair in the same style for our host. A big screen hung on the wall behind us, but right now it projected only a logo of the show.

I knew that whatever would be shot would only be put on air tomorrow, but still had a temptation to say into the camera, "Hey, grandma, grandpa, I'm on TV!". But I held it in, put on a serious and cool face and folded my hands on my knees to prevent any nervous finger-picking.

After an introductory section about how magic was real and blah-blah-blah, two magic people—"supernatural humans", as Dmitriy tolerantly put it—came to the show to share information about them and how they hid amongst human populace for centuries, real questions began.

Dmitriy started with me—the warming-up part, he called it. My part of questions was the easiest despite all the stupid ones like "So you don't take your powers from the Devil despite what legends say?". The hardest were the technical explanations, but I prepared beforehand and kept my answers clear and as dumbed-down as I could. And magic tricks, of course.

"I was told that you are a special even amongst your kind, Diana—an "arch-witch". Can you tell us what's the difference between you and normal witch?" Dmitriy asked the last question for me on the list.

"As I said, there's a limit to a witch's innate talent for magic. Arch-witches are the ones that were born with the pinnacle of that talent… but just like every other witch, we need to study hard for our skills to even approach it. Right now, with the skills I have, I am barely different from any other young witch." I smiled into the camera. Friendly, just like any other girl, witch, person, this who I wanted to appear like.

And stay mum about immortality. It was bad enough that there were vampires promising it with just their existence.

"I see, Diana! This is all very intriguing. But not as much as our second guest. I'm sure that by now all our viewers are dying from curiosity to hear more from you, Jean-Jacques. Is it true that you are not any vampire either, but a famous one amongst your kind?"

"Yes." JJ didn't hide the resignation in his tone. "In my younger age, I earned a moniker Dragonslayer for defeating a powerful and mad vampire who called himself Dragon."

"And here I wanted to ask if dragons really exist, too," Dmitriy joked. "Can you tell me more about this vampire Dragon instead?"

"I could only tell that I never saw one, but there are many mysteries in the world left still, even for me." A fleeting smile graced JJ's lips. "As for Dragon, his deeds—his attempt to rule over Europe—rang through the centuries despite all efforts of other vampires to hide them. Now everyone knows him, or at least what popular culture of today made of him. Dragon, or as he's called in his own tongue, Dracula."