I always feel my endings are a little weak.  So for this story I started with the final line and worked back.

Sadly, the couple of people I have shown this to completely missed the point of the last line

And so I present to you another in the 'Spirits Served Here' series...

It was in the small hours when Ferenc breezed into the bar. It was too late for those who had things to do in the morning. There were the few die-hards who never seemed to have a home to go to, but they were too far into their cups to take much notice. This was what Ferenc liked about the bar at this time of night.

Ferenc was unpopular, which I always thought was a shame. He was always polite, quiet and too proud to ask for credit – a barman’s dream. But what could you do? Even though he had been on the wagon for as long as I’d known him, people just didn’t like vampires.

Normally he took his drink over to a corner, but tonight he seemed livelier than normal, if ‘livelier’ could ever be applied to the undead. Tonight, to my surprise, he sat down at the bar.

"Good evening, sir. A Bloody Mary, please." He said in his quiet, clipped accent

Ferenc was the only person who had ever called me ‘sir’. From anyone else it would have sounded like sarcasm.

I took a pint of O Rh- from the fridge and poured it out for him.

"You’ve not been spending your money at my competitors’, have you, Ferenc?" I asked with a smile.

"Sorry? Why would I do that, my friend?"

I pointed to the front of his dress shirt. A small red blotch marred his normally immaculate evening dress. He looked surprised, dabbed it with the tip of a long finger and held it to his nose. He sniffed delicately, touched it with the tip of his tongue, then grimaced.

"Just wine, sir, just wine. Why would I drink at your competitors? Where else would I enjoy such delightful company?"

I shot him a look, but he seemed genuine. I looked around at the ‘delightful’ company. As long as they paid for their drinks, I guess I could find them delightful.

He lifted the glass to his lips and took a long draught. "That’s better. Even the smell of wine can make me feel queasy sometimes."

Now, part of my success, or at least my survival, was my ability to listen to whatever anyone said, but never ask any questions beyond "Do you want ice with that?" But it was a slow night, Ferenc seemed to want to talk and, odd as it might sound, I felt safer with Ferenc than some of my more ‘respectable’ customers.

"So how come you’ve got wine on your shirt? You’re normally so dapper"

"Thank you. We are a proud people. I like to look presentable. It is a tradition. Life changes so much, nowadays. Sometimes tradition is important, an anchor, yes?

"That was the downfall of so many of us, of course. Back in the old country we were as traditional as … the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We had a role that was unchanged for centuries. Do you know why so many of us were nobility? Those days were such eventful times. Every thug with a brick-built house wanted to be a king. We were useful when neighbours wanted to invade. The Turks…" And here Ferenc took another draft, as if the taste of word was as unpleasant as the wine. "They would have ruled middle Europe if it wasn’t for the support we gave the royal families. The Turks feared us more than the armies.

"And so we were given titles, land. But with power comes responsibility. We employed local people as servants and staff, people who would otherwise have scratched a living on the land. A good job. Families were so proud when their sons and daughters earned a position in our houses. And the young ladies…". He smiled as he gazed into the distance. "Ah, the power, the danger, the exotic novelty they felt. Forget what Hollywood tells you. We had no need to sneak in through bedroom windows.

"And when those for whom a doctor could do no more needed release, we were there. To give them rest with compassion, with dignity. Our duty. Our payment to society.

"But that all changed. People grew jealous, resentful. The old passed away, and the new no longer wanted us. They turned against us. So many of us could not change. We did not see what was happening. We thought the times were as unchanging as we were."

Ferenc looked into his glass, as though he could see again those times in his drink

"But the wine?" I prompted.

"Ah, yes. Forgive me. I have allowed myself to indulge one of my hobbyhorses.

"I determined not to be one of the dinosaurs. I rejected the country that rejected me and moved away. New times, I decided, deserve new ways. It was very hard. There are still some of us who try to live the old way." He grimaced, and shook his head. "Stealing blood! Who would have thought that a vampire could sink so low as to take blood from someone who was unwilling?

"For the past few months I have been working at Le Pomme d’Or. You know of it? The restaurant over the West Side? Very posh. Very, very exclusive. They wanted a maitre d’ to fit into their image. Sophisticated, cultured, someone who knew the rules of etiquette. In short, they wanted snob appeal." He chuckled wryly.

"It’s a job. It pays the rent. But the clientele…" He shook his head again. "They would not know etiquette if the soup spoon had a label on it. They are all film stars" he spat, scathingly. "Media executives. ‘Something in the city’.

"So yesterday it was a bit of a surprise. A young lady and her beau arrived for dinner. He was the usual sort, but her… I could tell straight off that she was something special. And her face was familiar. All evening I tried to place it.

"It was only after the argument that I realised who she was. What the argument was about I do not know, but it ended when she stood and ordered him to leave. She did it with such authority, as though she had been in command all her life, that he was halfway to the door before he realised it. And after he had gone she sat there so proud, so straight, so passionate. Then I recognised her."

He took a drink and stared into the distance.

"And…?" I prompted.

"She was Serafina. No? You do not know her? But she is often in the social pages of your newspapers."

With a sweep of my arm I invited him to examine the famous celebrities, the luxurious settings, the paparazzi and the dripping sarcasm of the barkeep. "Does it look as though I need to follow the gossip pages, Ferenc?"

"You’ve heard of the Hyde Park faeries?" he explained. "One of the old families. The times have been hard to them, as it was to us. Once they enchanted an entire forest. Still, they’ve fared better than most. No flitting from window box to window box for them." He smiled. "And they know which wine to order.

"Well, Serafina is one of the daughters of the King. She likes to mix with mortals who work their own brand of magic. Actors, writers, artists." He waved his hand dismissively. I got the distinct impression that Ferenc didn’t approve.

"So there she was, on her own. The anger in her radiating, so hot, so fierce, I thought the candle would melt. The force of it made her tremble. No, vibrate. I was afraid she would explode. I don’t know, but I would not bet on that young man having anything but bad luck from now on, if you catch my drift. Or maybe knowing he had angered her, maybe that was punishment enough? Young men can be so… sensitive when it comes to losing a young lady. Especially such a magical young lady.

"Eventually the waiter presented her with the bill. I could see she was at a loss. It was probably the first time she had been in a restaurant where she had been asked to pay the bill. She looked at it as though it was a proclamation of doom from the Oracle itself.

"So I went over to her. "Madam, there is a problem?"

"No", she said, and sat there, looking straight ahead, defiantly. Oh, she was magnificent. I stood there, admiring her. I am an old man, I know, but I am not yet blind." He chuckled, and glanced at me with an embarrassed grin.

"So, after a minute or so, she waved her hand. "You may go", she said, as though I were a servant. I, who once ruled a fiefdom 100 times the size of her little park. I am ashamed to say that I resolved then to make a point. And I enjoyed it a little too", he added with another chuckle.

"’How will madam be paying?’ I asked.

"’The usual way’, she replied, still looking ahead. You must admire her, no?

"’ Would that be cash or credit card’, I asked. ‘Or perhaps madam would prefer gold?’"

This time Ferenc giggled, failing to suppress his delight. "You should have seen her reaction. Her head whipped round, and for the first time she saw me. For a moment I was just a waiter, another mortal to play moth to her candle. The she saw. She saw who I was." He took a drink, and for a moment his spirits seemed to fall. "What I was.

"And in her eyes I saw a flicker of something else. There was still the anger, the pride. But also, something altogether more… vulnerable. And for a moment I felt something I had not felt for a long, long time."

"Pity?" I ventured.

"No." He shook his head. "Affinity. For a moment I knew exactly what she felt. You realise how demeaning, how difficult it is to ask for a job? I, who had land, who had a certain standing in the community? And such a job!"

He shrugged. "So I relented. ‘Your highness’, I said, observing the correct protocol. ‘Your highness, I am familiar with your family, and I am sure that your father will make good the bill.’

"Perhaps what I did was the cruellest of all. For her to take charity from the likes of me, well, it must have been hard. Still, there was something there. Not gratitude, of course. Not for my kind. But something. Acknowledgement that perhaps we shared a common code of manners.

"Anyway, she left. I had a word with the management. It was all smoothed over. Tonight there was a young man at the restaurant. This time I was expecting him. I could recognise the signs. He gave me a package, and told me to keep the change as an acknowledgement of the debt." Here he looked a little regretful. "As close as a thank you as I could expect, I suppose.

"I opened it, and do you know what was there? Gold! More, much more than was necessary to cover her debt"

"Erm… Ference, " I started.

He waved his hands dismissively. "Oh, I know all about faery gold disappearing with the sun. Hence the wine. I was in such a hurry this evening I must have spilt some in opening a bottle. I had to offload it before dawn. After work I went to the 24-hour pawn shop two streets down. You know it?"

I feigned ignorance.

"So tonight I am… what is the word? Flush? Tonight I am very flush. I think that I can easily stretch to another Bloody Mary. And please, sir, join me in a drink yourself. It would be my pleasure. After all, they are right in what they say:

"Faerie’s change is no robbery."