Seer: Thrall (28 page)

Fifteen minutes later, I had beignets cooking in the oil and potatoes and bacon in their respective pans. Everything smelled wonderful, and I had a moment to wonder what Amanda was drawing.

"May I see?"

"Almost," she replied, barely looking up.

A moment later, Cadence moved over slightly until she was looking over Amanda's shoulder. "Amanda!" she shrieked.

"Serves you right for peeking," Amanda said with a chuckle. She turned the drawing around so the rest of us could see it.

She had drawn the center island with the head of garlic on it. The garlic was in the foreground and was drawn with perspective so that it looked oversized. In the background, the three vampires were recoiling, their expressions filled with horror. I immediately began laughing.

Solange, Aubree and Cadence didn't seem to be as amused.

"What are you calling it?" I asked her.

"Achilles’ Heel," she replied. I laughed again.

"My human isn't the only one getting uppity," Solange muttered.

"What are you going to do with it?"

"Oh, probably stuff it in a draw with four thousand other sketches. Did you want it?"

"I'd love it."

"No," said Solange.

"What?"

"You can't hang it, Sidney."

I put my hand on my hip. "Oh?"

"Unless you never want Dolores to visit again. It will raise too many questions."

"Oh." I sighed. "It seems to be a day of weird reactions."

Amanda smiled. "I'll just have to draw something that's safe for ignorant human eyes."

I turned my focus back on cooking, but I was frustrated. My good mood from earlier was gone, almost entirely due to my own ignorance. I hated feeling stupid, but I was feeling incredibly stupid right now. I knew that wasn't entirely a fair reaction, but when are emotions fair?

I ignored the conversation between the four of them. I flipped beignets, rotated bacon, and stirred potatoes. There was still fruit to deal with and no one else was doing it, so I pulled it back to my side of the island and worked on it amongst everything else. That made me even crabbier. I'd only asked them to wash and cut up a few pints of fresh fruit. Did I have to do everything?

Then I made a stupid mistake. With just the paring knife while cutting an apple, I sliced deep into the ball of my left thumb.

"God damn it to hell!" I screamed, dropping everything and rushing to the sink. I turned on the water and hissed as I began cleaning the cut.

Instantly, Solange was there beside me.

"Let me see."

"Leave me alone."

"Sidney, I can heal it."

I was upset, but when she forcibly took my hand, I didn't stop her. She held my hand over the sink and bent over it.

"Did you cut the tendon?"

"I don't think so. It hurts."

"I can pierce a major artery and heal it," she said. "I can heal this if you let me."

I nodded. "Clean it out first."

"It won't infect. You won't even know it was there." She bent further over my hand, wrapping her mouth awkwardly over the cut. She shifted position a little so she could watch my face at the same time, and then she sucked.

A wave of pleasure pulsed through me, and I slumped against the counter, my legs growing weak.

"Oh my god," I said.

Then Aubree was standing behind me, supporting me. Solange sucked again, and it was like she sucked the remaining bones in my legs right out of me. I was held vertical only by Aubree's arms.

Solange sucked heavily twice more before she began bathing the wound with her tongue. A minute or so later, she pulled away from my hand, examined it, and then smiled at me. "All better," she announced.

By then, Cadence had a stool waiting for me. Aubree and Solange helped me onto it. When I looked over, I saw Amanda was dealing with the cooking food.

"Oh my god," I said again. "That was just my hand."

Solange grinned then made a show of blowing on her fingernails and buffing them against her chest. "It was good for me, too," she said.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Ancient vampire secret," she replied.

"Living with a vampire has advantages," Amanda said. "But get your act together fast, because I don't have a clue what I'm supposed to do here."

I slid from the stool, leaning on the counter, and managed to wash my hands and splash some water on my face. Someone had already picked up the knife and apple I had dropped, and I didn't see any spilled blood. After a moment, I made my way over to Amanda, taking over for her. She stepped to the side, grabbed a fresh knife, and dealt with the remaining fruit.

I looked over at Solange. All three vampires were watching the two humans. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said.

Thirty minutes later, the food was demolished, and there were five satisfied faces around the kitchen table.

"I haven't had a beignet in twenty years," Cadence said. "Why ever did we settle up here instead of down in New Orleans?"

"I think Carissa, the Queen of New Orleans, would have had something to say about it," Solange said.

"Wait!" I said. "There are vampire queens? Are you a queen, Solange?" I realized I had asked that before, but I couldn't remember her answer.

"Not hardly," she said. "Some cities are ruled by a single, very powerful vampire. Some of them claim an area well beyond the city where they live. Carissa claims all of Louisiana and Mississippi. Chicago is divided between a queen in the north and a master in the south."

"A master?"

"He could have called himself king or emperor or czar or whatever he wanted, and no one would have argued. Some call themselves kings or queens; some call themselves masters. It all comes down to power and, to a great extent, hubris. But don't repeat that last part to any of them."

"And Minnesota?"

"Counting me, there are six vampires roughly as powerful as I am," she said. "None of us is powerful enough to rule the others. We haven't exactly divided the city so much as share it, but we're also respectful of the areas immediately around each other's homes."

"It's a lot to get used to," Amanda said. "And I, for one, could get used to your cooking. Not that I'm hinting or anything." She smiled.

"Maybe with a little less drama next time," I said. "All right, if you want dessert, Solange is responsible for sharing her ice cream." I climbed to my feet and began clearing.

Ten minutes later found us in the library with a card table set up and five chairs set around it. I took a corner seat and would sit out for the first two games, then we could rotate in. Solange partnered with Amanda, and Aubree with Cadence. Cadence picked up the game easily, but it was clear Amanda would never be more than an indifferent player. I ended up moving next to her and helping her. She nearly misplayed a few times, and I had to stop her.

"I'm so bad at this," she said. "I'm a good artist, and I'm really good at spending Cadence's money. I'm not sure I'm good for more than that."

"You are extremely good at making me feel deeply loved," Cadenced countered. "You have turned our house into a fabulous home. You give me a reason to come home from work every night. You plan amazing vacations for us, even when we aren't even going anywhere. You keep me sane and remind me of my humanity. Amanda, you are perfect, and I wish you could only see yourself the way I see you."

Amanda reached out a hand, and the two clasped, gazing lovingly at each other.

"All these years, and you still look at each other like that," I observed.

"It takes work." Amanda said, not taking her eyes off her partner. "I'm an artist, with all that implies about being emotionally sensitive. Cadence is a vampire lawyer, with all that implies."

"She softens me," Cadence said.

"And she supports me," Amanda added. "And she may not know the right thing to say when I'm upset, but she knows the right thing to
do
."

"I hold her," Cadence said. "That's all."

"And you hold me just the way I need to be held," Amanda said. She turned to me and grinned. "If it's a really bad day, she bites."

I smiled. "What about fights?"

"We don't fight," Amanda said. "We haven't had a fight in..." She turned to Cadence. "What year was it?"

"I forgot our anniversary," Cadence said. "I left her a message on our answering machine that I would be out of town for three days."

"Answering machine? People still have those?"

"I believe that is our point," Amanda said. "It was our twentieth," she said. "I was not happy."

"It took me a week after I got back to figure out why she wasn't talking to me," Cadence said.

"She started to buy me things to try to get me to forgive her," Amanda explained. "I wasn't impressed, although I had to admit: the new car was a good try."

"You forgave her eventually," I observed.

"I had to intervene," Solange said. "I had Aubree pick up Amanda from home and sat them down at the conference table at work. I asked Amanda if she wanted a divorce."

"I started to cry."

"So did I," Cadence said. "It was the first time I cried since I learned my mother had died."

"That put some perspective on the spat," Solange said. "I admitted I had forgotten as well, and accepted some of the blame for sending Cadence out of town. Then I asked Amanda if she intended to forgive her wife."

"We weren't technically married," Amanda said. She smiled. "We are now." She held up her hand to show her ring. "Of course I was going to forgive her. All I wanted were some flowers and a hug, and a promise to take me somewhere when the work emergency was over."

"I offered Paris," Cadence said.

"I told her a cabin up north would be perfect."

"We spent a week making love," Cadence added.

"I lost track of how many times she bit me." Amanda sighed. "That was a great week. Speaking of great weeks, I want to go somewhere cold with a fireplace for New Year's Eve and the week leading up to it."

Cadence laughed.

"Wow," I said. "That's amazing."

Amanda turned to me. "Aubree told us about your card club. I'd love to come, but I don't want to play unless you really need me to. She told us about the booby prize, and I don't want to win it every month. But Cadence would like to play, and I could come for moral support."

"You might have to play some months," I said. "And when we're here more casually." I turned to Solange. "Oops. I'm offering your house."

"Our house," she said.

"Your employee."

"Our friends," she corrected with a smile.

"Our friends," I agreed. "Thank you."

At the break, Solange offered to swap out for me, but Amanda said, "I'm happy to be here, but I'd rather draw than play."

I felt bad about that. I'd invited her to do something I thought she'd enjoy, and she didn't like it. Cadence noticed my reaction and said, "You can take her at face value. She would rather draw than do almost anything else. She's happy to be here. She's happy to have friends. But she can be here and have friends while she still has a pad in her hand."

And so when we all sat down again, I found myself across from Cadence. Four of us played cards, and to the side, Amanda sat with her sketchpad and pencils. All five of us were intent on what we were doing, and conversation was light and sporadic.

During one of the deals, I turned to look at Amanda. She caught my motion and lowered her pad.

"Do you sell your art?"

She nodded. "There are a couple of galleries around town that sell my originals, and I have a web site where I sell prints. I also take commissions."

"She is very professional about it," Cadence said.

Amanda explained further. "Cadence hired someone to do the web site, and she knows not to let me go near the bookkeeping. We have a woman who comes once a week to do all our shipping, and someone from Casper Accounting handles the books." She smiled. "I get to focus on my art. I couldn't be happier."

"So you work at this professionally, and you come to a party, and you're still drawing?"

"I can't help it. I see things, and I just have to capture it, like the drawing earlier. It's how I express myself."

Then she turned her pad around to show us. She had drawn me. We were clearly mid-hand, as I was holding five cards, and there were more cards stacked in the zigzag pattern I used to track the tricks I'd taken. I had an intent look, and my right hand was up, hovering over my own hand with my pinkie finger pointing towards Solange on my left.

I knew immediately what I was doing. I was counting cards, trying to remember exactly who had played what.

"That's amazing," I said.

"Cadence," Solange said immediately, "When she is done, I wish to purchase that, matted and framed. If it's for sale."

"It's just a sketch," Amanda said. "You may have it, if Sidney doesn't mind."