Woman King (39 page)

“That is exactly what I am saying,” Lily
said.

“I doubt a piece of paper from a judge would
make a difference anyway,” I said. “As far as William is concerned,
we are already a couple permanently. The ceremony is a formality
for me.”

Lily ran her finger over the rim of her wine
glass, averting her eyes for a moment. She was anxious to ask me
something.

“Has he asked you to drink his blood?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “He hasn’t
really drank from me either…there were a few nips at Hearst Castle,
but since then nothing. I had been hoping…”

“Olivia, you
want
to drink his blood?”
Lily asked, incredulous. “Once you do that it will be impossible to
separate from him. He’s already tasted you; you will carry his
blood in your veins. You will be linked together and able to
feel
one another’s emotions, share thoughts. It is an
ancient kind of magic that should not be entered into lightly.”

This was the second time in recent weeks that
it was made clear to me that reading a vampire’s thoughts was not
only a skill unheard of in humans, it was also frowned upon. I
wondered what Lily would do if I told her the extent of my
abilities, and then quickly I ruled out doing so. Keeping my own
counsel was becoming ever more important. As much as I wanted to
confide everything to her, I knew now that some things were better
left unsaid.

“I didn’t say I wanted to,” I said
sheepishly. “But I am curious. When we’re together, I feel this
overwhelming hunger to taste him. We both do, and I would be lying
if I didn’t wonder what it would be like.”

“If I were you, I would put off making such a
decision until you’ve spent more time with him,” Lily said.
“There’s no rush.”

True, I thought to myself, uninterested in
drawing out such unhappy issues. Then I maneuvered the conversation
back to more pleasant topics, such as what kind of dress I should
wear for the ceremony, and whether we should visit certain
landmarks. Our time quickly evaporated, and in short order we left
the house to walk to the restaurant.

I hadn’t been back to The Moss Room since the
night I first met Gabriel. The newspapers had posted a story
announcing the restaurant was closing to remodel, and yet somehow
our French host had been able to reserve the entire space for our
private dining pleasure. It was the kind of grandiose gesture he
was known for. Gabriel was unselfish in his lavishness, always
ensuring that others benefitted from the extravagance.

We walked down the staircase into the main
dining room, which had been festooned with dozens of candles and
small vases filled with tulips and peonies. Most of Gabriel’s top
staff people were present, but I did not see Nikola or Zoran in the
crowd.

“
Bonsoir
,” I said, greeting Gabriel
with a traditional kiss on both cheeks. Lily leaned in and gave him
a kiss on one cheek, grasping his hand in one of hers for a gentle
squeeze.

“Good evening, ladies,” he said, as a server
passed by us with a tray of Champagne-filled flutes.

“This all can’t be for one election,” I
remarked, hoping that there was more to celebrate than me.

“Yes, yes of course,” Gabriel said. “We won
many elections across the country. Not as many as we would have
hoped for, but overall our results were positive. This also is to
celebrate you, the first human ever to be employed by the Council,
and for you to meet a few more of the members of the
organization.”

It was a version of the truth, but again, I
knew Gabriel was once again holding something back. Invariably,
these inconsistencies occurred when we were standing amidst a crowd
of people, with no way for me to press further. I hoped that if he
traveled to Paris to see my mother’s show, we would have an
opportunity to talk privately about whatever it was he was hiding
from me.

Not long after I took a glass of Champagne, I
felt William’s presence. I turned as he and Josef descended the
staircase. They wore black suits, narrowly tailored and made, no
doubt, to order. William had paired a black tie against a crisp
white shirt, Josef a silver tie against a shirt of light gray.
Chic, elegant, timeless; they were easily the two most handsome men
in the room, immortal and potentially lethal.

Lily’s warning played in my head, her plea to
delay any efforts to bind myself to him. And yet, as I watched him
tonight, I could think of little else. He looked up at me and
smiled, revealing in his glance that he understood the depths of my
desire. There was no separation between us, no veil of mystery that
new couples enjoy. Perhaps that was why we were so eager to be
married.

Elsa walked in next, followed by Aidan. They
stood side-by-side on the staircase, clearly inseparable. I hugged
Elsa, asking her how she was doing.

“I’m fine, enjoying all of my free time now
that I don’t have to look after you,” she said, with a wink. “Aidan
and I are hoping to leave on a trip shortly to Scotland.”

Another marriage? I wondered, but kept my
thoughts muted.

“I’m hoping to be in Paris in the next week
or so,” I said. “To visit my mother.”

“Your grandmother would be happy to know
that,” Elsa said. “When she was alive, she feared you two would
always be estranged.”

I didn’t reply immediately, suddenly feeling
wistful at the loss of my grandmother. She had acted as a buffer
between my mother and me. Her death had resulted in an almost total
withdrawal from my mother’s life.

“Yes, she would have,” I said thoughtfully.
“She seemed to know a lot about my future; perhaps she saw that one
day we would work through our differences.”

Now it was Elsa’s turn to shade her response.
“She did see your future quite clearly. She loved you a great deal,
and of course, she sent me to help you.”

“Yes, and I will always be grateful, to her
and to you.”

The unsentimental Elsa I’d grown to know
returned.

“I don’t want your gratitude,” she snapped.
“I want you to use your instincts to continue to help people. What
you did for Levi after that video was posted was amazing. There is
no trace of the person I had to pull off the floor so many months
ago.”

“All thanks to you,” I said. “I will never
forget what you did for me, Elsa.”

“You owe me no debt.”

“Maybe not,” I said, “But I hope that one
day, if there is anything I can do for you, that you will ask.”

Elsa nodded. We ended our conversation and
went in search of our dinner companions. As I weaved in and out of
the crowd, Gabriel picked up a knife and tapped it against his
Champagne flute to catch the attention of the guests.

“Everyone, please… If I might have your
attention,” he said, grinning broadly. “We are here tonight to
celebrate a good season for the Council.” Applause filled the room
briefly before he continued. “Our election portfolio was quite
good, winning a little more than half of the U.S. races we chose to
be involved in. And abroad, we helped ensure peaceful elections in
several countries. All in all, it was a victory for democracy, and
for religious and ethnic tolerance.” More applause.

“In addition to our electoral victories, we
successfully managed to integrate someone special into our ranks, a
first for a human associate. I am speaking, of course, of Olivia
Shepherd, our newest campaign specialist,” he said, gesturing in my
direction.

“As you all know, Olivia managed a win in a
congressional race that was a high priority for us, despite a
serious gaffe on the part of someone inside the campaign’s inner
circle. We’re very proud of this historic alliance and look forward
to assigning her even more ambitious projects.”

In the spotlight, I smiled and raised my
glass in salute to Gabriel.

“Thank you,” I said, first to him, and then
pivoted in a circle to thank those who were clapping. Gabriel
beamed, fixing me with a stare for a moment, before informing the
crowd that dinner would begin momentarily.

William was standing at my side, his arm
gently draped across my back. Once my moment was over, I turned to
him to see how he was faring.

“OK, now I can focus on you for the rest of
the evening.”

“Darlin, this is your night to mingle,” he
said. “Besides, we’ll have plenty of time alone in Paris. Do you
know when you want to leave?”

“As soon as possible,” I said. “I need to
check the airfares. I’m sure it’s outrageous unless we book
ahead.”

“Don’t worry about the cost; it’s my treat,”
he said. “Consider it a honeymoon gift. One among many,” he said.
“Just decide when you want to leave.”

“Let’s leave at the end of the week,” I said.
“That gives me a few days to pack and shop.”

“I thought the point of visiting Paris was to
do the shopping there,” he said, pulling a fresh glass off a tray
for me. “Pack light and buy all new things when you’re there.”

I sipped my drink and savored the bubbles as
they ran down my throat. “I guess it’s good to know ahead of time
that my husband has an extravagant side.”

“All vampires are extravagant after a certain
age,” he said. “It makes life bearable.

As the dinner bell rang we moved to take our
seats, searching the tables for our name cards.

“Gabriel could have done the seating at
Versailles,” Aidan said with some exasperation as he passed us in
search of his own chair. “He excels at social management.”

The first course arrived, a mixture of
Vietnamese-inspired rolls, hot and cold, stuffed with combinations
of shrimp, pork, cilantro and cellophane noodles. The rolls were
followed by a series of clay pots that had been simmering for
hours. They were filled with sauces in every color of the rainbow:
yellow curry with potatoes, green curry with shrimp and green
onions, red curry with chicken. Next came bowls of noodles tossed
with Dungeness crab meat. Platters bearing whole steamed sea bass
followed the noodles. It was a feast, paired expertly with sweetly
crisp Rieslings to keep pace with the spicy food on the table. For
dessert,
pot de crème
—chocolate pudding—was offered, but
made the French way with more egg yolks and cream than one person
should eat. It was a decadent, but satisfying, way to end a rich,
spicy meal.

I glanced around the room, watching people
under the sway of good food and wine. Aidan’s remarks about
Versailles struck me as prophetic, for we seemed perfectly suited,
our small band of like-minded comrades, now sated, savoring our
hard-fought victories.

After the luxurious meal, we all walked out
of the Moss Room together, climbing the restaurant’s steps in pairs
and exiting through a steel gate located at what would normally
have been the “backyard” of the Academy of Sciences. In the
evening, the gate is unlocked so that guests can enter the
restaurant when the museum is closed. We walked through the gate
one by one, full of laughter and heady from multiple bottles of
wine. We all walked slowly, lingering in the warmth of a good meal,
made better by good company.

As we approached the street, something shiny
and black caught my eye. I was not the only one; the group turned
its collective head in unison. There, a few hundred feet ahead, sat
a row of black Lexus SUVs. Clearly, Gabriel had arranged yet
another luxury for his guests.

William and I stopped for a moment to admire
the front of the Academy. It was early November, but the museum had
already decorated its façade with Christmas wreaths and red bows.
One of the largest natural history museums in the world, the front
of the building was a mix of old and new, consisting of a set of
massive, glass walls affixed atop the historic stone shell of the
original building, built in the early 1900’s. Steel beams run in a
grid through the glass. The panels create a feeling of
transparency, a fitting metaphor for the goals of an institution
devoted to science and learning. Dozens of solar panels above the
entryway serve as an awning in inclement weather, and provide
electricity to the building.

Aidan was the first to approach his car, a
smile on his face as he regarded Elsa from a distance. For some
reason, she was trailing far behind him, deep in conversation with
Madeline, who’d come late to the meal. Strangely, there was no
driver standing outside his vehicle, or any of them, for that
matter. The absence of drivers should have made us question the
arrangements, but we were too much in the afterglow of our meal to
notice the details.

The moment Aidan opened his door, the car
exploded.

****

The detonation of the first SUV set off a
chain reaction, causing each car to explode and burst into flames,
followed by the next, and then the next. I toppled over, dazed.
Thick, black smoke filled the air around us, making it impossible
to breath. Seared by the intense heat, the steel of the museum’s
façade began to whine as it twisted and bent against the inferno.
The force of the explosions blew out the building’s glass entrance
so that the solar-panel awnings, having nothing further to rest on,
collapsed to the ground.

It all happened so quickly. One minute we’d
been standing together laughing, the next we were trapped—on one
side by a wall of fire, on the other by a cascade of jagged glass
shards falling to earth. There seemed no way to escape. Confused,
disoriented from the deafening noise and blinding smoke, I lay on
the pavement panting, listening to the chaos around me. At one
point, I thought I heard Elsa screaming, but I couldn’t be sure. I
felt the heat of the fire on my skin, but could not see beyond
where I lay.

William, who had been standing next to me,
was gone. I didn’t know when he had vanished and felt a pang of
desperation to find him. The commotion all around me was
disorienting and I had no idea where to look. I needed to move, but
it was impossible to tell what direction to go as the cars
continued to explode, sending pieces of metal everywhere. Finally,
I realized that I had to get up immediately, and find my friends so
we could escape the inferno.