Perilous Partnership (2 page)

The only way we can avoid a repeat of this terrible war is by addressing the underlying reasons behind it. Serrier was a megalomaniac whose madness cost him his life and his reforms. While we are well rid of him, we must be proactive and seek ways to avoid a recurrence, not only of the war but of the grievances that led to it. Already, I have spoken with the President about revisiting the laws concerning dark magic. Knowledge is never evil. It is how that knowledge is used that determines whether something is good or evil. It is the intent behind a spell that determines whether it is, in fact, dark magic, not the spell itself.

“Finally, as the new head of l‟ANS, I intend to push for an increase in education and outreach services with the intention of avoiding situations like far too many I heard from wizards who sided with Serrier; where young

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wizards, teenagers, often, were persecuted much as the vampires have been because they were different. Magic is not something to be beaten out of children. Nor is it something to be feared. Rather, it is a gift to be nurtured and trained so that it can be used to the benefit of society. Wizard or vampire, werewolf or faerie, the magical races are a part of this world for a reason. We are a part of this country, and it is time everyone recognized that, ourselves included.

“Mesdames et messieurs, thank you for your time and attention. We have a long road ahead of us, but we have taken those first, all-important steps.

Bonsoir.”

The reporters shouted questions after him, but Raymond paid them no attention. He simply walked off the dais, through the wings of the auditorium, and into Jean‟s waiting arms.

“Whatever the future brings,” Jean murmured in Raymond‟s ear, “I‟ll always support your position as head of l‟ANS. In le Jeu des Cours, in Parlement, within l‟ANS, or in the media.”

Raymond‟s joyful laughter echoed off the walls. He had trouble believing how far they had come. Only yesterday, when Marcel had made his announcement to l‟ANS, Raymond had received a standing ovation from the wizards who had fought with the Milice, a show of support Raymond would not have believed possible a few months ago. And he had the vampires—this vampire—to thank for that. He hooked his arm through Jean‟s. “Let‟s go home.”

Perilous Partnership

5

One year later

RAYMOND ducked inside his apartment building, cursing the rain that dripped down the back of his neck despite his ensorcelled coat, which was supposed to protect him from the weather. He really needed a coat with a hood.

Either that, or he needed to adjust the wards on his and Jean‟s apartment to let him displace himself directly inside rather than having to walk through them. He‟d been telling himself to do that for over a year, but something always seemed to take precedence. Like convincing the world he didn‟t have the same megalomaniac tendencies that had possessed Serrier, despite having sided with the dark wizard at the very beginning of the rebellion. He had told Marcel making him head of l‟ANS was a mistake, but Marcel had not listened.

Raymond was glad of that most days. He enjoyed the work, enjoyed the challenges of addressing all the changes brought about by the alliance and the war and the equal rights legislation. He could have done without the bureaucracy, but he figured it was a part of any job, and at least he had the clout to cut through a lot of it. Not as much as Marcel, but far more than he had expected when he agreed to take the job. It helped that no one knew, even now, exactly what to expect from….

“Jean.” The arms around his waist could belong to no other, if only because the wards wouldn‟t let anyone else through without his express permission. He and Jean had debated that point extensively, but in the end, they‟d agreed that making any exception set a precedent for other exceptions, and neither of them could afford to be at risk. Nor did they want people, friend or foe, dropping by at all hours of the day and night. Marcel had maintained a true open-door policy, both at his office and at home, but while Raymond was willing to offer that consideration at work, he had no desire to share the home he and Jean were building with unexpected callers.

“How was your day?” Raymond asked, turning in Jean‟s embrace. They kept the same hours, having adjusted their schedules to allow both wizards and vampires access to their assistance, but they rarely saw each other for more than

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a few minutes while they were working unless they scheduled a meeting. The days of spending their entire shift together had ended with the war.

“Long,” Jean replied, his lips resting against the side of Raymond‟s neck, making the wizard hope Jean would ask to feed tonight. It had been three days, and Raymond still missed the intimacy of the near-constant feeding. He knew it had been a product of the situation, not something they could maintain in the long term. That seemed to make no difference to his need, particularly when their schedules kept Jean from feeding every night.

“Mine too,” Raymond agreed, arms going around Jean‟s slender waist, still amazed even after a year at his lover‟s deceptive appearance. Jean did not look strong enough to hurt a fly. Raymond had watched him throw a grown man across the street without straining. He closed his eyes as he breathed in the spicy scent of Jean‟s cologne, wondering if he dared leave his news until morning. It might not stop Jean from feeding, but it would certainly kill any more romantic thoughts.

Jean sighed, kissing Raymond‟s neck and lifting his head. “We have a problem.”

Raymond echoed his sigh. “I‟m guessing it‟s the same problem that landed on my desk today. Paul Charlot and his partner?”

Jean nodded. “You‟d think all our warnings would keep people from forming partnerships unsupervised, but from what Guillemin told me, neither one is happy with the bond.”

“Merde,” Raymond groaned. “Paul said the same thing. All people need to do is look at Alain and Orlando or Sebastien and Thierry or any of the other partnerships that formed during the war to see there‟s more to the bond than simply protection from daylight and a boost to the wizard‟s power.”

Jean shrugged. “Vampires see the brand on Alain‟s neck and look no further than that for an explanation of Orlando‟s behavior.”

“I‟ll buy that for Orlando and Alain,” Raymond allowed, thinking about the instant attraction and almost equally immediate bond between Jean‟s best friend and Raymond‟s second-in-command. “The Aveu de Sang puts them in a class by themselves, but Thierry doesn‟t have a mark. Mathieu doesn‟t. I don‟t.”

Jean laughed. “You‟re the president of l‟ANS. I‟m chef de la Cour. Thierry is a past master at hiding what he feels behind his mask of strategist, and the others aren‟t nearly as much in the public eye. We see it because we know to look for it and because our ties to the other ex-combatants act as a sort of pass into their confidence. You know what they‟re feeling without having to be told, and so you see the little signs outsiders miss.”

Raymond could see Jean‟s point. He hardly advertised the fact that he came home every night to the bed and arms of the chef de la Cour. People who knew

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them realized it, but a wizard who had spent the war anywhere but in Paris might not. Paul, the wizard who had been waiting for him when he arrived at three o‟clock that afternoon—he worked from three to one in the morning so he would be available to vampires who were still confined by daylight—had not even been a member of l‟ANS during the war, having only come into his magical abilities six months ago. Raymond did not know his partner, Guillemin, to know why the vampire had disregarded all the warnings. Unless the lure of being protected from sunlight by his partner‟s blood was sufficient to override his common sense. “There‟s got to be a better way to deal with this.”

“There is,” Jean reminded him, seeing the concern and frustration on his lover‟s handsome face. He reached up and smoothed the worry lines from the wizard‟s forehead, feeling once again the attraction that had little to do with the short dark hair, strong features, and beautiful body and everything to do with the strength of character that lay beneath the surface. “It just keeps taking second place to everything else we‟re trying to accomplish.”

L‟Institut Marcel Chavinier. Raymond‟s dream and the ultimate tribute to his mentor and the man whose brilliance and courage led to the founding of the alliance and the creation of the partnerships that had won the war and continued to define the lives of so many. “We aren‟t ready to go forward with it yet.”

“Why not?” Jean asked seriously. “What‟s really holding us back?”

Raymond laughed bitterly. “Time? Money? Curriculum? Faculty? The hundred other things requiring our time?”

Jean nodded his understanding. “I‟m not used to being subject to the whims of the Parlement and the rest of the world. I‟ve ruled my own Cour for so long that I‟m used to setting my agenda and ignoring everything else. I know it isn‟t that simple, but we‟ve got two men whose lives have been turned upside down.”

“No more or less than ours were a year ago.” Raymond had not wanted a partner, much less a lover, had fought the bond between them tooth and nail.

Thankfully, he had failed spectacularly.

“No,” Jean agreed, “but we were fighting a war, ready to make sacrifices in order to win. For most of us, the resulting partnerships weren‟t sacrifices at all, but do you really think Adèle wouldn‟t undo her bond if she could?”

“I know she would,” Raymond replied, thinking ruefully of the most heinous case of incompatibility he had witnessed among partners. Paul and Guillemin might not be happy with the far-reaching influences of the bond on their lives, but he doubted it could compare the kind of misery Adèle and her partner Jude had inflicted on each other before the decommissioning of the Milice de Sorcellerie had allowed her to leave Paris and her partner as well. As

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far as he knew, they had not seen each other in over a year. The scholar in him wondered if the bond had broken in that time or if it merely lay dormant, waiting for them to be together again. His own need for Jean had in no way lessened, but they lived in constant proximity and Jean fed from him regularly.

Even when those feedings did not include making love, they were some of the most intimate moments of Raymond‟s life. When Jean did make love to him with his body as well as his fangs, nothing else could compare. “So you think we need to ignore the agenda we‟ve laid out and focus entirely on l‟Institut?”

“I think if we don‟t, we‟re going to have more and more problems like the one we have now, and that isn‟t fair to our people, yours or mine,” Jean clarified. “We‟ve worked hard to establish l‟ANS as a voice for wizards, vampires, and other magical creatures alike. We can‟t afford to lose the faith of our own people because then we‟ll have no credibility with anyone else.”

Jean‟s words made sense, a reminder to Raymond that he did not have to navigate the minefield of public life alone. His partner—his lover—was a past master at le Jeu des Cours, the subtle vampire game of power and position that governed so much of their interactions with each other. As a chef de la Cour, the leader of the vampires, Jean had lived under constant scrutiny since taking on that role in Paris almost four hundred years earlier. If anyone could help Raymond balance all the demands on his time, it would be Jean. “Then the question is how to explain the change in priorities.”

“No, the question is who to leave in charge of other priorities while we focus on l‟Institut,” Jean corrected. “Alain and Orlando can take over some of the legislative work. Thierry would spell us both into next week if we did that to him, but he can do some of the outreach work you‟ve been doing yourself.

He‟s good with people. Let him take over the education campaign. Fabienne can easily handle the complaints that come in, separating out the ones you need to deal with from the ones anyone in l‟ANS can handle. At this point, she probably knows the drill as well as you do.”

Raymond had to admit the truth of that statement. His secretary, a paired vampire, had proven herself a genius at organization, handling the bulk of Raymond‟s correspondence and paperwork with an ease he envied. Being a vampire, she kept him from doing anything that might cause Jean to lose face in le Jeu des Cours and helped explain issues relating to vampire culture. Having a partner gave her an equal sensitivity to wizards and their concerns. Her partner spent his working hours with the task force that maintained the equilibrium of the elemental magic. “I could leave Mathieu in charge of the magical balance.

He already does all the work. He could make the decisions instead of waiting for me to tell him where to focus.”

“That‟s the spirit,” Jean encouraged. “It‟s getting late. Have you had dinner yet?”

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“I had a dinner meeting tonight,” Raymond confirmed with a yawn.

“Then it‟s bedtime,” Jean declared. “We‟ll take tomorrow to look at everything we have going on and decide how to delegate it. By the end of the week, we should be able to devote ourselves completely to l‟Institut.”

Raymond nodded his agreement. “I need a bath first,” he amended. “I couldn‟t get warm today.”