Perilous Partnership (26 page)

They crossed the threshold into the tiny café, every head turning at the sight of unfamiliar faces darkening their doorway. “Can I help you?” the man behind the bar asked.

“I‟m Raymond Payet,” Raymond said. “I bought the abbey outside of town.

I thought it was time I came by to say hello.”

“Monsieur Payet, I‟m Claude Papot, the mayor of Dommartin,” a portly gentleman said, rising and offering his hand. “Jacques, a drink for monsieur Payet and his friend. I‟m sorry, I didn‟t catch your name.”

“Jean Bellaiche,” Jean said, “an associate of monsieur Payet.”

“My partner,” Raymond corrected. “We‟re working together to refurbish the abbey. We were hoping you would have a few minutes to talk with us. We wanted to share our plans with you and get your thoughts on ways we could be good neighbors.”

“Please join us,” monsieur Papot said. “You‟re looking at the city council, and this is about as formal as our meetings get. Jacques will get you something to drink.”

“An espresso for me.”

“Monsieur Bellaiche?”

“Nothing for me,” Jean said with a shake of his head. “I appreciate the offer, but my needs are… particular.”

The barman looked like he was about to take offense, so Raymond leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “Monsieur Bellaiche is the leader of the vampires in Paris. He is quite limited in his diet.”

The barman subsided, but the city council looked like they were ready to flee. “You needn‟t worry. He is a most civilized man,” Raymond added, drawing up a chair and joining the town fathers.

“So what exactly are your plans for the old abbey?” monsieur Papot asked, looking far less at ease than he had before. Raymond was tempted to kick Jean beneath the table, but it would change nothing now.

“We intend to turn it into a research and educational institute,” Raymond explained. “We will be studying the interactions between wizards and vampires that allowed us to win l‟émeutte des Sorciers, and we will be preparing wizards and vampires for future situations in which those interactions could be useful.”

“Will the vampires need to come into town frequently?” one of the council members asked warily.

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“They aren‟t children, so we won‟t be restricting them to campus or anything like that,” Raymond said, inwardly shaking his head at the ignorance of some people, “but the wizards can, of course, take themselves wherever they want if they need to leave l‟Institut for a few hours, and our intention is to either take the vampires into Paris when they need to feed or else arrange for willing company to come to them.”

“We were actually looking into the possibility of buying or renting another piece of property,” Jean interrupted. “One of my associates in Paris runs a restaurant for vampires and was considering opening a branch here for l‟Institut.”

“H-how do you have a restaurant for vampires?” monsieur Papot asked.

“It isn‟t a restaurant in the traditional sense,” Raymond said with a quelling stare for Jean. “Madame Bouaddi employs a certain number of people who are willing to be blood donors for the vampires. The vampires come in, pick the person they would like to feed from, pay for their meal, and leave. The employees are paid for their time, just like the waitstaff at a restaurant. They‟re just on the menu instead.”

“So there would be this… flesh-house as well as your institute moving to town?”

“If you would prefer, we can send the vampires into town to hunt on their own,” Jean snapped. “Madame Bouaddi has been in this business for over a century. She takes good care of her employees and makes sure nothing untoward happens. No one will be hurt or corrupted by having a branch of Sang Froid in town.”

This time, Raymond did slide a hand beneath the table and put it on Jean‟s leg, rubbing soothingly. Jean glared at him but subsided somewhat. “As I‟m sure you‟re aware,” Raymond said, “the Parlement passed a hard-fought law in favor of the vampires a year ago. My partner gets frustrated still having to fight old battles. Now, as I was saying, we have already started renovations at the abbey and hope to have the first group of attendees for our seminars come through in early January. Our intention is to hire locally for all positions that can be filled by non-wizards or -vampires. Should we post Help Wanted signs here in the café or at the préfecture or both?”

“What kind of jobs are you talking about?” monsieur Papot asked.

“We‟ll need cooks, maintenance staff, custodial staff,” Raymond said, ticking off each item on his fingers. “We may need grounds staff once the seasons change and we see what kind of garden the abbey has. There will probably be some administrative positions as well, to oversee deliveries and keep records of expenses, that sort of thing.”

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“You could employ half the town with that,” monsieur Papot marveled, “and that‟s counting everyone, not just the ones who are of age to work.”

“We intend to be good neighbors,” Raymond repeated. “We‟re a non-profit agency, so we won‟t have a taxable income at l‟Institut, but we will put a decent amount of money into the local economy in terms of salaries and purchases we make if the town can supply those needs.”

When monsieur Papot looked at the city council, Raymond swore he could see the man already counting the money. “I‟m sure we can find a way to accommodate your needs. Perhaps you could put together a list of the kinds of supplies you expect to order on a regular basis so we can see where you can acquire those things in the area? That way, the next time we meet, we could have some clearer answers for you.”

Raymond smiled and rose from the table, downing his espresso in one long swallow. “I‟ll have my assistant get you a list. It‟s been a pleasure, gentlemen.

We look forward to doing business with you.”

Jean rose at Raymond‟s side and followed him silently out into the darkening evening. “Mercenary,” he muttered under his breath.

“At least they‟ll be predictable,” Raymond said. “If money is what gets their attention, we now know how to gain their cooperation for future endeavors as well. Sang Froid will have an income, which will put taxes directly into the city coffers. They may make disapproving noises, but they won‟t make trouble. Now, I need to stop by the restaurant, and then we can go home.”

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WHEN they returned to l‟ANS headquarters an hour later, a deep frown marred Fabienne‟s face. “You have a guest,” she said, her voice pinched with displeasure. “I tried telling him I didn‟t know when you would be back, but he insisted he would wait for you.”

“Who is it?” Raymond asked, trying to think who would elicit such a strong reaction from Fabienne.

“Jude Leighton.”

Raymond rolled his eyes. “After dealing with the honorable city council of Dommartin, I‟ve had my fill of ignorant idiots for one night.”

“You can go work elsewhere and hope he leaves,” Fabienne said.

“We could, but he‟ll just keep coming back, and in a worse mood tomorrow because we didn‟t see him tonight,” Jean said. “It‟s easier just to deal with him now and send him on his way again.”

“What could he possibly want?”

Jean shrugged. “I‟m sure he‟ll tell us.”

They opened the door and walked into Raymond‟s office.

“What‟s the point of having office hours if you aren‟t available during them?” Jude challenged the moment the door closed behind him.

“We don‟t keep office hours,” Raymond said smoothly. “We keep working hours. Not all of our projects can be completed sitting behind a desk. I‟m sure you didn‟t come here to upbraid us over our presence or absence from our offices. Did you need something in particular, or was this purely a social call?”

Jean smothered a smile. Leighton rubbed him the wrong way, but Raymond was handling the vampire like an expert at le Jeu des Cours. That subtle condescension was guaranteed to send Leighton through the roof, giving Raymond a firm victory.

“I want to know where Adèle is,” Jude demanded. “You‟ve hidden her for a year now. You‟re starting this Institut whatever you call it to match vampires with their partners, as they should be, but you‟re denying me access to mine.”

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“First of all,” Jean said, taking the reins of the conversation for the moment, “we aren‟t trying to match anyone with anyone. We‟re trying to educate everyone so that if people choose to form a partnership, they can do so fully aware of the benefits and risks associated with it, something none of us had.

Secondly, we haven‟t denied you anything since Marcel lifted the Ordre de restriction against you.”

“If you hadn‟t treated Adèle so poorly, maybe she wouldn‟t have chosen to disappear at the end of the war to get away from you,” Raymond added. “She doesn‟t want to see you, and as far as I‟m concerned, that‟s far more important than your unreasonable demands. Having a partner is not a right, and feeding from your partner after you have one is even less so. You limited your options when you chose to maul her every time you fed from her even when you knew she didn‟t want it.”

“She wanted it,” Jude insisted. “I was feeding from her, remember? I know what she felt, little slut that she is.”

“And that attitude is exactly why she returned to the country instead of staying here,” Raymond said, opening the door. “We can‟t help you, monsieur Leighton. If you want to mend your fences with your partner, you‟re on your own.”

Jude glared at both men as he exited the office, adding another in Fabienne‟s direction as he passed.

“Jean,” Fabienne began when Leighton was gone.

“I know,” Jean said. “I need to do something about him. The problem is that he‟s an obnoxious bastard who rubs everyone the wrong way, but he hasn‟t actually done anything wrong under vampire law. If Adèle would speak against him, we might be able to do something under French law, but she hasn‟t been willing to do that.”

“She won‟t do it,” Raymond agreed. “She is all too aware of being a woman in a man‟s profession, and she has a very strongly ingrained sense of needing to take care of things herself. Jude would have to hurt her so badly and so visibly that her colleagues started to pressure her to press charges before she would even think of doing it. And honestly, even then I‟m not sure she would want the private details of their interactions made public.”

“Was he really that bad during the war?” Fabienne asked.

“She didn‟t share details,” Raymond said, “but when the wild magic broke loose, she showed us some of the marks he left on her, and she looked like she‟d been savaged. And two days later, at the Piège-Pouvoir, he wouldn‟t stop touching her, even when she told him to and when doing so caused her control of her magic to waver. He thinks she‟s his chattel, from what I can tell.

Needless to say, she disagrees.”

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“So she‟s hidden herself away out near l‟Institut in hope of avoiding him,”

Jean finished.

“She has a home there and did before the war,” Raymond disagreed. “The speed of her return had something to do with Leighton, but I think she would have returned anyway. Her job was there, her home, her friends. It was always a point of pride for her that she went away to be educated and came back to her hometown to work. You saw Dommartin. Her hometown is a somewhat larger, maybe two thousand people instead of two hundred, but it‟s still a small town in rural Burgundy.”

In the hallway, Leighton slunk away on silent feet. He had heard enough to begin his search. One way or another, he would reclaim what was rightfully his.

“I can‟t imagine living in a town that small,” Fabienne said with a shudder.

“We couldn‟t live in a town that small,” Jean agreed. “We need the anonymity of a city to survive.”

“You could live there now,” Raymond said. “The anti-discrimination laws would keep you from being run off.”

“But that wouldn‟t keep ignorance and disdain from making it impossible to find someone willing to let us feed,” Fabienne countered. “We‟d starve to death in a matter of weeks. There‟s a reason there‟s no Cour in that little town of yours.”

“Prejudice is a terrible thing,” Raymond agreed. “I suppose we need to get back to work.”

Fabienne laughed. “Your inbox is fuller now than when you left.”

Raymond sighed. “No rest for the wicked, I suppose.”

Jean grinned at him and winked over Fabienne‟s head. “None whatsoever,”

he agreed. “I‟m going to see if there‟s anything urgent I need to take care of. If there‟s not, I‟ll come back and help you.”

Raymond grinned all the way back into his office. He knew exactly how much work he would get done if Jean joined him.

A LITTLE over a week later, Magali pulled her car off the narrow road onto the long driveway down to l‟Institut. “This is going to be quite the complex when it‟s finished,” she observed to the vampire sitting next to her.

“As long as it lives up to its promises where the research is concerned, it can be as grand or as simple as Payet desires,” Luc replied.

Magali rolled her eyes. Her partner was such a vampire. He treated her with courtesy and respect and insisted everyone else do the same, but his priorities

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had been in no way affected by her intrusion into his life. She might be his partner and sole source of sustenance, but he still cared nothing for mortals as a whole aside from their liaison. In fact, she often thought he cared even less than before because he no longer had to worry about finding a willing donor when he was hungry. She could not complain too much, though. He had helped her get settled in Amiens, making room for her in his life and accepting her inability to fall asleep with anyone in bed next to her. He came to her room more days than not to feed, but when they were both sated, he left her in peace to rest.