Perilous Partnership (46 page)

Raymond‟s good hand stroked through Jean‟s hair. “I‟m harder to lose than that.” He took a deep breath. “I did a lot of thinking while we were apart. We have some things to talk about.”

“We‟ll talk,” Jean promised, “as soon as you‟re well.”

Raymond glanced down at the cast on his arm. “That‟s not likely to be for some time. My body aches in places I didn‟t know I had, but there‟s nothing wrong with my mind.”

“You‟re making jokes, but we don‟t know that,” Jean insisted. “You had brain surgery!”

“I didn‟t have brain surgery; they just let out a little blood,” Raymond countered. “I‟m fine.”

Jean did not look convinced.

“If you don‟t want to talk, then just listen,” Raymond said. “I had coffee with Alain the day I got back from La Réunion. He cleared up some things for me, some things I didn‟t understand about what it means to have an Aveu de Sang. I… I overreacted when you asked me about it because I was scared of how I thought it would change me.”

“Why didn‟t you just ask me?” Jean asked.

“Because you couldn‟t know the answers any more than I did,” Raymond explained. “You may know about it in theory, but you‟ve never lived it, on either side of the relationship.”

“The magic of the bond only works once,” Jean said automatically. “If I‟d already lived it before, I wouldn‟t be able to share it with you.”

“See? You couldn‟t have answered my questions either. Alain could, and he did,” Raymond said. “I probably would have asked you about my fears in time, but I‟m not sure I would have ever been completely confident of the answers. With Alain, I am, because I see the truth of his relationship with

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Orlando every time I see them together. I just needed Alain to remind me of that fact.”

“So what are you saying?” Jean asked.

Raymond smiled. “That it would be my great honor and pleasure to be your Avoué, just as soon as they let me out of here.”

His face sobered. “It will have to be our secret still. Well, other than Alain and Orlando, who are on to us. I did a lot of thinking while we were apart, not just about the Aveu de Sang. When this all blows over with the attacks and things have settled down, I‟m going to resign as president of l‟ANS. Once that‟s done and a seemly time has passed, if you want to tell others, that‟s fine with me. If you still want me, that is.”

“If I still want you?” Jean echoed, incredulous. “I‟ve been going crazy the past few hours, sure you were dead or dying or hurt so badly you‟d never wake up. Yes, I still want you.”

“Then kiss me for now and promise you‟ll mark me as soon as we get home,” Raymond requested.

“I promise.”

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“IT‟S finished,” Alain said as he came into Raymond‟s hospital room two days later. “Adèle brought Marguerite in and questioned her. It didn‟t take long before it all came out.”

“What did she say?” Raymond asked.

“I wasn‟t there, but apparently she was a sleeper, one of Serrier‟s sympathizers who had stayed silent during the war but agreed with his ideas of magical superiority and keeping the magical races separate,” Alain explained.

“When she heard about l‟Institut, she saw it as her chance to stop something so totally against her beliefs. The protests, the graffiti, the fire, and the cave-in that landed you here… she bragged about them all under Adèle‟s questioning.”

“How could she have hidden all of that vitriol so completely during the seminar?” Orlando asked. “I wasn‟t there the whole time, but I never saw anything to suggest she was capable of this kind of violence.”

“She‟s a trained police officer with a fair amount of investigative experience,” Alain reminded them. “Not to mention she would have had to perfect the art of hiding her sympathies on the job during the war. She didn‟t want to do anything to draw attention to herself because she didn‟t want to be a suspect when she started implementing her plan.”

“So what happens to her now?” Jean asked.

“She‟s been charged with a variety of things, including voluntary homicide without premeditation because of Leighton being there at l‟Institut and not surviving the blast,” Alain said. “That seemed to be the only part that bothered her. She set the fire and the spell when l‟Institut, or at least those parts of l‟Institut, should have been empty so no one would be hurt.”

“That isn‟t any consolation for Adèle,” Raymond said.

“Honestly, I think all Adèle feels is relief,” Orlando replied, “but it doesn‟t change the fact that Marguerite ended Jude‟s existence. Her trial will be sometime in the next few months. Adèle didn‟t know how long the pre-trial phase would last, although with Marguerite‟s confession, she said it would be a pretty cut-and-dried case.”

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“That wasn‟t the only interesting development either,” Alain said. “We had another visitor last night, a vampire by the name of Denis Langlois.”

Jean shook his head. “The name isn‟t familiar.”

“It will be,” Orlando said. “He is apparently the new chef de la Cour in Autun. Enough of the vampires there seemed to feel Renaud‟s leadership no longer represented their best interest. He‟s been replaced.”

Raymond looked at Jean in surprise. “Is that done?”

“Not often because, as I‟m sure you can guess, Renaud wouldn‟t have gone easily,” Jean said. “I took my Cour when monsieur Lombard retired, but even with him naming me his successor, I had to fight to keep my position. It hasn‟t happened recently, thank goodness, but in theory, it could happen at any time.

We‟ll want to take a trip to Autun when you‟re well enough. Langlois came to us first, even if we weren‟t there to meet him. We should return the favor.”

“We can certainly do that,” Raymond said. “I‟d rather have a positive relationship with our neighbors than the tension we had with Renaud.” He would keep his eyes open, though, to make sure Renaud did not try to retaliate against Jean for his loss of position and status.

“So how long until they spring you?” Alain asked Raymond.

“Constance won‟t say,” Jean replied. “„A few more days‟ is her standard answer.”

“Have you been home?” Orlando asked Jean.

“No. Raymond is here. I can use the shower, and his magic works on my clothes if I‟m not in them,” Jean replied.

Alain and Orlando snickered. Jean sent them a quelling look, which only made them laugh harder.

“Does your magic feel normal?” Alain asked when he stopped laughing.

“I don‟t have as much control,” Raymond admitted. “I can do almost no wandless magic. Thierry brought my wand yesterday, and things have been better since then.”

“Does Constance have any thoughts about that?”

“Only that the damage was to the area that would influence magical control. She says as I heal it will get better. I learned to do wandless magic once. I can learn to do it again if I have to. I‟ll give it another few days and then I‟m checking myself out. As insistent as Jean is about how much I do, it won‟t be any different at home than being here except I won‟t have nurses poking at me every few hours.”

Alain laughed, biting back his comment about Jean poking at him instead.

“You‟ve got an over-protective partner too?”

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“I‟m not
over
-protective,” Orlando replied, “just protective.”

“What he said,” Jean replied with a grin for Raymond. He leaned closer. “I have some promises to keep, and they require you being well enough to go home.”

Raymond smiled tenderly at him before turning back to Alain and Orlando.

“I‟m going to resign as president of l‟ANS. Not today or tomorrow, but as soon as I‟m well enough and presentable enough to make the announcement. Would you ask Fabienne to start getting things ready for a candidate search? You and Thierry can help her with the requirements for the applicants, but I think that either having a partner or completing the seminar at l‟Institut and agreeing to continue looking for a partner should be non-negotiable. We have too much at stake to have someone like Marguerite slip through and try to take over.”

“We‟ll tell her,” Alain promised. “And while I don‟t think it will be too long before Thierry decides he‟d rather be at l‟Institut than at l‟ANS, Orlando and I have already decided to stick around and make sure things keep going the way they should. Like you said, it‟s too important not to have someone keeping an eye on everything.”

“You really think Thierry will want to come out to l‟Institut?” Raymond asked, surprised. “But I thought they‟d just bought a new apartment and….”

“Yes, I really think he will,” Alain said. “He‟s flourished being out there, working on the repairs. Think about how you feel when you‟ve spent the day doing a magical rite where you‟ve worked intensively with water. You know that sense of balance that comes from it. You‟ve given Thierry an entire complex of earth to play in and rebuild. He‟s in his element, no pun intended, and he positively glows with it. He‟ll stay at l‟ANS out of loyalty to the institution and to you long enough to help the new president get settled in, but within six months, he‟ll be out there, offering to help with research in exchange for a place to stay so he and Sebastien can keep working on the repairs.”

“You two are always welcome out there as well,” Raymond said. “You don‟t need a reason or an invitation. I….” He looked at Jean helplessly. “I‟ve never had friends, not really, until this past year, and I don‟t want to lose that just because we won‟t all be working in the same building on the same projects anymore.”

“That‟s the beautiful thing about friendship,” Orlando said. “No excuses or reasons needed. You just show up or send an invitation. We‟ll stay on at l‟ANS, but we‟ve both decided to cut back on the number of hours we spend there. The whole place in the country thing is something we‟ve talked about quite a bit too. We haven‟t found anywhere yet, but we‟ve started looking. The urgency we all felt in the months right after the war has faded. We‟ve done our duty, all

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of us, and it‟s time to do what feels right to us now. For you and Thierry, that‟s l‟Institut, although for different reasons. We‟re looking at other things.”

“What other things?” Jean asked, surprised this was the first he was hearing of Orlando‟s plans. Once, Orlando would have approached him first with any idea he had.

“We want to be foster parents,” Orlando said. “I know it won‟t be easy, two men and one of them a vampire, but we‟ve talked to Caroline, and she‟s going to help us get approved as soon as we have a place large enough to have an extra, or a few extra, around the house for the time it takes to find permanent placements or for them to be reunited with their families.”

“Oh là là!” Jean exclaimed. “Where did this idea come from?”

“From my son‟s death, from news stories about kids who lost their families during the war, from a lot of things,” Alain said. “Like Orlando said, it won‟t happen right away, but we‟re ready to start working in that direction, as soon as everything is stable at l‟ANS.”

“I could wait,” Raymond said, feeling guilty that his decision would put their plans on hold. “I feel bad now about dropping my responsibilities on your shoulders.”

“Don‟t,” Alain and Orlando said at the same time. “Our plans are flexible,”

Alain continued. “The work l‟Institut will be doing is too important to delay.

We were sharing good news with our friends, not asking our employers to accommodate our plans.”

“Although I‟m sure we‟ll do enough of that later,” Orlando said with a laugh. “We should go and let you rest. Call us if you need anything.”

“We will,” Jean promised as Alain and Orlando departed, leaving him alone with Raymond once more. “I know I keep saying this, but what a difference a year makes!”

Raymond smiled. “For all of us.”

“So Thierry and Sebastien at l‟Institut full time and Alain and Orlando as foster parents,” Jean mused.

“And you and me running l‟Institut,” Raymond finished, “if you‟re willing to help me, that is. I know you have the Cour to run as well.”

“That‟s more of a general availability issue than it is a full-time job,” Jean reminded Raymond. “I kept office hours at l‟ANS for the convenience of it and because you were there. I never had an office or set hours before the alliance. I can go back to a more flexible schedule now.”

“I‟m ready,” Raymond admitted.

“Ready for what?”

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“For all of it. To go home, to resign as president of l‟ANS, to take over l‟Institut full time, to become your Avoué. Not in that order. Going home and becoming your Avoué definitely rank highest,” Raymond said.

“Soon.”

“ARE you sure you know what to do?” Constance asked Jean for what felt like the fiftieth time.

“Yes,” Jean said, “and I have your cell phone number if I have any questions. Alain is waiting outside to take us home so Raymond won‟t strain himself doing that strong a spell yet, nor will he be exposed to anything in a cab or car. Everything will be fine.”

Unable to think of any other objections, Constance relented. Jean helped Raymond to his feet, his arm around his lover‟s waist to steady him. “Alain,”

Jean called. “You can come in.”

Alain walked inside and smiled at them. “It‟s good to see you on your feet again, Raymond, even if you do have a little help there.”

“I don‟t want him to fall and hurt himself worse,” Jean said. “No more delays. We‟re going home right now.”