Perilous Partnership (34 page)

No one moved. Raymond hid a sigh of relief, having spent the week worrying that having heard all the details, everyone would opt out at the first opportunity.

“Then if our vampires will grab a pen and make a mark on your hands, we can begin,” Raymond said. When that was done, he turned to the wizards.

“You‟ll need to do a simple cleansing spell like you would do if you‟d spilled ink on your desk or yourself. I‟ll have you do it one at a time. If anyone still has ink on their hand after you‟re done, that person is your potential partner. The rest is up to you. Volunteers to go first?”

“I will,” Marguerite offered.

Raymond stepped out of the way and gestured for her to cast the spell. She did, her voice breaking nervously as she passed her wand across each of the vampires. The ink disappeared from each one‟s hands.

“I guess I wasn‟t meant to have a partner,” she said.

“That isn‟t what it means at all,” Raymond said. “It means your partner is not sitting in the room at the moment. We will continue to have seminars, and I hope you‟ll consider coming at the end to see if your partner is among the next group of participants. It may take some time, but that doesn‟t mean your partner isn‟t out there.”

She summoned a smile. “I‟ll come back.” She flicked her wand again and disappeared, not waiting to see if anyone else found a partner.

Without needing to be told, the vampires marked their hands again. “I‟ll try,” Élodie offered.

Perilous Partnership

185

The tension rose in the room as she stepped forward and lifted her wand.

Once again, all the ink disappeared. The vampires shifted restlessly as the remaining wizards looked at each other with apprehension on their faces.

Raymond issued the same invitation to Élodie that he had issued to Marguerite, but he could feel the tension building in the pit of his stomach as well. They had no idea what caused the partnerships to form between certain people and not others, and he knew not to expect every person who participated in the seminars to find a partner in their own group, but he could not stop the worry that l‟Institut would be a failure if they could not facilitate any new partnerships.

“My turn,” Patrice said, rising from his seat.

Raymond gestured for him to go ahead. His spell was equally unsuccessful.

Raymond did not catch what the other wizard muttered under his breath as he cast a displacement spell, but he had a feeling Patrice would not be back. That was just as well if the man was going to have that kind of attitude.

Laure and Olivier followed suit, neither having any luck as well. Laure chose to leave, but Olivier remained, wanting to see if either of the two remaining wizards had any luck.

“I guess it‟s my turn,” Constance said, heart pounding as she lifted her wand. She had come more because Patrice had persuaded her to than because of any real interest, but having listened to everything the presenters had to say over the course of the week, she had changed her mind about wanting a partnership. Taking a deep breath, she cast the spell.

“It didn‟t work!” Natalie said in surprise, holding up her hand with ink still staining the back of it. “Or maybe it did, I should say.”

“The spell didn‟t work,” Raymond agreed, breathing a sigh of relief that at least one match had occurred. It would be up to the two women to decide what that meant to them. “The attempt to find a partner did.”

“So what do we do now?” Constance asked.

“You go in the other room and talk about everything you‟ve learned this week and decide what you want to do,” Raymond replied honestly. “You consider what relationship you‟re comfortable with having with each other now, whether that‟s open to change, and how you‟re going to know when the time is right to move beyond a potential partnership into an actual partnership.

If you want someone to act as a facilitator in that conversation, one of us will be glad to help.”

Natalie looked across the room at Constance. “I think we can handle it.”

“Then I‟ll say good luck, and don‟t hesitate to call on l‟Institut if we can help.”

186

Ariel Tachna

That left only Georges. “This probably isn‟t going to work, is it?” the wizard asked Raymond. “I mean, it‟s only worked once out of six tries.”

“That doesn‟t matter,” Raymond assured him. “If one of the vampires sitting here is your partner, the success or failure of all the other attempts doesn‟t matter. And if none of them is your partner, then it wouldn‟t matter how many successful matches had already been made. In the sense that six vampires is a small sampling, I‟d agree that the likelihood of one of them being your partner is relatively small, but it did happen once, so it isn‟t impossible.

You‟ll just have to try and see.”

Georges looked at the six vampires waiting expectantly, suddenly nervous he would end up paired with one of the men. The presenters had assured him he did not have to form a partnership just because he matched with someone, that as long as he did not let the vampire drink his blood, they could both walk away, no harm, no foul, but Thierry had been very blunt about his own experiences and how the power of the bond had overridden his intentions.

George swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I‟ll try, but only on the women. I can‟t have a male partner. I just can‟t.”

Raymond frowned, not sure exactly how to respond to that. He could not force the other man, though, so he nodded. Only Joséphine and Brigitte marked their hands this time. Georges cast the spell, erasing the marks on both women‟s hands.

“Are you sure you won‟t try on the others?” Raymond asked, but Georges shook his head.

“Thank you all for participating in the seminar,” Raymond said to the remaining vampires. “I hope it‟s been worth your time for the information, and I hope you‟ll be willing to come back as well at the end of subsequent sessions.

There are wizards outside to take you home whenever you‟re ready to go.”

“I‟m going back to Paris,” Olivier said to Philippe. “I can take you wherever you need to go, since it‟s on my way.”

Philippe nodded. “Just let me get my bag.”

Leaving the other vampires to gather their belongings as well, Raymond walked into the réfectoire to check on Constance and Natalie. They sat in the far corner on the same side of one of the long tables, their heads nearly touching as they leaned in to talk to each other. Raymond shook his head. He had not picked up on any particularly strong vibes between the two women during the evening sessions, but to see them now, he had no doubt they would end up partners. Maybe before they left l‟Institut.

Deciding he did not want to intrude on their conversation when they obviously had matters well in hand, he went in search of his own partner to discuss the seminar as a whole and the results of the match in particular.

Perilous Partnership

187

“Well?” Jean asked when Raymond came in.

“Well, we had one partnership form,” Raymond replied. “And we had one wizard who decided he could only cast the spell on the female vampires because he couldn‟t bear the thought of a male partner.”

Jean rolled his eyes. “Have we not done away with that kind of narrow-minded attitude yet?”

Raymond shrugged. “He has a choice. We may not agree with his choice, but the whole point of having l‟Institut and doing things the way we‟re doing them is to avoid another situation like Adèle and Jude where they‟re partners, but truly aren‟t compatible. It might mean that he never finds a partner, and if his partner was one of the male vampires present tonight, the vampire might not find one either—although we don‟t know that for sure—but at least it means they won‟t form a partnership in ignorance only to regret it later.”

“I‟ve been going through the evaluations of the seminar,” Jean said, holding up the stack of papers. “One of the things that came up frequently was wishing we had structured the days and nights so the vampires and wizards would have more time together. No one has specified whether they mean sessions together or unstructured time like the cocktail party the first night, but at least during the winter, I think we could change the schedule around a little, even if it means asking the wizards to stay up a little later and sleep a little later in the morning. That way we could do some joint sessions as well.”

“The history session could be done jointly quite easily,” Raymond agreed, “and since that‟s the first one, it would give everyone a chance to get acquainted. Alain mentioned the possibility of having someone else do that session for the vampires because they questioned the veracity of even the historical facts because of his Aveu de Sang. We could also see about getting new volets and heavier curtains on the scriptorium so the vampires could come to sessions even during the daylight hours if they‟re willing to do that.”

“Some probably would,” Jean said, “but I don‟t know that we could make that a requirement. Maybe during the summer when it stays light so late, but not right now when we have so many hours of darkness to work with.”

“We don‟t have to decide that right now.” Raymond picked up one of the evaluations and skimmed down it. “We have months until it will be an issue.”

188

Ariel Tachna

RETURNING to l‟ANS headquarters a week later, Raymond smiled at the report he had to give Jean. He had gone to l‟Hôtel-Dieu to check in with Constance and see how she was doing with Natalie and their partnership. He had found the two women in the break room, exhaustion clear on both faces.

“Sorry if we‟re not more talkative,” Constance said. “We just spent the last eight hours in surgery.”

“Did the patient make it?” Raymond asked.

“Thankfully,” Constance said, “but it was touch and go for awhile. I couldn‟t have done it without Natalie‟s help. I had to restart his heart a couple of times during the surgery. We monitor it, but we‟d have lost him if Natalie hadn‟t supplemented my strength toward the end.”

A bite mark on Constance‟s neck proclaimed exactly how Natalie had helped. He noticed as well the protective way the Natalie hovered at Constance‟s shoulder. He did not know at what point in the past week they had moved beyond a match and into a partnership, but they had clearly crossed that line by the time he arrived that day. He did not ask for details—he did not need to pry to read all the little indicators in Natalie‟s body language that proclaimed the transition from a functional partnership to a true one. He had grown very familiar with those signs over the past year. “Make sure you get as much sleep tonight as your schedule will permit,” he advised Constance. “Until your body has a chance to get used to the new demands of supporting yourself and Natalie both, you‟ll need extra rest. Your magic will compensate in a few days, as it gets used to supporting Natalie too. You just have to give it time.”

As he left, he glanced back to see Natalie leaning over Constance. It brought a smile to his face as he thought of Jean and his protectiveness. He came out of the subway at l‟ANS to find a crowd of picketers outside carrying placards accusing l‟Institut of pandering. Frowning, he cast a displacement spell, getting inside without having to walk through the protestors.

“What is this?” he asked when he walked into his office.

“It started about two hours ago,” Fabienne replied. “They aren‟t carrying any signs that indicate their affiliation, but all of their rhetoric is extremely conservative.”

Perilous Partnership

189

“The Front National?” Jean asked.

“It could be, although they usually identify themselves when they do a protest,” Raymond said. “They want everyone to know they‟re working in support of their agenda.”

“If not them, then who?”

“I haven‟t the slightest idea,” Raymond said, “but we have to decide how we‟re going to deal with it, regardless of who it is.”

“We ignore it,” Jean said. “There‟s no truth to their accusations, and we give credence to them by denying them. What was it the English playwright said? Something about protesting too much?”

“„The lady doth protest too much‟,” Raymond supplied. “Are you sure that‟s the best plan?”

“Nothing we say will change their minds,” Jean said with a shrug, “and the truth, that the partnerships that form as a result of the seminars at l‟Institut probably will evolve into intensely personal relationships for the people involved, won‟t appease them. In fact, it‟s likely to give them more fodder for their protests. As long as all they‟re doing is waving signs and shouting, I don‟t see that it‟s all that important.”

“It could be if it keeps people from signing up for the seminars,” Raymond worried aloud.

“We didn‟t start l‟Institut for money or for popularity,” Jean reminded him.

“We started it to educate people who want to form partnerships and to understand them better for the people who‟ve already formed them. It doesn‟t hurt us if people don‟t sign up for the seminars. We‟re not trying to make money doing this, so if they don‟t come, we‟ll simply focus on our research and go on.”

“What about the credibility of l‟ANS?” Raymond said. “If people outside the association start to believe the accusations, it could endanger our work in other areas.”

“If it comes up in other contexts, like in Parlement, then obviously we can address it there,” Jean said. “I just think having a press conference, or anything similar, to deliberately debunk the rumors started by a bunch of protestors gives them too much power and makes us look guilty of something.”