Perilous Partnership (37 page)

Picking up the phone, he dialed the number for Frasques de Lune, a travel agency that specialized in arranging trips for vampires.

“Frasques de Lune, what kind of mischief can we help you get into tonight?”

“I need to plan a trip,” Jean said, “but I don‟t have exact dates yet. It‟s a surprise for my lover, and I have to work with his secretary to clear his calendar.”

“Where would you like to go?”

“Somewhere tropical,” Jean said. “And we don‟t have to worry about traveling in the daylight. My lover is a wizard, so the ordinary concerns don‟t apply.”

“In this season, la Réunion is an option, as is Martinique or Guadaloupe,”

the travel agent proposed. “How long would you want to stay for?”

“Four or five days,” Jean replied. “I don‟t think we can get away longer than that.”

“Then La Réunion is probably better choice for you,” the travel agent said.

“You won‟t have to worry as much about time zone changes like you would if you were going all the way to the Antilles.”

“We were there a year ago after the typhoon hit. It might be nice to visit it again under more enjoyable circumstances,” Jean said.

“Let me put together a few proposals with flexible dates and I‟ll get back to you,” the travel agent said. “Do you have a budget?”

Jean considered for a moment, thinking about what he hoped the trip would mean to both of them, and said, “No, I want this to be special. I don‟t want to waste money, but I can afford a proper vacation.”

“I‟m sure we can plan something that will be perfect. Your name, monsieur?”

“Jean Bellaiche.”

“The Jean Bellaiche?” the travel agent asked. “The chef de la Cour?”

“Yes,” Jean replied. “Is that a problem?”

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“Not at all, monsieur Bellaiche,” the travel agent said immediately. “I was surprised you had heard of us, that‟s all.”

Jean smiled, though he knew the man on the other end could not see him.

“You‟d be amazed what I‟ve heard of.” He gave the agent his office number so he could keep the surprise from Raymond a little longer and hung up, feeling like he finally had his world back on track.

Now he just had to enlist Fabienne‟s assistance and convince Raymond to take a well-deserved vacation.

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“YOU want us to do what?” Raymond said that night when they got home from work and Jean sprang the vacation idea on him.

“I want us to take a vacation,” Jean said. “A long weekend away where we can rest and be together and relax a little.”

“Jean, that‟s crazy,” Raymond insisted. “We can barely manage everything that needs to be done while we‟re here. How do you expect us to manage a vacation on top of that?”

“We have three weeks until the next seminar at l‟Institut,” Jean said reasonably, trying not to be hurt at Raymond‟s immediate dismissal of the idea.

He steeled himself to make a rational argument in favor of his plans before resorting to emotional blackmail if he had to. “We‟ve already taken care of the things we wanted to change based on the way the first seminar went. The repairs at l‟Institut are under control, and Thierry can supervise anything that comes up while we‟re gone. All you do is agree to what he says needs to be done next anyway. If the president of l‟ANS didn‟t need to be a wizard, I‟d have nominated Fabienne months ago. She can handle things, with Alain and Thierry as spokesmen, for four days while we go relax. The protestors haven‟t gone away, but they haven‟t come up with anything new either, so that‟s not likely to be an issue while we‟re gone. Say yes, Raymond. Say you‟ll come enjoy a break with me.”

Raymond looked like he was going to keep arguing, so Jean pulled out the big guns. “I need a break. I‟m burning out, and I‟m afraid I‟ll make mistakes that could hurt l‟Institut, my Cour, or both, if I don‟t get a few days away. I can go without you, but I‟d really rather not.”

Raymond‟s stomach clenched as he thought of Jean on a tropical island without him. Visions of young nubile bodies entwined with Jean‟s as they offered him their blood and more assailed Raymond‟s mind. Intellectually, he knew Jean could go four or five days without feeding if he had fed well, but such rationality had no place in the sudden fear of losing Jean to some nameless, faceless youth. He hated himself for the fear, but losing Jean would gut him. While he doubted Jean would leave entirely, if only because no one else‟s blood could protect the vampire from sunlight, he could not push away

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the image of Jean maybe finding comfort with another, even once, because Raymond had refused to accompany him on vacation.

“So when are you planning on leaving?”

Jean‟s face fell. He had gambled on being able to persuade Raymond and lost. “Fabienne said the end of next week would be the easiest time to clear your calendar.”

Raymond nodded. “I guess I need to find some summer clothes then. I‟m not sure where they ended up packed away.”

Relief flooded Jean as he realized he had misunderstood Raymond‟s question. “I know where they are. They‟re in with mine.” He pulled Raymond into his arms. “We‟ll have a wonderful time and come back ready to face the next seminar and the rest of the challenges of l‟Institut. You‟ll be glad you went with me. I promise.”

Raymond smiled. He could not help it. Jean‟s happiness was catching.

“When we get back, though, you‟re going to help me test how long the protection from sunlight lasts.”

Jean grinned. “Then I‟d better eat well between now and then, since you‟ll be cutting me off for however many days it takes for your magic to wear off.”

Raymond ran his finger down the center of Jean‟s chest. “Just from feeding.

We can still fuck all you like.”

“You can‟t say things like that and expect me not to react,” Jean warned, reaching for the button at Raymond‟s waist.

“Did I say I expected you not to react?” Raymond teased, shimmying out of his trousers and underwear with a little help from Jean. “I rather hoped you would react.” He slipped from Jean‟s grasp and started toward the bedroom, fully aware of the image he presented with his shirttails brushing the top of his arse, the lower curve peeking out from beneath the fabric. The bite marks had faded to light bruises, but he suspected that would only arouse Jean more with the thought of refreshing the marks. He threw an inviting glance over his shoulder as he disappeared around the corner into their bedroom.

The playful side of Raymond‟s usually serious personality caught Jean completely off guard, so that his lover was out of sight by the time he recovered from the surprise of Raymond actually flirting with him. Not provoking him— that was very different. Raymond had actually flirted with him. Deciding he liked it, Jean stalked toward the bedroom, fully intending to reward his lover‟s unusual behavior with a night full of loving. They could start that portion of their vacation early!

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“PAYET.”

“Raymond, it‟s Thierry. I hate to bother you on a day you were planning on spending at l‟ANS, but I think you need to come out to l‟Institut, at least for a couple of hours.”

“Of course,” Raymond said, already rearranging his day‟s schedule in his head. “If you need me, I‟ll be right there. Just let me tell Fabienne to clear my schedule for the afternoon.”

“It can wait for an hour or two if you need to finish anything up before you come,” Thierry said across the phone lines. “It‟s serious, but it‟s not an emergency.”

“Let me look at my schedule,” Raymond said. “I‟ll be there as quickly as I can.”

“Thanks. À bientôt.”

Hanging up the phone, Raymond frowned at his calendar, wondering what could have happened that would make Thierry call him. Raymond had already told the other wizard that he trusted his decisions implicitly as far as the repairs were concerned. Unless a repair Thierry intended would disrupt a planned seminar, Raymond did not need the details.

That meant something else was wrong.

He had the press conference scheduled for that evening, but not until seven o‟clock. It was only four, which gave him three hours to see what Thierry needed and get back. “Fabienne,” he called into the next office, “have you seen Alain today?”

“He was in earlier,” Fabienne replied. “Do you need him?”

“Thierry called and said he needs me at l‟Institut. I hope to be back in time for the press conference, but I thought I‟d see if Alain could take it if I don‟t get back in time,” Raymond explained, coming to the door. “Everything else on my to-do list can wait until tonight or tomorrow if it has to. Thierry wouldn‟t have called if it weren‟t important.”

“The sooner you leave, the sooner you‟ll be back,” Fabienne said. “Go ahead now. I‟ll find Alain and see if he can cover for you. If he can‟t, I‟ll call you so you know you need to make it back on time.”

“Thank you,” Raymond said, making sure he had his cell phone before casting a displacement spell. He reappeared moments later in Dommartin.

“What‟s going on?” he asked Thierry when the other wizard came out to meet him.

“We had some guests sometime last night or this morning,” Thierry reported. “I didn‟t get up until later than usual because we stayed up late trying to finish the repairs in the abbot‟s house so it would be ready for when we open

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the labs for research. I gave the workmen the morning off since they stayed to help well past their thirty-five hours for the week. Come outside.”

Thierry led Raymond outside the walls of the cloister. The once pristine stones were now covered in graffiti, some of it of the generic “fuck you”

variety, but other slogans were more chilling, spouting the kind of racial separatism that Raymond thought they had put to rest with Serrier‟s defeat. “I don‟t like this,” he muttered, “particularly because they shouldn‟t have been able to get through Adèle‟s wards.”

“I don‟t think they did,” Thierry said. “The wards are on the walls themselves, so as long as they held the paint cans outside the wards, the paint itself would go right through because it isn‟t harmful except in the words it spelled.”

“If they can get paint through the wards, what else can they get through?”

Raymond asked. “Gasoline? A match? A bomb? That isn‟t garden-variety graffiti. That‟s Serrier‟s rhetoric.”

“Serrier‟s dead,” Thierry reminded Raymond. “I saw his body, and he was very definitely dead. And we rounded up his supporters.”

“His active supporters,” Raymond agreed, “but that doesn‟t mean we got all his sympathizers. Merde. This could not be worse timing. Jean and I were supposed to leave on vacation at the end of this week. I‟ll have to tell him I can‟t go.”

“Why can‟t you go?” Thierry asked. “This is just graffiti. We‟ll clean it off and get Adèle to adjust the wards so no one can get close enough to the walls to do it, or anything similar, again.”

“Because this has gone beyond a few protestors waving signs outside our building now,” Raymond said. “Whoever did this wasn‟t looking for media attention. They were trying to scare us off.”

“And you‟re letting them succeed. How is that good for anything except giving you an ulcer?” Thierry demanded.

Raymond had no answer to that. He knew there had to be one, but he could not come up with it, so he shrugged and marveled again at the difference a year had made. Thierry was talking to him the same way he talked to Alain, something Raymond would never have believed possible. “I guess I need to call Adèle then.”

“I already did,” Thierry said. “She was in the middle of something, but she said she‟d come out as soon as she could wrap it up. I don‟t expect her to find anything as far as investigating goes, but I haven‟t disturbed the scene other than to show it to you. You should probably stay around until she arrives, though, so you can discuss exactly what you want to do about upgrading the wards.”

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“Which means I have to figure out what I want to do,” Raymond sighed.

“There‟s a reason I had Adèle handle this in the first place.”

“Come on. Let‟s go inside out of the cold and we can discuss it. Adèle should change the wards since she put them up in the first place, but I‟m not half-bad at strategy,” Thierry said. “If we can figure out what the taggers hoped to accomplish, maybe we can figure out who they are and how best to keep them from coming back.”

They walked back inside. Raymond started toward the office he had claimed as his own, but Thierry drew him toward the other end of the building.

“This is your office,” he said, leading Raymond into a large, airy room with a south-facing window. “You can make your official decision in your own time, but we all know no one else will sit behind this desk.”

Raymond knew he should argue, but he wanted that desk, that position, as his own, so he took the chair Thierry indicated. “So tell me what you think this is all about.”

Thierry took a seat on the opposite side of the desk and considered the question seriously. “The insults on the walls suggest a couple of things,” he began slowly. “There‟s the issue of racial separatism, like you mentioned. That was Serrier‟s line, but didn‟t you say some of the vampires shared that sort of superior mentality where mortals are concerned?”

“A few,” Raymond said, “but one of them just happens to make his home in Autun, and he‟s made his disapproval of l‟Institut and its location very clear to Jean and me. I suppose it‟s possible he or some of the members of his Cour could be behind this, although it seems petty for a vampire.”