The witching hour - By Anne Rice Page 0,454

it. I told you it’s overplayed its hand.”

She looked at Michael, almost angrily. “Are you with me?” she demanded.

“Yes, I’m with you, Rowan. I love you! And I think you’re right to go ahead. We can start on the house any damn time you want. I want that too.”

She was pleased, immensely pleased, but still her calm distressed him. He looked at Aaron.

“What do you think, Aaron?” he asked. “About what the creature said, about my role in this? You have to have an interpretation.”

“Michael, what’s important is that you interpret. That you regain an understanding of what happened to you. I have no certain interpretation of anything.

“This may sound frightfully strange to you, but as a member of the Talamasca, as the brother of Petyr, and Arthur and Stuart, I’ve already accomplished my most important goals here. I’ve made successful contact with both of you. The Mayfair history has been given to Rowan. And you have some knowledge now, fragmentary and biased as it may be to assist you.”

“You guys are a bunch of monks,” said Michael grumpily. He lifted his beer in a careless toast. “ ‘We watch, and we are always here.’ Aaron, why did all this happen?”

Aaron laughed good-naturedly, but he shook his head. “Michael, Catholics always want us to offer the consolations of the church. We can’t do it. I don’t know why it’s happened. I do know that I can teach you to control the power in your hands, to shut it off at will so it stops tormenting you.”

“Maybe,” said Michael wearily. “Right now I wouldn’t take off these gloves to shake hands with the president of the United States.”

“When you want to work with it,” said Aaron, “I’m at your service. I’m here for both of you.” He looked at Rowan for a long moment and then back to Michael. “I don’t have to warn you to be careful, do I?”

“No,” said Rowan. “But what about you? Has anything else happened since the traffic accident?”

“Little things,” said Aaron. “They’re not important in themselves. And it might very well be my imagination. I’m as human as the next man, as far as that goes. I feel I’m being watched however, and menaced in a rather subtle way.”

Rowan started to interrupt, but he gestured for silence.

“I have my guard up. I’ve been in these situations before. And one very odd aspect of the whole thing is this: when I’m with you—either of you—I don’t feel this … this presence near me. I feel completely safe.”

“If it harms you,” said Rowan, “it makes its final tragic error. Because I shall never address it or recognize it in any way. I’ll try to kill it when I see it. All its schemes will be in vain.”

Aaron reflected for a moment.

“Do you think it knows that?” asked Rowan.

“Possibly,” said Aaron. “But it’s like everything else. A puzzle. A pattern can be a puzzle. It can involve great and intricate order; or it can be a labyrinth. I honestly don’t know what it knows. I do believe that Michael is entirely right. It wants a human body. There seems no doubt of it. But what it knows and what it doesn’t know … I can’t say. I don’t know what it really is. I don’t guess anyone knows.”

He took a sip of his coffee and then moved the cup away. Then he looked at Rowan.

“There’s no doubt it will approach you, of course. You realize this. This antipathy you feel won’t keep it at bay forever. I doubt it’s keeping it at bay now. It’s simply waiting for a proper opportunity.”

“God,” Michael whispered. It was like hearing that an assailant would soon attack the person he loved most in all the world. He felt a crippling jealousy and anger.

Rowan was looking at Aaron. “What would you do if you were me?” asked Rowan.

“I’m not sure,” Aaron answered. “But I cannot emphasize enough that it is dangerous.”

“The history told me that.”

“And that it’s treacherous.”

“The history told me that too. Do you think I should try to make contact with it?”

“No. I don’t. I think letting it come to you is the wisest thing you can do. And for the love of God, try to remain in complete control always.”

“There’s no getting away from it, is there?”

“I don’t think so. And I can make a guess as to what it will do when it approaches, you.”

“What?”

“It will demand your secrecy and your cooperation. Or it will refuse to reveal itself