Jason stared into his coffee cup while he answered. She wanted me to stop having sex with Jean-Claude and Asher, and you.
Wait, you arent having sex with Jean-Claude and Asher, unless theres something I dont know.
He smiled at me. The look on your face, man. He raised his fingers in the Boy Scout salute. I am not now, nor have I ever been having sex with Jean-Claude or Asher.
Nathaniel set fresh coffee down in front of me and took a chair across the table on the other side of Jason, so wed both be able to look at him. It also meant we wouldnt be able to do more than hold hands, which was probably good; we tended to distract each other.
But she didnt believe you, I said.
Nope, she didnt. He took a sip of coffee.
Why wouldnt she believe you? I asked.
Im not sure.
If my feeding the ardeur off you through sex bugged your steady girl, you should have said something.
I am Jean-Claudes pomme de sang, his apple of blood. I am his blood donor, and I go where my master tells me to go. The ardeur is your version of a blood feed and youre his human servant. Jean-Claude shares me with Asher, his second-in-command, for blood and you for sex, and its his right to share me. I am his. I belong to him. Perdy knows that. She got kicked out of Cape Cod because she wanted to be more than just a blood donor to the master vampire there.
Samuel didnt say anything about that. In fact, his son, Sampson, said that Perdy was here to spy on him for his mother.
Yeah, but Sampson went home, and Perdy didnt.
Sampson had gone home because St. Louis got invaded by some of the scariest vampires in the world. Jean-Claude had thought it was a bad idea to risk getting the eldest son of his friend and ally killed. Besides, Sampson was a merman, and they arent big on offensive abilities, at least not this far inland. Perdy was a mermaid, too. Though Id never seen either of them turn all fishy. They just looked like people to me.
Perdy stayed for you, Nathaniel said.
Jason nodded. She wanted me to be hers. Shes very jealous, very possessive. Im just not into that.
So you have a woman who greets you like Anita greets me, but the rest doesnt work.
No, Nathaniel. She used to greet me sort of like that, but for weeks now its been, Where have you been? Who have you been with? You fucked the master again, didnt you? You fucked Asher, didnt you? You were with Anita again, werent you?
Ive put you on the back burner for feeding me, I said. I got the impression Perdy didnt want to share you that much, but I had no idea she thought you were doing more than just donating blood to the vampires.
Shes like crazy jealous, and she wont believe me when I tell her I havent been with anyone else. Its why I asked Jean-Claude to take me out of your feeding schedule for a while. I thought if I stopped having sex with the only other person I was really having sex with that Perdy would calm down.
Nathaniel and I exchanged glances across the table. He shrugged. I asked the question. Did it work?
No, he said. He took another drink of coffee, and it must have finished the cup because he got up and went for the French press beside the sink. He took the coffee cozy off of it, then put it back on without filling his cup. He set the cup in the sink.
I dont want more coffee.
You can never have too much coffee, I said.
He turned and smiled at me. You think so, but the rest of us get a little ODed on your level of caffeine.
What happened, Jason? I asked.
The smile slipped a little more. He was solemn when he turned to us. He leaned his back against the cabinets, crossed his arms across his chest, and again didnt quite meet our eyes.
She wanted me to marry her. Till death do us part and all that. Shes a mermaid, which means shell outlive me. She can live for hundreds of years, not immortal like a vampire, but close.
You didnt want to marry her, I said, softly.
He shook his head. Shes obsessed with me. She says she loves me, but it doesnt feel like love. It feels like Im smothering.
Shes not the right one, then.