"Do you like it?" he asked.
"Yeah, it's spiffy."
"Spiffy?" There was an edge of humor to that one word.
"You just can't take a compliment," I said.
"My apologies, ma petite. It was a compliment. Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Can we go get your coffin now?"
He stepped out of the light, so I couldn't see his face. "You make it sound so simple, ma petite."
"Isn't it?"
Silence then, so thick the room felt empty. I almost called out to him; instead I walked to the bar and turned on the track lighting above it. The soft white light glowed in the dark like a lighted cave. I felt better with the light. But with my back to where I thought he should be, I couldn't sense Jean-Claude. The room felt empty. I turned and there he was, sitting in one of the chairs. Even when I looked at him, there was no sense of movement. It was like a stop-action picture waiting for the switch to go on.
"I wish you wouldn't do that," I said.
He turned his head and looked at me. His eyes were solid darkness. The faint light picked up blue sparks from them. "Do what, ma petite?"
I shook my head. "Nothing. What's so complicated about tonight? I feel like you're not telling me everything."
He stood in one smooth motion almost like he skipped part of the process, and was just suddenly on his feet. "It is within our rules for Serephina to challenge me tonight."
"Is that the master's name, Serephina?"
He nodded.
"You don't think I'll tell the cops?"
"I will take you to her, ma petite. There will be no time for your impatience to make you foolish."
If I'd been stuck here all day with nothing much to do, but had had the name, would I have tried to find her on my own? Yeah, I would have.
"Fine, let's go."
He paced the room, smiling and shaking his head. "Ma petite, do you understand what it will mean if she challenges me tonight?"
"It means we fight them, right?"
He stopped pacing and came into the light. He slid onto one of the bar stools. "There is no fear in you, none."
I shrugged. "Being afraid doesn't help. Being prepared does. Are you afraid of her?" I looked at him, trying to read that lovely mask.
"I do not fear her power. I believe us to be near equals in that, but let us say I am wary. All things being equal, I am still in her territory with only one of my wolves, my human servant, and Monsieur Lawrence. It is not the show of force I would have chosen to confront her after two centuries.
"Why didn't you bring more people? More werewolves, anyway."
"If I had had time to negotiate more of an entourage I would have, but with the rush..." He looked at me. "There was no time to bargain."
"Are you in danger?"
He laughed, and it wasn't entirely pleasant. "Am I in danger, she asks. When the council asked me to divide my lands, they promised to set in place someone of power equal to or less than mine. But they did not expect me to enter her territory so unprepared."
"Who are they? What council?"
He cocked his head to one side. "Have you really come among us so long and not heard of our council?"
"Just tell me," I said.
"We have a council, ma petite. It has existed for a very long time. It is not so much a governing body as a court, or police, perhaps. Before your courts made us citizens with rights, we had very few rules, and only one law. Thou shalt not draw attention to yourself. That's the law that Tepes forgot."
"Tepes," I said, "Vlad Tepes? You mean Dracula?"
Jean-Claude just looked at me. His face was perfectly blank, no expression. He looked like a particularly lovely statue, if a statue's eyes could glitter like sapphires. I could not read that expressionless face, nor was I meant to.
"I don't believe you."
"About the council, our law, or Tepes?"
"The last part."
"Oh, I assure you we did kill him."
"You make it sound like you were around when it happened. He died in, what, the 1300s?"
"Was it 1476, or was it 1477?" He made a great show of trying to remember.
"You are not that old," I said.
"Are you sure, ma petite?" He turned that unnervingly blank face to me; even his eyes went dead and empty. It was like looking at a well-constructed doll.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
He smiled, and sighed. Life, for lack of a better word, rushed back into his face, his body. It was like watching Pinocchio spring to life.
"Shit."
"So nice to know that I can still unnerve you from time to time, ma petite." I let that go. He knew exactly the effect he had on me. "If Serephina is your equal, then you take care of her, and I'll shoot everybody else."