Anne Rice - Taltos

She paused. She drew a cigarette out of the pack lying on the table. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked.

“No, not at all,” said Mona. “I like the smell of cigarettes, always have.”

But she stopped. She slipped the cigarette back in the pack. She laid the lighter beside it.

Then she looked at Mona, and her face seemed incidentally hard suddenly, as though she’d fallen deep in thought and forgotten to conceal her strong inner self.

The look was so cold and so quietly fierce that it made her seem sexless to Mona. It might be a man looking at her, this person with the gray eyes and the dark straight eyebrows and the soft blond hair. It might have been an angel. Surely, it was a beautiful woman. Mona was far too intrigued and excited by all this to let her eyes be forced away.

Almost at once the expression did soften, deliberately perhaps.

“I’m going to Europe,” said Rowan. “I’m leaving in a little while.”

“Why? Where are you going?” demanded Mona. “Does Michael know this?”

“No,” she said. “And when he finds out, he’ll be hurt again.”

“Rowan, you can’t do that to him, wait a second. Why are you going?”

“Because I have to. I’m the only one who can figure out this little mystery about the Talamasca. I’m the only one who can find out why Aaron died like he did.”

“But Michael, you’ve got to take Michael with you, you’ve got to let him help. You leave him again, Rowan, and it’s going to take more than a nubile thirteen-year-old to save his ego and whatever manhood he’s got left.”

Rowan listened to this, thoughtfully.

Mona instantly regretted what she’d said, then instantly thought she hadn’t said it strongly enough.

“It’s going to hurt,” said Rowan.

“Oh, you’re kidding yourself,” said Mona. “Maybe he won’t be waiting around here when you get back.”

“Look, what would you do if you were me?” Rowan asked.

It took a second for this question to sink in. Mona took another big drink of the orange juice and then pushed the glass to the side. “You’re really asking me?”

“There’s no one I’d rather ask.”

“Take him with you to Europe. Why not? What’s he staying here for?”

“There are things,” she said. “He’s the only one who understands the kind of danger directed against the family. And there’s the question of his own safety, but then I don’t know just how critical that is.”

“His safety? If the Talamasca guys want to hit him, they know where to find him if he just hangs around this house. Besides, Rowan, what about your own safety? You know more about all this than anyone except Michael. Don’t you need him with you? You’re really prepared to go over there alone?”

“I wouldn’t be alone, I’d be with Yuri.”

“Yuri?”

“He called again this morning, only a little while ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m telling you now,” Rowan said coolly. “He had only a few minutes. He was in a pay booth in London. I persuaded him to meet me at Gatwick. I have only a few hours before I leave.”

“You should have called me, Rowan, you should have …”

“Hold it, Mona. Yuri’s purpose in calling was to warn you to stay close to your family and remain under guard. That’s what’s important here. He thinks there are people who may try to get hold of you, Mona. He was very serious. He wouldn’t explain any more. He said things about the genetic testing, people accessing the records, figuring out that you were the most powerful witch in the clan.”

“Yeah, well, I probably am. I figured that out a long time ago, but, Rowan, if they are after witches, why aren’t they after you?”

“Because I can’t give birth ever again, Mona. But you can. Yuri thinks they may want Michael also. Michael fathered Lasher. These evil people, whoever they are, will try to bring you together. I think Yuri’s wrong.”

“Why?”

“Mating two witches? Expecting the extra genes to throw a Taltos? It’s as unlikely now as it ever was. You might say that breeding two witches is the long way of doing it. According to our records, the one and only successful attempt took three hundred years. There was intervention and purpose in that one success. I gave it my assistance at a crucial moment. Maybe it could not have happened without that.”

“And Yuri thinks they’d try to force Michael and me to do that?”

All this while Rowan’s gray eyes were fixed on her, scanning her, weighing her response to every word.

“I don’t agree with him,” said Rowan. “I think the villains of the piece killed Aaron to cover their tracks. That’s why they’ve also tried to kill Yuri. That’s why they may be arranging some sort of accidental death for me. On the other hand …”

“Then you are in danger! And what happened to Yuri? When did it happen, where?”

“This is my simple point,” Rowan said. “We don’t know the limits of the danger for anyone who’s in any way involved. We can’t know because we don’t really know the motives of the killers. Yuri’s theory, that they won’t give up until they’ve bred a Taltos, is obviously the most pessimistic and the most inclusive. And that’s what we should go with. You and Michael both have to be protected. And Michael is the only one in the family, really, who knows why. It’s imperative you remain within the house.”

“So you’re leaving us together here? All cozy and comfortable under your own roof? Rowan, I want to say something to you that takes a lot of nerve.”

“You shouldn’t have any problem,” said Rowan simply.

“You’re underestimating Michael. You’re selling him short in every respect. He’s not going to go for this. And if you leave him without telling him, he’s not likely to hang around and play the assigned role. If he does, what do you think the man in him is going to want? And if he does want to do it-sleep with me, that is-what do you think I am? Rowan, you’re arranging all this as if we were pawns you’re moving on a chessboard. Rowan, we’re not.”

Rowan didn’t answer. After a little pause, she smiled.

“You know, Mona, I wish I could take you with me,” she said. “I wish you’d come.”

“I will! Take me and Michael! The three of us should go.”

“The family would never tolerate such a betrayal on my part,” said Rowan. “And I couldn’t do it to you myself.”

“That’s crazy, Rowan. Why are we having this conversation? Why are you asking me things like what I think about what’s going on?”

“There are too many reasons, Mona, why you have to stay here with Michael.”

“And what if we do get in the sack together?”

“That’s up to you.”

“Terrific, punch him out, and expect me to comfort him but not to-”

Absently, Rowan slipped out a cigarette, then stopped exactly as she had before, gave a little sigh, and pushed it back in the pack.

“I don’t care if you smoke,” said Mona. “I don’t do it, due to my superior intelligence, but-”

“You’ll care very soon.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t you know?”

Mona was flabbergasted. She didn’t answer. “You’re saying … oh God, I should have known.”

She sat back. Still, there had been so many near misses in the past. She was always on the phone to her gynecologist. “I think I did it this time.”

“It’s no near miss,” said Rowan. “Is it Yuri’s child?”

“No,” Mona answered. “That’s impossible. Sir Galahad was too careful. I mean, that is flatly impossible.”

“It’s Michael’s child.”

“Yes. But are you certain I am pregnant? I mean, this was only a month ago, and …”