Daniel was becoming more and more uncomfortable just sitting
in the parlor waiting for God-knows-what. He heard soft wails coming from
inside Jamie’s room, and every instinct he possessed was telling him to go in
there. {{{Lestat, what’s wrong? And you’d better be straight with me. I’m
in no mood to dick around tonight.}}}
{{{Calm yourself}}}, Lestat sent back at him. {{{Jamie is all right.}}}
Daniel did calm a bit. {{{ Just make sure she stays that way.}}}
After he broke off the contact, he got up and walked outside. He felt the
twins’ eyes on him, and they felt like laser beams on him. He could feel
their interest in him. Who is he? How is he connected to Mom?
Daniel needed to be alone with his thoughts and away from Armand for a
minute. He had to sort through his feelings. He was angry, yes, but not at
any
one specific person. He was angrier at the situation itself. He was also
experiencing a mortal state of shock. A soft breeze was blowing outside, and
it slightly riffled through his hair. He closed his eyes against it and let
it blow on his face. He emptied his mind of all thoughts and just let himself
feel this simple pleasure. Then he sensed the presence of another standing
near him. Even though he couldn’t penetrate the other’s thoughts, he would
have known who it was. With his eyes still closed, he said, "Go away,
Armand."
"You know I cannot do that Daniel," the soft-spoken voice responded.
Daniel opened his eyes and looked directly at Armand. He asked, "Exactly
when were you going to tell me?"
Armand glanced away from Daniel and then moved his eyes back towards him.
He simply said, "It wasn’t my secret to reveal." When Daniel was about to
protest, Armand help up his hand. "Let me finish," he said, "as I was saying,
it wasn’t my secret to reveal, but I would have found a way to tell you
without telling you."
"What do you mean by that?" Daniel asked, "how could you have done that?"
Armand said simply, "I would have made Jamie very angry at me, but I would
have taken you to see them. After all, they are your children, too."
Daniel was warmed by these words, but he needed to know one more thing. He
asked Armand, "How long would you have waited?"
Armand smiled at Daniel. "Beloved, I would not have waited for very long.
But now, that is neither here nor there. You now know the truth—Michael and
Michelle are your children."
A strangled gasp was heard from behind them. Daniel turned around and
discovered two pairs of eyes staring at him. His daughter, Michelle, was
open-mouthed with shock. She walked up to him and asked, "Is it true? Are
you
really our father?"
Daniel looked back at Armand with a panic in his gaze. Armand smiled and
gestured Daniel back to his daughter. He stammered, "Uh, um, it seems that I
am."
"But how?" Michelle asked, "You’re so young."
"Uh, well," Daniel said, hesitantly, "that’s a rather long and loaded
story."
Michael folded his arms across his chest and glowered at him. "We seem to
have plenty of time," he said, coldly.
Daniel noticed the icy look in his son’s eyes and knew that this was not
going to be easy at all. He took a deep breath and began to speak. I
looked
down at my abdomen, back to Lestat, and back to my abdomen again. I
gingerly touched it, and I was appalled to touch smooth, unmarred skin. I
whimpered
as I looked up to Lestat. "What’s wrong with me?" I asked, soft wails
beginning to escape my throat.
Lestat embraced me and said, "I’m not exactly sure, cheríe. But we are
going to find out. Aren’t we Louis?"
Louis moved over beside me and took my hand. "Ouí, cheríe, we will find
out why this is happening to you."
I calmed a bit, knowing that I wasn’t going to be alone in this. My panic
was beginning to subside, and it was transforming itself into an intense
interest. My breath was slowing down, becoming more regulated. I looked
down at
my stomach. I ran my fingers across the area where the wound should have
been, pressing gently as I did so. I flinched a little. The wound might be
healed, but I was still very sore. The tears welled up in my eyes, but I
said,
jokingly, "Well, I can’t move too much, too fast. So please don’t make me
laugh too hard. That might kill me."
Lestat laughed at this. "Cheríe, you are such a delight. You are in pain,
and yet you still make jokes," he said.
I grinned at him and said, "I have to. It beats crying all of the time."
Then my face grew a bit serious. I said, "The jokes and laughter were
what helped me to get through the dark times."
Louis embraced me very gingerly, careful not to jostle me too much. Then I
noticed that Lestat had gotten rather quiet. I looked up and noticed that he
had a faraway look in his eye. I asked Louis about this, and he said, "He’s
communicating with someone."
"Oh?" I asked, "Who?"
"Probably Armand," Louis said.
Lestat cursed softly. "Damn," he said. He looked at me with a strange
look.
"What is it?" I asked.
"You are not going to like this, mon Jamie," he told me.
"What?" I demanded softly.
"They know," he said,. At the uncomprehending look on my face, he
continued, "Your twins know the truth about their parentage."
"Oh shit," I said, "How did that happen?"
"By accident it seems. The twins overheard Daniel and Armand talking when
the truth came out," Lestat said.
"Dammit. I wanted to tell them myself when the time was right," I said,
"So what else is happening?"
Lestat got that look again. Shortly his eyes focused and fell on me.
"Armand tells me that Daniel is explaining everything to them."
I squeaked, "Everything, as in everything?"
Lestat nodded. "Everything as in EVERYTHING," he said.
I covered my face with my hands. "I’m not ready for this," I groaned. Then
something occurred to me and I asked, "How are they taking the news?"
Lestat said, "Your Michelle is taking the news very well, considering, but
Michael is not taking it well at all."
I sighed. "No, I don’t imagine he is," I said, sadly. The next few days
passed by quickly, but they were very tense days. I slowly recovered my
strength, and I was becoming a very bad patient. The kids would stay with me
during the day, and the others would stay with me at night.
The atmosphere would be tense during the day. I could sense that both
Michael and Michelle wanted to confront me about Daniel. Sometimes I would
catch
either one or both of them staring at me. Michelle would have a speculative
look in her eyes, while Michael would be staring at me with a bitter look in
his eye. But yet neither one of them would speak up.
At night, I would not allow them to stay in the townhouse. For one thing, I
was worried for their safety. Oh, not from Lestat, Louis, Armand, or
especially Daniel, it was the ones that I didn’t know that worried me.
Another
reason was that I wasn’t ready for a full-blown confrontation.
Anyway, I was the classic case of the rotten patient. I was very
disagreeable. I wanted to do everything I couldn’t do. I wanted to get out
of bed and
move around, but they would have not of it. Damn them. They would simply
smile at me as I ranted and raved.
Tonight, though, something had changed. David had returned. I had noticed
that he had been gone for the past several nights. Now he was back and was
looking at me in a very strange way.
He drew Lestat away from us, and they left the room. I looked at Louis and
asked him, "Now what do you suppose that was all about?"
Louis looked at the now-closed door that David and Lestat had gone through.
"I don’t know, cheríe, I don’t know." Lestat followed David into the next
room. He noticed that David looked both tense and excited. The last time
he remembered seeing David like this was when he and Louis had visited him
just after the Akasha debacle. "Okay, David, what is it?" he asked.
David handed Lestat a folder. "Read this," he said.
"What am I looking at?" Lestat asked.
"A laboratory report. You will find something very interesting in there,"
David said.
Lestat quickly scanned the document, and then looked up at David with a
stunned expression on his face. "You are sure about this? Absolutely sure?"
he
asked.
David nodded and said, "The tests were run twice by two separate labs. The
results were identical."
"But I thought they didn’t survive at all," Lestat said, rereading the
report.
David said, with a slight smile, "Apparently some did." I was drowsing a
bit when Lestat walked into the room, followed up by David. "Louis," he
said, "can you please come here, please?"
"Certainly," he said, and walked over to where Lestat and David were
standing.
Lestat handed Louis some sort of paper, and said, "Read this."
Louis took it and asked, "What is it?"
"Just read it," Lestat said.
While Louis read whatever he was reading, Lestat was staring at me. By now,
I was completely awake. Lestat’s eyes were fixed on me as if he were trying
to figure something out. I noticed Louis’ mouth drop open as he finished
reading. He began to stare at me the way that Lestat and David was.
I could feel my blood beginning to boil. "What is it?" I growled in
frustration.
Lestat said, "I’ll let David explain this one."
I looked expectantly at David. "Fine, now what is it?" I asked.
David said, "I don’t know what, if anything, Lestat has told you about me,
but I used to be part of a group known as the Talamasca. We—the Talamasca—
are, for lack of a better term, psychic detectives. We investigate
everything
that is supernatural, paranormal, and the like.
I said, "This is very interesting, but what does any of this have to do with
me?"
David said, "You realize that you healed rather quickly from your wounds.
And that you appear to look younger than you actually are?" When I nodded, he
continued, "As you must realize that is highly unusual for a mortal. So I
sent the blood-stained shirt that you were wearing and had some blood samples
taken to a private laboratory to be tested."
"Oh, really?" I asked.
He nodded and said, "Yes, I did. And there were some very interesting
developments that I had not anticipated."
"Well?" I asked, "just tell me, please."
David sat down next to me on the bed. "Jamie, my dear, something showed up
in your blood work that you need to be made aware of. Your blood tests
indicated something extra. Your blood seems to be normal O+ blood that is
mixed
with something else. I immediately noticed what it was and ran further tests
myself. I wanted no one else involved."
"Why is that?" I asked him, in all curiosity.
David looked at the others and then back at me. He said, "Well, it seems
that your blood seems to be a hybrid mixture of both normal human blood and
our
vampiric blood."
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