Ninovan (Hypernaturals 10)

Astral Blind Spot

That night was a warm and loving reunion. Old friends catching up. Once again I came to realize how when I was first turned, I was so distrusted. Now I have all these friends. On the Crew, no less! In the larger Vampire world, for the people that I have not met, the preponderance of Vampiredom will still be wary of me, but here I have comrades. I looked at Denise and added 'future family'. It is weird to think that I know who I will have a child or three with a century or whatever it will be in the future.

Breakfast the next morning was more limited to family, sitting together and happily chatting about wedding plans. Vera and Angel discussed HOW to get married. Mutual commitment, common law, because whose business is it other than theirs, anyway? Or should they register it officially, so that things like inheritance work in the human world? I envied their ability to be openly married to each other. Out in the human world and in North America, only Jessica and I are official. In Europe, Helen and I are. There is no place any other combination is official. I need to fix that with Morgan someplace.

I am making some plans along those lines, just in case. Maybe that is a thing I can tell her to help get her over her anger? Distract her with the thought of a place where she and I are human-official?

After breakfast, we headed up to the Community Center and stopped dead in our tracks. Alexander's splinter pile is gone. The plumbing trenched out all the way to the Septic tank. Alice, all five foot two of her, stood at one edge of the overturned earth and surveyed the site, filthy from a night's work.

Alice said to Jessica. "You know what, angry lady? That would have been easier if you would have left it in larger pieces. I heard about why you did it though, and I get it. Sounds like he is an asshole. Too bad he is the asshole other than Adrian with the special talent."

So: the people that arrived overnight now know about the events here.

"Sorry about that. If it helps, I feel a million times better, and I'll help you get pregnant if you want."

"I am glad you feel better. Not sure about that other thing right now. I kind of already have a life. God, I am ready for a shower and bed..."

"You can shower in our RV if you like. I kind of destroyed the one that was in here." Jessica said.

"It had to go first anyway. Thanks though." She looked down at herself. "I'll try not to clog the drain."

"Strip and rinse off on the side of the RV. There is an outside shower, meant for beaches, but this works, and no one in Ninovan cares about naked Vampires. or naked anyone, if some of the stories are to be believed." Morgan said.

"Will do." Alice said.

We moved on and came into the Hall. After a quick survey, we walked over to the planning table that Simi and Tobey appeared to live at. "You guys get any sleep?" I asked.

Tobey smiled in a way that said he has a secret. Simi said "Not a great deal. Between planning and this old goat, it was a brief night."

Simi nodded at two people across from her on the table. "Working out an issue here. So, Marcus, Susan, what is the problem?"

Marcus tapped the master map. "We should have been in the first wave. There are just two of us, easy to fit in."

Simi said reasonably, "That family grouping perfectly fits in that house. It was custom made for the trial run last night. I understand you are eager to get re-established in New Ninovan as quickly as you can, but we have to do this in small groups to keep everything from being too obvious. It is already bad enough that the Crew had to bring in all that big equipment last night."

Susan tapped the map where Marcus had "That house has a pool. Will ours?"

Well, hell.

Jessica stepped over and used her height and size to be intimidating. That and she utterly pulverized a house yesterday in thirty minutes, and everyone here knows about that. "Marcus, Susan? There will be inequities at first. We are using the resources that we have available or that we can quickly obtain. I will not lie to you: You could end up in a single-family dwelling, a multi-family unit, the executive retreat, or the loft of a barn. Once everyone is in New Ninovan, we will work as fast as Vampirely possible to get everyone settled into homes that suit their needs. We will absolutely not be addressing things such as who has a pool and who does not, because ALL of these houses are ours. All of them are New Ninovan. They are a shared resource, just as Ninovan is, Everyone can use the pools in the houses that have them, and everyone will take turns cleaning the pools. Shared means sharing everything, just like here." 

Jessica paused for effect. "Do you understand me?"

Marcus was wide-eyed, as he is closer to Jessica in her full Amazon glory than Susan. Susan was also cowed, however.

"Of course we do. We were just asking." Susan said.

They beat a hasty retreat.

Simi told Jessica, "Thank you. That pool is turning into a genuine point of contention. That is the fourth conversation about it I have had."

"It's your business, not mine, but I think you should assign all who inquire about pools to the executive retreat. It has an enormous pool, and they can live in a hotel room for a long while until we can settle housing. They bitch about their tiny room, remind them they wanted a pool." Jess said watching the backs of the couple as they got as far from the big scary Vampire as they could.

"This is the problem with giving people things." Tobey said. "They forget the generosity and only see that someone else got a so-called 'better' thing than they did. Alexander's house here was always a bone of contention, given it had all the modern conveniences."

"Keyword: Had." Morgan said with some both edge and amusement in equal measure.

Tala and her other two daughters, Ayasha and Kimberly, came into the Hall and over to us. Angel hugged her sisters.

Tala stood an arm's length away from Jessica, looked her over openly. "Well, you DO look better today. I am glad that was therapeutic for you."

"Thank you. I feel much better." Jessica admitted, "I hope you understand, it was nothing personal regarding you. Or you, Kimberly."

Kimberly shrugged, "I don't care. Not like he did anything with me Mom did not make him do. I would not have minded taking a few swings myself."

"Kimberly!" Tala said sharply

"Give it a rest, Mom. He is a crap dad. You know it." Kimberly was in no way cowed by her mother's rebuke. "I am looking forward to being an aunt to Angel's baby, and Vera's too. Angel has told me what it is like to have a daughter with a dad that loves her. I can't wait to meet Nakoma either. She sounds awesome. An involved entire family, including the dad. One that demands that rather than having to be blackmailed into it. That will be so weird. So cool."

Tala had no response to that. Instead, she stepped away, turned, and raised an eyebrow at Morgan. "Seems you need to tear down a house or two yourself, dear." Then she left, unhappy. It did not take Astral talents to see it.

Morgan looked at Tala leaving with a bemused expression. She probably does not like being read like that. It is true, though. Helen saw it too. We have more work to do.

The sisters looked at each other. Ayasha commented, "She always wants everyone to get along. Not a bad goal, but you would think someone that can read other people would know when she is barking up the wrong tree."

Angel agreed. "She has an Astral blind spot about Alexander. Those are hard."

"At least I knew she loved me, but you know what? It would have been better if she just left that guy out of my life." Kimberly said sourly.

Angel gestured at me. "Why I upgraded Nakoma's father to the deluxe model."