Erasure and Affirmation (Hypernaturals 11)

Adrian Irritated Me

"Crew Leader. I see you have a head start on us in the drink department." Victoria said.

"Madam Chairwoman of the North American Vampire Council. I do. I have an excuse. Adrian irritated me." Denise replied.

"He is incredibly good at what he does." Victoria said. She sniffed lightly to catch a scent. Denise stood, understanding that was the inhalation of her drink. She opened the bar behind my desk as if she lives here every bit as much as she does at Casa de Gato. Which made me realize I suppose she lives here if she lives at Casa de Gato. Family. Family is not always romantic partners, even if in her case she is 'future romantic partner, time frame to be determined.'

It kind of makes my brain hurt.

Denise pulled out bottles and glasses and poured without asking any of them what they wanted. Denise distributed drinks. Other than Scotch, I pay no attention to what lives in that cabinet. Fiona keeps it stocked to her own specification. We mostly drink out of the pantry upstairs. Denise handed mineral water, sparkling or still, to various women. Again, she did not ask. She has had a drink or ten with these people before.

I pulled chairs over from the reading table and we laid out a semicircle.

Once we were all situated, I looked at the face before me. "Wow. Carol runs with the big guns."

"Please. One of the Trinity is getting married. We wouldn't miss it. Wait until Denise gets you to say 'yes'. That will be a party." Victoria said.

"The Trinity? I already said 'yes'. Now she is being wishy-washy." I said.

"The Trinity is what we call Carol, Denise, and Anne. They have all been close since forever. Now Carol is going down in flames, and Denise is not far behind her. Plus Anne landed her a male Vampire. The Trinity is not what it used to be. You said yes? I did not know that."

"Me either." Denise said.

"You called ME your Fiancé to those former Sirens in Dallas. Remember? I just told Nico he is sleeping with my Fiancé based on that. It was also implied in the conversation we just had." I told Denise. "The part about the point in which I get a say in your lovers. Work it out from there. Also, all the teasing you got at Lori and Danny's wedding? Remember? Implies everyone thinks it." I said. "Now let the adults talk... Nova. What have you been up to? Long time? Jon OK, Becky?"

Denise opened her mouth and left it that way.

"I have been busy... But I was hoping to talk to you about some of your recent, shall we call them, adventures?"

"I as well." Becky agreed. "And Jon is good. Thank you."

"You think you can turn any willing human into a Vampire?" Nova asked. "I read all the reports. I know what happened with the Sirens... Awesome work there, Denise. Well done. However: really? Technically speaking. Anyone can turn?"

"You would need technical details from Jessica about the process, but my overall impression is that it should work on anyone. The Siren medical information was incomplete, and their testing flawed, since they did not have Melissa anymore, but it turns out to be much easier to turn someone into a Vampire than to undo that. The process evolved for millions of years. We are merely helping it. What the Sirens were trying to do, using Denise's future fiancé as a target, is many orders of magnitude harder."

"If my Andy was interested, you think he could turn?" Nova asked.

I do not know a great deal about Nova or Becky's personal lives, but I do know Andy is the human Nova is seeing. A fairly young man who is an anthropologist, I think. Maybe an archeologist. Something along those lines. Right up Nova's alley, in any case. "Yes. If I had to guess, based upon things I have overheard, there is always the possibility that some genetic sequences would never be compatible with the agents that turn us. The results might be mutations, like me, perhaps partial turns, or possibly unworkable sequences and all that would mean. What would the rate of that be? No idea. So far we have turned, without a single issue, nine Sirens. Vera plus the eight members of the Assembly. Vera took no time to recover. Ginger took twice as long, but she suffered a lot of abuse, and it seems her body kept her under to work on it." I said.