The warm air didn't care whether or not I was a gentleman, which I was not.
"What are you doing with Rowan?" Stirling demanded.
"What are you, her older brother?" I shot back.
We walked across the paved porch and onto the drive. Fragrance of grass. Roar of the River Road traffic as sweet as the roar of water.
"Perhaps I am her brother," he said shortly, "but I mean it. What are you doing?"
"Good God, man," I replied. "Night before last you told Quinn that Mona was dying. What was your motive? Weren't you tempting him to go to her? He didn't, as it turned out, but you were tempting him, goading him to use his power, to bring her over. Don't deny it. You provoked him. You with all your records. Your volumes. Your studies. Quinn had fed on you, almost taken you. I saved your life, man. You who knew. And now you question me for a little word game with a mortal who detests me?"
"All right," he said, "so in the back of my mind I abhorred the fact that Mona was dying, that Mona was desperate, and that Mona was so young, and I believed in sinister fairy tales and magic blood! But that woman is not dying. She is the magnate of her family. And she knows something's profoundly wrong with you. And you're playing with her. "
"Not so! Leave me alone!"
"I will not. You can't entice her-. "
"I'm not
enticing her!"
"Did you see Stella?" he asked. "Is that who's haunting you?"
"Don't go back to a civil tone with me," I scolded. "Yes, I saw Stella. Did you think that was all part of a game? I saw her in the little sailor dress and she jumped into my lap. They were in my town house in the Rue Royale, both of them, Julien and Stella, with a whole crowd of people. Julien was out there in your fine little conservatory, taunting me. But in my flat last night, they said threatening things to me. Threatening things! Oh, I don't know why I'm telling you. "
"Yes, you do," he answered.
"I've got to get back to the intrepid wanderers," I said. I took a deep breath.
"Threatening things?" he asked. "What threatening things did they say to you?"
"Oh, God in Heaven!" I said. "If only I were Juan Diego. "
"Who is Juan Diego?" he asked.
"Maybe nobody," I said sadly. "But then again, maybe somebody, maybe somebody very very
important!" and I went away.
Chapter 11
11
I WENT UP HIGH in the air. I traveled fast-faster than a ghost, or so I figured. I drifted above the city of New Orleans, lulled by its lights and its voices. I wondered how Mona would handle this power, if she'd be weeping again. I let myself believe there were no ghosts who could touch me up here or anywhere if I used all my considerable powers, no ghosts who could make me afraid.
I said No to hunger. I said to thirst Be still.
I slipped down silently into the realm of my fellow creatures.
I caught sight of Quinn in the Rue Royale, pulling behind him a pile of suitcases, all dependent upon one huge rectangular bag equipped with excellent little wheels. He was whistling a melody by Chopin and walking very briskly, and I fell into stride beside him.
"You're the most dashing man on the street, Little Brother," I said. "What's with all the suitcases?"
"Are you going to let us stay at the flat, Beloved Boss?" he asked. His eyes were fired with love. In our short acquaintance, I'd never seen him so happy. In fact, I'd never seen him happy before at all. "What do you think?" he asked. "Do we crowd you? Do you want us out?"
"Not at all, I want you there," I replied. "I should have told you. " We walked along together, me trying to keep up with his long legs. "I'm the worst of hosts and Coven Masters, to use the old lingo. Not a gentleman. A thoroughgoing Rasputin. Settle in. You had Clem bring clothes to the Ritz? (Yes. ) Clever. Where's Princess Mona right now?"
"In the bedroom, working on the computer we bought at sunset, first thing she had to have," he said with an airy gesture. "She's recording every experience, every sensation, every subtle distinction, every revelation-. "