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“We both know what it’s like to lose a spouse,” Judith said.
“Thank you for your kind words. My condolences on your own losses, as well.”
“So you have a child?” Dad asked.
“She lived only a few hours after birth.”
I stroked his thigh because it comforted us both. He’d told me the story in much more detail, and I knew he’d held his baby in his arms at the end when the doctor and the local midwife could do nothing for his tiny daughter.
“How terrible to lose both of them together,” Judith said.
“I can’t imagine,” Andria said.
“Were you still human then?” Dad asked. He’d expressed sympathy, but I don’t think he meant it.
“I was not a vampire yet, if that is what you mean.”
“Dad, Jean-Claude is still human.”
“You didn’t believe that of any vampire when you graduated college.”
“You’re right, but I saw enough human beings who were more evil than the supposed monsters that I had to reevaluate my definitions.”
“If you’d stayed away from police work like I asked you to, you wouldn’t have seen the worst of humanity.”
“What am I supposed to say to that, Dad?”
“Admit I was right.”
“Fine, if I’d never joined the police I wouldn’t have seen how vile my fellow human beings could be. Happy?”
“Why would that make me happy?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Dad, I thought me getting married would make you happy, but I was wrong about that.”
“How can you expect me to be happy about you marrying a vampire?”
“I’m not marrying a vampire, I’m marrying Jean-Claude,” I said.
He looked across the table at my soon-to-be husband, then looked down at the table. “I don’t know how to do this.”
“You’re afraid to look him in the eyes, aren’t you?” I asked.
Dad glared at me. “Of course I am, he can bespell me with his gaze.”
“Dad, he’s not going to do that.”
“It would be an easy way for him to win me over.”
“Non, no, Doctor Blake, that would not be winning you over, that would be taking you over. That would not be a victory for me, it would be a loss.”
“I’d give you my blessing for the wedding because you’d force me to do it.”
“A forced blessing is no blessing at all,” Jean-Claude said.
“You’re treating Jean-Claude like he’s dangerous…”
“Heisdangerous!” He shouted that and got people at the other tables looking our way again.
