Siren Song (Hypernaturals 2)

Contact

From the speakerphone, I called Arnold Romney's cell phone number. Helen's friend in the department supplied it in a pile of other documents back when we first started looking into him, all those months ago.

"Hello?" came his lilting new voice.

"Arnold? It's your favorite Vampire, Adrian Sagan." I said with some amusement in my tone

"Yeah. What do you want? More teeth removed?" Arnold did not sound pleased to hear from me.

"I'm fine thanks, but wow, thanks for asking." I continued poking the bear.

"Cut to the chase boy. What do you want?" Really irritated. Nice.

"A meeting. Baby Vampire to baby Siren. Except I have a member of Council that wants to come along and meet you."

Arnold paused "Council? The North American Vampire council? One of those stuck up bitches?"

I looked over at Rachel "Yes. One of them. I told her of my loving treatment at your hands and she flew down wanting to shake your hand."

"Yeah, I know how they treat you male Vamps. Bunch of fuckin' wimps. Too bad for you. What's the meet really for?"

"Well, you know. Official things. We are hoping you'd bring your leader to talk to our leader. See what is what."

Arnold laughed "Larry said getting your attention like that would stir you up. What took so long?"

"Well, you know the holidays. Can't ever find anyone at home, except of course for my dumb luck of you finding me at home. I'm thinking about a cruise next year. Who is Larry?"

"Larry is who you want to really meet with. I'll call him. I'll call you back at this number if he wants a meet."

He hung up before I could say anything in rejoinder.

"I did not actually enjoy hearing of your fang removal." Rachel noted.

I smiled at her. "I didn't think you did. Arnold enjoyed it though."

"I wanted to be sure you understood that. I know you think the female of our species has it in for the male of our kind." Rachel reassured.

A teachable moment in reverse. "Only because you all do, as a group. That is the truth. Irrelevant here, however. You were Helen's main squeeze for a while, and she has discriminating taste, other than in men. I did not think you are all bad. I married another girl Vamp, for example. Of course, she has believed in me from the beginning, so I think she is different from the Vampire masses. Helen screwed herself with the council over me, so she obviously is too."

"Ah. Yes." Rachel said and exchanged a look with Helen. I saw the guilt there. I decided we have a moment in hand. A quick look at Jessica proved to me that despite her seeming obliviousness about it in the car, the meaning of the exchange between Helen and Rachel is not lost on her now.

I cut right to the heart of the matter. "You know Helen: Jessica and I do not care that you slept with Rachel while you were in New York. Slept is not the right word I am sure, given your proclivities. You know that: Right?"

Jessica chimed in. "Of course not. So quit acting guilty. I told him to stop it. You stop it too. Tired of it."

Helen rolled her eyes. Rachel did look mildly surprised "Both of you knew? How long?"

"Since you got in the car at the Airport." I said

"I assumed it would happen before you left, and it is pretty obvious from the way you are acting." Jessica said.