Siren Song (Hypernaturals 2)

Meeting of The North American Vampire Council

Melissa had been checked over by Jessica very closely and gently (Melissa would not let me leave during the exam) and is now in Helen's bedroom, with Denise and Ann. At first, I needed to be there as well or she became upset. Melissa plowed through four pints of blood and wanted more, but Jessica told her she needed to wait a little while. A quart of milk and a small organic hamburger followed the milk inside the malnourished woman.

Melissa let me leave when I told her I was going to make her a hamburger with cheese and bacon, and she had been fascinated by the idea I would actually cook her food. When I came back with it, Melissa was all smiles.

"I smelled you cooking that for me!" she said happily.

Jessica smiled at me. "Adrian is a very good cook, Melissa. He cooks for his family all the time."

Melissa closed her eyes as she took a bite. "Oh. This is so good! Thank you, Adrian!"

I wanted both to cry and to kill, at the same time. I managed "You are welcome, Melissa. I am glad you like it."

"This is the best Hamburger I ever had." Mellissa said and looked at it like it is a hand full of gold.

I introduced Denise and Anne. "Melissa? These are my friends. They are Denise and Anne. They work for the Council taking care of people and they are very nice. I need to go talk to the Council. Will you let them stay with you? I will be right down those stairs, in the living room. You can look right over to that balcony and see me. Jessica too. OK?"

Melissa looked shyly at Denise and Anne. "You are Adrian's friends?" she asked them.

Denise assured her in a soft voice. "We very much are, Melissa. He is one of our favorite people, and we help him take care of people. Can we take care of you? Would that be OK?"

Melissa nodded. "OK. He claimed me. I am his now, not the Sirens any more."

Anne looked at me then told Melissa: "We know. He claimed you from the Sirens so he could protect you. Adrian protects people. That is why we love him. Denise and I are very good protectors too. When he has important things to do, like talk to the Council? We help him, so you are safe with us. Adrian would not leave you with us unless he knew you are safe."

"I promised you, Melissa. You are safe. My friends are going to make sure you are OK." To underline the point, I got between Anne and Denise, and shoulder hugged them to me. They went with it and hugged me back. It didn't even hurt. "My friends, Melissa. Yours too, if you will let them be."

"OK." Melissa said. "Downstairs?" she asked, looking at the door to the room.

"Right down there." I pointed.

Denise and Ann are under strict orders from Jessica to make Melissa wait at least another hour before eating anything else. Water only for a little while. Melissa watched me go pensively but stayed put.

The Council sat in a circle in my living room on every flat surface. Extra folding chairs have been brought in from the porch and Danny and Lori's place. Helen, Jessica, and I on the shorter couch. A couch designed for two in theory. I did not mind the reassuring presence, after that whole conversation with Melissa. I needed to be OK too.

Victoria, twelve hundred-year-old Vampire, born in Scandinavia, sitting Chair of the Council as a whole, and looking for all the world like a fit young woman getting ready to jog down to the store for a quick but light snack, called the session to order.

Jessica reported on Melissa's health. "I am not a psychiatrist although I have done that rotation a few times over the years. Melissa is in a very bad way, both physically and mentally. Her body will heal quickly. She just needs the right food and supplements. That is the easy part. Her mind will take years. I see hope, however. Meliisa responded very well to Adrian and his gentle approach. Her self worth has been erased: She thinks she is property. I am quite certain she will have PTSD. It is going to take a very long time to reassemble her shattered psyche. As I said: I have hope."