After the two young human males had vacated the room, their smelly pizza with them, the two vampires eyed each other. Adrian could see why Jake, and almost any other male, was drawn to this vampire; he wasn't unattracted on a physical level but he found her too cold... and she hated him.
"You really do need a piano," he remarked.
"No, I don't."
He shrugged, and moved with his peculiar liquid grace around the confines of the room. He sat down in the other wing chair, his knees almost touching Evelyn's, mentally laughing at the way she carefully didn't flinch.
"You really are beautiful," Adrian remarked.
"So you do like girls," Evelyn replied, raising her eyebrows.
The professor looked amused rather than annoyed. "Oh, yes," he said easily. "Don't you switch hit?"
"I'm sure you didn't come here to inquire about my sexual preferences, Adrian. What are you really doing here?" Evelyn demanded with a sigh.
"I told you..." The actor knew he was pushing it, that she wasn't buying this story and that he was on her turf this time. He wondered how much longer she was going to be patient with him. Sofi would have been pounding his head against a wall by now, but this cold little girl wasn't anything like the fiery Italian.
Not that he couldn't handle her if she did resort to violence. She was small, and only a baby vamp compared with to him.
"Half the truth. Maybe. You didn't come all the way down here just to keep Jake company. Unless you're more obsessed than I thought."
Those amazing eyes narrowed. "Aren't you the clever girl." He tried not to snarl. "I also came to apologize."
"And I accepted. And apologized back. You could have done that by picking up the phone. Jake had my number."
His gaze raked over her, and she could tell by his expression that he was trying to probe her mind. Just as in Toronto two years ago, it got him nowhere. Adrian snarled inwardly. He was at a loss about how to deal with her mental deafness, but he let none of this frustration show.
"I've heard more about you in the last two years." Adrian sat back and crossed his legs. "Rumor has it that you're looking for someone to introduce you around to other vampires, get you into the swing of things, so to speak."
"I am?" Her eyebrows went up. "And where did you hear that?" she asked.
"The grapevine. Or is it a deadly nightshade vine? Vampires do talk to each other, not all of us isolate ourselves, you know. I know a lot of others, I get around, so I'm a good candidate for the job."
"I wasn't aware I was interviewing," she said frostily.
"Oh? I heard, since your master was dead, you were looking for a mentor."
"He was never my master," she sneered, but her mind was elsewhere. She stared for a minute, and then a light seem to click on behind her eyes. Adrian realized he had just given something away -- she didn't know what was going on, about Tammi and her patronage system keeping the fledglings in line. Still, he carried on glibly.
"Bloodsire, then. Father, if you will." Evelyn's snort told him that wasn't the right term either.
"Well, anyway, I heard Gideon Redoak had been asked to be your mentor," Adrian said, managing not to sneer outwardly at this reference to the Baron. "I think I'm a better choice. I've lived a lot more than... he has. You'll find him too much of a stuffed shirt."
Adrian waited for a minute, but Evelyn was staring into the middle distance, and he wasn't sure she had heard anything he'd said.
Finally she asked, still focused inwardly, "Why would you want to be my mentor?"
"I should have offered when you were in Toronto. I feel it's my duty now to follow up."
"But my master was still alive when I was there."
Adrian shrugged. "Yes, but he wasn't teaching you anything, as I found out from Jake. Look," Adrian put on his most sincere, let's-drop-the-formalities face and voice, "I behaved badly back then and I want to make up for it."
Evelyn studied him from under heavy lids. She was so still, Adrian could hardly keep from fidgeting. Well say something! he snapped mentally, knowing she couldn't hear him.
"Theoretically, if I wanted a mentor -- if -- how would I go about that?"
"Well, you could just ask, you know. Most vampires who've been around a few centuries would be happy to help out a fledgling," Adrian lied. Actually, he couldn't think of one vampire who wanted to be a mentor. Master, yes, as he had been until he tired of it. Coerced obedience really hadn't been very... fulfilling.
"But I didn't ask the Baron."
"He was..." Adrian searched desperately for the right lie -- "...perhaps..." -- or at least the right way to phrase the truth, "asked to help you out by... well... by an interested party."
He didn't need telepathy to see that that had gone over like the metaphorical lead balloon.
"So now that someone else has been asked, you've decided that it's really your duty?"
"Well, I feel--"
"Because I just want to understand --" Evelyn cut him off viciously "-- what is going on here. Explain it to me Adrian, if you want to be my teacher."
Her eyes glittered with fire. Now this, this mood was preferable to her iciness. Even though she hated him, Adrian found her much more attractive now.
"Alright." He smiled into her glare. Colder hearts than Evelyn's had melted at that roguish expression, but she merely looked impatient. He sighed. This was one tough audience.
"Very well," he said, dropping the charm and assuming her own businesslike tone. "The truth of the matter is that I heard that the Baron is going to mentor you; and I thought I would make a better mentor."
"So you've said," answered Evelyn impatiently.
"I have had fledglings of my own," Adrian continued, leaning forward, eyes earnest. "I am older than Redoak, both before and after being turned. He doesn't really get around much, and he doesn't even like women." He waited triumphantly for some reaction, but saw none. So suddenly she wasn't homophobic? What was with this girl? "I can be a better guide to the ups and downs of vampirism, Evelyn," he went on persuasively. "I've been on my own, I know what it's like. He's always had this big circle of friends to protect him, he's got no idea how tough it is being alone."
Was he reaching her? Adrian felt sure that this was the right way to appeal to her.
"These... fledglings of yours," Evelyn said, "Jake called them your court. Where are they?"
"I let them go." Adrian turned his head away, a brief tug of the old pain catching him unawares. Paul, Marek, Anya... gone. Blood of his blood, but gone. He hadn't heard from any of them in four years. Proof that 'kingship' really hadn't been for him....
"Why?" Evelyn asked, suddenly interested. Simms had certainly never intended to let her go, but then she didn't think her relationship with Simms was quite like other vampires. At least, she hoped not.
"I wasn't cut out to be a master," Adrian said after a moment. "I don't want obedience. But a mentor-pupil relationship... that's much the same as being a professor, and I'm very, very good at that." He pressed home his advantage. "The Baron's never taught, not even the one fledgling he has made. He's likely not very adept."
"What, exactly, would this relationship entail?" she asked suspiciously.
Ah! thought Adrian. I am getting through!
