"Hel-lo, Adrian," sang a brash female voice when Professor Talbot picked up the phone. He was startled for a moment that someone he didn't know was so cheerfully familiar. Then he placed the voice. He hadn't heard it in a long time, not since before the invention of the instrument that was conducting it now.
"Hello, Tamara," he replied in his deadest voice. He dropped into the chair behind his desk.
"How are you, Adrian? How're things up in Toronto?"
She wanted something from him -- why else would she call him out of the blue? Adrian tried to divine what it was from her seemingly innocent questions. He hoped it wasn't the vampiric principality of Toronto.
"Are you there?"
"I'm here. I'm fine. Toronto's cold. What do you want?"
Tammi chuckled. Try as he might Adrian could not offend her, and it irked him. She acted as if she was above vanity and powerlust. She didn't claim any territory, didn't have a court of get -- in fact, rumor had it she had no get.
"I don't want anything, Adrian. Relax. I just called to catch up. It's been a long time."
Not long enough, he thought.
When he said nothing Tammi gave a dramatic sigh. "You're too suspicious. I just have your best interest at heart."
Adrian didn't say that he doubted she had a heart. "What is it you want to know?" Information was her particular stock-in-trade in the vampire community. "Just tell me and I'll help you out if I can. Then we can get off the phone. I'm very busy, I have midterms to mark."
"Still playing professor, I see. Well, how was your trip to Ohio?"
"Using the Baron as your spy?" Adrian quipped back. He put his feet up on the desk and leaned back, doing his best to look bored, even though she couldn't appreciate his performance.
Tammi tsk-tsked. "You have the wrong impression if you think I spy on other vampires, Adrian. And a real ego problem if you think I'd bother spying on you."
"So I went to Ohio." He twirled the phone cord around his finger. "It's an open border."
"All borders are open to us, one way or another. Well, I just called to give you a bit of advice if you should decide to visit that state again."
"Advice?" Surely that meant a warning. He hadn't thought that Tammi asking the Baron to look in on Evelyn signified that much interest on her part.
"Next time you run into Evelyn or her get I hope you'll be careful not to bite them."
"Bite them?" said Adrian, as if the thought had never and would never occur to him. He unwound the cord from his finger.
But Tammi wasn't calling to debate what he may or may not have done on his trip.
"Evelyn was made from a bloodline that's poisonous. Taste it and you'll think that silver dagger Sofi got you with was no more than a pinprick. It might not kill you, but you wouldn't be in any condition to escape the sun."
"You're bluffing," scoffed Adrian. "I've never heard of such a thing."
Poisonous blood? Hadn't Evelyn been afraid of that?
"Of course you haven't heard of it. There've been very few get, and Evelyn's bloodmaster wiped out the rest of the line but two before you graced with world with your presence." Even her insults were delivered with good humor. "But I forgot! You don't know who her bloodmaster was, do you? You're probably the only vampire in both Americas who doesn't. Even your bloodling knows."
"Bloodling?" said Adrian innocently. "I don't have any bloodlings. You're mistaken."
"I think his name is..." there was a pause and Adrian heard pages being rifled, "Jacob Fowler."
"Never heard of him," Adrian lied.
Tammi chuckled. "Played football. Anthropology major -- that's how you met him, isn't it? You want his address?"
Adrian put his feet back on the floor. "No," he said faintly.
"Don't worry, he's in no danger from me," she replied, smugly satisfied by the reaction she'd gotten. "And speaking of bloodlings, I wouldn't try sampling from Evelyn's either. His blood is probably poisonous as well."
"Probably?" Probably?
"I'm not really omniscient," she chuckled.
"Obviously not." Adrian recovered his hauteur. Not only did the Great Tamara admit of uncertainty, but she was wrong. "Evelyn's pet is not a bloodling."
"Oh, but he will be. You can mark my word on it, Adrian Talbot."
"I thought you disapproved of fledglings making fledglings."
"Is it my place to interfere with the course of true love?" she said with sarcastic sweetness.
"Hmph."
"So, getting back to Evelyn's bloodmaster...."
"Oh, do tell me, I'm dying to know," said Adrian with theatrically grand sarcasm.
"Sebastien Arnaud," answered Tammi, measuring each syllable out.
"Arnaud? Arnaud's a myth!" laughed Adrian. His estimate of the Great Tamara was rapidly declining. "He's like the vampire boogie man that you use to keep the fledglings close to you."
"I'm a myth," she answered very seriously. "Arnaud was very real. You ought to ask your friend, the Baron."
Adrian groaned inwardly. "What does he have to do with it?"
"Oh, Adrian, you're so out of touch," she laughed, and Adrian recognized her light tone for the acting job it was. "I suppose you have no idea who gave Arnaud the true death."
Evelyn? The Baron? "No," admitted Adrian. He was starting to feel tired.
"That little pet you had your teeth in."
Adrian froze. He'd figured, when he found the stake, that the boy had lost his nerve. Threatening a vampire was one thing; carrying through another. But Joe had already killed one vampire, and a dangerous, powerful one at that.
"Am I...?" Adrian hated to ask Tamara anything. He didn't want to acknowledge that he might need her help. "Am I in danger?"
"Well, I suppose you're safe if you stay out of Ohio," she replied brightly.
That was no help. Adrian switched ears as he considered his choice of words. It was hard to get Tammi to answer questions, better phrase them right the first time. "Was this call for my benefit, or theirs?"
"I just want to make sure that all the players know what cards are in the deck."
"You've given me information that could be very useful if I decided to end that bloodline."
"I thought you could read between the lines better than that," scolded Tammi. "I've warned you away from them. I've shown you that I'm taking an interest in this fledgling."
Adrian thought of telling her off, of asking why he should be worried about her. But he knew he had lost that game. She had Jake's address, and if that wasn't a veiled threat, what was?
"Why?" he asked.
"Ah, well it's been a very long time since I had any get of my own."
"Then why did you send Gideon?"
"My own reasons. Maybe I'm too old to look after fledglings," she chuckled. "But maybe I feel a certain kinship for Evelyn."
"Kinship?" Kinship!? "Are you...?"
"I ask questions, Adrian, I don't answer them." And with that the line went dead.
Adrian Talbot used with Anne Fraser's permission.