"I'll contact her father tomorrow and make arrangements," Weldon said.
"Does this mean a shotgun wedding?" I asked Glen quietly a little later. Kellee was going up and down the brightly lit aisles of the pharmacy, buying an armload of tissues and other things. Winkler was frowning the entire time he followed her around and then paid for everything, of course.
"In a manner of speaking, yes," Glen whispered back. "If her father had anyone picked out for her, there's compensation to be made. And now, because of the law, we'll have to put up with her until she has the second one." Glen wasn't looking forward to that, I could tell. I just patted his back in sympathy and headed toward the car. I didn't get any more phone calls during the rest of the trip into Taos, which was fine with me. I felt bad enough as it was.
"How did you know?" Weldon asked me later while he was preparing for bed.
"The smell," I said. "I knew Kathy Jo was pregnant, too, when she got married."
"You knew that," Weldon was turning it over in his mind. "We can smell it after a while, but it takes a little longer than this." He raked fingers through his hair.
I didn't tell him about the other things my nose told me. That I could tell who somebody's parent or parents were, whether they were human, vampire or werewolf. That I could sniff out their age, too. I had Weldon pegged around eighty or ninety. No wonder he liked that forty year-old woman. She was more than likely half his age. More power to her, in my opinion. Where do people get off telling others that love is only for the young and pretty? Everybody needs it. Everybody.
Kellee had a conversation with her father, as had Weldon. Kellee's dad was probably hopping with glee when he found out who'd gotten his little girl pregnant. Her dad was an important man in Boise, but Winkler was important everywhere. Kellee was in a better mood when we went to dinner with the new Packmaster and his Second that night. Winkler, on the other hand, hardly spoke at all. He came to find me later after Kellee was asleep.
"I shouldn't have let her call you," he said when we sat down in the hotel hallway outside Weldon's room with our backs to the wall. My knees were pulled up to my chest and I was leaning my chin on them.
"You'd have found out sooner or later," I said.
"Go ahead, call me an idiot," he sighed.
"No sense telling somebody something they already know," I muttered.
"Now we have to have two children, Lissa. I don't know if I can survive that. I was ready to send her home, she was getting so bitchy, and now this happens."
"Winkler, she would have been the last person I'd have picked for you," I said. "Leigh Williams would have been a great match for you. She was in love with somebody else but I get the idea that he's not the one she's going to get."
"Yeah. Maybe I f**ked this up all the way around. If Kellee hadn't been there, well…" he didn't finish his sentence.
"Kellee is a little on the imperious side and it will only get worse, I can almost guarantee it, Winkler. I hope you find some way to love her—something to love about her—because you're stuck now."
"I know. Lissa, in a perfect world, you and I," he left it hanging.
"We don't live in anything close to a perfect world, Winkler, remember?" I elbowed him a little. "Gavin isn't going to let me get away. That's all there is to it." I straightened up a little and fiddled with my engagement ring. It had probably cost a fortune; I couldn't find anything like it on the internet and the diamonds alone would be really expensive. I'd seen Kellee eyeing it on more than one occasion. There were times, especially when Gavin started cursing over the phone, that I would have gladly handed it off to her and walked away if I could. I couldn't. The Council would just declare me rogue again, hunt me down again and this time I would die. No question about that.
We talked a little more in the hallway before Winkler went back to Kellee. I was grateful I didn't have to see her sprawled all over his bed. I sighed, let myself into the Grand Master's room, picked up the novel I'd been reading (I can read just fine with little or no light at all) and resumed my guard duty.
Taos went like clockwork. Kellee even got to go skiing with the Packmaster and his wife. Winkler went too, during the day of course. Weldon and Glen begged off. Glen was developing a sense of humor, too, teasing me while I drank my meal after waking. "Gotta get those corpuscles," he'd say. I just swatted at him, put the blood I couldn't finish back in the cooler and went to clean up. Kellee still wasn't speaking to me, which was great as far as I was concerned. But if she caught Winkler looking anywhere near my direction, she made sure she got his attention, one way or the other.
We headed toward Santa Fe on Wednesday and my skin was already itching the minute they unzipped my bag on the way. What shocked me most, however, was what waited for me at the hotel. Merrill was there when we arrived.
He, Weldon and I went to the hotel restaurant where Merrill and I both ordered an obligatory meal. Merrill explained that he and the Council weren't taking any chances and that I would be left behind while Merrill performed vampire guard duty for the Grand Master during his stay in Santa Fe. To me, that meant they might be expecting trouble. I didn't care that Merrill had come to protect the Grand Master through this one because it worried me, too. And Merrill could put up with Kellee's pettiness while he was at it. Merrill had a room on another floor, but I was still keeping watch over the Grand Master at night for some reason. During the dinner and confirmation, Merrill would be there instead of me.
I leafed through pamphlets and tourist brochures while they went to dinner Thursday evening, wishing I had time to go out and visit some of the landmarks nearby. An old Adobe church had caught my eye, as had a few other things. Time had gotten away from me, too, and I realized (with a bit of shock) that it was February eighteenth, a month and a half after the anniversary of my turning and my husband Don's death. I didn't know what to think at first, before going to my laptop and powering it up, thinking I might be able to order flowers and arrange to have them delivered to Don's grave or something. There is actually a service that will do just that for you. Go figure. I ordered an arrangement, paid with my credit card and then answered email. Franklin had sent something so I wrote a quick answer and sent it. Then I amused myself, watching a little television and reading until they all came back from dinner. Don't get me wrong, my skin still itched; I just didn't know what to do about it.
* * *
"Stay inside the hotel," Merrill told me as they prepared to leave for the confirmation the following evening. I nodded, even though there wasn't compulsion with that order. "You may not follow us," he added, compulsion heavy in his voice. I blinked at him. And then blinked again. The compulsion slid right off my brain like a raindrop on a window. Merrill's compulsion was struggling to stay with me; it just couldn't, flying away from my mind like an exhaled breath. No way was I going to tell him about it. Not right then, anyway, since they were all loaded up and ready to go. I just nodded like a good girl and waved as they took off. Was it because I was older, now, as a vampire? I had no idea why it hadn't worked and Merrill's compulsions were stronger than anyone else's I'd encountered, including Wlodek's commands. Walking back to Weldon's hotel room, I pondered the situation, considering what it might mean and how it might affect my future. The whole thing was truly strange and I was about to call Gavin to ask him about it, but other things drew my attention first.