Page 5 of The Dancer and the Dark
Tenzin sighed. “I sure hope the plans on the roof are still there. Ben needed them.”
It was a fifty-fifty chance Tenzin even remembered she’d been the one to take them up there. Chloe closed her eyes and made a mental note to ask Ben to retrieve them when he woke.
At first Tenzin’s absentminded nature had confused Chloe. The ancient wind vampire was one of the most feared creatures in the immortal world. She was a brilliant tactician and could draw plans of a ninth-century Han settlement from memory or translate a document from Sanskrit to Mandarin with ease. She knew her way around ancient and modern cities, could plan a full-blown military campaign with five hours’ notice, and also knew how to knit.
A few months after Chloe had begun working as Tenzin’s day assistant, she’d realized something: Tenzin’s brain was full.
Five thousand years of information had simply left no room for trivial things like relocated maps, her email password, or which dry cleaner was holding Ben’s favorite coat.
So in addition to online research, day errands, and meeting humans, Chloe’s duties expanded to acting as Tenzin’s peripheral brain.
She glanced at the next thing on her list. “Okay, have you replied to your father yet? He’s invited both you and Ben to a birthday celebration for…” Chloe looked at her notes. “Erden?”
Tenzin’s head swung toward her. “Erden? I didn’t know Erden was still alive.”
“He’s hanging in there. Turning one hundred, and there’s supposed to be a party in Penglai.”
“When? We should go to that. I believe he’s my father’s oldest human servant.”
“It’s a few weeks before Christmas here, and I know Giovanni and Beatrice said they’d be in LA this year instead of Rome, so I’m assuming Ben will want to—”
“Ben will want to be with Sadia, but we should have enough time to go to the party too.” Tenzin sighed. “I’ll write my father. Can you arrange a messenger for tomorrow night?”
“I can.” There were couriers whose only job was to safely transmit formal correspondence for vampire clients; Chloe had several in her address book. She looked at the next point on her list. “Gavin is home tomorrow night, so you remember I’m taking the night off, right?”
“Where is he coming from?”
“Uh…” Chloe checked that off. She wasn’t going to remind Tenzin a dozen times; if she forgot, Ben would remind her. At least Ben’s brain wasn’t full. “New Orleans. He’s in New Orleans tonight, meeting with Marie-Hélène.”
Tenzin narrowed her eyes. “Marie-Hélène?”
“Yes, she and Gavin are doing… a thing. I don’t actually know, but there’s some kind of joint business thing he wanted to talk to her about.”
“Interesting.”
Chloe wondered if Tenzin knew any more about Marie-Hélène’s business than Audra did. Sometimes she thought Audra kept a closed mouth because she didn’t know how much Gavin wanted Chloe to know.
Irritating? A little, but Chloe guessed it was fair. Audra was security, not Chloe’s informant.
“What does Marie-Hélène do?” Chloe asked Tenzin. “I know Gavin refers to her as his mentor. Does she own clubs?”
Tenzin cocked her head. “Of a sort.”
Chloe knew there were some vampires who kept nothing but glorified human farms where vampires could drink their fill, but she didn’t think Gavin would consider a person who ran a club like that his mentor.
“A sort of… social club?”
Tenzin brightened. “That’s an excellent way to classify them. When Marie-Hélène was human, she was the most successful madam in New Orleans. Her brothels were legendary.”
Chloe blinked. “Okay. Well, I guess you could classify a brothel as a social club.”
“And very egalitarian too. She took women and men of all races and ages. I never went to one, but I heard about them. They were not typical brothels.”
“I have no idea what a typical brothel would be, so—”
“Oh, there is a great variety of brothels.” Tenzin was obviously interested in the subject. “As I’m sure you know, sex work is one of the oldest professions in the world.”
“You are old enough to know.”
