“Recently?” I pressed.
“Vampires are conceiving less, and there are rumors that old spells and potions aren’t working as well–if they work at all. It’s why the Council enacted the Rites permanently. They want to ensure that the oldest bloodlines–which still have some magic of their own–don’t die out.”
“They want babies,” I said in a hollow voice.
“Yes, it’s like being around a bunch of hopeful grandmothers all the time. When are you going to settle down? When are you going to have a baby?” she mimicked a high-pitched voice.
I tried to imagine Julian’s mother badgering him about this. It was impossible to think of Sabine, who looked far too young to even have a child Julian’s age, like a grandma.
“Wait,” I said as something occurred to me. “If vampires can have babies, why do you all look like you’re in your twenties or thirties?”
“Look closer, and you’ll find there are vampires of all ages. We age, but differently than you. A typical vampire childhood is a hundred years. Puberty lasts several hundred years. It differs a bit for any of us who are born vampires.”
“So, how old does that make you? In human years?”
“Thirtyish,” she said, sounding unconvinced of her own answer. “It’s hard for me to think in human years. They never feel like long enough.”
“I never thought much about lifetimes until my mom got sick, and then I realized how little time we have,” I told her softly.
“It’s difficult for vampires to comprehend, too. When we become attached to one of you, it feels like we lose you in the blink of an eye.” She swallowed, turning her head away. When she finally looked back at me, her eyes glistened.
I wondered whom she had lost. They must have been important to her. “If vampires are children for years, their familiar parent must die while they’re still little.” My stomach twisted. It had been hard enough to spend the last few years scared I might lose my mom. I couldn’t imagine if she’d been taken from me when I was a kid.
“Sometimes, that’s part of the marriage arrangement. After an heir has been produced, the vampire agrees to turn the familiar. But not always. Some vampires only care about producing an heir. Some familiars refuse to become vampires.”
I couldn’t decide if that made me more or less sad.
“It’s a lot to take in.” I bit my lip, wondering how I had found myself sitting in a little café in Paris talking vampire politics. “I wish I was a familiar. At least I’d know how everything works.”
“Even they aren’t fully prepared. That’s what this evening is about. The Salon du Rouge is a chance for familiars to learn more about what will be expected of them if they marry a vampire. But it’s all a chance for vampire mothers and sisters to decide if a familiar would be up to the task of being a vampire’s wife.”
“That’s what’s going on this evening!” I snatched another piece of cake up and stress ate it. But it didn’t help. “Is Sabine going to be there? Why would Julian make me go to that? He knows she’ll never approve of me, and it’s not like…”
Part of me wanted to spill all the details of my temporary relationship with Julian, but it felt like breaking a promise.
“I’m afraid you might be right,” she said gently. “Sabine is very traditional.”
“She wants Julian to get married so he can make another little vampire.” A sour taste filled my mouth. “But he doesn’t want babies.”
“You two have talked about babies?”
She seemed to have missed the important part of that information. “He just mentioned his mom wants him to get married and have a baby. He didn’t seem particularly enthused.”
“He has good reasons, even if he might need to rethink them,” she said cryptically. “I think you might be helping him rethink them, actually.”
“Me?” I nearly spilled my tea. “I doubt it. I can’t have his babies, anyway.”
“Regardless of what the Council or Sabine or anyone else thinks, a family can be made, Thea. Maybe you won’t have babies, but you two could make a lovely family.”
“From people he’s turned?” I was trying to imagine Celia as my stepdaughter. I wasn’t really sure how to feel about it.
“Or ones you choose together. The families we find are the families we keep.”
“I don’t think Julian plans to keep me.” My chest squeezed as I said it. He told me I could trust Jacqueline, and I needed someone to talk to.
She tilted her head and studied me quietly for a moment. “Why do you think that?”
“Because we have an arrangement,” I confessed. She listened as I filled her in on the story of how we met and the arrangement we’d made, and the fact that he refused to sleep with me. By the time I finished, my cheeks were burning, but she only looked amused.
“Interesting,” she said, a smile playing at her lips. “Julian has always had a soft spot for virgins, but there are rules.”
“Rules?”
“He must have forgotten to mention that.” She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Males. Yes, there are rules. Have you heard of thrall?”
“I’m not sure.”
“It’s basically when a mortal is under the influence of a vampire. Many mortals choose to be enthralled and serve our kind.”
“Why would they do that?” That had to be the equivalent of choosing to be a walking blood bag. I didn’t understand.
“Money and power. We try not to get involved much in human affairs, but sometimes they seek us out for help.”
“So you enslave them?” I asked.
“Think of it as a magically-enforced nondisclosure agreement. The humans are always given the terms of the arrangement,” she explained.
“If they refuse?”
