Vampire - Blood Red Part 2

"Absolutely," Heidi said, introducing herself. "I'm Heidi Weiss, and I'm about to be married. I'd love some advice."

The woman nodded, but her expression said that she read in Heidi's polite words the simple fact that she didn't really believe in what she was doing. It was all for fun.

"I'm Deanna Marin," Deanna said, stepping forward. "And this is Lauren Crow."

The woman arched a brow slightly, studying Lauren. "Crow?"

"I've been told that my great-grandfather was Cherokee," Lauren said, taking the woman's hand. There was strength in her grip.

It offered a strange a.s.surance.

"I, too, have Cherokee blood. We have the same green eyes."

"So we do," Lauren agreed, though she wasn't sure green eyes came from the Cherokee part of her background.

"You're tall...five-ten?"

"Around there. Another grandfather was from the Orkney Islands. A big tall guy, so I was told. Some Norse, some Scots."

"Ah, and thus you are redheaded."

"I like to think auburn."

The woman smiled. Lauren had to admit, she liked her, but more than ever, she didn't want a reading, didn't want to know what the future supposedly held. She wanted to ask the woman to have a drink with them, instead.

"I like to think I am not turning gray. I'm Susan," the woman said.

Heidi started to giggle. "I'm so sorry," she apologized quickly. "It's just so...normal." Susan offered a slight smile in return. "Life is normal, the cycle of life is normal, the air we breathe is normal. So many things are normal, including much that we don't understand yet."

"You have a beautiful face," Lauren heard herself blurt out.

Susan inclined her head slightly, acknowledging the compliment. When she lifted her eyes again, she smiled. "You're artists?"

"I'm a graphic designer, actually," Deanna said. "Heidi and Lauren can draw anything in the world, though. They're fabulous."

"And you'd like to sketch me?" Susan asked, looking at Lauren.

"I'd love to."

"That's not why we're here, though," Heidi said.

"Ah, yes, the future," Susan said. She lifted her hands. "What will it be? Would you like a reading of your palm? Or shall we see what's in the cards? And then, of course, there is always the crystal ball."

"We should each do something different," Deanna suggested.

"Tarot cards," Heidi said.

"I'll take a palm reading," Deanna determined.

Lauren shrugged. "Crystal ball."

Susan nodded, indicating several small fold-up chairs inside the tent. "Lauren, you are welcome to sketch. I'll begin with the bride."

Lauren always carried a small sketch pad in her handbag, but she wondered how Susan knew that, and she was slightly disturbed.

Or slightly more disturbed, if she were being honest Then she told herself that Susan already knew they were artists. Guessing that she carried a sketch pad was just a logical a.s.sumption. No doubt most people who did this kind of thing for a living learned how to a.s.sess people, how to read a great deal in a few words and intuit where to go from there.

Deanna had unfolded the little wooden chairs. She sat on one side of Heidi, while Lauren backed her chair away a bit and took out her sketchbook. As she sat, watching Susan instruct Heidi on how to choose her cards, she could hear the sounds around them. Music in the distance, coming from the bars. People talking, then stopping to ooh and aah at the artwork available on the street. Across from them, near the Cathedral, a lone flutist had set down his cap, and now he performed a plaintive and beautiful tune.

She looked up at the sky. Clouds still rode heavy over the moon, like a red curtain in the air.

She studied Susan. The woman was soft spoken. Elegant. Not at all what she had expected. Her pencil moved over the paper.

She drew the lines first, then filled in the shades and shadows. Finally she added background, the greenery around the Square, the sidewalk, the tent, the statue of Andrew Jackson rising far behind Susan's back.

"Ugh! What does that mean?" Heidi asked, drawing Lauren's attention to the table, where Heidi had turned up a card with a skeleton.

"It's...death, isn't it?" Heidi asked.

Susan shook her head. "It often signifies change, an ending so that there can be a new beginning. You are about to end your single life. You will start into a new life." "Whew," Heidi murmured. Though she spoke lightly, Lauren thought she was seriously relieved, and she felt a new wave of discomfort.

"What's that?" Deanna asked, pointing to another card.

"Love." Susan looked at Heidi. "You can rest a.s.sured in this-your fiance loves you very much. You are all he has ever wanted, all he could ever need in life."

"Oh," Heidi breathed happily. "Ditto."

"Yes, I can see," Susan murmured.

"Will the wedding go off without a hitch?" Heidi asked.

"No wedding goes off without a hitch," Susan said dryly as she scooped up the cards, patting them back into a neat pile. "But you are deeply loved, and you love deeply in return."

"Thank you." Heidi rose and looked at Lauren with an expression on her face that plainly said, See? Nothing to be afraid of.

Lauren smiled back weakly, wondering if Heidi had really been listening. Susan hadn't said anything specific about Heidi's wedding at all-she had just generalized about weddings. And she had said the skeleton card often indicated a change.

Then again, Lauren told herself, maybe she was the one hearing words that weren't being said.

"On to the palm," Deanna said. She and Heidi changed seats. As Deanna started to sit down, she glanced at Lauren's drawing and frowned.

"What is it?" Lauren asked.

"Uh, nothing, I guess. It's a great drawing. It's just that...well, you made the skeleton card the focus of it."

"I did not!" Lauren protested and looked down at the sketch. It was one of her best, she thought. She'd captured not just a two- dimensional image but given it great depth. She'd found the strange and arresting beauty that was Susan's. She'd caught the atmosphere of the Square. You could look at the drawing and almost hear music.

And yet...

Deanna was right. Somehow she had detailed the tarot card down to the finest line so that it unerringly drew the viewer's eye and became the focus of the picture.

"Don't draw me," Deanna whispered to her.

"Okay," Lauren a.s.sured her quietly in return.

Susan was watching them both. Deanna noticed and gave her a rueful smile. "Lauren was engaged once."

"And her young man died," Susan said. Wow, d.a.m.ned good guess, Lauren thought irritably. Though it was a fifty-fifty shot. Either they'd broken up or he had died. She knew that she was just one of many young women of her day. She'd fallen in love with a soldier. He'd gone to war. They'd emailed for six months, and then she'd stopped receiving replies.

Until the army lieutenant had come to her house.

She'd gone through it all. The devastation, the anger. And the healing. She didn't feel that she had any terrible psychological hang-ups. She just wasn't actively looking to find love again. But if the right person came along...

Would she be ready?

She really didn't know.

"I'm so sorry," Susan said to Lauren gravely. She was clearly sincere, making Lauren feel vaguely guilty, though she wasn't quite sure why.

"Thank you," she said, ignoring her uncomfortable feelings. "But, hey, that's the past, and we're looking to the future, right? What does Deanna's hand say to you, Susan?"

Susan studied Deanna's palm and looked up gravely.

"What?" Deanna asked impatiently.

"So far, it has told me that you do not like housework at all," Susan said.

Even Deanna laughed. "Okay, I suck. Seriously, I'm really bad at it, so I gave it up."

"Don't worry, she has a wonderful woman who comes in twice a week," Heidi a.s.sured Susan.

Susan traced a finger down a line in Deanna's hand.

"The life line, right?" Heidi asked.

Susan shrugged.

"It doesn't look very long," Deanna said worriedly.

Susan shook her head, looking at Deanna. "Often, things are what we make them. The line...it's like the card. It might not mean anything bad at all. It signifies change. A change in life. Heidi is getting married."

"I'm not even dating steadily," Deanna said.

"You're a beautiful woman," Susan said, sidestepping.

"What else do you see?"

Susan pointed. "Here...artistic success. You are clever and determined." Susan looked up and stared hard at Deanna. "When you set your mind to something, you can make it happen. When we fail, far too often, it is because we're afraid. Remember, you have the talent and the will. Don't be put off by circ.u.mstances that seem dire. You are very strong. And there will be changes."

"Will I ever get married?" Deanna asked.

Susan shrugged. "Your palm is not telling me. I can say that you are pa.s.sionate and giving, and that you are quite capable of creating fire, pa.s.sion-and love-around you."

"I like that," Deanna said.

Lauren looked at her, trying to avoid Susan's eyes. Lots of people could have said that to you, her stern gaze said.

"Your turn," Deanna said.

"Ah, the crystal ball for our talented young artist," Susan murmured. She didn't move, though, and her eyes were downcast. "I think Susan is tired," Lauren said.

"Oh no, you are not getting out of this!" Heidi insisted.

"May I see more fully?" Susan asked.

Lauren handed her the drawing she had done.

"You are very kind," she murmured. "You have caught me on paper with great beauty."

"I want to work more on it. I'll send you a copy when I'm done," Lauren told her.

Susan nodded and handed back the drawing. Lauren flipped her sketchbook closed and returned it to her purse.

"It seems like you've had a busy night. You look tired. You really don't have to do another reading," Lauren said.

"She's trying to get out of this," Heidi explained.

Susan stood. She wasn't smiling. "I think that we must look into the crystal ball."

Heidi and Deanna started to rise.

"There is only room in the tent for one-I'm sorry. The crystal ball is quite different from the palm and the cards."

Susan waited gravely, and at last Lauren followed her into the tent, the sounds from the street and the night receding. As she sat in the chair opposite Susan, the world outside all but disappeared.

"Your fiance, he was a soldier?" Susan asked, staring into the crystal ball.

Startled, Lauren looked at her. "Yes."

"I'm very sorry, truly. But...there are those who believe there are certain fates we cannot avoid, and others who believe we have a hand in our own futures. Perhaps many people lived because your young man died," she said softly.

"Thank you. I like to think that," Lauren murmured.

"You don't date much."

"I've dated."

Susan smiled enigmatically.