A summons (Noah and Ai)

When she noticed it was Noah himself at the door Ai bowed deeper. “It’s my pleasure Vandervoort-sensei. Thank you.” She stood erect and stepped in next to him, making sure she was clear of the door before she stopped and turned to him. She expected something, anything other then the Vampire Elder himself to answer the door. She got a much better look at him from the one she’d gotten at the party. The buzzing was only light, nothing like the clubs or the Tea House, especially not the dinner, as it had become known to her Connor and Merry. It was something she could handle, and still make photographic memories.

She studied the man smiling at her while still wearing her natural smile. He was in fact very pale. Almost white, with similarly shaded hair. His eyes were a piercing blue. Her mother once knew a person that had eyes like that. Her mother said it was because they had to much water in them. Water meant the person could find their way into and out of the most interesting things, and out of the most troublesome spots. They flowed with the times, and took each day. Ai always wondered what her brown eyes meant, did she have to much earth? Or were Asian’s by right more earthy then other people? His skin was flawless. Ai sighed… A man this gorgeous was going to make it difficult for her to concentrate.

“Of coarse. Mmm. Father always said tea made any business meeting more reasonable.” She said. “But it’s up to you of coarse. We come from very different worlds I’m sure, and it is your home.” Ai bowed her head again. She was nearly walking on pins and needles. Her mind raced about what it was that could have gotten her summoned here. On the outside she was a sea of calm. Only a telepath could know the trouble she thought she was in. She reached up and absent mindedly fingered a feathered earring, a nervous tick she’d learned from her mother.

”Thank you” Ai said to the vampire Elder as she walked behind him. The house he lived in was so different from hers, it was so… Well just different. Her house was so stark in its black and white color pallet, this definitely wasn’t that. “Mm?” she asked as he started making small talk, missing the first part. She caught plans though and shook her head. “No, I just hired a new assistant, he’s young and rash, but I think I can trust him with the shop for one night. Hopefully I don’t have to buy any new equipment when I get back.” She giggled pleasantly and wondered if she should warn Noah that there was a vampire out there turning people into vampires without training them to keep their secrets.

She decided against it for the time. He hadn’t summoned her because of little Connor, she was sure. The moment of fog at the dinner returned to her mind as they stepped into the office. Ai bit her tongue, trying not to burst out with apologies about that night again. She didn’t even know what happened… She might have said something good for all she knew… And it might not have had anything to do with him at all. She smiled at him as he ushered her to a seat. She set her purse against the foot of her chair and sat down.

“Well, I’m trying,” she said playfully, a grin on her face. “But a summons from the esteemed Elder tends to put a rock at the bottom of a young vampire’s gut.” She winked at him and glanced at the book on the desk. “Are you into self-help Vandervoort-sensei? I think I know a couple of wonderful Psychic Life-Coaches… One back in New York even specializes in the supernatural world.” Her attempt at small talk this time. Was that old model even still a life-coach? Ai shrugged the thought away and looked at Noah expectantly.

She made an “Oh” face, but looked at Noah and smiled at him. “I’m a designer Vandervoort-sensei. If I didn’t pay attention to detail, I would be any near able to afford two condos in two of the most expensive cities in this country.” She winked at him playfully. She took her tea and sipped at it and tilted her head at him.

Ai perked up at his comment that he needed her for a task. She bowed at the waist again. “I’ll do my best.” She listened closely. Then frowned… “What happened to the boy Eli?” she asked. Ai sat back and pulled at her tea cup. She stared down at the liquid in the cup and took a long sip of it while Noah walked to the window. “Vandervoort-sensei…” she started then stopped again once he’d spoken to her.

“I’m glad that you’ve chosen me for the job, but…” she stopped again struggling mentally. She finally sighed, clicked the cup back on the desk and looked at him. Her face was straight and passive. It was a trait that her father taught her a long time ago when he learned that she was doing the American woman thing and going to school. She stared at Noah. “How do you want me to do this.” Her tone was a pure business tone. She began to see a problem with the old Roman way of thinking. Being beautiful on the outside wasn’t always sufficient for internal beauty. “I won’t attack them or their friends,” she stated simply.

”Of coarse.” Ai held her hands up in surrender about the Eli comment. She hadn’t realized he was quite so touchy about the whole thing. Then he asked her about her feeling about the humans. She scoffed. “Please. The only people I’ve met in this Spirits forsaken city is yourself, or coarse, Kai and another young vampire, and a young witch… She however is in with the Brother’s Trinity, and her father’s one of us. Perhaps we could talk to her, get her to sit the boys down and listen to reason… Though that may take so sacrifice on our part to get them to lay off…” She waved her hand, and her tone suddenly became sarcastic. “Like getting certain high ranked members to lay off the killing and hypocritical attitude?” She rolled her eyes. “Sorry, Trenton’s really under my skin… And I’ve only met him the once…”

She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the concept, it made her feel happy thinking about it. She closed her eyes and tried to picture the rest of him. He was pale, that was good. Paler was better. Then a thought came to mind… He had turned that boy to try and save the race instead of talking to the Trinity Brothers… Ai sighed and rang the bell for entrance. He’d turned that boy… Ai wondered how the boy was doing, she suspected she should drop in on him, let him know that not all Vampires were worth killing. Though certain others were. The talk on the vine was that Trenton had a pet human now… Next thing you know Kai was going to start agranging flowers.

Ai shook her head. “It’s not… That I physically can’t… But… Well you haven’t answered my question. Do you want me to sit down with the Brothers Trinity and tell them either lay off or war, or do you want me to take one out?” She waved her hands. “I grew up looking at my father’s war wounds when he’d come to visit us in New York. He fought in the War on Japan’s side… We were on opposite sides then weren’t we?” she stopped thinking, perhaps it was a good thing that her parents were dead… They wouldn’t see her batting her eyelashes at a beautiful Dutch boy… “Any way, they taught me, and I still hold the concept dear, that fighting is a thing left for savages. As a Vampire, I think we’re above that. Demon or no Demon. I won’t fight unless I’m forced.” She waved her hand. “You’re much older then I am my self aren’t you Sempai? You’ve seen the horrors that war can bring over and over… You can’t talk about the history of humanity without talking about its wars. Don’t you understand?

”Are you an idiot?” she asked bluntly. Her face was awash in awe. “Just because wool is useless in the spring and summer seasons doesn’t mean it’s completely useless!” She shook her head. “Don’t you understand. You have to use all the resources available, otherwise you risk failing, epically! I’m talking Turnus and Aeneas epic fail here.” She shook her head. “How did you get chosen not being willing to use what all your people have at their disposal.”

She shook her head and looked at him. “The time for talk is never to far gone. It can only fail. If we sit down with them and Eli and Merry we can work out a deal. You can turn them to your advantage. You can set them to kill anyone who would reveal our kind to the humans and save the race on two fronts!” Ai reached across her to grab Noah’s hand. She hoped that the touch would help him.

Ai shook her head at Noah. “Does it matter Sempai? They obviously thought they were. What we can do for them is nothing. They’re dead, it’s the end for them. But now, we could save others if you just sit down and talked to them.” She shook her head. “If you want me to kill them you will.” She shook her head again. “You’re wrong. We can talk to them. We can make them listen to reason.” Ai waited for him to answer her. “The dead are dead. Do your work for the living now.”

He let her speak, but she sensed turmoil underneath. It was almost like she could hear something through the buzz. It sounded like him saying something about weakness. She continued to try and make her point, but he stopped her cold. His shout stopped her dead. One moment she looked concerned the next she inhaled and her face became a stone. She could be a cold vampire when she needed. “It’s not that I’m not ready for it, Elder,” she said the word like it was a mock title. “It’s that I don’t believe the time has come for it. If our first conclusion is violence every time we become no better then the demons.” She stood up and smoothed her tomato colored pants. She removed a string from them, like she was talking about how she made them. “And we are far better then they in my opinion.”

Ai turned to go, making sure to grab her purse. She was almost at the door when he stopped her. “Of coarse, Noah-san. Please feel free to call on me again. I hope soon I can be of service to you.” She gripped the door handle and turned. As the door opened Ai sighed and looked back. “You only come off as weak when you do nothing at all Noah-san. Words captured half of Europe for Hitler. Words ended the Russian Empire just years ago. Violence is not the only means that the powerful have.” As she walked out the door she reminded him, “As I grew up, McCarthy could end a person’s life just by looking at his grocery list while talking to them. As long as we have conciseness we have power in our state, as long as we have conciseness we are alive.”

She was out the door after that. Ai stopped at his front door and sighed. She looked back at his office and contemplated waltzing back in there and making him listen to reason. But she held back. She had a fledgling in her office that needed watching, she couldn’t spend all night arguing with a gorgeous man who needed a serious reality check. She suspected if she did, that they might either kill each other or screw each other. She thought about poor Eli for a moment. “Kill,” she muttered just as she opened the outer door for herself.