Her gaze was steady on me. "You remind me a great deal of someone."
I shifted in my seat. "Oh, yeah? Do I really want to know?"
Her lips curled. "You remind me of myself."
"Really?"
Her gaze moved down and then back up as if she was appraising my value on the open market. "Some will see a stubborn woman and believe she is an inconvenience. But I see something different. I see someone who knows what she wants. A woman of decisiveness.
With a strength of spirit. There are many vampires I have met over the years, Sarah. Many female vampires. There has only been one master vampire who happens to be female because the rest have succumbed to weakness at the hands of a hunter."
I blinked. "You?"
She nodded. "It takes a great deal more than luck to have lived as long as I have. I had my doubts about you, Sarah. At first glance I had to agree with Barry's assessment. You amused me, and I thought you were an interesting diversion for Thierry, but that was all.
And though it has only been a very short time, all things considered, I feel that I must re-
evaluate my opinion of you. I don't believe you are interested in my husband only for self-
serving reasons."
"I'm not," I said quickly.
"No, you're not." She tilted her beautiful face to the side. "You truly love him."
I nodded. My throat felt tight. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. One should never be sorry for falling in love." Her eyes got that faraway look. "Because of Marcellus, I know what true love feels like. It is all-encompassing. It is obsession. It can be utter pain and absolute bliss."
I nodded. "That about sums it up."
There was a slight crease between her eyebrows as she concentrated on me. "I have never felt that with Thierry. That deep love. He has never caused my heart to be elated at his presence. Nor has he ever caused my heart to break. After Marcellus's death, my heart cooled to all others. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I have lived for so long. My head has not been turned by emotion. I have been able to make decisions based on survival, not because of a need for romance."
I didn't exactly know what to say to that so I said nothing at all and took another sip of my coffee.
Her gaze was still focused on me. "It is a mystery, is it not?"
"What?"
"Love. The world around us finds it so easy to hate each other. There is hate bleeding from every part of the earth. But love can heal all. Why is it so difficult to accept that?"
"You got me."
She licked her lips and played absently with the rim of her untouched latte. "Barry told me something else. Something I found most interesting indeed."
"What's that?"
"He believes Thierry loves you in return."
I swallowed a gulp of coffee so quickly that it burned my throat. "He actually said that?
Barry?"
She nodded. "That gives me great pause. For as long as I've known my husband, I have never known him to show deep emotion for anything. In fact, I thought he was impervious to such a thing. I found that to be as great a strength as it was a disappointment. That I did not love him didn't mean that I didn't wish for him to love me. It is a power a woman has—the love of a man. Her greatest power. For to have the love of a powerful man is to wield that power at your whim."
I shook my head. "I don't want to wield any power. Seriously. Not exactly a hobby of mine."
She took a breath in and let it out, and then a smile replaced her serious expression. She took a twenty-dollar bill out of her wallet and placed it on the table. "It has been a pleasant conversation, my dear. We must do this again while I'm in town. Now, I shall retire to my suite for the remainder of the evening."
"But you didn't even eat your croissant."
She smiled. "I don't eat, Sarah. But there is no reason why it shouldn't appear as if I can."
I stood up at the same time she did and was about to say something else when she leaned toward me to air kiss both of my cheeks.
"Son soir, mon amie."
I followed her out onto the sidewalk where she was able to summon a taxi with an elegant wave of her hand.
"So what does this mean?" I asked, now smiling at how well our conversation had turned out. "Are you going to sign the annulment?"
She turned to face me. "Of course not."
My smile dropped away. "You're not? But I thought you understood. I thought you believed that Thierry and I are in love and want to be together."
She patted my face as one might do with a slow child who didn't understand why she couldn't sit on the family dog. "I told you before, my dear, love has very little to do with a successful marriage. It is much more than that."
"But—"
"No, no. Listen to me. I understand your feelings. You and Thierry should be together as much as you like. You have my blessing to be as happy as is possible. But my marriage shall not end over such a small thing as a ten-week relationship. It simply cannot be."
I frowned. "Look, if this is about money, I'm sure Thierry can arrange some sort of alimony to keep you in the style you are accustomed to, or however that works."
She opened the back door of the taxi that now idled at the curb and looked over her shoulder. The amusement in her eyes was vast. "My dear, I am the one with all the money in our marriage. Thierry's finances have dwindled of late because of the fortune he has lost from losing so many nightclubs in town. His holdings in other cities have also burned to the ground. Due to the secret nature of owning vampire-related establishments, none of that property was properly insured. To my knowledge, all he has left of his personal fortune is what he will make from the sale of Haven. It is a good thing that it sold; otherwise it would have soon gone out of business anyhow."
I felt stunned by that. "I don't believe it."
She smiled. "If anyone would be getting money from our marriage ending, it would be him. But since that is not an option, all is well with the world. You see? This is the way it must be. Good night, my dear."
She got into the cab and closed the door. It drove away from the curb. I watched it fade into the distance until I couldn't see it anymore.
Well, that went really well.
Thierry was almost broke? When the hell did that happen? And why hadn't he said anything to me?
She was probably wrong. I mean, didn't he have a ton of cash in his pocket just the other night? Besides, how could a nearly seven-hundred-year-old vampire not have a huge nest egg just waiting for any potential financial difficulties?