After they traveled to Scranton, Alec released his charge to hunt for food. "Stay out of the southwest quadrant of the city," he cautioned Thorin, as that was where Dunder-Mifflin and most of the employees resided.
Thorin dashed off and Alec continued to Gita's trailer. It was not currently his duty; Jane supervised the actions at Dunder-Mifflin and what went into the show. He merely wanted to see for himself what happened during his two-week absence.
Gita answered to his knock. Her mouth stretched into a joyous smile. She kneeled quickly. "Signore Alec. I am glad to see you."
She glanced up quizzically, with a belated fear of retribution. Jane would have dealt her correction swiftly. But Alec indulged the unorthodox greeting. He preferred it to the stiff formality of the Volturi court. Even Jane greeted him like a stranger, and Alec found himself less able to tolerate it than in the past.
"You may stand," he said. Gita stood and ushered him in.
"I hesitate to mention this to Jane," Gita confided. "But there has been some trouble. Nothing too significant, yet."
"Show me."
Gita played a clip from the week. Ryan and Dwight were sitting at a bar. At one point, Ryan extracted a tissue from his pocket. He stared dumbfoundedly at it while Dwight identified the stain on the tissue as dried blood.
"Danica?" Alec guessed, struggling to get his voice even.
"The short version is that Danica grabbed a snack at work. She had a spot of blood on her lip and Ryan spotted it. He dabbed it with the tissue."
Alec hissed.
"I erased it from his mind immediately afterwards," Gita explained. "He did not think about it at all until he saw the tissue again. But then . . ."
She fast-forwarded the film until Ryan arrived back at the office. He left, and then hurried back in. The camera followed him to the kitchen, and showed Ryan taking one of Danica's bottles of blood.
He connected the bloody tissue to Danica.
"There is one more thing that was not caught on tape, thank goodness," Gita continued. "Ryan went to Danica's apartment after this. Danica was not there - she was at Kelly's, I think. But when Ryan was speaking to Tanya, he stared at her and suddenly said, 'You're one of them.'"
She ended the reel, and faced Alec.
"So he remembers?" Alec summed up.
"He remembers something." Gita said sorrowfully. "I erased those related thoughts again, naturally, but . . ."
"But what?" Alec growled.
"But I suspect the same thing will happen: the memories will resurface." Gita clasped her hands together as she pleaded for his forgiveness. "This has never happened before."
Alec did not blame Gita. Gita was cleaning up Danica's mess. "I'd better talk to Danica," he said. "Erase these recordings."
"Yes, signore."
"Ryan was acting weird last night," Tanya said. She had just returned for a nighttime walk.
"Was he drunk?" Danica guessed an innocuous reason.
"A little. He asked to talk to you."
Danica frowned. Funny. Ryan did not have anything urgent to say at work. He had been reticent about losing the sale the day before, but otherwise they dwelled on the same mundane topics. And Kelly's upcoming Diwali.
"He seemed normal at work today," she told Tanya.
"Maybe it was the drink then," Tanya agreed. "But last night he . . ."
Her voice died as Alec sauntered into the kitchenette.
"Continue, Tanya," he said. "Tell her what Ryan said last night."
Tanya rolled her hands into fists. She thrust her head from side to side, refusing.
"So you're back again?" Danica said, more perplexed than hostile.
"Let's keep to this subject, shall we?" Alec bared a polite grin. "Do you want to know what Ryan said?
"Sure." The way he was behaving, Danica expected Alec to childishly revoke his offer to inform her, or pull some other immature prank. Because she had spent way too much time with Michael.
"He asked Tanya if she was one of them," Alec spat out.
"One of what?"
"What do you think, Danica?"
The gravity of his accusation sank in. "He didn't mean-" Danica argued futilely.
"You've been careless, Danica." Alec paced toward her. "He knows you drink blood. At least, he did before Gita erased his memory again."
"He couldn't know." Danica protested. "Not from a drop on my lip. That could have been my blood. I could have had a nosebleed or a cut lip."
"He did not arrive at that conclusion. Instead, he thought 'vampire'. Why is that, Danica? Have you been dropping hints?"
"Of course not," Danica insisted. She propped her body forward. "Do you think I would endanger Ryan like that again?"
"You did it once."
"Kelly was going to die if I didn't do something. But I suppose that doesn't matter to you. You think I should have let her die to keep the Volturi's protocol? And if anything had prompted Ryan's suspicions, it would have been Jane issuing threats in front of him without wearing her contacts."
Alec backed down. "That didn't really happen," he denied.
"It did," Tanya said icily.
Alec paused, entertaining his doubts. "Why did she threaten you?"
Wearily, Danica responded, "The usual reasons. I can - I did handle it myself. I'm simply mentioning it to point out the hypocrisy of Jane accusing me of dropping hints when she's the one imposing her Volturi intimidation on him. But as far as Ryan knows, she's just my creepy emo cousin."
"What is emo?"
"A new trend among young people," Danica said. "I told Ryan that her red eyes were contacts."
Alec's anger dissipated. He wandered over to the kitchen counters.
"You didn't have to do that," he said. She did not have to introduce Jane as her cousin. Explain away the eyes.
"He asked. What else was on the tape?"
She had flipped the interrogation around, so that he had to answer her questions. Alec glowered, but admitted, "Nothing of significance in itself. He took your drink."
"I'll get it back," Danica volunteered.
"I'll send Gita to get it," Alec countered.
"No." Danica left unsaid that she did not trust Gita - or Alec - in Ryan's house. Alec left unsaid that he did not trust Danica to carry out the duty without submitting to her crush on the human.
"For Christ's sake, why don't you both go and keep an eye on each other?" Tanya grumbled.
They paused, both having to concede it was the best solution for this errand.
"Very well. We'll both go," Alec echoed, issuing it as if it were his command.
Danica shook her head in commiseration with Tanya.
Despite their brisk pace to the Howards' house, Danica squeezed in some conversation.
"How did you find Gita, anyway?" she asked.
"She is a security guard with the Volturi," Alec stated. "I chose her because her talent was most suited to the task."
"And she has a background in video editing?"
"No. She knew a little about video recording, but she had a quick course in the latest technology for cameras. Vampires learn these things much faster than humans."
"Is she from India?" Danica tried to ask, but Alec shushed her when they approached Ryan's house. Immediately, she glanced towards Ryan's bedroom window, which was dark.
"You've been here before," Alec commented bitterly.
Danica did not bother to acknowledge him as she shimmied up to the porch roof.
Alec zipped up the roof beside her. He let her work open the window (the screech sounded, but again went unnoticed). She ignored his disapproving sigh and slid inside.
She discovered, to her relief, that Ryan was not in his room at all. His rumpled bed was empty. She inhaled. His scent was too weak for him to be anywhere nearby.
"Does your human toy have a special hiding place?" Alec whispered.
"I don't know."
He smirked. Or at least his mouth angled slightly.
"Petulance does not become you," she advised him.
Alec chose to search the awards first. He lifted up a track trophy.
Danica parted open the first closet door. It extended out farther than she expected. The smell of water and soap hit her and she realized it was a bathroom.
Seconds later she located the bottle.
A car pulled up in the driveway. Danica heard the door open, the warning ding reminding the driver that the lights were on. Kelly's laugh carried over to the open window.
Danica emerged from the bathroom, holding up the bottle. Alec had replaced the trophy he had been examining. He plotted their exit out the window once the humans had gone inside.
"Doesn't look like anyone's home," Ryan said, meaning his parents. He helped Kelly out of the passenger seat. "Guess what that means."
Kelly giggled, though her giggles were soon muffled by her nuzzling his neck. She stumbled out, having trouble finding her footing on the dark ground with her heels. Ryan supported her while simultaneously shutting the door and locking up.
They posed on the lawn, like a two entwined figures making up a statue, while Ryan engaged an ebullient Kelly in a long kiss. Danica, watching them from the window, stiffened. It seemed forever before they began their journey towards the front door. Ryan fumbled with the keys, eliciting more giggles from Kelly. Finally, the door swung open and Ryan yanked Kelly in.
"Go," Alec urged, as Danica missed the cue to escape. He pushed at her shoulder. Danica jumped and landed lightly on the ground, crouching behind the car. Once she heard Alec land behind her, she took off toward her apartment. She did not want to stick around for Ryan and Kelly's lovemaking.
Kelly buttoned the last button on Ryan's kurkha. That was one worry Ryan ceased to dwell on: the costume Kelly had chosen for him. Clearly Kelly would understand what was appropriate Indian attire better than he would. Michael had laughed at him when he saw it, but after Kelly and Pam and Danica fawned over him, telling him how handsome he looked, Michael whined about how he wanted one too.
Kelly and Danica had not dressed yet. As Kelly had explained to Ryan - in excruciating detail - she had had a lot of difficulty finding a sari for Danica that would detract attention from her pale skin. They tried a lot of bright colors but those made her look even paler; "like a corpse" were Kelly's exact words. Ryan had yet to see the final choice, and part of him was whetted to seeing it.
And, of course, to seeing Kelly.
In the meantime, Ryan had to suffer a day of Michael's attempts to spread cultural awareness and Dwight's buddying up to him. Dwight was talking loudly about how he might hook up with someone at the Diwali party. "Maybe a hot Indian girl," Dwight kept repeating. "Because I'm single."
Like Dwight's being single was news to anyone.
Kelly came out to the main office. "Small glitch. My parents insist there's no room in the car for you. Could you get a ride with Danica or someone else from work?"
"No problem," Ryan said, fibbing a little. The Party Planning Committee had just gone over the ride arrangements and filled all the spots in Bob's van and Stanley's station wagon. It would have to be Danica, who insisted on driving herself there.
"Great." Kelly grinned. She pressed her clasped hands to her chin. "Oh, Ryan, I'm so excited!"
"So is that OK?" Kelly asked Danica in the annex. "Can you give Ryan a ride?"
Danica really shouldn't. The sun would not have set by the time she left Dunder-Mifflin, hence she avoided the big carpooling plan. She had planned to stop by Gita's trailer, which she could not do with Ryan in the car. And then there was the matter of her being alone in the car with Ryan.
Get a grip, Danica. It's just a short ride to the West Scranton High School. "Sure," she said. She would figure out the sun thing.
As for Gita, she could either put off that project for later, or call now. She had obtained video editor's number from one of the camera crew. She picked up the telephone and dialed.
Gita answered chirpily with the name of the production studio.
"Hi, Gita, it's Danica."
"Oh, hello, Danica," Gita lost her enthusiasm. Whether it was from personal dislike or professional distance (as Danica was linked to Alec, her superior) Danica could not tell.
"Hi. I was wondering if you had gotten the invitation to the Diwali party," Danica said. "Kelly said she invited the camera crew."
"I did," Gita stated. "But I cannot go."
"You could make a stop, maybe?" Danica suggested. "Later in the evening? Alec mentioned you were Hindu," (Alec mentioned no such thing) "and it might be fun to go a celebration again. I remember when my cousins started celebrating Hannukkah after I moved in with them . . .
"I appreciate the invitation, but it would be impossible." Gita interrupted stiffly. "I have to work."
"Oh," Danica knew when to back off. "Another time maybe?"
"Maybe. Goodbye." Gita hung up before Danica could reply.
At three thirty, Danica "left" the building to assemble her outfit and fix her hair, make up and jewelry. Then she put a long pink robe over it and put up her hood. She chose pink because a person hidden in a pink robe was less likely to incite scares than one in a black or a white robe. She put on large sunglasses, which would cover most of her face, and wiped sunscreen, which she discovered dulled the sparkling on her skin. The sleeves of her robe draped over her hands, but just in case, she put on matte gloves that she had made by restitching a pair of stockings.
Then she sneaked out to her car and drove to the shaded spot where she was supposed to pick up Ryan.
He came out of the vestibule, gaping at her and forgetting to be self conscious about his own kurkha. "What's with the Invisible Man look?"
"No peeks." Danica warned.
"Who's going to be peeking besides me?" Ryan reasoned.
"People we pass on the way to the school."
"And I thought Kelly was the theatrical one."
He slid into the seat next to her. Danica habitually held her breath.
"I decided to be theatrical today," she explained. "It's so boring being logical and responsible all the time."
Ryan glanced away. "Sure. I still think you're possessed or something."
Doubts had seeped in for him. Kelly was really counting on this Diwali celebration. Her parents and sisters would be there. It was like Kelly was hoping that Ryan would impress her parents with his foray into their culture. He was sure Kelly conjured this idea watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
"How are Kelly's parents around you?" he asked.
"They like me. But then I'm not dating their daughter."
"Suppose you were," Ryan mused out loud. "Would they approve then?"
"Of course not." Danica sounded puzzled. Was Ryan still on the lesbian theory? Did Gita erase that talk along with all those other things? "Their object is marriage and babies. Though if you proposed, they might eventually grudgingly accept."
"I'm not going to propose!" Ryan's heart rate shot up.
"I meant in the future," Danica said, hoping that his blood would circulate less noisily. His pulse calmed, but not by much.
Ryan stewed in silence the rest of the ride over. What was he thinking? There was no way he could spend the rest of his life with Kelly. That was never his intention. Kelly was a fun person and good in bed. That was all. Kelly knew that, didn't she?
Danica pulled up in the parking lot. Ryan, feeling funny walking in with somebody wearing a pink burqaa, waited until she had entered the building before he followed her in.
The cameraperson, catching sight of the robed figure, asks Ryan about her. "Yeah. That's Danica. She gave me a ride. She decided to be dramatic today." He cuts short his explanation to search for Kelly, a crawling sensation in the pit of his stomach.
Once inside, Danica kicked off her sandals and then, in one swift motion, whipped off her robe and sunglasses. She had on a long dark green sari with a gold and silver batik design on one edge of the wrap. Her hair was put partly up with silver barrettes and silver bangles decorated her wrist. She stopped in the bathroom to swab off the sunscreen.
Kelly greeted her on the way to the gym. "You look amazing," she gushed.
"So do you." Danica returned.
"I know," Kelly answered immodestly. After complaining about some difficulty with her makeup, she craned her neck. "Is Tanya coming?"
"Later," Danica said. "She's working on her book." Tanya had decided to write a book to fill the daylight hours when she was confined to the apartment. She had little experience in writing but she was enjoying herself.
"God I hope Pam comes," Kelly said. "I'd feel bad if she was sitting at home feeling sorry for herself while we were having so much fun. Ryan!"
She rushed to him and jumped into his arms.
"Wow," Ryan gasped. He had spotted Danica. Clearly she had produced the effect she wanted; she was stunningly beautiful.
"Do you like it?" Kelly asked hopefully. "Maybe I should have gotten something without sleeves . . ."
"You look great," Ryan reassured Kelly, turning all his attention to her. "Gorgeous." From the corner of his eye, he saw Danica join Kelly's sisters. "So do we start dancing or are we supposed to eat first?"
"Well," Kelly swiveled her head. "No one's really dancing yet, so let's get something to drink."
She led him to the table where he picked up two cups of mango juice. He had decided to hold off on alcohol until after he encountered the Kapoors. Though maybe he should get knackered and then Kelly's parents would cut off all hopes of her marrying him . . . Ryan rejected that idea. Kelly's parents would forbid him to see her at all, and he still wanted to see her.
A while later, the dancing started. Kelly circulated, waving and greeting their coworkers. Most of them were wearing their work clothes, though Michael and his girlfriend wore Halloween costumes. But most of the Indian guests were wearing traditional costumes.
Dwight showing up in a mustard colored Indian outfit, immediately went over to Ryan dunked his head in a move that Ryan might have been able to name if he had brothers. Ryan patted his hair back into place.
"So, yeah, look at all these girls that a single guy like me could dance with," Dwight commented. "Where's Kelly? Maybe she could set me up with one of her single friends."
"She's doing the hostess thing," Ryan said. "You could ask her. I don't know who the single ones are here."
Dwight looked stricken at the thought of Kelly setting him up. As well he should, Ryan thought.
"I'll go walk the room," Dwight decided instead. "I have very particular standards."
Angela glared at them from across the gym. Ryan paused. Didn't Dwight and Angela . . .? Holy shit! No wonder he had all these memory gaps.
He sat over at a table. A minute later, Kelly's sisters parted from Danica and crossed over.
"Hi," they chorused.
"Oh, hi," Ryan forced on a pleasant greeting. "So you're Kelly's sisters."
Their giggling drowned out the oldest's attempt to talk. The youngest started rattling off in Hindi. Ryan's look of confusion only made them giggle harder.
Kelly marched over. "Will you guys stop acting like such losers? Come on Ryan. You don't have to take that."
"What did they say?" Ryan asked as she led him to the dance floor.
"They were being rude and immature," Kelly said. She started a dance. Ryan tried to copy her moves but kept tripping over his own feet. "No, no." she instructed, grabbing his hand. "Like this."
She squeezed his hand as she performed the steps again. After a couple of attempts, Ryan improved enough not to knock over any of the dancers beside him. Still, Kelly did not let go of his hand.
Until her parents interrupted.
Laura and Lily went dancing as well, and Tammi led Danica to the food, but quickly grew bored when Danica asked about the ingredients for them. The servers obliged with the more basic recipes and Danica memorized them to share with Esme. With Renesmee and the wolf packs and the occasional visits from Bella's father, Esme now had regular consumers of her cooking. Every time she emailed Danica, she begged for new recipes.
Danica took an unoccupied table, and set down her plate. She had a small sample of everything they offered. Danica was halfway through her samples when Ryan approached her.
"Hey," she said, nearly choking on her vegetable korma.
"Hi." He looked over her outfit and her food. "You look great."
"Thanks. Kelly and her sisters helped."
"Yeah." Ryan said.
Danica relied on the obvious topic. "Did you try the food?"
"Not yet." Ryan stepped back. "I should go do that."
Danica nodded.
Ryan disappeared. Danica resumed eating and watched the people around her. Her roving eye stopped when she spotted Kelly arguing with her parents.
Ryan plopped his full plate next to her three-quarters empty one. His arm brushed against her bangles. "Sorry," he said around a mouthful of naan.
"How's, um, your meeting with the Kapoors."
"Could be better," Ryan said. Hesitantly, "How badly does Kelly want to get married?"
Danica touched the fork down to her plate. "I think her parents want it more than she does," she said with her trademark stoicism. "Has she mentioned it?"
"A few times." Ryan could not begin to count the number of times Kelly had referred to them in the future tense. Just this last week, when she had curled against him in bed, she had drowsily murmured, "Ryan Howard, you are my destiny." And he had lain awake, too stupefied to shut his eyes.
Kelly relied on him as her future. For her, it was no longer a wish; it was a fact. And Ryan kept thinking this was a big mistake.
"Did we have this conversation before?" he asked suddenly.
"I don't think so," Danica said. "Unless you mean about whether Kelly wanted kids."
"No, we talked about something like this." Ryan strained to remember. "At Casino Night. We were talking about Kelly."
Danica wadded her napkin against her palm. "I don't remember that," she fibbed.
"Neither does anybody else," Ryan grumbled. "Forget it. Let's talk about something else." That resolved, he stuffed a samosa into his mouth.
They managed a stilted conversation until Kelly dashed over, fuming over her parents' unreasonable plans for her. "They usually aren't that closed-minded. I can't stand it. They think me marrying Rohit will turn me into this good little Indian girl. Don't they want me to be happy?"
Danica started to hand over her napkin, but discovered it had soldered in her grip. Ryan passed Kelly one of his napkins, then continued eating. So it was left up to Danica to circle the table and offer Kelly consolation.
Kelly sniffled into her napkin. "I shouldn't have to do this. I shouldn't have to be pushed into marriage with some stupid ear, nose, and throat doctor and set a good example for my sisters. . ."
Ryan was too busy bowing awkwardly over his plate. Danica sighed.
"Let's go to the bathroom and touch up your makeup," she suggested tactfully.
Very suave, Ryan chastised himself as the girls left the room. Kelly was crying about her parents wanting her to marry someone else; how was he supposed to console her without feeding into her "together forever" fantasy she had with him?
He was aware he came off looking like a real bastard, ignoring Kelly like that. He could relate to her situation over hard to please parents, having gotten his share of their disappointments. At first, it was because no company would take him on permanently; then it was because the company that did take him on permanently was a dying paper distributer. This wouldn't have happened if he had taken his college education seriously and not majored in English instead of something practical (which in their eyes was anything but English.) None of that would have helped with Kelly's situation, anyway: he predicted that if he told her any of this, she would have snapped at him for his insensitivity to her problem.
He tossed out the leftovers and stood by the door, so he could join Kelly when she returned from the bathroom. Dwight must have decided he looked lonely because he popped up.
"How's the single girl hunt?" Ryan asked. To occupy himself: he really didn't care.
"Oh, you know. All those single women. A lucky night to be single." Dwight smirked at Ryan. "Not that you would know."
Kelly examined her face. "I'll have to do it all over," she said, referring to her face. Separating her small purse from the train of her sari, she opened it and tossed the car keys to Danica. "I have my makeup kit in the trunk of the car."
Danica habitually checked her watch. Past sundown.
"I'll be right back."
She trotted barefoot to the Kapoors' sedan. The trunk unlocked without any difficulty. Danica grabbed the familiar looking leather case and let the trunk lid fall back into place.
She turned back to the school, where she spotted Gita from the corner of her eye. Gita watched her from the parking lot entrance. When she became aware Danica spotted her, she turned and dashed away.
Danica ran after her. The suburban blocks emptied into rural farmlands as the chase went on. Bidding for the other vampire to stop, Danica called out, "Gita . . . Maggie!"
Gita halted when she heard that name.
"Why did you call me that?" she asked.
"Your picture is in the Kapoors' house," Danica said, by way of explaining how she figured that Gita was Maggie Kapoor.
Gita stumbled forward. "My picture."
She did not say anything after that, so Danica said, "Kelly's waiting for her makeup. But we have to talk. Tonight."
She took Gita's silence as assent. Though when Danica turned to dash back to the high school, she heard Gita plead, "Don't tell Alec."