Pam—POV

"So this is Rachel" Sophie-Anne looked up with a gracious smile. Eric and I bowed, and after a nervous glance at us, Rachel did too.

"Come over here and let me have a look at you."

Rachel approached the divan where our illustrious queen sat. Sophie-Anne gestured for her to sit on one end and she did. Eric and I were not invited to sit down. She took Rachel's face in her hand and looked into it. "Hmm. What a pretty one you are! You haven't been dead very long, have you?"

"No, your Majesty" Rachel said softly. "Only three months."

"I understand from Bill Compton that you have a few special abilities."

Rachel took a deep breath (it takes a long while for the breathing reflex to die). "I do, but I don't have very much control over them yet."

"Can you show me?"

Rachel looked around the room and her eyes settled on the low table where Sophie-Anne's ever-present Yahtzee game was laid out. She levitated the dice, and even made them shake in the cup and roll themselves.

"You're telekinetic. Is there anything else?"

"Well, I'm not very good at it, yet, but do you have a candle?"

A candle was brought, and after a couple of failed attempts, Rachel lit it the way her Tante Aurelie had.

"That has the potential to be impressive" Sophie-Anne said approvingly. "What else?"

"I used to be able to make it rain or make the wind blow sometimes, but I haven't done that in years…it caused too many storms."

"Try it now."

Rachel looked terrified, slowly, she closed her eyes and a wave of energy began to build in the room. I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I glanced at Eric but he merely looked extremely interested. Outside, the wind began to pick up. Soon it was blowing hard. Rain began to fall, and thunder rumbled in the distance.

"Goodness" Sophie-Anne said as the wind blew even harder and a few small limbs ripped off the trees in her courtyard. "Can you stop it?"

"No, your Majesty" Rachel whispered. "Not once it's gotten started."

Rain pounded furiously on the windows. The sky lit up with lightning and the thunder boomed and roared. The small courtyard was rapidly becoming flooded. Rachel closed her eyes again and her face contorted into a grimace. Despite what she'd said, she was trying to stop the storm, or at least keep it from getting worse. It didn't seem to be helping much, though. Hail was starting to fall. Outside, I could hear sirens going off.

"Oh shit!" groaned Rachel. "We have to get away from the windows. Now!"

Neither I, nor Eric nor Sophie-Anne nor her human pet (who hadn't said a word throughout the whole thing), nor her two bodyguards argued. Sophie-Anne rose calmly and led the way out of the room, her pet and guards following. Rachel stood up and swayed a little. Eric caught her under the elbow and steadied her and she leaned against him. He half led, half carried her out of the room. I was last. We are all out in the hallway when there was a tremendous crash of breaking glass.

"I'm sorry!" mumbled Rachel. She had begun crying and she bowed her head to hide it.

"It's all right, honey" Sophie-Anne said soothingly. "I have enough money for a new window. A hundred of them, if necessary."

"Th-that's why I don't do it anymore" Rachel choked.

"It's not so bad…it seems to me you just need a little fine-tuning. Bill said your powers run in your family? What's their name?"

"Dupree, your Majesty…and Balletois."

"Balletois. That would explain it."

"You know my family?"

"I know of them. How are you connected to the Balletois?"

"Aurelie Balletois Dupree is my great-great aunt" Rachel said.

Sophie-Anne laughed. "Is she now? I'll bet her husband died young. That tends to happen to a lot of the men who marry Balletois women."

"He was forty-six. It happened in a freak boating accident."

Sophie-Anne laughed again. One of her bodyguards, who had been clicking away on a palmtop computer said, "It's all clear, your Majesty."

"Well, it's obviously going to be too big of a mess to go back in there for a while. One of you boys call Kay and Margo and have them clean up. We'll sit in the Blue Room."

Rachel—POV

The Queen's palace was something else! A huge mansion surrounded by a courtyard and a high iron fence. Eric rang the bell and we were escorted inside by an honest-to-God butler—something I thought only existed in old movies! The butler led us up a curving staircase and down an endless series of opulent hallways before leaving us outside two huge double doors. "Walk in, Sheriff. She's expecting you."

The large, open room was all glass on one side and contained a huge swimming pool. Next to the pool was a low table with little upholstered lounge chairs around it. Seated at the table were a red-haired woman and a blonde, whom I soon saw was human. There were two vampire bodyguards nearby, as well.

When we got closer, I couldn't believe what I saw. Oh my God…she's a kid!

The queen could not have been more than fifteen or sixteen when she was turned. She glanced up and smiled. "Sheriff Northman…how lovely to see you again! Pamela, welcome. I trust your flight down was uneventful?"

Eric bowed deeply. So did Pam. I decided that it would be best if I did the same.

"So this is Rachel…" the queen smiled at me. "Come over here and let me have a look at you."

I stepped closer and she indicated I should sit on the end of her chair. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the blonde human bite her lip and stare down at the table. The queen cupped my chin in her hand and tilted my face up, still smiling. There was something intimate about the way her fingers slid along my jaw; it made my insides flutter. "What a pretty one you are!"

I tried not to blush and failed miserably.

She asked me about my powers. I made some of the stuff on the table levitate. Bizarrely, she had a whole Yahtzee game set up there.

"You're telekinetic. Is there anything else?"

After explaining I wasn't yet very good at fire-conjuring, I tried the candle trick and actually succeeded after a couple of times. The queen seemed to like that and she asked if there was anything else I could do.

I hesitated. I really didn't want to tell her, because my weather-savvy can have catastrophic results, but I also knew if she caught me in a lie I was as good as dead. "I used to be able to make it rain or make the wind blow sometimes, but I haven't done that in years…it caused too many storms."

"Try it now."

Trying to ignore the feeling of dread in my stomach and chest, I closed my eyes. To affect the weather, I had to gather all my savvy into me, concentrate it, and then release it like a coiled spring. I could never predict the results and the weather when we got off the plane was ominously sticky and hot for the time of year, even for New Orleans . But I couldn't disobey a direct order from someone who could have me killed right then and there.

Power hummed along my skin and tingled at the roots of my hair. It had been over ten years since I had last made it rain. That was the last summer we spent at the beach. Daddy thought it would be better if we didn't come back after I inadvertently caused a tropical storm after a fight with another kid.

I pulled my savvy in, tighter and tighter, imagining it as a glowing coil of power in my solar plexus. When I was this full of power, it felt like my skin was glowing. I let go. The wind, which had been rising steadily, began to moan and thunder broke overhead. I could hear the howling voices I used to hear when I was little—the ones that always made me hide under my bed until the storm was over. The voices were inside the storm…they were the spirits of the storm. I didn't know anything about elemental spirits when I was five, however, and I thought they were monsters coming to get me. They shrieked in their whistling, unintelligible language as rain came down in sheets. The sky was criss-crossed with lightning and the night had taken on a scary purplish cast. Hail began rattle against the windows and tornado sirens began going off. I felt sick and shaky, the way I always do when I cause a storm. All I could think of was getting away from the windows. "We need to get out, now!"I shouted.

Fortunately, everyone was in the mood to listen to me. The queen rose at once and so did the blond human woman and the two bodyguards. I tried to stand, only to stagger as the room started to go around and around. Eric grabbed my arm and I leaned on him as we evacuated the premises.

We ended up standing in the hallway until the storm was over. Something did crash through the window—we all heard the breaking glass. I was blubbering and apologizing, but the queen was very kind about it. She asked me about my family, I think to distract me, because I was feeling incredibly humiliated. I told her and turned out she actually knew Tante Aurelie. I made up my mind to ask Tante Aurelie when they had met as soon as I got home.

When it was safe to leave the hallway, the queen led us to the "Blue Room": a little parlor decorated entirely in blue with tons of fancy furniture. She seated herself in a little blue and gold chair while her guards stood behind her and the blond woman sat at her feet and put her head on the queen's knee. The queen absently stroked her companion's hair as Pam and I settled into chairs across from her. Eric remained standing.

"That was quite a display!" the queen said happily. She looked anything but upset that I'd flooded her yard and broken a window that probably cost more than a year of my salary. "Do you practice every day?"

"Not nearly as that often, your Majesty" I said wryly. "My Tante Aurelie is teaching me how to control it, but I have a long way to go. For a long time, I never deliberately used my powers because of all the trouble they cause."

"And you retained them despite your turning" she went on. "That in itself is a wonder! Bill tells me you're an orphan—that your maker is dead?"

"Yes ma'am."

She pouted. "Don't call me ma'am! It makes me sound like an old lady."

"I'm sorry, your Majesty." I tried not to smile. She was probably the oldest one in the room!

"Call me Sophie-Anne."

"All right…" I said cautiously "Sophie-Anne."

"And you work as a…librarian, is it?"

"Yes."

"You can't be making much money at that job. Would you like to work for me? I can pay you three times what the city of Shreveport can."

Beside me, I felt Pam tense. I glanced at her. Her gaze was carefully neutral, but something told me she deeply disliked that idea. Neither she nor Eric looked surprised, which told me they had been expecting something like this, but they weren't happy about it. It put me on my guard at once.

"I don't know…I still have family in Shreveport . I would miss them."

Sophie-Anne nodded slightly. "That is a consideration, of course. And of course, you will need more training to control those gifts of yours. I'll tell you what, why don't you take two weeks to consider it and then let Eric know? I understand that he and Pamela have been functioning as your temporary guardians. If you chose to move to New Orleans and work for me, you would be part of my household, and I could have you declared independent."

I couldn't believe it! Freedom was within my reach! Sort of. I had had a strong suspicion that being part of Sophie-Anne's household meant I would end up being a live-in servant. Still, the offer was extremely tempting. I wondered why Eric and Pam weren't jumping at the chance to get rid of me.

"It's a very generous offer" I said with a smile I couldn't repress. "What would I have to do?"

"That will depend on how far you've come in learning control, and whatever I need at the time."

Talk about an open-ended job description! The blonde woman at Sophie-Anne's feet had closed her eyes. I noticed that a tear had trickled from under one of her eyelids. It made me feel (for a second) idiotically guilty. It was obvious what her relationship with Sophie-Anne was: the way she was sitting said it all. Seeing Sophie-Anne pay attention to me would naturally be painful for her.

I said I would think about it. Sophie-Anne looked delighted and clapped her hands. "Now for the important thing! Do you know how to play Yahtzee, Rachel?"

"Do you play croquet?" the Queen of Hearts asked Alice...

"Rachel?"

I shook myself. "Yes...I mean, I haven't played since college, but I do know how."

Sophie-Anne gave a smile so brilliant that for once the old saw about lighting up a room was perfectly accurate. "Hadley darling, bring the spare game."