Ryan judged, by the lack of buffoonery that he had come to accept as his life, that the double date was going reasonably well.
Kelly did most of the talking. As she babbled about how much Pam loved Alan's cartoons, she crammed French fries into Ryan's mouth.
She paused from force-feeding him long enough to drag a fry through the ketchup. "No ketchup," he protested, raising his hand up to block the ketchup-sodden fry from his face.
"You love ketchup." Kelly argued. "He loves ketchup."
Ryan used to love ketchup. Lately he had found it nauseating. When he thought of ketchup, he thought of Kelly opening that glassy scar on her neck and bleeding all over his food. Probably something that happened in one of his strange dreams.
Kelly lowered the fry back to the tray. Meanwhile, Pam tried to strike up her own conversation with Alan about his art. Ryan had no opinion of Alan as a person; his impression was neither positive nor negative. Alan's cartoons, however, were extremely dull.
The back of Ryan's neck prickled. As Alan labored at explaining how his genius worked, Ryan glanced around him.
No one was staring at him, but one particular customer drew his attention. A blonde woman sat alone at a table by the door. She was chatting on the cell phone, and, as Ryan reiterated to himself, not paying the slightest attention to him.
There was something odd about her. He took another peek. The basket of stuffed vegetables that remained untouched in front of her, as did the glass of water. And the woman's appearance raised some suspicions: she dressed too stylishly, her skin was too pale, and her eyes were an odd caramel color that matched exactly to Danica's eyes. Her elegant pose conveyed a predatory aura, though nothing about what she did was particularly menacing.
"What do you think, Ryan?" Kelly asked.
Ryan whirled back to face his dinner table. "Sorry, what?" Then he saw the penciled sketch on Alan's pad of paper. Freedom fries. Topical.
"Freedom fries, right?" Alan said, in sheepish modesty.
"Oh yeah. Freedom fries," Ryan commented.
Kelly laced her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder. Alan continued to explain his art techniques in excruciating detail to Pam. Ryan kept his eyes on the sketchpad, and his focus away from the predatory woman.
Danica toted in a bag of groceries. She climbed the steps, only to find Tanya standing at her apartment door.
"About time you showed up," Tanya grinned.
"Hey." Danica hugged her foster sister. "Come on in."
She opened the door and Tanya stepped in after her, examining the decor. "Not bad," she said. "A little bare, but not bad. Were you expecting company?"
"No," Danica said as she unpacked the carrots and flour from the bag. "Well, Alec'll be checking in," she added, but she did not deem him company.
"And the food is for him? Or for you?"
"Neither," Danica explained. "Dwight's birthday is coming up and Angela set up this organic vegetable theme. So I volunteered to make a carrot cake."
"Oh, how lovely," Tanya exclaimed. "Don't they make a weird couple? Of course, you probably aren't supposed to know . . ."
"I knew. The two have completely different smells and they have each other's smells all over them. As it is, she's giving Pam all the 'special' assignments." Danica washed up in the sink. "Would you like to help?"
"Sure," Tanya said. "But you do all the taste testing."
Tanya followed Danica's example by tying back her hair and washing her hands. "Guess where I was earlier."
"Where?"
Tanya named the restaurant. The eggs Danica was holding cracked prematurely.
"Where Kelly and Ryan were having their double-date?"
"Relax. I wasn't anywhere near them. I even ordered the stuffed peppers. By the way, that's what's in the package I brought."
"I better put them in the fridge." Danica wiped the yolk off her hands and moved the cardboard container to a bare shelf. She forgot that, except for Esme, vampires generally did not know how to handle food safely. "So what were you doing there?"
"I wanted to see the show. I might even be in it. And, well, I needed something to do. Kate spends all her time with Garrett, and Eleazar and Carmen are in England, and I didn't want to be alone."
Danica nodded. "I see." She pointed out, "You have flour on your cheek." Tanya flicked the powdery substance off her face.
"You can stay here as long as you like, Tanya. But I can't give you an official tour of the office or anything. Though I suppose it couldn't hurt if you bump into them once in a while."
Tanya's mouth lifted. "I have to meet Ryan and Kelly, of course."
"That should be fine. They know I have cousins running through here to check up on me."
"Right, Alec and Jane. At least, you and Alec seem to get along."
Danica ignored the angry tone in Tanya's voice. Tanya would not forgive Alec, or any of the Volturi, for Irina's execution.
"He's all right in limited doses," was all she said in his defense.
Jane stormed into the palazzo. Her charge, Thorin, scurried after her.
"Go to your room," she ordered, and he obeyed. Jane strode the rest of the way alone, to the apartment that she and Alec shared.
Alec was polishing his boots when Jane came in. "Fancy catching you here, Brother," she said. "I thought you would be in Pennsylvania again."
"Hello, Sister," Alec returned. "How was the Arctic?"
"Useless." Jane spun to face the stained glass window. "A vampire of my status playing nanny to a fledgling. It is humiliating."
"You are a good teacher," Alec said consolingly. "Thorin has harnessed his talent much more quickly than most vampires." Thorin's talent was to form and dissipate storm clouds, which would come into great use by the Volturi. However, to avoid the humans' observations of his lessons, Jane had to take Thorin to remote destinations.
"It's a servant's chore," Jane insisted, her teeth clenched. "They're punishing us, Brother. Because of the carelessness of that Slav. Since then, Aro has sent us on pitiful errands to keep us away from the palazzo."
"Is that so?"
Jane leveled her red eyes at him. "Neither of us has spent more than a half day in the palazzo. Like we live in exile of our home. But you have not even noticed. That Slav has changed you."
"She has not."
"Then why do you numb your food?"
Alec set down his bottle of polish.
"She's not worth it," Jane stressed. "She'll never be one of us. Aro might see potential in her, but she has no will to become a hunter. You understand the folly of pursuing her as a mate, do you not?"
"I understand perfectly, Sister," Alec mustered to reply. "I shall ask Aro to let up on you. He has no cause to punish you."
"Do not cause further trouble," Jane snapped. "You take the wimp and I'll go to Pennsylvania. I'll tell that Slav to toe the line or she'll have to face the consequences."