He didn’t stand up, just looked at me. “You’re the girlfriend of the Master Vampire of St. Louis. Isn’t he powerful enough to overcome all that and raise her as a vampire?”
I was a lot more than just Jean-Claude’s girlfriend. I was his human servant, but we tried to keep that out of the media. The police that I worked with as a U.S. Marshal already mistrusted me because I was having sex with a vampire; if they were certain of our mystical connection they’d like it even less.
I lowered my hand and tried to explain. “I’m sorry, truly, but the Master of the City is still bound by some of the same laws of metaphysics as all vampires. Your wife would have to have been bitten several times before death, and the explosion would have destroyed her even if she had been a vampire.”
I put my hand back out and hoped he’d take it this time.
He stood up then, and shook my hand. He held on to my hand and gave me serious eye contact. “You could raise her as a zombie that wouldn’t know it was dead, and wouldn’t look dead.”
I didn’t pull my hand back, but let him hold it, though I didn’t like it. I never liked being touched by strangers. “I could, but in a few days she’d begin to deteriorate. If her mind went first then she’d just stop being your wife, but if the body began to rot before the mind went, then she’d be trapped in a decaying body, and she’d know it.” I put my hand over both of ours. “You don’t want that for her, or for yourself.”
He let go of my hand then, and stepped back. His eyes were lost rather than angry. “But a few days to say good-bye, a few days to be with her, might be worth it.”