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I couldn’t hold back my grin. He surprised me with that. “Yeah…” I sure hoped he only wanted to fuck me though. He’d seen the goods up for offer in the gay bars on Bourbon, and he was sure good-looking enough to pull any of them.
“Stop whatever you’re thinking, Austin.”
“What? I’m not.”
“You were. But…I’m not like that. When I said fuck, I meant you and me. I like you a lot. And trust me, I never had a lot of that in my life before I died. I have changed a lot since then. So, when I say I’m serious about you, believe it.” No idea how he knew, but it didn’t matter. He answered my questions. “That’s better.”
“We still have time to kill before we find the vampire.”
“Vampire?” Luc put his face in his hands. “Don’t tell me…”
“Sloane is going to help us with Marcello. Yes.” I wanted to laugh at his dramatics, but I didn’t. This was a lot, but he was catching on to my plan.
“I see. Maybe that will work. How did you think of that?”
“Easy. The joker man. Remember what he said?To find what you need, you need to focus on the needs of others. A need is a need, and everything depends on the needing.”
“Okay. You’re filling the needs. But as you said, we have time to kill.”
“We should do something fun.”
“What do you like to do?”
I didn’t have to think about it long. “Let’s go down near Frenchman and see if we can catch some good music.” That was an area that always had something rocking, even in the afternoons on the weekends.
“Music?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t wait for more of a response. I simply crawled back out the window and headed toward Frenchman Street. There wasn’t much I could give him, but this was something, and I wanted to share it with him. We didn’t know what would happen later. Hell, I might not even be able to pull off this vampire thing. Sloane-the-vamp might decide I wasn’t worthanything but his next meal. So I planned on enjoying the time we had.
It took less than ten minutes to walk there. Technically, Frenchman was more a part of the Marigny than the Quarter, and by the time we got close, we could already hear the notes floating in the air. Luc was visibly excited, practically bouncing with every step. “I haven’t heard anyone else play in so long. Not really.”
“Well, this is your chance. Come on.”
A jazz band was taking up the corner at Royal, which is what we had heard as we approached. I made my way around and nearly tripped at the curb because I was watching the joy in Luc’s eyes rather than where I was going.
We didn’t stop there, though. As we continued down the street, we were treated to more jazz but also blues, swing, and even reggae. It was Saturday, so I knew that The Maison would have a drag show with no cover later, but by that time, we needed to be gone, so I figured we’d skip that. Instead, I stopped at the Spotted Cat. There was no cover, but they did have a one-drink minimum. I had enough for a beer left and that might be something else Luc hadn’t had in a long time. And it was only a few feet away before the next block.
The opening band was already on with a trumpet belting out old-fashioned jazz. Luc was practically vibrating beside me. “Want a beer?”
He nodded furiously.
I ordered and leaned against the bar to watch the band. Luc stepped inside me, the experience now as comfortable as putting on a glove.
Ahh… New Orleans was always the heart of Jazz. That cat on the horn is rate. And beer? Prohibition has obviously ended…
Well, Luc was going to experience a lot of new things along with the nod to the old. I made a mental note to bring him to TheMaison to see the drag show once he had a body. He’d get a kick out of that.
After finishing his beer, I thought we’d go, but Luc had other ideas. He marched my body up to the stage. “Can I play?” he asked, pointing at the piano.
“You any good?” the trumpet man asked.
Luc simply smiled and saddled up to the keys.
Any good?Luc snarked in my head.
Fuck my life was he ever.
Luc played like the Beethoven of jazz. Surely, I didn’t know much about jazz, but even I knew he was fantastic. They hadn’t given him the nicknamePrince of Jazzfor nothing, apparently.
