by Lisa Olsen
“’Scuse me, I see someone I need to talk to,” he said, rising and wending his way through the crowd without a look back. Half expecting him to go speak to Jarrod like we’d talked about, I was surprised to see him make a beeline for a man at the bar. Something about him looked familiar, and I realized it was the same guy he’d talked to that night at Smoke and Mirrors. The one stuck in the eighties, from the look of his parachute pants.
“Hey, Lee.” I leaned close to speak in his ear. “Do you know who that is Rob’s talking to?”
Lee’s head swiveled around, taking a moment to find him in the crowd. “Nope, can’t say as I do. Why, you want me to find out who he is?”
“No, no that’s okay. I just wondered is all.”
“You mind if I go swap a few words with Jarrod for a spell? Rob said he might be able to give us a leg up on our insurance issues.”
“No, not at all. Or you can invite him to join us if you’d rather.”
“Thanks, but I don’t want to bore you none. Unless you want me to stick close while Rob’s away?”
“Oh, no, you go right ahead. We’ll be fine here, won’t we, Gunnar?”
Gunnar was busily chatting up Charisse, but looked back over his shoulder at me blankly, nodding when he saw me nodding. “Yes, of course,” he replied woodenly. “Yes, of course what, boss?” he asked in a low voice once Lee was gone.
“Nothing, only that we’re fine here alone.”
“Oh, yes.” He gave me a relieved smile. “There is no danger to you, I’m certain of this,” he added with confidence, returning to his conversation.
With my guards distracted, I took up the opportunity to do my sounding out as the usual crowd of admirers surged closer.
“So, there’s been some talk about passing laws to protect humans,” I put out there casually.
One of the regulars, a vamp named Melanie, responded first. “What kind of laws?”
“Laws that would call for a stiff fine if we deliberately or accidentally kill a human or are excessively brutal with them while feeding.”
They all stared at me as if I’d announced an impending tornado.
“What if someone can’t pay these fines?” Charisse asked in a small voice.
“I don’t know. There might be some jail time involved, or maybe the fines will be on a sliding scale. It’s in the early stages of discussion.”
“That’s crazy. Go to jail for killing a human? There isn’t a facility large enough to hold us all.” I couldn’t see who’d spoken, but raucous laughter filled the air.
“This sounds like a scheme to line the pockets of those proposing it.” The dry comment came from Mr. Vaughn, one of the most respected vampires in town. He circled closer to my table, and I waved him to the empty seat Lee had vacated. If I could get him on my side, I knew it’d go a long way in the community.
“No, that’s not it at all. It’s not a money making venture, it’s about making vampires think twice before they take a human life. That’s all. It’s meant to discourage the deliberate killings.”
“There’s never been a law against this,” he countered, sitting opposite me with casual elegance. “As long as we kept our nature hidden and dealt with the bodies, taking a human life has never had consequences for our kind.”
“Yeah, newsflash, that’s part of the problem. Vampires haven’t been dealing with the bodies properly and it’s attracting way too much attention from the police.”
“Then fine them for improper disposal, not for killing altogether.” There was a general rumble of assent from the crowd. “Aren’t you the one who taught us to challenge the laws, not make new ones? Maybe it’s time to ask why we need to hide at all? Vampires are superior to humans in every way. Why should we live in fear of them?”
Uh oh. I took a sip of my drink, forcing myself to choose my words carefully. “Because there are a heck of a lot more of them than there are of us, and we’re incredibly vulnerable during the day. How’s that for two pretty big reasons to start with?”
Vaughn waved them away with a simple gesture. “We could easily fix the first if you lifted the restrictions on breeding.”
This was turning into a dangerous conversation. “Even if I could do that – which would be violating the treaties we have with the other Houses by the way – I wouldn’t. This is and should always be a selective process. The taking of a life and bestowing immortality should never be taken lightly.”
“Agreed, to a certain extent,” he allowed with a tilt of the head. “Those we surround ourselves with would always be chosen with great care. But we could create another caste, under our strict control of course, to help maintain our superiority among the humans and keep them in their place.”
A seriously dangerous conversation; did these people not see that? One Bishop would kick my behind for if he ever found out I’d instigated such thoughts. “That’s how we ended up with the Order in the first place,” I said as patiently as I could manage. “The vampire population swelled too fast and the Ellri had to step in and cut it down before it grew out of control. You don’t want that to happen again, do you? There’d be no guarantee who survived the culling.”
A nervous titter spread through the crowd, the reminder of such widespread death cutting into some of Vaughn’s support, but he looked unruffled by it. “No, of course not. I’m only saying that making us register like criminals, even worse, be chipped like animals, isn’t the way to treat your own people. We’re the ones who deserve certain protected rights, not the humans.”
That was a separate issue and not one I wanted to get into. “Like it or not, that’s not likely to change any time soon.” Great googly moogly, what kind of worms had I opened with this can? This was never what I’d intended.
“This is the same argument we’ve always heard.” A short, vampire with more freckles than clear skin growled. “It won’t change because it’s always been that way. Maybe it’s time for another Gathering to talk about the issues we care about? I for one am tired of living in the shadows.” He garnered a few more murmurs of assent and Vaughn grew bolder.
“Or maybe we don’t wait for permission and we show ourselves? Once the secret is out of the box, it will be impossible to stick back in. Then the aristocracy can whine all they like about it, but we’ll be free.”
A debate started up about whether or not that would end up with us more vulnerable than before or whether it would set us up in power, and I listened with growing dismay as they grew more and more heated. What had I done? I had to end it before I started a revolt.
Standing up, I waited until all eyes were on me before I spoke. “Let me make one thing perfectly clear. Under no circumstances are you to reveal yourselves as vampires to anyone, or the Order will have carte blanche to start cracking skulls again. New charter or not, if you break one of the cardinal rules, they will not hesitate to end you. They have the skills and the resources to crush any hint of this kind of rebellion and there will be no way I can save you then.”
“There are more of us than there are of them,” the freckled vamp muttered, but no one gave him any support this time.
“Today, yes, that’s true. But how long do you think it would take for our streets to be swarming with Order members if you did something so hotheaded? Is that what you want? Because I’ve worked hard to improve our relations with them and to bolster our place among the Houses. A reckless move like this and they’d destroy us for the fools we are. A reckless move like this and I’ll have to take steps of my own. Is that clear to everyone?” I stared them down, giving my best impression of Rob’s steely gaze until they all looked away, even Vaughn.
“Let’s all have a drink and relax, shall we?” Jarrod suggested, approaching with Lee by his side. “No need for such a heavy topic when the beer’s flowing.”
Mr. Vaughn rose to his feet, inclining his head to me with a polite nod. “My apologies if I’ve offended you, Your Grace.”
“No, of course not. You’re always free to speak your mi
nd here, that’s the point. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one.”
“Yes, we will,” he agreed with a faint smile.
I smiled back, unruffled on the surface, but inside a flurry of unease went through me. Was Vaughn going to turn into a problem? The same thought must’ve occurred to Lee who took up the space the powerful vampire vacated, fixing me with a pointed look.
“You okay here, darlin’?”
“Yes, I’m fine. It’s nothing more than a spirited debate,” I smiled, very aware of the fact that there were still too many ears listening to speak openly.
“I could very easy talk him into not challenging you,” Gunnar offered and I immediately squashed that idea.
“No, he has a right to his opinion. It’s my job to make sure he doesn’t act on any of it.”
Gunnar lowered his voice conspiratorially. “If he disappears, then no one will follow his opinions.”
“Don’t you dare!” I hissed. “If you go around shushing people up or disappearing them, I won’t be any better than tyrants like Volkov and Corley. Everybody relax, this was nothing more than a lively debate. I don’t think we need to worry overly much about it.” I was confident that I’d given them all something to think about, at the very least. Even Vaughn had seemed to accept that now was not the time to act.
What bothered me more was the fact that no one, not a single voice, had embraced my idea of legislating to prevent cruelty to humans. While things settled down and I brooded over that cheerless thought, I realized Rob had never come back to the table. I looked up to the bar expecting to see him talking to his new friend, but the space at the end of the bar was vacant.
My eyes searched the crowd, and it only took me a few seconds to spot him standing with Laveda off in the corner of the bar. Relaxing, I watched them, prepared to give a friendly smile when they looked my way, but it soon became obvious they were both too engrossed in their conversation to give me a thought.
Rob looked angry, his shoulders bunched up, forehead furrowed into a deep scowl. Laveda seemed no less annoyed, her chin thrust forward with a mutinous cast as she shook her head, strawberry blonde curls bouncing with the movement. Rob suddenly grabbed hold of her elbow, hard enough to make her wince, and hauled her off down the short hallway that led to the back room. Having been dragged back there before to be yelled at in private by Bishop, I knew whatever he wanted to talk to her about couldn’t be good.
Rob’s temper had been quick to rise lately, but I didn’t think he’d do anything too violent with his own cousin. Still, I quickly excused myself from the table and drifted to that corner of the room. It was hard to pick out any conversation coming from the back room with all the ruckus in the bar, and making sure no one was watching, I slipped into the hallway, inching closer to the door.
There were angry voices coming from within, the undertones of Rob’s growl punctuated with her higher register, but I was only able to pick out the odd word. I was so focused on trying to figure out what was going on in that back room, I completely missed it when the back door to the bar opened. So intent on trying to follow the conversation, I was totally taken by surprise when a pair of strong arms wrapped around me, easily pulling me off balance and dragging me out the back door to the alley.
Thankfully, my training kicked in after the initial surprise wore off and I gave a sudden wrench, twisting out of his grip. In the same instant I drove my elbow into his gut hard enough to double him over and whirled, smashing my knee into his face. The scent of blood spiced the air – vampire blood, and I took a step back, my eyes quickly adjusting to the gloom to see the hint of blonde hair under a dark hoodie.
Something about the way he moved as he picked himself up caught at my memory, but it wasn’t until he looked up that I realized who it was. He wasn’t devastatingly handsome, the way so many of our kind were, but good looking enough in a hard way. His blonde hair was cut short in a no-nonsense style, not bothering with any hair gel or product. Dressed in a worn corduroy jacket over a dark, shapeless hoodie and jeans, his blue eyes met mine, crinkled with good humor despite the pain I saw there.
“Nice,” he wheezed, hand going to his nose. “But you shouldn’t have let me catch my breath. An opponent goes down, you should finish him off.”
“Carter?”
“Good to see you, sunshine. I see your reflexes are still pretty good, but you’ve been practicing since we last met.”
Son of a biscuit… he’d almost given me a heart attack. I fell back against the building, staring at him in shock as I caught my breath. “A lot of things have changed since we last met.”
“Yeah, so I hear. Congrats on your new position. Should I be calling you Lady Sunshine?” he smirked, letting go of his nose, which had already stopped bleeding.
“Just Anja is fine. What are you doing here? I had no idea you were even in town.”
“You’re not happy to see me? I’m crushed.”
“You scared the bejeezus out of me. If you wanted to talk to me you could’ve called, you didn’t have to shanghai me out of there.”
He shrugged. “It was more fun this way, keeps you on your toes. I caught your speech in there. Dynamite stuff.”
“You were there?” I blinked. “How come you didn’t try talking to me inside?”
“I’m keeping a low profile these days.”
“You mean since the Order has your picture now.”
“Thanks to you,” he said with an incline of the head.
“I’m sorry about that, but you’re the one who keeps attracting attention. You could stop killing people if you don’t want to build a fan club. Are you hunting here?” Somehow I knew the answer before he gave it.
“You have a need for it from what I’ve seen. That show in there seems to clinch it.”
“Please don’t kill people on my doorstep. In fact, it’d be kind of great if you stopped killing people at all.”
“They’re not people, not anymore.” His expression darkened as he warmed to the subject, losing the flippant tone. “The moment they delight in taking human lives is the moment they stop deserving your pity. They don’t need you or anyone else to champion their rights, they’ve forfeited them. I’m not a killer, I’m an exterminator.”
A simple compulsion could make him stop it altogether, but the tiny voice inside me whispered that he might be right. Not that I advocated his methods, but there was that argument for the greater good. Was it totally wrong to kill a killer?
I took a long breath, choosing my words carefully. “Look, I can tell your heart is in the right place…”
He interrupted me with a scowl. “It has nothing to do with heart.”
“Are you kidding me? It has everything to do with heart. You wouldn’t do this if you didn’t feel strongly about it in your heart, I can tell. Whatever’s driving you, it’s deeply personal. Why else would you turn against your own kind?”
“Those degenerates are not my own kind,” he said hotly, his hands opening and closing reflexively. “I am nothing like them and I won’t rest until they’re stamped out like the vermin they are.”
So much passion, it made me wonder where it all came from. “Why do you hate vampires so much? What did they do to you?”
Carter paced a few feet away from me, his emotions shuttering away. “I didn’t come here to stroll down memory lane.”
“Why did you come here then?”
He turned, blue eyes blazing in the darkness. “I came for you, sunshine. You’re in a position now to make some real changes.”
“And I have…”
“Why not outlaw the killing of humans? They’re not our cattle, they deserve our protection.”
My hands came up, palms out, to stay his words. “Hey, you’re preaching to the choir, but you heard them in there. They’re not ready for that. If I try to change too much at once, they’ll revolt.”
“You have an Ellri in your pocket. Can’t he give a decree and make it so?”
If only it was that
simple. “Jakob isn’t here and he’s definitely not in my pocket anymore, if he ever even was to begin with. Besides, he’s not exactly the poster child for conservative treatment of humans. To him they absolutely are cattle, and so are we, practically. He doesn’t care about vampire reform.”
“But surely as Elder you can do something.”
“Don’t you think I’d do it if I could? Do you know why I came down here tonight?”
“Free drinks?” he quipped, and I ignored him to plunge ahead.
“I came to talk to them about this exact issue and you saw how it went down. Nobody cares.” Frustration shone from every pore over my utter failure to get through to them. It felt like even Rob and those in my closest circle humored me more than anything else. Carter stared at me, his face crumpling in dismay, the smirky quips gone.
My voice shook as I tried to make him understand. “I feel like I’ve been talking myself blue in the face about these exact same points over and over again. The council, my own Warden, they’re all against this idea and more importantly, so is the average vampire on the street. Nobody cares.” I fell back against the dirty wall, weighed down by defeat. “Nobody cares.”
“I care.” His voice was low, but determination burned there, a resolve that gave me a flare of hope and I fixed him with a tremulous smile. “You’re not in this alone. I’m gonna make this right.”
“Killing won’t make it right.” As much as it warmed my heart to share this with him, it needed saying.
“It doesn’t bring me any pleasure to kill, but I’ll do what has to be done. Can I count on your help?”
There would be more bloodshed his way, but maybe Carter was right – it was time for some real change. Let Felix worry about the council and the boring old business of the day, with Carter’s help I could crack down on the worst offenders myself – without bloodshed if we did things my way.
“Maybe it is time for a more hands on approach to this,” I said, holding up a finger when he whooped for joy like a five year old boy. “Hey, hold it down. There’s a bounty on your head, you know.”