The eight-century-old immortal frowned down at his wife. Seconds later, his eyes began to glow faintly and a decidedly not irritated look entered them. A slow smile slid across his features. “You don’t play fair,” he told her.
She grinned. “I know.”
Shaking his head, he motioned for Bastien to continue.
“The only way we can possibly succeed in keeping the vampires out of Emrys’s clutches is by bringing them into the loop and warning them that humans armed with this drug are now hunting them. Word of mouth is what keeps luring them here in the first place. They’ve heard about the uprisings and want to see what’s going on firsthand. Word of mouth can also warn them of the new threat and work to our advantage.”
“Have you never heard the saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Roland drawled.
Bastien’s lips tightened. “We all have. That’s precisely my point. If we can convince the vampires that they have a new enemy—one the two of us share—who poses an even greater threat to them than we do, then perhaps we can work together to defeat Emrys. For whatever reason, the vampires today are more willing to band together.”
“Again, I think we know whose fault that is,” Roland drawled.
“Why not use that to our advantage?” Bastien persisted. Melanie silently applauded him for not rising to the bait. “Why not have them band together and work with us instead of against us? Find a way to make it worth their while?”
Roland emitted a bark of laughter. “If you think I’m going to work with vampires, you’re out of your bloody mind. And I’m sure as hell not going to let Sarah work with them.”
Sarah’s eyebrows flew up. “I’m sorry. Did you say you’re not going to let me?”
He cleared his throat. “I meant I’m sure as hell not going to let them work with you.”
“Shouldn’t that be my decision?”
He smiled. “Only if you agree with me, sweetling.”
Sarah laughed and shook her head. “You’re impossible.”
“I know.”
“Roland made a good point,” Marcus threw in. “How do you know the vampires won’t side with Emrys against us? It’s too great a risk.”
“They stand to lose as much as we do if Emrys gets his hands on them,” Bastien insisted.
“The vampire king didn’t think so,” David stated. “Emrys promised him an army if he would capture and hand over Ami. I’m sure there are many vampires out there who would leap at such an offer. And many others who might leap at less. Their mental instability does not leave them with the best judgment.”
“So we convince them the offer is bullshit,” Bastien persisted. “Tell them Emrys is the one who killed the vampire king. That we were only able to defeat the king’s army because Emrys got there before us and destroyed most of them. Make us seem like the lesser of two evils and make the point so clearly that even a complete psychopath can see it.”
Us? Melanie stared at him. That was a slip.
In the silence that followed, Tanner cleared his throat. “It worked before.”
Seth turned his attention on the blond. “Elaborate.”
“The vampires who served under Bastien feared him.”
That surprised Melanie. Not because she doubted Bastien was capable of inspiring fear. He had frightened her a bit the first time she had met him in person and had no trouble in the intimidation department. But Cliff and Joe spoke so highly of him. Vince had, too.
“Most of them did anyway,” Tanner qualified. “It was the only way Bastien could control those who were starting to lose it mentally. He had strict rules. And the vampires feared what he might do to them if they disobeyed those rules.” He held up a hand when Roland started to speak. “Yes, some of them broke the rules anyway, but a majority of them didn’t or else there would have been a hell of a lot more Missing Person reports.” He looked to Chris. “Am I right?”
Melanie wondered just how much it galled Chris to nod his agreement.
“My point is,” Tanner continued, “the vampires considered Bastien the lesser of two evils. They knew they had a greater chance of survival with him than if they were on their own. And they knew that defeating the immortals would increase their safety. If they think Emrys and his soldiers—or whoever the hell he commands—pose a greater threat to them than you do, they’ll get the word out to the other vamps and the more stable ones may work with you to defeat him and help keep the others out of his hands.”
Richart studied Tanner curiously. “How can you be certain the vampires will listen to us?”
“They’re vampires,” Tanner said. “You can’t be certain of anything with them. But, as you know, enough listened to Bastien that he was able to not only raise, but successfully maintain a vampire army for the first time in history. And word went global.”
“You must be a charismatic bastard,” Yuri droned, scrutinizing Bastien as though he were some peculiar new insect species.
“He is,” Melanie said. Honestly she didn’t know why that would surprise any of them. “Charismatic, that is.”
Richart turned narrowed eyes on Bastien. “I don’t see it.”
Melanie rolled her own. “Well, if any of you had bothered to visit the vampires living at the network, you would. Spend any time at all talking with them and you’ll see just how much they respect Bastien and how much they like him.”
“Dr. Lipton,” Bastien protested.
“What?” she said. “It’s true. Even Vince liked and respected you and Vince was already descending into madness when he surrendered.”
“You knew that?” Bastien asked.
“Not at first. But now that I know the more subtle signs . . . yes. I can see that the brain damage the virus causes was progressing more rapidly in him.” She looked around the table. “Even when they’re succumbing to madness, what the vampires experience during lucid moments can alter their behavior. I interacted with Vincent daily. Spoke with him. Made him feel less like a vampire or lab subject and more like an ordinary guy. He liked me. He trusted me. And when those swift psychotic breaks would come upon him with no warning, he didn’t hurt me. He never hurt me. Anyone else who happened to be in the room . . .” She shrugged. “But not me. Because he trusted me.”
Lisette pursed her lips. “I have noticed that the vampires who travel in groups no longer seem to prey upon each other as they have in previous centuries.”
“The vampire king did,” Ami corrected. “I saw him tear into his followers with a machete.”
Stanislov grimaced. “And Yuri, Bastien, and I all saw the mess he left behind.”
Sarah wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Yes, but the vampire king was crazy as a bedbug. He wasn’t descending into madness. He was already there. I seriously doubt he gave a rat’s ass about his followers. If he considered them expendable when he was lucid . . .”
Étienne shook his head. “Isn’t all of this moot? Even if we actually considered embarking upon this befriend the vampire plan, it would be impossible to implement. Vampires hate immortals. They would never listen to us if we attempted to converse with them and coax them into . . . I don’t know . . . joining forces with us. And, though they might have listened to Bastien the vampire leader, they certainly won’t listen to Bastien the Deceiver, as he is now known. They despise him as much as or more than they do us. Where does that leave us?”
“They don’t have to like you to listen to you,” Tanner insisted. “Most of the vampires in Bastien’s army hated my ass.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Lisette said with a glance at his ass and a flirtatious wink.
Melanie grinned when Tanner seemed to lose his train of thought for a moment while he stared at the lovely French immortal.
Étienne nudged him.
“What? Oh.” Tanner smiled. “Right. Anyway, ah, the vampires in Bastien’s army hated me, but none of them ever tried to hurt me.”
“They knew I would destroy them if they did,” Bastien said blandly.
“That’s part of it,” Tanner acknowledged. “But I think it was also because we were on the same side, working against common enemies.”
Melanie’s interest increased. This confirmed her own hypothesis about the vampires’ subconscious holding on to what they felt in lucid moments even when the madness directed their other actions.
Richart shook his head. “Even if we could sway some of the vampires to our side and get them to warn the other vamps to beware of Emrys and stay away from his men, such would require us to let the vampires live and continue to prey upon humans. I don’t think any of us here can in good conscience allow that.”
Melanie thought furiously. “You could continue to destroy those who have already succumbed to the insanity and only recruit the youngest vampires. Maybe offer them bagged blood so they wouldn’t feel the need to attack humans.”
“Such would put a strain on our resources,” Seth said.
True. The bagged blood that immortals utilized was donated by members of the network and their families. It was one of the reasons immortals were so strict about only eating organic foods. (The other reason, of course, being pure stubbornness. After eating nothing but organic foods for hundreds if not thousands of years, most simply refused to change their diets.) The virus repaired even the most minute damage done to the body, using blood to do so, and immortals wished to reduce their need as much as possible so they wouldn’t have to seek alternative sources.
“You could do what Bastien did,” Tanner suggested. “Assign them pedophiles to feed upon.”
Melanie had heard about that. Rather brilliant thinking, in her opinion. Bastien had lacked a steady supply of bagged blood, so he had enlisted Tanner’s aid to track down pedophiles through a little cyber sleuthing and ordered his vampire followers to feed upon them.
“We lack the resources necessary to ensure they don’t stray from their diet,” Seth responded.
David nodded. “Though his army feared and respected him, Bastien was still unable to keep some of his followers from killing the pedophiles’ families.”
“Drug them,” Melanie blurted.
All heads turned her way.
“What?” Bastien asked.
“Drug them,” she repeated. “I’ve been experimenting with Cliff and Joe—” She broke off, realizing what she had just said and hurriedly caught Ami’s eye. “Not the way you’re thinking, Amiriska. I promise you: Everything I do with them is with their consent.”
Marcus tightened his arm around Ami, whose brow remained furrowed with doubt.
Vowing to choose her words more carefully in the future, Melanie continued. “What I meant to say is, I’ve been working with Cliff and Joe, monitoring the effects of various doses of the tranquilizer. And my”—not experiment—“research has given me real hope that regular injections of a low dose can help suppress the vampires’ violent impulses. It leaves them sluggish . . . and they don’t like that part of it . . . but they have far fewer outbursts and maintain control better. I realize it’s a temporary fix, but it might be something you can use to your advantage if you decide to go through with this.”
Leaning back against his chair, Bastien touched her arm beneath the table. “The drug really helps them?”
Pulse picking up, she nodded. “Yes.”
“Emrys used it to gain the vampire king’s cooperation,” Seth mentioned.
“He did?” Melanie asked. “How?”
“Every time the vampire king flew into a rage, Emrys tranqed him. If he managed to hit him with the dart before the vampire gave the rage free reign, it seemed to stop it in its tracks . . . or at least left the vamp too tired to do anything about it. If the vampire king was already destroying everything around him, the drug stopped him and, again, left him too tired to continue acting on impulse.”
Hope rose. If the drug could work on someone as insane as the vampire king, perhaps she would have more time to find a cure for Cliff and Joe.
“Then that’s the answer,” Tanner said, his handsome face lit with triumph. “If you can suppress their impulses with drugs, you can control whom they feed upon.”
“My entire army consisted of men who were lucid when I recruited them and desired help,” Bastien said. “They didn’t want to become monsters. They didn’t want to prey upon the innocent.”
“But they did,” Roland said.
“Yes. Some of them. Because I had no way of curbing their madness. Dr. Lipton does. If this drug works as she says it does, we can seek out those few who can still benefit from it, recruit them if you will, and have them spread the word to other vampires themselves.”
“I still don’t like it,” Roland said.
Many of the others nodded.
Melanie cleared her throat. “With all due respect, the only ones at this table who are qualified to make this decision are Seth, David, and Bastien.”
Bastien’s head snapped around. His hand tightened on her arm.
The others all stared at her as if she had just shouted, “Peacocks like Pumpernickel!”
“I beg your pardon?” Richart said finally.
Étienne nodded. “Seth and David I could understand. But what makes Bastien so special?”
More than they knew, but she didn’t say that. “Seth, David, and Bastien are the only ones who regularly visit and interact with the vampires at the network.”
Bastien looked at Seth and David with surprise. “You visit Cliff and Joe?”
Seth inclined his head. “Yes.”
“Vincent, too, when he still lived,” David added.
“Why?” Bastien asked.
The other immortals seemed interested in knowing the answer to that one, too.
“Because they asked for our help,” Seth said simply, “and, by doing so, joined our cause.”
“We take care of our own,” David said, “regardless of their origins.”
Seth nodded. “We also hoped to extend the vampires’ lucid moments by trying to heal the brain damage the virus has wrought.” Both elders were extremely powerful healers, powerful enough to reattach severed limbs, if necessary.
Bastien returned his attention to Melanie. “Is it working?”
“Not as well as we had hoped,” she admitted with some reluctance. She suspected Seth and David knew as much. As long as they had lived, they must have tried such before. “The vampires do remain lucid for longer periods after Seth and David’s visits. But the healings only slow the progression of the virus, they don’t cure it or reverse the damage done.”
“David,” Seth said, eyeing the immortal at the other end of the long table, “what are your thoughts on Bastien’s proposed alliance?”
Silence reigned as everyone waited to hear what the immortal would say.
“Most of the immortals at this table are too young to remember times in the past when humans have banded together to hunt us,” David began. “Roland, you have an inkling of what such is like thanks to your fiancée’s deception a few hundred years ago.”
Roland’s countenance darkened. “I do.”
“Bitch,” Sarah muttered.
Roland barked out a laugh, then wrapped an arm around his wife and pressed a kiss to her hair.
Every person in the room stared. Even after two years, it was still a shock to see him smile and express affection.
“Vampires in the past may not have had the Internet vampires today adore so much,” David continued, “but word still managed to spread throughout the countryside that both vamps and immortals were being hunted by humans. And, as Dr. Lipton said, what the vampires learned when they were lucid lingered somewhere in the backs of their minds, so that even when the madness struck they exhibited more caution.”
Melanie nodded. “I think the fact that even the maddest vampires continue to use blades instead of guns when they fight immortals or hunt their prey is an indication that anything concerning their safety tends to linger when everything else falls away. They know they shouldn’t attract undue attention and take measures to avo
id doing so, whether they do it consciously or not.”
David nodded. “Which is why I think Bastien may be right. I think we should find a way to turn this in our favor. These are new times with new troubles and, perhaps, new opportunities. The rules have changed. We should change accordingly.” He looked at Bastien. “Lie to the vampires. Let them believe Emrys is the real reason the vampire king and his followers fell. That he’s an even greater threat to vampires than we are.”
Seth drew Bastien’s gaze. “Find those who want our aid and offer it to them.”
“And those who don’t?” Bastien asked.
“Must be destroyed as usual. They will continue to kill innocents otherwise and are the most likely to fall for any bullshit Emrys or his men may feed them.”
Roland leaned forward. “You trust Bastien to do this? To meet with and conspire with vampires? Again?”
Seth met Roland’s gaze. “I trust you all to do this.”
Roland’s lips tightened. “I won’t risk Sarah’s safety by pausing to chat with vampires who most likely are only interested in severing our heads.”
Sarah leaned away enough to look up at him. “If you aren’t worried about your own safety, sweetie, then don’t worry about mine. I’m as strong as you are, remember, and just as unlikely to be caught off guard.”
“We shall discuss this later.”
“No, we won’t. If Seth and David think this is worth a try, then we should do it. They’ve been dealing with this crap a lot longer than we have. I trust their judgment, and you should, too.”
Scowling, he pulled her back against his side.
“I have a concern,” Lisette said, glancing from Seth to David and back. “Bastien’s followers were still able to deceive him despite his gift, convincing him to believe they followed his every order when they did not. Such could be true of any immortal who is not telepathic.”
“David and I will have no difficulty discerning who truly wishes our aid,” Seth murmured. “Nor will you or Étienne. Richart and I will have to make ourselves available to the rest of you. If any of you find a vampire who appears to be amenable to joining our cause, call me and I will teleport to you and read his thoughts. Or call Richart and he will teleport Lisette or Étienne to you to do the same.”
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