by Joe Fowler
“I want those thousand years of peace to start soon.” Rosalyn said quietly.
“Amen to that.” Alicia added.
We sat without needing any more words. I began thinking back to how uncomfortable I always was around people. This group of werewolves were closer than any family I had known. I was more peaceful with them around, than when they were away. I never thought to see that turnaround. It was all of them, not just Seth and Josh. Those two I could understand, since we spent so much time fighting side by side. Alicia, Sarah, Jimmy, Cynthia and all the rest were welcome in my company at any time now. I didn’t fully understand it but I liked the change. It felt right.
Rosalyn and I headed to our basement when we felt the sun getting close. We lay in our usual position and was on the verge of sleep when she spoke.
“We will do whatever is needed. Too many lives depend on us. On you.” The sun rose then putting an end to any response I might make.
It was quiet when we woke. Maybe too quiet. Rosalyn and I kissed some and stayed in bed a few minutes extra. We both expected the worst and wanted every moment we could spend together. Finally we went and faced the music.
One look at Seth and we knew. He didn’t have to tell us but I knew he would. Josh wore the same expression. The only thing left in doubt for me was who all would be going on this trip. I knew Rosalyn and I would go. Seth and Josh might be able to sit this one out though. I would try to make them if I could.
“He called. The President made it your choice. I really believe he meant it too. Our plane leaves as soon as you say you are willing. If you say no, we will break open the bottles and have a party.” Seth smiled knowing what I would have to say.
“The party would be nice but you know I have to go.” I braced myself for the next part. “I don’t think you and Josh should have to leave though. You guys don’t have to take part in this, you’ve both done more than your share.”
“That’s exactly what Alicia and Anna both said.” Seth was laughing a bit. “We found a compromise. They are going with us. Cynthia and Thomas are returning to Mobile tonight but the rest are coming to Washington. I called the President back and he was more than happy to arrange rooms for everybody. He even suggested the girls and Jimmy could go sightseeing so they wouldn’t be bored by the debates and speeches.”
“So this will be more like a family vacation. We are even a little excited about it.” Anna said cheerfully.
“You guys have been leaving us behind too much anyway. We get tired of sitting around watching you four on the news all the time.” Crystal spoke up, surprising me since she was usually the quiet one.
“That makes it better. I might join you sightseeing. It sounds better than debates.” Rosalyn was smiling which made everyone happy. With her beauty, a smile could cheer anyone up from any despair.
“Truthfully, I am really glad everyone will be there. I was feeling guilty that I might be taking Seth and Josh away again.” I admitted. Rosalyn kissed me on the cheek and went to get our bags from the basement. “I hate to be a bummer but I need some blood. Come to think of it, Rosalyn might need some too.”
Sarah walked over and held out her arm. It made me feel good that no one needed to be ready to pull me away now. I drank only what I needed and expressed my gratitude. I was no longer a danger to anybody. Thomas offered Rosalyn his wrist without asking if she needed it. She must have since she fed as well. We said our goodbyes to Thomas and Cynthia. It was still a shock when Cynthia hugged us. Thomas didn’t hug but you could see his genuine feelings for Rosalyn and me. Werewolves who cared about vampires. Go figure.
The plane was waiting for us. We were escorted through security right to the gate. The humans in the airport cheered for us. They seemed to see the truth in things. I hoped the rest of the country would be able to see through Jonas’s bullshit as easily.
The plane ride was fun. Everyone was in good spirits. Even Rosalyn was joining in the merriment. The stewardess kept the beer coming to help us along. After a while we invited her to sit and join us. We all took turns going to get the beer after that.
The airport was much more crowded than we were used to. The crowd here was mostly on our side but there were enough shouts of dissention that the wolves wordlessly surrounded Rosalyn and me. Our escort met us as we neared the door. There were three SUVs waiting for us. They took us to the Jefferson hotel.
“Wow. This is so nice!” Sarah exclaimed as she looked around.
“I would have been ok with a Motel 6. This is much better.” Anna laughed.
The woman at the check in informed me and Rosalyn that they had made sure our room would be safe for us during the day. We thanked her but both of us knew we would check that out for ourselves. Once in the room I was a little impressed. Our suite was bigger than my trailer back home in Hurley. The President did well. The arrangements were made with Jimmy having his own room, while each of the couples were given a room.
Rosalyn really loved the luxury. She was accustomed to interstate motels and basements. This was a wonderful change. We ordered a bottle of wine from room service and drank it on the balcony. We made sure not to talk about the vampire problems or anything else that would spoil the moment. She told me of palaces she had visited and the castles from the old days. I tried to explain the allure of playing golf. It didn’t help, she still thinks it is a stupid game. Maybe so, but it is fun.
We enjoyed the bed as well. I now understood why people spoke so highly of the more expensive sheets. This was comfort. We slept the day away in each other’s arms.
When we woke, we knew the lighter moments were gone for a while. We showered and prepared ourselves to face the President and whoever would be at these meetings. We would need better clothing, however. The SUVs took us to a clothing store where we were provided new suits for the men and proper dresses for the women. I took this to mean we would be televised.
“You are breathtaking.” I told Rosalyn when she came out of the dressing room. She wore a black dress that accentuated her curves perfectly.
“You’re looking pretty good yourself. If I knew you looked this good in a suit I would have made you start wearing them from the beginning.” Rosalyn gave me that smile of hers before she kissed me.
“Yeah whatever. You two come on. You look good enough.” Jimmy was laughing and making gagging motions at us. We couldn’t help but laugh with him.
We left the store dressed in our new clothes and carrying bags with more clothes for the coming days in case they would be needed. We were taken to a building I was unfamiliar with. I hadn’t thought of where the meetings would be until now. I guess part of me expected it to be at the White House.
We were escorted inside to a large room that looked like a courtroom in a way. There weren’t any signs or decorations on the walls. The room had a slightly raised area in front where the President was already seated. There were two areas for the opposing sides like what you would see in court. Cameras were set up around the room with reporters in the rear by the door. There was the expected line of soldiers separating the President from everyone else. As we approached the seats on the right, the President looked up and nodded his approval. He waved Seth and me forward to speak to him in private.
“This is being broadcast live. I don’t think I have to explain how important this is. Austin, try to be as clear as you can and speak confidently. Don’t give them any openings to attack you. We really want this to be a one night thing.” The President said.
“Yes sir. I will do my best.” I was saying when we heard Jonas and his accomplices enter the room.
I turned and froze as I saw the four vampires. Cyranos was with them. The evil aura around him was almost visible. I got Seth’s attention and motioned behind us for him to look. His face told a dangerous story. He didn’t hesitate. He knew the President was now in danger.
“Mr. President, you need to ask for the vampire Cyranos to leave.” Seth said in a hurry.
“I can’t do that. I told them to
bring what representation they needed. It would be an opening for them to exploit.” He replied stupidly.
“Then either Josh or I needs to be in our wolf form standing near you. I can’t express how dangerous he is.” Seth’s tone seemed to break through the barrier of stupidity the President had around him.
“Then have Josh turn. We may need you to speak.” The president relented.
Seth sighed audibly with relief. We returned to our area and told Josh to turn. He was more than happy to. He had seen Cyranos and understood what might happen if he or Seth weren’t prepared to stop him. If they waited for Cyranos to make a move, the President and half the room would be dead before they were ready to fight.
I saw Rosalyn then. She was slumping in her seat. I knew she wanted to be as far away from Cyranos as possible. I was really wishing they had done the sightseeing thing like they said. As he did in Chattanooga, Cyranos kept his eyes on Rosalyn whenever possible. If I thought I was capable of winning, I would have attacked him right then.
The sight of Josh’s wolf form frightened some of the reporters momentarily. They soon remembered he was one of the good guys and got more excited than they were before. I looked at Cyranos once again. He was staring at Josh with deadly curiosity. I think if the setting were different he would have attacked Josh if only to see how tough Josh was. I would welcome that occurring. He was clearly intrigued by seeing something new. After forty-five hundred years, he wasn’t offered the sight of anything new very often.
“Mr. President, why is he in that form. Isn’t this a peaceful meeting?” Jonas spoke in his most arrogant tone.
“As President, I must be protected as well as possible at all times. Josh has proven his allegiance and is merely adding to my security force.” The President met Jonas’s arrogance with condescension.
“It seems to be plenty safe in here without that monstrosity. Unless you are showing your prejudice against our kind.” Jonas continued.
“If you will look to your right, you will see two more vampires here. I would trust them with my life because they have proven worthy of that trust. You and your cohorts have only proven yourselves able to start a war causing millions of innocents to lose their lives.” The President was speaking calmly. He knew not to raise his voice or show weakness. He was walking a tightrope and he was well balanced.
“That is all circumstantial and inflammatory. As I have said repeatedly, our plan was peaceful in nature. If we had been able to complete it properly, no one would have been hurt.” Jonas said in self-righteous anger.
“A tiger is peaceful in nature. You put it in the city and people may die.” Seth drew a laugh from the reporters with his comment.
“Are you comparing us to wild animals?” Jonas was in a rage.
“No. You are worse than a wild animal. Animals only kill for food. Most vampires kill for the sheer joy they get from it.” I answered.
“And yet you consider yourself to be good. How can you claim vampires to be evil and not include yourself?” Jonas didn’t know when to quit.
“The streets of Rio were lined with dead bodies that were killed by vampires. I was in Rio to stop the vampires and save the humans. That is how I make the distinction.” I replied making sure to speak confidently like I was told.
“How do we know those vampires were not provoked into fighting and killing?” He was reaching now.
“I doubt the children’s bodies we saw were posing much of a threat to the vampires that killed them.” I stated simply.
The reporters began to shout angrily when they heard of the children. Jonas looked around and knew he had lost that round. The President had to bang his hand on the table to restore order to the room. He looked at the reporters but did not reprimand them for their behavior. In truth, their reactions were helping our case.
“If we could move on, I would like to address some of the statements Austin made at the registration office in Chattanooga. He clearly stated that all vampires are not evil. He also stated that a policy of peace between our races could work. If that is the case, then why are vampires not given equal rights with humans?” Jonas asked smugly.
“That’s easy enough to answer. Humans aren’t trying to feed off of vampires. If you put my statements together the way they were intended, it makes perfect sense. All vampires aren’t evil, but around ninety-eight percent are. For the evilly inclined members of our race to agree to any form of peace with humans, there would have to be repercussions that would dissuade them of breaking that peace. The humans will be punished if they are the ones who break the peace as well.” I said.
“I still don’t understand why the rights aren’t equal. Vampires will suffer being monitored constantly while humans have complete freedom.” Jonas persisted.
“It goes back to who is feeding off of whom. If you have a pride of lions and a herd of wildebeests, which group do you monitor?” I liked my response and the reporters cheered for it too.
“Once again we are compared to animals. This is an outrage.” Once again, Jonas was grasping for straws.
“As were the humans. I called them wildebeests didn’t I? I was simply stating the relationship between predator and prey. I think we can all agree that the use of animals in my analogy was only to clarify the meaning.” I was getting tired of this. “I am sorry you were unable to understand. I will speak in clearer terms if necessary.”
The reporters laughed pretty hard after that comment. I even saw the President put his hand to his mouth to hide a smile. The so called debate went back and forth like this for another hour. It was clear that Jonas was just stirring up whatever mess he could. No one in our group believed he had ever been intent on a peaceful life among humans. The debate would have continued but the President was called away on an emergency. He announced that we would reconvene tomorrow night.
Jonas and his buddies left in a huff. Seth spoke with one of the President’s advisors. Josh had to change and get dressed. I was relieved and hoped tomorrow would be cancelled. We left a few minutes after most and the SUVs took us back to the hotel. I headed straight for the bar. Everyone was telling me that I did great, but I only felt drained. Public speaking wasn’t my favorite thing.
After several drinks I finally got into the celebratory mood my friends were in. We drank margaritas and whatever mixed drinks we could think of. Occasionally a human or group of humans would stop by our table and tell us we did great. The most common theme from the humans was that Jonas was a dickhead. That was making our party feel better. It meant the television was capturing his true essence.
We stayed in the bar until we were the only ones left. Rosalyn and I were fairly drunk when we got back to our room. That is saying something for a vampire. It takes a lot to get one of us drunk. We got into bed and I grabbed the remote but did not turn the tv on.
“Part of me doesn’t want you there tomorrow night. The rest of me doesn’t want you to be anywhere Seth or Josh isn’t. I would like at least one of them to be near you at all times.” I told her.
“I don’t think Cyranos will try anything here. He won’t want to be seen publicly as a threat. The danger will be after we leave Washington. He will come for me when we least expect it. He is not afraid of Josh, although I think he is worried about Seth.” Rosalyn spoke quietly but with feeling.
“I just don’t want to take any chances. Do you know anything about the other vampires with Jonas and Cyranos?” I asked.
“One of them is familiar, though I don’t know his name. He is old but I don’t know much about him. I saw him once in Rome around eighteen hundred years ago. He was with a bad group then too.” She recalled.
“Damn. If I had to guess, Jonas and the other one are probably old as well. I would be useless facing them.” I couldn’t have felt any smaller than I did then.
“You are worrying over what might happen. There is no guarantee Cyranos will try anything at all. Even if he does, we have Josh and Seth. I believe I could take any one of the other three with no pro
blem. We should be okay, Austin. Stop worrying so much.” She said.
She began kissing my chest and went down from there. I forgot my worries and got lost in Rosalyn until it was time for the sun to come up. I went to sleep with the nightmare image of Cyranos holding her head above me. No amount of sex could stop the fear from returning. Cyranos needed to be stopped.
We showered and dressed quickly knowing we were expected in the lobby. Josh was there with the rest of the wolves but Seth was gone. He had been called away by the President earlier. We didn’t know why but we expected Seth to be at the meeting tonight. The SUVs took us over to the meeting place again.
Once again we were the first to arrive. We took our seats on the right as we had the night before. The President wasn’t in his chair and Seth was nowhere to be seen. I was about to say something when a door behind the President’s chair opened and we were told to stand for the President.
“Be seated.” The President looked over at us and pointed to me and then Josh. “I need to speak with you two.”
Josh and I looked at each other and knew something was up. Seth still wasn’t here. That was making me nervous. I wanted both Seth and Josh in the room if Cyranos was going to be here. This wasn’t good. We went to the front and the line of soldiers made room for us to get closer so we could talk quietly.
“Seth is on his way to China. The vampires there have started to overwhelm the soldiers. We need Seth to thin them out some. He reminded me to make sure you turn if Cyranos shows again.” He looked at Josh and got a nod of understanding. “Austin, you did great last night. I am going to try to take more control tonight if I can but be ready to speak if I run into trouble. We should be able to end this charade tonight.”
“Yes sir, no problem.” I said. We were dismissed then and returned to our seats to wait on Jonas.
It took nearly thirty minutes for Jonas and his group to arrive. I felt the evil coming off Cyranos before I saw him. He looked immediately at Rosalyn which did nothing for my peace of mind. Cyranos looked around and seemed to note Seth’s absence. A little smile at the corner of his mouth gave that away.