The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 2: Chapter 27

She shrugged dramatically. "And so am I. And you three were going to go running back and tattling on me, and I really can't have that."

"It doesn't matter if you kill us, people know we're here and they'll know you did it!" she said, her voice getting louder and shriller with each word.

"Do they? The way that Magnus spoke, it sounds as if the three of you kept your own council in order to extort me," she said in an almost bored drawl.

"Of course we told someone!"

"Really? Because I was truly under the impression that the three of you were so foolish as to think that you could somehow overcome me alone." She chuckled.

"It's not fair! You used humans," Willow accused.

"You can't blame me simply because the rest of you are too foolish to see potential where it lies."

"Vienne!" she said, her voice trailing off into a wail at the end of the word.

"Willow, please, have some dignity. Is this really how you want to be remembered?"

"You're a traitor."

The leech laughed. "Not to my own loyalties."

Willow shrieked again, as she strained at her bonds. Normally I might have feared a leech might be able to escape such chains, but weakened as they were, they seemed as helpless as humans.

Magnus stirred at the sound. He opened his eyes in a start and looked directly in my direction. Recognition passed his features, but I was quickly forgotten as his eyes met the leech. I suppose a human who had killed bloodsuckers paled in comparison to one betraying their own.

"Vienne, release us at once."

She laughed again. "Magnus, I really am going to miss you. Not overly much, but a very tiny bit."

"You'll never get away with this."

"I might. We'll have to see how the dice land. Well, some of us will have to see that. Some of us won't make it that long."

"What are you planning?" he demanded, and then flinched as a spot on his shoulder started to smoulder.

She paused and tilted her head curiously. "Do you think I'm going to tell you all my plans like some ridiculous Bond villain? Go on and on about my brilliant plans until you find a way to escape and destroy or expose me? Hardly. Besides, I feel it would be rather insensitive for me to further flaunt my future privilege when it's becoming increasingly clear that none of you have one. I do imagine your skin is starting to feel a touch uncomfortable by now."

Magnus let loose an almost unintelligible rant of curses, and Vienne watched him with her head still cocked to the side, as if she were only looking at a mild curiosity rather than the death of one of her own kind.

Finally, he stopped ranting, and simply stared with deepest hatred at her.

"I will admit myself surprised. The way the three of you voted and behaved in the council made me underestimate you. I had thought you only cared about your pleasures of the moment, but here you are making the ultimate sacrifice for what you must imagine to be the greater good of vampirekind. It's truly inspiring. Almost enough to bring a tear to my eye." She mimed wiping away a tear.

"But never fear, while your interference in my plans is mildly inconvenient, it won't ultimately change anything, although it was amusing to watch you actually believe that I would ever allow myself to be blackmailed by the likes of you. I'd tell you a relevant legend about a boy named Icarus who flew too close to the sun, but I rather think we might not have time. Oh, and of course, that story might be a tad insensitive considering your...current predicament, I suppose."