The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 3: Chapter 1

My imaginings were broken by a particularly loud laugh from Marcel, and I began to reconsider my relaxed attitude about the others knowing. Would his obnoxious overprotectiveness spread as far as me sleeping with Vienne? I would not be surprised. It was too easy to imagine Marcel braying like an angry dog because I had compromised her honour or something, but I could always beat him in another fight if he got too irritating.

At least I wouldn't have to listen to him so often when I returned to New Haven.

The downside that I wouldn't see her either hit me and I found that I did not entirely want to go. Marcel could be ignored, if only circumstances allowed. I wanted her near at hand and there might have been more reason than the most obvious.

But there was more I could do for the cause there than here, so I would go where I could be useful.

It was nearly dawn as I wandered outside where the assembly was going to be held. A lot of people were already standing around, illuminated mostly by lit torches as the sky was still dark except for the growing glow in the east. They were mostly talking in small groups, some about the meeting and others about the sight of the end of three vampires the previous day.

The torches lit the faces well enough to illuminate expressions of everything from unease to enthusiasm, all feelings I knew well from my past kills. Their reactions most reminded me of that first accidental time that I had killed one of the bloodsuckers, my original disbelief that I had actually managed to do it changing to trembling relief, the excitement of accomplishment. I could never forget the rush of seeing with my own eyes the monsters were not invincible, or the nervousness of wondering what might happen next after I had managed—after I had dared—such an impossible feat.

I did not try to join any of the groups, my mind wandering, my eyes unconsciously scanning for the first sight of her, but I only saw more humans gathering and waiting. A lot of the crowd I either did not recognize or only knew in passing from my time here, but many of her guards and people from the meetings the previous night had also assembled to listen.

"Jamie."

I turned to see Belle walking towards me with a sunny smile. She had been friendly to me since I had met her. While she seemed competent enough at her job, I suspected Connor also kept her around as a ray of optimism through the day to day workings of building and planning the impossible. I greeted her in return.

"Connor wants you to come over and stand with us," she told me with another smile.

"Sure." I did not really have an objection, so I walked along with her. It was getting difficult to move through the gathering crowd, but she walked with the determined enthusiasm I had become accustomed to and easily slipped through while I followed in her wake.

"Looking forward to the assembly?" she asked as we walked.

"Yeah, maybe." I was a bit curious about what Vienne had planned, but I was more interested in seeing her again, even if it were while she strutted around loving her place as the centre of attention. I could not even feel annoyed by her grandstanding. It was who she was and I certainly wasn't going to be able to change her.

And I found that I really didn't mind that much, either. My hatred of her, while still remembered, was just a memory.

We reached Conner, who was standing and talking with other leaders, off to the side of where Vienne would presumably speak. He introduced me to a few I had not met yet, although I had seen them all at the meeting, and I received my expected mix of suspicion and admiration after the introductions. I didn't have to endure it for long, because Vienne came out, and all attention turned to her like a wave through the crowd.