Wolf's Bane

Divided

"You're really too hard on him," Eleanor scolded. "He's doing the best he can. You can't blame him for Peter's actions."

"He's not the one I'm mad at." Desiree kept her voice low and made sure no one was paying attention to her. "It's the whole situation. I hate that there's a culture that could allow such cruelty so close to me. It never bothered you?"

"I wasn't really aware of it," she admitted. "I didn't get out much and I never interacted with vampires. The idea of them terrified me. Granted, I knew werewolves often kept them as servants, but I was taught that was to keep vampires from getting out of control. It wouldn't do to have too many of them running around freely."

"Why not?" Desiree asked as she entered her wing, giving her some privacy. "They're just people. Sebastian wasn't running around attacking humans before he was captured. He only bit the willing. Now, vampires have other options, so they don't have to bite anyone. There's no reason they should have to be enslaved."

"You're assuming all vampires have as much self-control as Sebastian."

"Are you assuming all humans have self-control?" Desiree countered. "For that matter, do werewolves really have more control than vampires?"

"You make it sound like a simple matter."

"Because I don't like complicated things," Desiree explained. She entered the room and looked in the mirror. Her reflection was clearly different from her, which was disconcerting, but allowed her to see Eleanor's expressions. "When something gets too complicated, I try to simplify it. Sometimes, that means breaking it down into parts. Other times, I have to just figure out what the basic points are. In this, the basic points are that vampires are being enslaved by werewolves. Given what Sebastian's suffered, there's clearly no protections for them. That's not right. Of course, there are more points. Andrew saved Sebastian and has never treated him badly. I want to believe Andrew cares more than he lets on."

"Is it important to you that he cares?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Desiree paused. Why did she want to believe in him so badly? It would be easier to just lump him in with the rest of the Elites and treat him like a stranger for the duration of her stay. She didn't need to be friends with him. "I just don't feel like he's a bad person."

"Not caring would make him a bad person?"

"Maybe."

"You really like to make things simple."

"I really do," she agreed. "I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, though."

"Because you're in love with him?"

Desiree's cheeks burned. "I wouldn't say that. I like him though."

"Are you in love with the vampire, then?"

"He has a name."

"Are you avoiding my questions?"

"Hey, shouldn't you be using Victorian language?" Desiree asked, attempting to change the subject. "You sound pretty modern most of the time. For that matter, you both sounded modern in the memory I saw."

"You should know your tactics are obvious."

"Why do you speak like that?" Desiree pressed.

"Well, I speak like that because I've been part of you for years, I expect. I've adopted your speech patterns." She apparently had given up on getting her question answered. "We probably sounded like that in the memory because your mind was adjusting it to help you understand more easily."