Forever for Rose

Chapter Thirty Six.

"Ok, I love you, but I'm not scared and I think it's a better idea for me to know what their concerns and their accusations are so that I can take them head on instead of thinking I'm doing great only to find I've got factions breaking off with worry I didn't know about." I finally decide but then I realize I just nonchalantly told Dalton that I love him. My face flushes and even though I just blatantly disagreed with him, a smile plays on his lips.

I shake my head to steady myself, I can't be focusing on him right now.  No matter how cute he looks leaned back in his thick leather chair, his bare forearms stretched out on the dark wood table. I shake my head again and turn to Tiwen. "I want to do the open circuit."

He dips his head to me and gives me a smile. "Yes, Your Highness. Give me about twenty minutes to send out an alert for the biggest media outlets and the first four to respond will get access to the available circuits. So you've got about twenty five minutes until we begin."

I keep my nerves in check, keeping my breathing even and take a seat next to my mom. She smiles as she reaches out to pull my hair down from the bun on the back of my head, fanning my long waves out around my shoulders. "Dalton is right you know." She sighs. "They can be downright cruel, and in fact they typically are to me."

"I know." I tell her. "But hopefully they'll come around to you once they hear my story."

She doesn't look convinced, but she isn't the one I need to convince. If Pedro were here he'd agree with me. He knows that vampires can be fickle and all you have to do to win them over is spin a story just right.

When Tiwen comes back to the room, pressing a button on a remote to lower a screen in the back of the room I pull out of my new Cubs hoodie and pass it to my mom while she gives me her red blazer to put over my t-shirt.

"Ready?" Tiwen asks after a few more minutes.

Inwardly I shake my head over and over, but on the outside I dip my chin once. "Dad?"

He stands, going over to stand in place behind the podium. He swallows hard once, the only sign he is nervous too and then he straightens out his shirt before he grips both sides of the podium and looks ahead at the camera and the screen behind it that's split into four sections. One box for each of the four broadcasters coming from different parts of the world.

Mom and I stand to the side out of the camera's view for now and dad nods to Tiwen again. I glance down at my own clothes nervously while the loading screen comes up on the screen. While mom looks gorgeous in her white blouse with the scalloped sleeves as red pants and heels, I look a little more like a Prep school dropout with my skinny jeans, sneakers, t-shirt and a blazer. If Pedro sees this somehow he's going to flip that I let my first appearance with my people be me looking like a normal teenager, but desperate times...

The room is full of the sound of shocked gaps.

"What the hell is this?" The man in the top right hand corner of the screen shouts, looking to his sides at people off screen that we can't see. "Is this a joke?"

Dad lifts his head. "I assure you, it is not a joke."

"Traitor." The woman with bright red hair in the bottom left whispers under her breath.

The other two broadcasters, a young black woman and a older looking Chinese man both look too stunned to speak at all. They just gape into the camera.

"I'm coming to you all-" Dad tries to start but they talk over him, demanding his head, calling him names, and implying that the attack on Castrum must have been his doing. "I'm going to mute your audio until I finish what I need to say, then I will be happy to open the floor for questions." He says in a clipped tone. Tiwen nods and suddenly the people on the screen are silent even though their mouths continue to flap open and shut.