The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 1: Chapter 7

I could almost hear his jaw as he clenched it together harder. I started walking away and then I turned back.

"Oh, silly me. I almost forgot."

He turned towards me, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"Knife." I stayed where I was and held out my hand expectantly.

The indecision rushed through him again. His heart pounded, his eyes assessed the situation, demonstrating just how much he wanted to do it despite the consequences. After that moment's pause, instead of acting, he stepped forward and handed me the blade, handle first.

"Thank you for your cooperation," I said sweetly.

Satisfying silence was his only response.

"Good night, Jamie."

"Sleep tight, Leech."

* * * * *

As the days passed it was becoming increasingly difficult to give my new human the space I thought that he needed.

My mind kept wandering back to him. It did not help that all my servants were on high alert and kept reporting to me what he was doing.

It was not that they were doing anything wrong. It was my mind that was not quite right.

I put my odd behaviour down to my unusual attraction to the human. It had been such a long time since anyone had properly caught my interest in that way that of course I was behaving a bit off.

Strange though it was, I did not mind the disruption. Disruptions were glorious things, although most vampires were blind to the fact. Indeed, getting stuck in traffic, obstinate councillors, losing keys, death, full inboxes, impertinent humans, all the large and small travails bookended all the joys and pleasures and were simply part of the ebb and flow of the world. They brought delicious contrast. It was fascinating.

His effect on me was also fascinating. Who knew that there was even one person left in the world who could shake me, even just a bit?

But my enjoyment of the situation did not solve the problem, if anything, it compounded it, because I was overcome with the desire to test my new discoveries further.

At a certain point, I became desperate to find some way to hold onto my resolution to stay away.

Finally, I hit on the perfect inspiration: I started on a bill for the next quarterly meeting.

I did not typically put forward my own bills and it was almost unheard of for me to bring forth more than one in a year. Certainly it would cause a stir amongst my peers, since it seemed they had nothing better to do with their indefinite lives than gossip about my affairs.

Although perhaps, if I were not so fortunate as to be myself, I also might not have anything better to do than obsess about what I was doing. Thankfully, I was the one being who had the distinct pleasure of being me so I had no need to live such a hollow life as they.

Usually, I simply sat back and interfered with other people's bills. I rather enjoyed the way the other councillors sought to curry my favour, begging for my support for this or that pet project of theirs.

I almost never told anyone how I would vote until a day or two before at the most. Their panic and desperation was too amusing not to savour and it only got sweeter as deadlines approached.

Perhaps, the other councillors were relieved on the occasions when I had my own projects to keep me occupied. The thought entertained me, I hoped it was true. If they felt relief for a time, their dismay would only be more acute when I returned to my usual behaviours.