I had been so close to drinking Jamie's blood. It was almost like he was willing.
Except he was absolutely not and it was entirely unsporting to take advantage of our agreement. Worst of all, getting his blood like that would be altogether boring. I would not see our games conclude like that.
He had agreed and he was good at hiding his emotions, but his stiffness said it all. His teeth gritted, his eyes narrowed with his rage, his eyebrows tilted up and then down with his confusion and indecision.
I could have taken what I wanted and he would not have fought me. Desperately, I wanted to.
But in the taking, I sensed other things I might want even more than his blood would be further, perhaps even impossibly far from me.
I barely even knew what I desired, which was an unfamiliar feeling. I wanted his blood, I wanted his body, and I wanted to continue my games with him indefinitely, but there might have been something more that I did not quite fathom. When I understood myself, I could turn my attention and efforts and resources towards gaining my desire, but this, this was something different.
How perplexing.
However, what I did understand was that my plans to ignore him had been broken by him simply coming into this room unexpectedly.
I had been so lost in my thoughts of my loss in the council that I had not even noticed him until he entered, completely caught off guard by a person who definitely wanted to kill me. How ridiculous to have let down my guard like that.
Discomfort was an unfamiliar sensation and the cause of it was still sitting beside me. I looked away from him and decided to distract us both with a nice diverting change of topic.
"Do you know the story of Icarus?" I asked him.
"No, Mistress."
I probably would have hated him calling me that except there was something soothing in his surly tone. He was doing such a good job of hiding his lingering resentment, but I could still hear that faint trace.
"It's an old story, a very old story. It makes me look young in comparison and there is not many things left in this world that can do that. I don't remember all the details, of course, but Icarus was a young male human whose father was a useful sort of slave, something of an inventor. I would definitely have found a use for him if I had gotten my hands on him."
"However, some other sort of monstrous being had them entrapped on an island. In order to help his son escape, Icarus' father created wings of wax and feathers and strapped them to his son so that he could fly to freedom. His father warned him neither to fly too low for fear of getting the feathers wet nor too high for fear of the wax melting.
"I suppose it was some sort of lofty allegory for not becoming too content, nor for getting too full of oneself. Regardless, being a young male human, Icarus of course did not keep himself in check. He became so enamoured with the joy of flying he forgot to heed his father's words. He flew until he almost reached the sun and the wax began to melt. The wings fell apart and he plummeted to his death in the ocean below."
I paused to see if he would say something.
"Nice story."
"Not particularly and it's clearly untrue, although I suppose it does serve its purpose."
"And what is that, Mistress?"
"A warning to take care when you fly. Have you ever seen a plane, Jamie?"
He looked surprised at the change of subject and then annoyed with me again.
"No."
"Do you even know what a plane is?"
"Yes." He sounded indignant.
"I suppose feral humans have passed down stories of such things and of course, a few do still exist, but not many. Do you know that humans once stood on the moon?"
"I do."
"And you believe it?" I was curious. It had seemed so impossible when the idea had first been suggested.
"Yes."
I smiled a bit in spite of my down mood. "I do, too."
"Weren't you there to see it?"
"Well, I never went myself. I did watch it on television. It was amazing; I had never been more proud of the humans. It was an era when even I felt like everything was possible if only I dreamed it."
He was looking at me like he was trying to figure me out. It reminded me of the look Drak gave me and I definitely did not want this human to see me as clearly as my friend did.
"My bill was defeated."
He shrugged.
"It's my first defeat in the chamber on something I proposed."
"Too bad."
"It really is. I suppose it was just too extreme. Ahead of its time, perhaps. Are you at all curious what I proposed?"
"No."
He was lying, but I was better at it. "Well, I'll tell you anyway. It was a genius bit of legislature. I proposed that we extend the hunting season on feral humans by two months and decrease the nature reserves by half."
"Nature reserves?"
"Oh, yes. That little gem was thanks to the bleeding hearts on the council. Something about maintaining the human population, etcetera, etcetera, blah, blah, blah."
I smiled at him sweetly. I had actually voted in favour of the original bill in the name of blood security, but he would not know that. I doubted the humans in the wild kept close watch on the vampire council and then passed down the story for decades. "Of course, we don't tell the ferals where and when they're safe."
"Hunting season is from fall to early spring." His eyes looked far away.
"How did you know?"
"I never put it together before now, but from what I've seen it's obvious."
"Well, enjoy your knowledge now, because I shall compel it from your mind later," I said, just in case someone important overheard our conversation. I was not bothered in the slightest if the humans in the wild knew when they were supposedly safe or not and it was not like Jamie would have a chance to tell them if I had anything to say about it.
He frowned, his anger again focused on me.
"Still, while I am disappointed about the lack of an extended hunting season, you've reminded me of what's actually important. Arguing for my bill was quite fun, so it's really no loss."
"I'm very happy for you." His sarcasm barbed hatred was back and as gripping as ever.
I smiled as I stood up. "Thank you, but I have to return to the council now. Go back to your room, human slave."
With a wink meant only to discomfort him, I left him alone in the room. I nodded to Greg who was standing guard over my chambers for the night as I returned to the fray.
* * * * *
Magnus was a true talent. The man was boring me to tears and it had been centuries since I had last cried over anything.
I believed that he was trying to elicit some sort of sympathy for irresponsible vampires like Willow, but he was having the opposite effect on me.
Silly vampires like Willow needed to be taught a lesson and giving them the legal right to make more vampires instead of having a two century time out was exactly the wrong way to go about it.
Did none of these short sighted fools understand that if we drain all the humans dry, that would be the end of us as well?
It was terribly irritating. I bit my lip with my fang until it drew blood, but though it had the exact same flavour, there was none of the life giving delight of proper human blood. My blood lacked some component of the humans' red juices.
And for some reason, these idiotic councillors could not add two plus two equals four for the life of them. Basic human biology apparently escaped their grasp. One could not even begin to hope they might grasp simple conservationism.
I could certainly sympathize with Jamie's hatred of my fellow bloodsuckers, at least when Magnus went on and on and on like this. I could stake the blowhard myself and would probably be congratulated for it by the majority of the other vampires for my efforts.
Magnus and Katter had chosen to vote against my bill, as I had suspected they would. Willow had voted for it, probably in a desperate attempt to convince me to still support her irresponsible indulgences.
Good luck. I would ask her to hold her breath while waiting for my vote which she would never gain, but unfortunately that would do her no harm.
My loss had been so narrow that it would have passed with only the addition of Magnus's and Katter's support. But no matter. As I listened to his poor argumentative skills, I was increasingly convinced that being forced by our deal to vote in favour of it and worse, to give the speech I had prepared in its favour, would have been a torture even worse than listening to his sad attempt at begging for votes.
I was suddenly glad they had voted against me, because I was going to enjoy dismembering their proposal until it had less substance than a vampire under the midday sun.
Finally, Magnus was finished. I hoped it had not been as long as it had felt, because I would have been most upset to return to my chambers to find a half foot of dust covering the grey haired bones of some of my favourite current humans.
The magistrate snapped me out of my musings when he opened the floor to arguments.
I did not volunteer immediately. If someone else stepped forward and decimated Magnus first, I would simply play the voyeur and revel in the disassembly. Although I dearly wanted to be the one to nuke the proposal, maintaining my pretenses was far easier from the sidelines.
To my delight, Davidson was the first volunteer. I was glad, because he would have the advantage of talking while the councillors still had the last fumes of attention left to give. Then, I could go up last of all, if necessary and blow what was left of the bill out of the water.
I would force their attention to me. I sat back and let my boredom at Magnus's words cover me in relaxed apathy and watched as Davidson spoke with his usual passion. I could watch him all day, those blue eyes scowling as he made those delightfully logical arguments that most of our idiotic peers would simply ignore in favour of whatever might be their momentary delight.
His frustrations were as understandable as they were hilarious. He really believed what he said and he was often in the right, but few listened no matter how hard he pushed the facts.
What he did not yet understand was that most vampires would not be convinced by reason. He needed to make them feel what he was saying and throttling them with facts only made them space out. Our hearts might be dead, but many of these fools were still led by them, no matter what they believed.
Perhaps even I was at risk of letting my emotions control me, considering all the inexplicable choices I had made regarding Jamie. How was I stupid enough to risk my head over playing with one man, delectable though he might be?
"There are only so many humans on the earth and the number can barely support the vampire population as it is. Do we really want to stretch it further when the future already seems uncertain? And, might I remind you, that new vampires do not simply add in a linear fashion, they grow the population exponentially. One vampire today is possibly four more in a millennium, sixteen in two, and sixty-four in three, and that is only at current rates, not even the proposed increase which would move us to a potential of almost a hundred new vampires during the same period!"
His arguments were actually sound, but it was obvious that few were actually paying attention to his words.
"If you take into account the average number of feeders per vampire per year is seventeen point four, and the average number of feeder deaths per vampire per year is five point six, that means we could eventually, worst case scenario, need over two thousand more humans per vampire who wants to make two more fledglings today. The human population is already in decline, both amongst the slaves and the free humans. The last thing we should be doing is putting more stress upon an increasingly scarce resource. If anything we should be lowering the fledgling allotment by two, not raising it."
The councillors who were actually listening did not like that. Murmurs came from different corners. Oh, Davidson. He was simply adorable when he was so worked up. I almost wanted to adopt him as something of a pet.
Too bad I did not want even pet softies near my humans. Even the nicest vampire was a monster if you only scratched the surface a bit. Still, perhaps I might take him under my wing in secret and teach him a few tricks. It would be exciting if he were more equipped to challenge me in the future.
More Davidson contention and less droning from Magnus and his ilk could only be a marvellous thing in the vampire world. I smiled at the thought.
* * * * *
I could have pretended to be disappointed that no one had decimated Magnus's bill, but I would have been lying.
The magistrate gave the last call for arguments and I raised my hand to get his attention.
Two other councillors tried the same trick, but as the oldest of the three I took precedence. I loved that rule, since I was the third oldest vampire regularly in the council it almost always worked in my favour.
If the others did not like it, I suppose that they should have been born sooner.
One of the vampires who wanted a shot at Magnus was my neighbour, Whitmore, but she did not seem particularly bothered by my seniority. I supposed she suspected that I was going to be arguing for blood security and she was right. The other was a dreary fellow who I generally ignored.
I kept my smile small and polite as I made my way up to the front. I did not let my desire to destroy Magnus on the floor show, only allowing an air of professional superiority to show in every confident step I took.
I turned to the crowd. "Honorable councillors, I have decided to put forth my counterarguments on this bill today, for the good of all vampirekind. As you know, we exist in a delicate ecosystem. Plants convert light from the sun into energy that makes its way up the food chain. At the top of the food chain sits humanity and ever above them we remain, getting our energy from our singular food source."
"As you all are no doubt aware, there is no substitute for the blood of humans in our diet. The food we ate in our pre-vampiric state cannot offer us any energy. We cannot substitute human blood with the fluids of other animals, because, as I believe we also should all be aware, such blood has dire effects on the minds of the vampire.
"In this world, we have but one source of sustenance. Humans are our most important resource and unless we all wish to starve into madness and death, the supply must be carefully maintained. This is unquestionably the highest need for our kind. The feral humans are decreasing in population and it would be utter recklessness for us to consider increasing the number of vampires in existence in light of the fact that our only source of food is already in decline. First, we must make certain to safeguard the source of our existence.
"The maintenance of the human population at survival levels is our highest need and as such it comes before luxuries such as creating more vampires for companionship. If anything—as has previously been suggested—we should be considering decreasing the fledgling allotment rather than increasing it, most especially in light of the fact that the majority of this council seem unwilling to take steps to further safeguard our resources."
I could not resist that one little dig at the idea that half these fools had dared to vote down my bill.
"Thank you, Magistrate," I said, turning to him and nodding my respect.
He returned the gesture before speaking to Magnus. "Would you like to address the councillor's arguments?"
Magnus looked a bit pissy. It did amuse me, but not so much as working up Davidson. At least his confused suspicion at being forced to support the same side as me in bills I actually seemed to care about was most entertaining.
I did not let my gaze wander to him, but I imagined that he probably bore a hilariously conflicted expression. He would be wondering what I was up to, more than anyone else in the chamber.
No surprise I liked playing with him. In some future century he would probably be able to fight me as an equal and it was a delightful thought.
"Honourable councillors, you have heard much fear mongering in these debates today, claims that the human population is in severe decline, when there's no definitive evidence to these unsubstantiated claims. Using pseudo-science to validate your attempts to control the actions of other vampires is a low tactic, Councillor Vienne."
I smiled at him, "I'm sorry, my friend, but I have only spoken the truth and if you would later like a lesson in basic biology I should be happy to educate you. And, of course estimates were based on current available data, but only a fool does not look to the future and attempt to plan wisely even without knowing all possible data. Even a human farmer sets aside a seed crop and we would be fools not to do the same."
I continued before he could interrupt. "Of course, we are not talking about setting aside a seed crop, I am suggesting the farmer would be a fool to invite so many humans into his house that they are forced to eat future crops to survive. They would stave off starvation for one winter, only to starve the next and likely end up resorting to cannibalism. Is that what you wish to see? Insane vampires turning upon one another and trying hopelessly to feed on vampiric blood when all the humans have run out?"
"Your example is not relevant."
"It is entirely relevant. We simply speak of resource management, which is ever my primary goal while I stand here before you." Discounting, of course, my constant desire to amuse myself at their expenses and all my other wider plans, although mentioning that was hardly in my interest.
"This bill is not about resource management, it is about the basic dignity and freedom for vampires to reproduce themselves, much like the humans do."
"If anyone's example is not relevant, it is yours. Humans reproduce new humans naturally. When we make new vampires from humans we take a resource and turn it into a resource consumer."
He looked annoyed at me. I could not imagine why. He is the one who refused to fulfill his end of our bargain and now he was behaving like a child who was not getting his way. Apparently some people never grew up, no matter how many centuries they lived.
I did not roll my eyes at him, although I was severely tempted just to see what he might do at the provocation.
"The numbers that have been used to try to demonstrate the unsustainability of my bill are completely exaggerated. Most vampires never even reach their maximum allotment."
"The numbers are not exaggerated. They are merely a worst case scenario. But I ask you why, Councillor, should those of us who use our allotment responsibly be forced to bear the burden of those who do not? Why should we further split the human stock with the irresponsible?"
I met several gazes as I swept my eyes quickly over the crowd. Most of them did not make three fledglings every millennium and I was pleased to see they seemed to be agreeing with my point. Willow shifted uncomfortably, but her eyes were narrowed in silent rage. Magnus's bill was all but finished and I had clearly made myself a trio of enemies.
Well, no matter. Even together, the three were no match for me and I rather liked the idea that the power dynamics of the council were shifting.
"This bill is for having mercy on vampires who need companionship," he snapped. He was getting flustered and it was another good sign.
"There are already many vampires with whom current vampires could seek companionship without further stressing our food supply."
Magnus glared at me. I hid my smile inside.
"Wrap up your arguments, councillors." The magistrate's voice sounded a bit tired. I was not surprised, the proceedings this quarterly had seemed to drag on and on.
"Would you like to go last?" I asked solicitously, hoping to provoke him further.
I was rewarded with a scowl. Magnus did not answer, but rather than taking the advantage he began his thing where he droned on about feelings or whatever other nonsense until it was my turn.
Standing in front of the assembled councillors, I simply drank in the attention for a long moment before I began. "I truly wish that we lived in a world that could sustain enough humans to keep a growing number of vampires in as much blood as they need, but we do not, especially when there are so many among our number who are unwilling to make small sacrifices to ensure that our supply of blood remains adequate. Sentimentality will bring us all to our doom if we do not take care. We are powerful, but we must work and plan wisely to maintain that power."
I swept my gaze over the assembly one final time. "I hope you'll all join me today in voting against this short-sighted bill in order to sustain not only our survival but also our future superiority as a species."
I returned to my seat, confident that Magnus's bill was about to be soundly defeated.