After Jamie left me to go about his day, I kept myself busy with Leif. A huge part of me wanted desperately to go the quickly nearing quarterly, but Leif was absolutely resolute that it was a terrible idea.
He was not wrong, but the idea of rubbing my superiority in their faces, of seeing the four newly empty council seats and counting, was nearly irresistible. Their panic would be a thing of beauty, and I was going to miss all of it if I did not go.
It was terribly disappointing, but I was forced to concur with my serious human. It was entirely possible that I could go and brazen my way through all the schmoozing and posturing, but it was also entirely possible that they were already certain in my culpability on the disappearances of not only the first three councillors, but also the council minions that they were undoubtedly aware had been sent to my doorstep.
Additionally, they might very well discover some of the other attacks that would happen between now and then. We were certainly aided by the fact vampires were quite solitary creatures, but once they realized what was happening, they would certainly heighten their defences and observe more carefully.
"And there's no way that we can send a large enough force to protect you without completely blowing whatever cover we have left," Leif continued explaining, clearly unaware that I had already been convinced by my own musings.
I broke in before he could go on another long winded ranting explanation. "You're right, you're right," I said. "No need to continue. I'm just disappointed, that's all. I've not missed a single quarterly in almost a century and this is ruining my streak most dreadfully."
Leif had no sympathy for my plight. He was practically a vampire already without turning since he was so cold-blooded.
"And, every time I missed even one quarterly, they rammed through the most dreadful proposals. What's that saying? When the cat's away, the mice will become even stupider than usual? Although I would have sworn that to be impossible, except I've seen the evidence on more than one occasion..."
"I imagine we're not going to like what they're going to do when you're not there this time, too."
"True. They're probably going to try to counter my plans. Their floundering attempts might turn out to be cute if only they won't be so irritatingly inconvenient," I commented.
Leif frowned. "We can't afford to underestimate them. Most of them might be fools, but you know they all aren't. And even the fools have incredible power."
I sighed. My dismissive attitude was apparently not comforting Leif in the slightest. The human was wound far too tight. "I'm aware of that, Leif. Calm yourself. You know we're not just attacking for fun and resources, we're also taking out some of the threats. We won't be able to get to them all, but you know how many ridiculously long strategy meetings I've been subjected to in the last few weeks. We've gone over everything. I might have been bored to death if only I weren't so durable."
He frowned at me.
I held out my hands in mock supplication. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. You were at some of them. While I won't lie and pretend that they were not boring, they were also very productive and very strategic. We're aiming for maximum damage while we've got them with their pants down."
His brow was still furrowed. The human was so needy. I rolled my eyes at him.
"And I promise I won't even consider going to the quarterly. Although I'm going to miss them. Dreadfully. They were the highlight of my existence."
"You hated them."
"I loved hating them," I argued. "And I liked parts of them."
Leif's brow finally smoothed a bit. "You liked the parts where you were manipulating and insulting the other councillors."
I shrugged. "You say that like it's a bad thing. And I can't help but adore the feeling of being the alpha bloodsucker, I suppose."
"Bloodsucker? Jamie's been a bad influence on you."
I shrugged. "Has he? I literally am a bloodsucker. It's certainly better than being compared to leeches. They're so slimy and spineless. I'm neither slimy nor spineless. Although I am perhaps a parasite."
"You're not a parasite."
"A brilliant, delightful parasite."
He looked like he thought I was wasting his time.
I smiled sweetly. "While I have been convinced that I can't take the risk of going to the quarterly, you do know they'll take my absence as proof of my guilt."
"Your safety is more important at this juncture than maintaining the facade."
"But I really love my secrets," I pouted. "I love them more than my safety. I don't want to relinquish them, Leif."
"Think about all the time you'll lose with Jamie if you get yourself burned to ash in the sun next week."
"Low blow, Leif."
He blinked at me, hiding any discomfort his daring produced quite admirably.
I sighed dramatically. "But fair. I'll never be able to get the chance of savouring their hilarious reactions back, but perhaps there are things more worth existing for than that beautiful triumph."
He opened his mouth, but I had had enough of him for now so I interrupted. "However, I'm feeling a bit tired, so I think I'll retire early."
He looked like he might argue, but instead he said, "Have a good rest, Vienne."
"Have a good day, Leif." I swept from the room before he could change his mind.
I wandered to my chambers. After chatting with the guards for a while, I retired to my bed and fell into the black.
* * * * *
I spent my evening cloistered in even more tedious meetings. I did not know how so many came to be, it was like each meeting spawned two more. While it was the last thing I wanted to do, I put up with it.
Truthfully, though, they were far worse than the council meetings, because I did not want to amuse myself by tormenting my humans the way I had when dealing with vampires. Here, we were actually trying to accomplish something important. When I could no longer force myself to pay attention, I let my mind wander through happy memories of sorely vexing the other councillors.
When I was finally released, I sought out Jamie.
Over the next few days leading up until the quarterly, we attacked more vampire strongholds and were met with overwhelming success. I was not surprised. Vampires no longer had the infrastructure to communicate quickly between locations, which would certainly teach them to destroy everything in the human suppression wars. They were the reason we could not have nice things, apparently, and it served them right.
Our seventh attack was our most difficult. We did not lose any of our fighters and it was ultimately a success, but the humans on guard were better prepared and a couple of my humans sustained dreadful injuries. I was quite angry and regretted that I could not go along on these daytime missions.
We suspected that our target had been tipped off that other vampires were being taken out, and if they had finally figured out what was happening that meant that our easy hits were likely finished.
I tried not to get too disheartened about the change in fortunes. As it stood, including my seat, there were now ten empty seats on the council, and a few of the councils' most cruel and outspoken supporters had been removed from existence. I could not help but feel optimistic at that thought.
Unfortunately, until we had confirmation that they knew I was involved, my advisors did not want me doing anything fun, so I was forced to wait at home while my humans, and of course Jamie, risked their necks. I could have overridden my advisors, but I forced myself to listen to their council since I had handpicked them for exactly that. They were clever and talented humans who could help round out my weaknesses.
Still, waiting was dreadful. I felt rather dismal when the quarterly had certainly begun.
There were some bright spots while I waited. Drak shone as a human recruiter, and even more so as a vampire recruiter which I had not suspected. I had always known of his soft spot for humans, but I had been unaware of how many friends he had amongst the softer vampires who typically disagreed with the council's treatment of humans. I was forced to learn a new appreciation of my friend.
Perhaps I might have known more about his activities if I had spent less time aggravating him and more time being civil when he visited. But that would have been no fun, so it's not like I would have done something different if given the chance.
It was about a week after I missed my council meeting. I was sitting in the kitchen and watching my humans work while sipping away at my lovely bloody coffee when someone interesting perked me right up. Most of my regular kitchen humans had been sent away for their own safety, but I still had Madeline who had point blank refused to leave, and Nate, my best competition when playing pool.
I was about to pester Nate about potentially turning into a vampire so that he could properly beat me without a handicap, when footsteps sounded in the hall and stopped in front of the door.
The door opened to reveal Theo. He grimaced what was probably supposed to be a smile although it bore little resemblance to the expression, and then adjusted his glasses as he looked towards me. He did look rather harried, I supposed Wyatt was running all my poor tech humans ragged trying to increase our security coverage so quickly. It was a shame we did not have more time to get ourselves prepared, but what was done was done.
"Mistress, there's a new human begging to speak with you."
"Oh?" I asked, intrigued. "What do they want?"
"He wouldn't say. We tried to get it out of him, but he refused to say anything. 'I have a message which I'll only speak to the vampiress Vienne," were his only words.
"Interesting." I refilled my coffee and followed Theo out of the room.
They had the new human situated in one of my feeding rooms. It rather felt like an invasion, but I supposed these spaces had been a luxury rather than a necessity, as well as part of my cover. If they needed to be repurposed I would not complain, but it did test my long neglected self-restraint. I had gotten entirely too comfortable in my life of indulgent habits. Where was the vampiress who blended into humanity working regular jobs and interacting with regular people? I had been Mistress Vienne too long.
The visiting human was a male in rather excellent condition, considering he was not one of my humans. He had sculpted features and lean muscles that instantly caught my eye. Before Jamie I certainly would have been tempted to get to know this human better. I was still quite tempted to recruit him for my guard.
He was sitting in a chair, and while wary, he did not seem entirely afraid. I desperately wanted to test his limits and see how far I could push him, but I remembered that I was actually there for a purpose and not to play around. Drat.
"You wanted to speak to me, human?" I asked him.
"Yes, Mistress Vienne."
"What's your name?"
He glanced at Theo and the pair of other guards who had trailed after us. "I'm only supposed to speak to you."
"Leave," I told them, and the three left reluctantly. "I'm not going to get staked again," I told their retreating backs. Why could none of them understand that had been a mistake of curiosity and emotion, not due to a lack of power?
The human's eyes widened a bit at my words, the first bit of outward emotion I noticed.
"So, back to my questions. Who are you and who sent you?"
"My name is Sawyer and Mistress Naomi sent me."
"Naomi?" I asked, surprised. "What does she want?"
"She and Master Davidson wish to speak with you in secret."
"Well, I do enjoy a good secret. What do they wish to discuss?"
"Your activities here."
I observed the human's calm face for a long moment. "What about my activities?"
"Well, vampires have been disappearing around you, and you did not attend the quarterly. The council believes that you're a traitor to the vampiric order, and Mistress Naomi wishes to learn the truth of the matter."
I continued to stare at him, and I made sure that he could see my fangs when I spoke. "So she can turn me over to the council?"
He shook his head emphatically. "No, they wish you no harm. They merely wish to get to the truth of the matter."
"And so why send you?"
"As a sign of good will."
"How so?"
"You may keep me as a hostage if you wish," he pointed out. "My cover is that I ran away and came to join your revolution to spy on you, so I can't return right away even if I want to."
"That seems rather convoluted. What's to stop me from killing you right here and now?"
"Nothing, of course, but they don't believe you're the sort to kill the messenger without cause."
"Well, I'll certainly be keeping you hostage until I determine the veracity of your claims."
"They understand that you've reason to be suspicious. To prove that they sent me, I'll remind you of the terms of your last under the table agreement with my mistress and Master Davidson. They agreed to let you have Lain in exchange for you votes, but if—"
"Yes, there was something like that. So, what does Davidson think of me?" I asked, curious if he would be honest or not. If he pulled some nonsense about how Davidson thought I was wonderful, I would know he was either lying, or did not know.
"Well, Master Davidson does not spend a lot of time around me, but I have heard him speaking with Mistress Naomi. I get the impression that you made his life somewhat difficult."
I grinned at that assessment. It sounded legit.
"They're under the impression you would not harm me without just cause."
So they had come to believe I was a softie. How distressingly inaccurate. I absolutely would harm Naomi's little human if I had a good reason to.
Sawyer considered me for a long moment. "As I said, I was also instructed to spy on your happenings, so that if my presence here is discovered my mistress has a good excuse as to what was happening."
"Oh?"
"It's a lie, of course. I'll only pass on irrelevant details if that comes to pass or messages if you wish to inform them of anything. Neither they or I have a desire to harm whatever you're doing here."
I nodded. I would have to confer with my advisors, but I found myself curious. I missed riling Davidson up, so as long as this was not a trap, I wanted to do it. And I rather thought that Davidson and Naomi had too much integrity to attack me in such an underhanded way.
Besides, nothing was absolute yet.
What fun. I was absolutely going to see Davidson again.