None of my advisors seemed very happy about me going to meet with my old council adversary, but I refused to be dissuaded. They had ruined my fun with personally enjoying the council's dismay, so I would take this one small consolation prize.
I argued heartedly for my side of it, not because they could stop me, but because they were happier when I brought them to my side of things. I refused to allow anyone to sweep the selected area in case it was a trap because I was in a much better position to survive such regardless.
It was a small risk. It would have been shocking to find out that Davidson was being duplicitous so I truly was not worried. I was less certain about Naomi, but I did know that her human-loving sentimentalities ran terribly deep. I could not imagine her backstabbing me now without really knowing what I was doing.
I took along Marcel and another of my newest fledglings, Greg, and made my way to the appointed location, an abandoned building a few hours outside my own territory. While I understood the need for secrecy, and while I did not think I had reason to fear, I was well aware of how vulnerable I was. I would be fine against Davidson and Naomi, but if this was a trap I was unsure how many of the other councillors we could overcome.
Both Drak and Jamie had wanted to come with me, but I had refused both of them. I told Drak he was to take my place in the event something went wrong. Jamie was a different story entirely. He was a huge weakness for me and if enemy vampires found out they would know how to most effectively get to me.
I strode into the building with my fledglings following me. I paid careful attention to everything around me, but the building seemed undisturbed but for the sound of breathing further into the building and up a flight of stairs. At least one human then, probably either Davidson's or Naomi's. I hurried inside, following that light rhythmic sound.
Pushing open a door, I was unsurprised to find the two of them sitting on an ancient couch, as still as death, their human sitting in another chair in the corner. "Councillors, how good to see you," I said with my best fake politeness. "I should introduce you to my escorts, Marcus and Greg."
"Good to see you as well, Councillor. Or is that a misnomer now? You did miss the last council meeting, after all, and there are a lot of surprising rumours flying around right now. You did once advise that I listen to rumours to see which way the wind was blowing, after all."
Naomi nodded, her cold gaze affixed on me.
"Oh? Really? As you said, I missed the last council meeting, so I really have not heard any rumours. Please enlighten me."
Naomi frowned. "There's no need for the pretense, Vienne."
"Pretence? What pretense? And what do you mean by having me meet with you in such a rundown building? I dare say it looks like the lair of a serial killer. Don't tell me you're related to the infamous vampire slayer?"
"I'd wager you're more likely to be connected with that slayer than any of the rest of us considering what you've reportedly been up to, lately." Davidson frowned, as if deep in thought.
Well, he was not wrong.
Naomi brought my attention back to her. "The council is aware that you're the one coordinating the attacks on vampire strongholds."
"What? Why ever would I do that?" I put my hand over my mouth as if aghast.
Davidson leveled his eyes at me. "Probably because you hold the council in contempt. Are you trying to gain more power for yourself? I can't help but imagine that your goal is to rule over all of us."
I laughed, so caught off guard I was. "That's actually a really good idea. So is this why you called me here? Are you planning to pledge allegiance to my rule?"
"Of course not," he was quick to respond. "The council is the only thing that stands between us and complete savage anarchy."
I watched him closely, hoping to make him feel uncomfortable under my regard. "And yet, you're no fan of the council, are you? You loath so many of their ridiculous rules..."
"Of course we do," Naomi snapped. "Half of what they do serves no purpose beside cruelty. Half of what you proposed was the same, Vienne. This pathological need to torture humans disgusts me and I wish—"
"Naomi," Davidson said, giving her a warning glance.
I was completely convinced that this was not a trap, but rather they really did want to know what I was up to. And what was the harm, now? The council already had some ideas of what I was doing. "All right, Davidson, Naomi. I'll tell you the truth of it, although that will be doubtless terrible for my reputation."
If nothing else, I was rewarded with their satisfyingly amusing surprise. I paused to savour the expression, before I began. "I actually rather like humans. They're very amusing, so I've been working to dislodge the council and the worst vampires along with it."
"Rebellion?" Naomi asked, breathlessly. "But why would you—"
"Among other reasons, I got bored with their rule."
"How do you plan to defeat the council?" Davidson asked.
I was hardly going to reveal all my strengths and weaknesses to Davidson. He was a softie, but I was not sure how deep his allegiance to the council ran. "I have my ways."
"They're going to attack you tomorrow night."
"What?" I asked, surprised at his words.
"Your home will be under siege tomorrow night. They know that you killed the council members they sent to investigate you and they've decided to act."
"Jokes on them, I only killed the investigators that we couldn't take alive. Alive-ish. But besides that, why are you warning me? That could certainly be misconstrued as treasonous to the new vampiric order."
Naomi looked uncomfortable as Davidson answered. "Let's just say that we're not particularly happy with the council, either."
"Well, they are mostly boring fools. Why do you think I liked you two so much?"
"You liked us...?" Naomi repeated slowly, as if she thought I was crazy.
I enjoyed her confusion. "Of course. When did I ever give you the impression I did not?"
Her mouth hung open slightly. Davidson waved off her response, if one was forthcoming. "We can't support you openly."
"Of course not. I shouldn't expect you to."
"But I do support what you're doing. Even if..." he seemed reluctant to finish his sentence, "You set yourself up as a dictator afterwards, it would still be better for humans."
"I don't know why everyone assumes that I'm doing this for political influence. I already had quite a lot and it would have been laughably easy to gain more if that was all I desired. What I want most is to be entertained and I don't need to be at the top of the pyramid for that." I rolled my eyes at him. "What I need is free humans producing media again."
"Well, I couldn't complain about that. You had me at free."
"I daresay, Davidson, your human sympathies run even deeper than I ever expected."
"I remember what it was like to be prey, and I can't help but feel pity for them," he said, and Naomi nodded. "Things are bad on the council. The last quarterly was just them panicking and trying to get to the bottom of everything. It did not take them long to reason out that you were responsible and decide to take you out."
"Ooh, what fun. It's finally happening."
He ignored me as if I had not spoken. "Things are going to be bad for humans in the near future. If you don't win this, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't just make things worse for their slaves. I can't reason with them at all now. I'm not even sure that I'll be on the council much longer because they don't trust me at all."
"Well, they have a point. You don't hide your sentimentalities very well at all," I pointed out, quite reasonably.
"Like you do?"
I chuckled at him and smiled sweetly. It was cute that he was still trying to reason out my motives. "Don't mistake me, everything I'm doing is entirely self-serving. If vampires were less tedious, dreary, and pretentious I would have simply sat back and enjoyed the world as it was."
I expected them both to be vexed, but Naomi smiled, which was actually rather unnerving. She was surprisingly pretty when she stopped looking so severe. I supposed her sire had not been the singular unshallow vampire after all. "I understand. We'll do what we can to help from the inside, for as long as we can."
"Thank you, Naomi."
Naomi, as good as her word, spent the next couple of hours going over everything that had I had missed in the last quarterly. I and my two companions listened avidly to her descriptions of the way the power structure had shifted with my and the destroyed vampires' absence. It sounded very dramatic and I was jealous that I had missed all the fun, but I made her describe all the expressions they had made in excruciating detail.
Unsurprisingly, the power vacuum had coalesced around Ivan and two of the other oldest vampires, Beckett and the magistrate. While I loathed Ivan and couldn't have given two figs about Beckett, I actually liked and respected the magistrate. I was sad that I would probably have to take him out as well. He had been a fair arbiter since the council had been formed, and was actually a surprisingly decent sort for a council vampire.
But, his loyalty was ultimately to the vampiric order and I doubted he was interested in changing that now. Dealing with him would be just another unpleasant roadblock on my path to a more enjoyable world, another sacrifice that would need to be made.
I parted from Davidson and Naomi feeling oddly heavy. Perhaps I was missing my councillor position, now that I had thrown it away. I was not worried about the oncoming attack since I was certain that it could be overcome, but I did feel a bit of regret that it was possible that not all the vampires I would kill the next night would be the exact sort I would like to get rid of, much like the magistrate.
War was upon us, and I had no room to complain, because I had bid it come to me. However, that did not mean I had to like it. I had no qualms about killing those who deserved to die, but indiscriminately killing even other vampires in battle seemed wasteful.
But I and the others would do what needed to be done. I flashed my fangs in my grin as we hurried home.
* * * * *
The rest of the night was spent in preparation for the oncoming battle by the vampires and me, and the following day the humans did the same while the night dwellers rested. Humans were moved out of the way, and I would be lying if I said the idea of having Kira moved further from Jamie for safety reasons did not please me.
There was a tense expectation in the air as night finally fell and the likelihood pressed ever more heavily upon us.