The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 1: Chapter 21

I hid my annoyance with Magnus behind my usual polite guise. He often lacked boundaries and reservations, but this was beyond the pale. How dare he trespass on my property so brazenly? We both knew, if it came down to a conflict, my great age gave me the upper hand.

Of course, the majority of the vampire council frowned upon on us killing each other, some nonsense about civility, as if vampires abided by such dictates.

How far would Magnus have taken his tormenting of Jamie if I had not come by? I had heard his and Enrique's voices from far away in the corridors and ignored it, but then I heard Jamie's voice so I hurried to see what was occurring around my human.

The sight of Magnus stalking around him wrought a surprising fury inside me. I suddenly hoped he and his companions voted against my bill so that I could smash his down afterwards.

The thought of interfering with him in revenge sounded wonderful, but I would not go back on our deal. If I went back on my word, others would be reluctant to deal with me later. If I supported Magnus's frivolous bill or not would all depend on what the three of them decided to do.

"We should really get going," Enrique said. I wondered if he had observed my irritation and had tried to break the strain, but he simply looked like he was concerned about lateness.

I nodded and favoured him with a friendly smile. "Indeed, that was actually where I was heading when I came upon you." Came upon Magnus bothering my human. I pushed down my irrational ire again.

We strode through the halls, until we reached the wide arched council chamber doors. I smiled to myself and took my seat and made myself comfortable as a few more stragglers came into the room. My bill was set to be presented second, giving both Magnus and Enrique a chance to consider voting for my proposal before I had to vote on theirs.

My anger at Magnus was beginning to fade in light of my growing anticipation. This night was going to be so fun.

I watched as the seats filled one by one. Whitmore sat down at the desk beside me with a polite nod, her hair pulled back into a severe bun like the moderate I had her pegged as. She typically resisted the extremes, so I could not always count on her vote, but she generally could be counted on if the issue could help with either maintaining the natural environment or with increased blood security. I believed she would vote with me.

Once all the councillors had finally assembled and ceased their incessant babbling, Councillor Patrick stood up and presented his bill. He was fairly young and had the ability to go on and on so repetitively that most other councillors probably voted for whatever he said simply to get him to shut up. Sometimes I did, even mildly against my own interest, unless I actually had a strong disagreement with him.

Other times I did not. Voting for something one time and against it the next lent itself to an unpredictability I enjoyed nourishing. Every time they thought they had me figured out I reversed course simply to mess with them. I wanted to grin, but instead I stared absently at Patrick as if I cared what he was reiterating for the sixteenth time.

Perhaps I would head down to the slave pens and see if there were not some interesting feeders to shake up the other councillors' expectations of me. Perhaps I could buy another feisty female or two and have a few seasons of The Bachelorette: Human Slave Edition in my home.

Patrick was still yammering on about some minor point I could barely keep my focus on. How had he managed to get in front of me in line? The magistrate usually did what I wanted since we went so far back unless he had a good reason not to. Perhaps he owed Patrick a favour. I could not think of a better reason since my bill was clearly much more important than his, in my opinion, which was very nearly fact.