The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 2: Chapter 12

The rest of the council meeting of the night continued in the most boring possible way and the worst part was that we still had not gotten to Davidson's bill. I was looking forward to the fun of aggravating him while still upholding my end of the bargain.

I rested when the sun's prominence forced me low and I rose again when it waned. I wandered into the kitchen to find my coffee which Marcel had waiting for me. I took a moment to appreciate that this kitchen was in perfect working order, unlike the one back home that those irritating humans had torched.

Hopefully, it would be mostly restored by the time I got back, and hopefully my human would be back on her feet as well so that everything would begin to run smoothly again. I supposed that the interruption in my daily routines had been a bit interesting, although I had difficulty appreciating such things without my bloody coffee.

Although, credit to my human servants, they certainly did manage to brew me coffee rather quickly, and all without my favourite machine. Perhaps they feared me without it.

Silly humans. The loss of Jamie was much more of a damper on my mood than that situation, and there was sadly nothing they could do about that.

Something rather unpleasant welled up in me whenever I thought about how he was gone. More than once I had questioned if I had been right to let him go. My sporting side assured me that it was correct, but I missed him almost as if he had died. It did not help that I knew he was anxious to throw himself into danger. Did he not comprehend the preciousness of his human years?

Yet, what would have happened to that stubborn spirit that so drew me if I had kept him locked in a cage indefinitely? It would have diminished, surely. I liked that he was feral, wild, and as much as I wanted to break him of his rebellion and have him join me in my cause, I did not want to break him in the process. Properly breaking in humans was such a delicate thing.

My desires were so conflicted. A part of me wanted the wild Jamie while the other part had wanted to tame him. It was impossible that I could have gotten all that I wanted from him, surely.

It was better this way. He was free to do as he pleased, and I was doing an admirable job of not obsessively worrying that some other vampire was going to drain him dry. I should have my humans throw me a celebration in honour of my great achievement.

But something like that would only tip them off as the extent of my peculiar emotions. I could get the same pleasing attention from another training demonstration, but then that thought reminded me of him, too.

Even sitting here in the kitchen where we had talked reminded me of him.

This was worse than the deaths of any of my late husbands. Those moments had been irreversible, but here I sat conflicted with regrets. I scowled into my coffee cup. My face reflected back on the dark surface and I scowled harder. Perhaps she was as reckless a fool as the other vampires.

"Do you need anything, Mistress?" Marcel asked. I glanced up to find his worried brown eyes on me.

"No, human, I'm fine," I said as I tried to look convincingly relaxed. The last thing I needed was them fussing over me more. At least here they had to be circumspect in their fretting, but once we got away from the castle they would be trying to psychoanalyze me with the obsession of Freud.

I would have to pass on that. My fondness had limits, and if they became too overbearing I would simply put my foot down.

Spirits lightened at the thought of getting my way, I warmed up my coffee and poured in some more blood from the creamer. I carried it to my sitting room, and I looked around at my personal space in the council buildings.