The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 2: Chapter 14

"Vienne?"

I swished the liquid around in my cup and looked into the almost black reddish brown of the beverage. My own eyes reflected back from the surface as it stilled.

"Mistress?"

Why did my expression look so dismal? This would never do.

"Vienne!"

"Mmhmm?" I looked up to see Leif's vexed expression glowering at me from across his desk. Apparently I had not been listening.

"I asked if you gave your approval for the improvements Tiberius proposed."

"Repeat them, please?"

Leif launched into a long discourse on what they were doing at my underground weapons factory. It was not exactly literally underground, but it was hidden in the midst of my metalworking plant. Apparently they had some new designs to test or something. I did not really know, as I generally left such matters to the humans I selected who were talented at such matters. A technical and mechanical genius I was not, unfortunately.

This was why I had humans specialize. "What are your concerns?"

"Well, other than the cost, what concerns could I have? Higher powered weapons can only help us when we're trying to get it through a vampire's flesh."

"We are rather sturdy," I agreed. "Do you suppose a vampire could be destroyed with only a gun?"

"Well, you've said that guns slow vampires down, so presumably a young one could be, with multiple shots?" he did not sound certain, and he always did seem a bit tentative when discussing destroying vampires. I wondered if he was worried that I would see it as a threat. Silly human. He was also still tiptoeing around me like I was suddenly more breakable than I had been before.

Leif turned me back to the topic at hand. "They're having some trouble sourcing metal. The vampire who runs the mines we buy it from is having difficulty keeping enough slaves to work it. He's requesting that you lend him some humans."

I scoffed. I had seen the state of his slaves and he was not getting within a ten mile radius of any of my humans. "Not a chance."

"He also offered to buy or rent them with free resources."

Well, at least Jon was not stupid enough to think I would risk my humans under his care for nothing. "Still no."

"You'll need to talk to him yourself, Vienne. He's not going to take kindly to that response from a human."

I scowled. Leif was right, but Jon was such a drag.

"Still, we need more supplies and if his ability to produce is slowing down, then..."

I leaned back in my chair. "Perhaps I simply should offer to buy the mine from him. I wonder how much we'd need to figure out about mining to pull it off."

"Probably a lot, but maybe you could take the humans who work there off his hands? They might know."

I sighed. "Unlikely. I hear he pays fledglings to be overseers. The humans there are nothing but labour and fodder." It was such a waste of potential, treating them as disposable blood bags rather than creative perspectives.

Well, no matter. I saw humans for what they were, brilliant and flawed dichotomies. And where did that get me? Mooning around after a human who wanted nothing to do with me. Which was fine, as I had known the risks, but there was perhaps a certain comfort in the other's reckless cruelty that I was missing. They probably did not feel pain when humans died and left, and though I was accustomed to coping with that, it still was rather unpleasant.