The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 2: Chapter 18

As much as I was enjoying my conversation with Jamie, there were more pressing things to discuss. "Anyway, we shall shift you to New Haven after the sun goes down. I've had tunnels built in secret so it's easy enough to get you out." It was disappointing that I would see him so seldom, but it was not as if I could not invent slightly more frequent excuses to need to travel there.

Although that was another unnecessary risk as well. Leif would surely make his disapproval known. I longed for a world in which I would no longer have to consider such things and could follow my whims to the end of the earth, or at least the edges of North America. All the other continents were their own messes, from what I had heard.

Perhaps we vampires truly were parasites rather than predators as Jamie had suggested. Destined to feed off the energy of life but to produce nothing, it might just be why we were so poor at managing the world.

Although humans had also crafted some horrific societies, at least every one fell to eventual ruin under the weight of its own instabilities. I feared that fracture would not come with the council's stranglehold on the future without some external pressure on it, unless they truly did destroy the underlying population. That would not happen if I had my way.

My thoughts had grown far too dismal. "So, I hear you properly met Soren?"

"Yes," he agreed.

"I thought he might appreciate your accomplishments. Once he found out you've taken out a few vampires besides your attempt on me, he became your biggest fan, you might have noticed."

"Yeah, I did." He looked adorably uncomfortable with the hero worship. It was an odd reaction, because veneration was such an enjoyable part of my life. I could not imagine being troubled by it. Perhaps it came with him wandering around in the wilds for years with no one to appreciate him.

"You'll be getting that reaction a lot more, now, I imagine."

His slightly disgruntled expression was rather amusing, but I continued. "Soren has got quite a lot in common with you. He has not killed any vampires yet, but his family was taken away when he was quite young. He was overlooked in the chaos. I found him wandering alone when he was thirteen. Normally I would stick such a young one in the care of one of the factories, but he seemed so scrappy that I instead gave him to Raoul. He's a very good fighter now. I bet he'll be able to start his own tally if the time was right."

"When will the time be right?" Jamie asked.

He probably would not like my answer, because humans tended to be hasty. I supposed it was because they felt the pull of the years so strongly upon them. "To gain a decisive victory, we're trying to get everything in place. We need enough resources built up that when the other vampires find out what we are up to that we can withstand whatever they throw at us, and it will be brutal. It should be in your lifetime... Hopefully." I was getting extremely tired of waiting, myself.

His reaction was as expected, his brow furrowed as he considered my words. "You want to wait for the right moment."

I was a bit surprised that he took the idea so calmly, but I was hardly going to complain about his lack of protest. "Exactly. But you never know, stick with me and you might just get to stake a few more leeches yet." I winked.

Jamie was watching me as if he was trying to reason out what I was thinking, and I suppressed my urge to say something provocative to sidetrack him from whatever his thoughts were. It was difficult, because so many ideas of how to get a rise out of him presented themselves to me.

Perhaps it was time to take my leave before I lost my internal battle and angered him again. After all, I did agree that I would at least try not to vex him too sorely. "Well, Jamie, if you have no more questions, I have things to do yet this night, and you'll doubtless need some rest. Tell Soren if you need anything, I've set him in charge of bringing you what you need while you're here."