The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 3: Chapter 3

I had no idea how to go about what she wanted me to do, and my mind was scattered with this last taste of her on my lips, so I threw caution to the wind and just walked towards the dozens of cells lining both sides of the corridor, hemmed in by heavy stone and thick metal bars that made the council dungeons look like a joke and I wondered if this place had been built with as much intention to house vampires as it was to hold humans. With her, I wouldn't be surprised.

I found Travis and Mark were in cells side by side, and Evan was across from them. I couldn't see Barb, but I had seen Vienne talking to her in one of the further cells,

Evan was sitting hunched over on his cot, and I didn't blame him. When she had removed her compulsion from me, I had felt nauseous.

"What are you doing here?" Travis demanded and I faced him.

Well, that was a good question. "I came to talk to you."

"Why?" Mark asked.

"She asked me to."

"She asked you to," Travis said with a scowl, the anger and mistrust clear on his face. He had been pacing the cell, and he went and slouched down on his cot, coiled fury as he pretended to ignore me.

"About what?" Mark said. He looked shaky, probably from Vienne's treatment of him and his confession. I could sympathize; she was exhausting, especially when she was in a mood.

"Well, about joining her fight against the bloodsucking council."

I ignored Travis' snort of derision, since it made perfect sense.

Mark was watching me. "What happened to you?"

"I found out the truth. She's working to undermine the other bloodsuckers."

"Yeah, right. Or more likely she compelled you to say that." Travis scowled.

"She didn't."

"Right," he said, and resumed his glowering slouch.

"I know it's unbelievable. But it's true. I staked her and—"

Travis snorted and Mark shook his head. "Then how are you alive?"

"She gave me a choice, to join her or stake her and escape, and I chose."

"Yet you're here," Mark pointed out.

I nodded. "After I did it, I ran, but a couple of the guards caught me. They dragged me to the rebel base. Then when she recovered, she let me go. Said I had won and pretty much threw me out."

Mark's look spoke the words he didn't bother to say, that he didn't believe a word I was saying.

Mark frowned. "Again, you're here, not out there."

"I killed the leech I had been hunting, and I came back to help take more vampires down."

"And you want us to believe that?" Mark shook his head. "You think we're stupid?"

This was not going well, and I wondered what Vienne had expected me to accomplish. I wouldn't have believed a human who said this to me, either, before I had seen everything with my own eyes.

"What do you really want from us, leech lover?" Travis asked, still slouching, but looking at me with a deep hatred. A part of me wanted to argue against the accusation, but it wasn't far from the truth, although the reality was much more complicated.

"Nothing. She thinks you have potential that would help the cause."

"The cause? To get rid of the vampire council?" Mark did not look convinced. "Does she plan to rule in their place?"