The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 3: Chapter 18

After Jamie left me to go about his day, I kept myself busy with Leif. A huge part of me wanted desperately to go the quickly nearing quarterly, but Leif was absolutely resolute that it was a terrible idea.

He was not wrong, but the idea of rubbing my superiority in their faces, of seeing the four newly empty council seats and counting, was nearly irresistible. Their panic would be a thing of beauty, and I was going to miss all of it if I did not go.

It was terribly disappointing, but I was forced to concur with my serious human. It was entirely possible that I could go and brazen my way through all the schmoozing and posturing, but it was also entirely possible that they were already certain in my culpability on the disappearances of not only the first three councillors, but also the council minions that they were undoubtedly aware had been sent to my doorstep.

Additionally, they might very well discover some of the other attacks that would happen between now and then. We were certainly aided by the fact vampires were quite solitary creatures, but once they realized what was happening, they would certainly heighten their defences and observe more carefully.

"And there's no way that we can send a large enough force to protect you without completely blowing whatever cover we have left," Leif continued explaining, clearly unaware that I had already been convinced by my own musings.

I broke in before he could go on another long winded ranting explanation. "You're right, you're right," I said. "No need to continue. I'm just disappointed, that's all. I've not missed a single quarterly in almost a century and this is ruining my streak most dreadfully."

Leif had no sympathy for my plight. He was practically a vampire already without turning since he was so cold-blooded.

"And, every time I missed even one quarterly, they rammed through the most dreadful proposals. What's that saying? When the cat's away, the mice will become even stupider than usual? Although I would have sworn that to be impossible, except I've seen the evidence on more than one occasion..."

"I imagine we're not going to like what they're going to do when you're not there this time, too."

"True. They're probably going to try to counter my plans. Their floundering attempts might turn out to be cute if only they won't be so irritatingly inconvenient," I commented.

Leif frowned. "We can't afford to underestimate them. Most of them might be fools, but you know they all aren't. And even the fools have incredible power."

I sighed. My dismissive attitude was apparently not comforting Leif in the slightest. The human was wound far too tight. "I'm aware of that, Leif. Calm yourself. You know we're not just attacking for fun and resources, we're also taking out some of the threats. We won't be able to get to them all, but you know how many ridiculously long strategy meetings I've been subjected to in the last few weeks. We've gone over everything. I might have been bored to death if only I weren't so durable."

He frowned at me.

I held out my hands in mock supplication. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. You were at some of them. While I won't lie and pretend that they were not boring, they were also very productive and very strategic. We're aiming for maximum damage while we've got them with their pants down."

His brow was still furrowed. The human was so needy. I rolled my eyes at him.

"And I promise I won't even consider going to the quarterly. Although I'm going to miss them. Dreadfully. They were the highlight of my existence."

"You hated them."

"I loved hating them," I argued. "And I liked parts of them."

Leif's brow finally smoothed a bit. "You liked the parts where you were manipulating and insulting the other councillors."