with the rebels,” he said lazily. “The bigger question is what the Council wants me to do about it.”
The eight of them looked at one another, weighing, considering. He could almost hear their thoughts: Which of them was the most likely to go behind the backs of the others? Who thought it was time to come out of the shadows? Who most resented the humans? Unfortunately, the answers to those three questions weren’t necessarily the same.
Alma was the one who had always harped that they should resume their natural positions of superiority, but Theodore was the one most likely to go behind their backs. As to who most resented the humans … who knew? Possibly they all did, which meant that the answer became one of degree. None of this told him who
they
thought the traitor could be, just that any of them were possible.
“You’re assuming Hector was correct about the rebel faction,” Benedict finally said. He was Roman, a patrician, and had never liked associating with those he considered lower than himself, which was almost everyone, vampire and human alike. It amused Luca that, as blood borns, both he and Marie presented a dilemma to Benedict; they were members of the Rolls-Royce class of vampires, but their respective parents, in their human lives, had obviously not been as highly born as Benedict, so in his eyes they were tainted by low birth … but they themselves had never been human, which threw Benedict’s value system out of balance.
“There was no point in killing him, otherwise,” Luca pointed out.
“True,” Eleanor agreed. She was tiny, as people often had been hundreds of years ago. Being made vampire didn’t make the person suddenly grow taller; rather, they were preserved as they had been when they were turned, which was why the myth that vampires were all beautiful and physically perfect was only that: a myth. If people had been ugly as humans, they were just as ugly as vampires—much stronger, much faster, immune to aging and all diseases, but still ugly.
Eleanor was neither pretty nor ugly. What she was, was alert, wily, and a ruthless enemy. Hector had seemed fond of her, and often relied on her common sense to sway other Council members to his way of thinking. She drummed her nails on the conference table in a quick tattoo. “If these rebels are so organized that they’ve recruited one of us, I’m amazed that no intelligence regarding this has come our way. We all have kindred children, alliances, our own sources of information—” By that she meant “spies,” but that didn’t have to be spelled out. “We should have received warning. I don’t like this at all.”
“Hector wasn’t infallible,” Pablo pointed out. He crossed his arms over his burly chest. “Perhaps he was mistaken.”
“Then why is he dead?” Marie snapped.
Nadia snorted. “We don’t know that he is. All we know is that he isn’t in his quarters, and Luca has assumed that he’s dead because Hector called him in a panic about some rebels that none of us have heard about until now.”
The very idea of Hector in a panic was enough to make several of them roll their eyes and snicker. Nadia set back in her chair, sulking.
Luca hid his annoyance at their behavior, though he’d seen it before. No matter how old or how powerful the vampires, put them in government and theirbehavior began devolving toward juvenile. He didn’t bother telling them again what he knew to be true. Instead he looked around the table and said, “Well? What do you want me to do? Anything? Nothing?”
Someone sitting at that table would be very relieved that he was evidently willing to let the Council direct him in this, though that someone would be greatly mistaken, because no way in hell would he let this go. Still, let them think they had control of the situation.
No one said anything. After a moment, Marie pushed her chair back and stood. “Obviously no one is going to make any decisions right now, but the one thing we can
The eight of them looked at one another, weighing, considering. He could almost hear their thoughts: Which of them was the most likely to go behind the backs of the others? Who thought it was time to come out of the shadows? Who most resented the humans? Unfortunately, the answers to those three questions weren’t necessarily the same.
Alma was the one who had always harped that they should resume their natural positions of superiority, but Theodore was the one most likely to go behind their backs. As to who most resented the humans … who knew? Possibly they all did, which meant that the answer became one of degree. None of this told him who
they
thought the traitor could be, just that any of them were possible.
“You’re assuming Hector was correct about the rebel faction,” Benedict finally said. He was Roman, a patrician, and had never liked associating with those he considered lower than himself, which was almost everyone, vampire and human alike. It amused Luca that, as blood borns, both he and Marie presented a dilemma to Benedict; they were members of the Rolls-Royce class of vampires, but their respective parents, in their human lives, had obviously not been as highly born as Benedict, so in his eyes they were tainted by low birth … but they themselves had never been human, which threw Benedict’s value system out of balance.
“There was no point in killing him, otherwise,” Luca pointed out.
“True,” Eleanor agreed. She was tiny, as people often had been hundreds of years ago. Being made vampire didn’t make the person suddenly grow taller; rather, they were preserved as they had been when they were turned, which was why the myth that vampires were all beautiful and physically perfect was only that: a myth. If people had been ugly as humans, they were just as ugly as vampires—much stronger, much faster, immune to aging and all diseases, but still ugly.
Eleanor was neither pretty nor ugly. What she was, was alert, wily, and a ruthless enemy. Hector had seemed fond of her, and often relied on her common sense to sway other Council members to his way of thinking. She drummed her nails on the conference table in a quick tattoo. “If these rebels are so organized that they’ve recruited one of us, I’m amazed that no intelligence regarding this has come our way. We all have kindred children, alliances, our own sources of information—” By that she meant “spies,” but that didn’t have to be spelled out. “We should have received warning. I don’t like this at all.”
“Hector wasn’t infallible,” Pablo pointed out. He crossed his arms over his burly chest. “Perhaps he was mistaken.”
“Then why is he dead?” Marie snapped.
Nadia snorted. “We don’t know that he is. All we know is that he isn’t in his quarters, and Luca has assumed that he’s dead because Hector called him in a panic about some rebels that none of us have heard about until now.”
The very idea of Hector in a panic was enough to make several of them roll their eyes and snicker. Nadia set back in her chair, sulking.
Luca hid his annoyance at their behavior, though he’d seen it before. No matter how old or how powerful the vampires, put them in government and theirbehavior began devolving toward juvenile. He didn’t bother telling them again what he knew to be true. Instead he looked around the table and said, “Well? What do you want me to do? Anything? Nothing?”
Someone sitting at that table would be very relieved that he was evidently willing to let the Council direct him in this, though that someone would be greatly mistaken, because no way in hell would he let this go. Still, let them think they had control of the situation.
No one said anything. After a moment, Marie pushed her chair back and stood. “Obviously no one is going to make any decisions right now, but the one thing we can
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