by Lane, Terri
“So, the old pack’s coming together again?” I asked. I couldn’t help the little bit of excitement I felt. It’d be like the old days, when I was about fifty years younger. All the wolves I saw as aunts and uncles under one roof.
“Yes, so don’t bail out on this meeting. I’ve expressed how imperative it is that all alphas be present. Each pack has suffered losses from the Hunters by now. We have to do something, on a united front,” he said. I hesitated for a second. I couldn’t get too excited about going to the meeting, I wouldn’t be able to really pledge my cooperation with whatever was planned. I glanced at Kevin. I’d bring him with me to the meeting. He’d guide our pack to work with the others after I was gone.
“I’ll be there pop,” I said.
“Good. We’re meeting at the Gresham Den tomorrow night. Nine o’clock,” he said. After that he hung up. I wondered if he was so curt due to old age.
“So?” Kev asked.
“You’re coming with me tomorrow,” I said. He grinned, excited to be included.
“Nice!”
* * *
Sophia
“Sophia, I haven’t seen you this dressed up since you ascended to lead this coven,” Wraith said. We’d gotten into a car together, Alexis and Case rode in the other. Each had one driver. The other two escorts drove in the third sedan behind our small procession.
“You know I don’t like unnecessary fuss,” I murmured.
“You look so much like your mother it’s almost disturbing,” he answered. I couldn’t help my chuckle.
“Seeing as she used to be called ‘Stunning Seraya’, I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said.
“It will be ‘Stunning Sophia’ now,” he said. Wraith spoke in a rare fond tone. His expression was as unguarded as I’d seen it in a full century. “Tell me, will you be thinking about being mated soon? I should like my bloodline to continue through you,” he said. It was an honor and compliment to have him say that, but I didn’t know how to respond. My relationship with my father was amicable usually, but not very deep. All I knew of his heart was that he once loved my mother, then hated her after she had me. Her betrayal of affection for the leading vampire of the Western European region changed him. But he at least saved some softness for me. He never projected his hatred for her onto me. He had always been distant though…as if he were expecting one day for me to turn away from him as well. If that was his instinct it would certainly be an uncanny one.
“I…I haven’t given it much thought. You know how bland it can be when you know nearly all the pureblood vampires in North America,” I said vaguely.
“You should start giving it some thought. You may as well get the courting process over with now before you take over Prime Coven,” he said.
“I will think on it,” I said.
“Perhaps while on one of your late afternoon walks?” he quipped. I smirked and turned my head to look out of the window. The ride to Olympia usually took two hours. Our speedy drive was cut down to an hour and a half. Prime Coven’s house was more of a discreet mansion. It was well hidden within Watershed Park. So much so, that no trails revealed it and it wasn’t documented on any maps of the area.
The main house was a five-story villa that went two stories underground. It resembled one of the grand coven houses of Italy. Nearly two centuries old, it was built with white stone and marble on the outside and had decadent designs within. I never found the house to be gaudy. Its value was around one hundred million dollars, according to modern standards.
When all three cars had pulled into the front courtyard safely, the main gates were shut and our escorts got out to open the car doors for us. My father walked beside me as our small group entered the house. The grand foyer was buzzing with Prime Coven vampires. They were all pure blood and of original European lineage.
“How many coven leaders are gathered in all, father?” I asked.
“Thirteen, including our southern guests,” he said. That explained the buzz. Usually the long-lived purebloods weren’t as interested in visits from regional coven leaders. We went directly to the main meeting room. It was on the second level of the house’s library. There was a large room enclosed by glass doors that held a modern round table for conferences. At the center of the table was a map of the Northwest with markers on all ten coven locations, known wolf territories, and assumed Hunter positions. The pawn like markers were clearly labeled.
“Ah, it seems we can begin.” Thayne’s rumbling voice was recognizable anywhere. He headed the Salem coven and was quite the boisterous vampire.
“Yes, we’ve all arrived. Everyone may take their seats,” Wraith said. The thirteen coven leaders sat around the table, while any coven heirs or high ranked fighters stood in spectating positions along the perimeter of the room. I sat to the right of my father. Paelin, leader of the Vancouver coven sat on my right as his coven was geographically closest to mine. The order followed that pattern around the table. I was one of two females there. The other I did not recognize. She must have been a coven leader from the south.
Wraith stood and addressed the conference.
“Look at this map everyone,” he said. “For every wolf pack and vampire coven marker, there is one known Hunter force of at least fifty. Many of us have observed that more pour in weekly to replace any dwindled forces. We must strike back and make a statement.”
“I say we create coalitions with our fighting teams. Storm these Hunter strongholds and try to track them to their source. They are sophisticated, so surely they’re being trained in no more than a few central locations,” Thayne offered.
“I think pouring fighters into known Hunter patrolled forests is suicide. I speak from experience,” I said.
“Yes, we’ve heard of the tragedy and peculiar situation you found yourself in recently Sophia. Do share what you’ve learned from this,” Thayne replied.
“I took a team of ten seasoned fighters into Gifford Pinchot Forest. My intention was to validate the rumors of the Hunter influx. I underestimated them entirely. There were some Hunters of the usual sort. The woodsy type, then there were…elite Hunters. They had uniform armor and capable weapons, advanced ammunition. They were well-trained indeed. Even using my father’s patented forest fighting strategy we could not defeat them, due to their numbers. We were driven deeper into their patrol territory and came back to back with a pack of wolves. We ended up fighting alongside with them...” I paused at the sounds of distaste echoing through the room. “We had no choice, the wolves had no choice. We fought the Hunters and ignored our differences. I directed my remaining fighters to a nearby safe house and out of self-preservation, the wolves followed us and we let them in,” I said.
“My goodness, what was that like?” asked the other female vampire. I’d have to ask for her name later.
“It was…tense to say the least,” I said. “We did not stay in the safe house for more than twenty-four hours. And in escaping, combined there were seven of us, we lost everyone. Only I and the wolf pack’s leader survived.”
My eyes drifted down to the map and I curled my lip at a Hunter marker, remembering that bloody battle before we made it out of the forest.
“That forest, I believe has the most concentration of Hunters. There aren’t merely fifty patrolling its hiking trails,” I added.
“Possibly it could be a training and recruiting location?” Thayne offered.
“I would say it’s likely,” I said.
“Say we have a thousand Hunters out there trained to kill our kind right now. Our combined fighting forces would surely overwhelm then,” Wraith said.
“Yes, but Hunters are being produced daily, I’d say they have fifteen hundred by now. Probably more,” said another coven leader. There were murmurs of agreement from the others present.
“What we need in this war is intelligence and stealth. This is not a direct engage situation,” voiced another vampire.
“Yes, we know too little about this new age of Hunter. That is true,”
Wraith murmured.
“Should we turn more humans and enlist them to fight in order to deal with the rise in Hunters?” said the Southern female vampire.
“Arya that is hardly a solution. Newly changed humans are about as controllable as wild colts. They’d require time we don’t have to be vetted and to settle into their new bodies,” Wraith said. Her name was Arya. I’d heard of her. She was low-born because of an old scandal between her parents, but of pure vampire lineage nonetheless. It was warming to see her sitting at a Leader’s Conference.
“We need numbers as well as superior tactics, Wraith,” Arya answered in no disrespect.
“In many instances, intelligence and cunning can vastly make up for a difference in numbers. We need to get our hands on human weapons,” Thayne said. A commotion started up then around the room. Though some of us had our high human contacts, attaining their weapons en masse was something else entirely. We’d have to enlist the aid of foreign coven leaders and with that often came the tendency for foreign imposition. Most vampires fought using speed and the strength of our own two hands than anything else. Of course, that was because our existence-long enemies were always in animal form. The wolves didn’t use weapons either.
“Looking overseas for aid is off the table,” Wraith proclaimed.
“It should not be. Sophia, how were you able to escape the forest with your life?” Thayne asked. He waited for my answer expectantly.
“We did indeed take and use the Hunters’ own weapons against them,” I said with a small shrug. “Thayne has a point. They are relying on our old-fashioned fighting tactics to win. Numbers and firepower is how they’ve gained their advantageous position,” I said. The room quieted as the gravity of the situation became stark.
“Are the Hunters using easily attainable hunting weapons?” Arya asked.
“No, those were military weapons,” I said.
“Then whoever has organized their force is clearly involved in black market trading,” Thayne said.
“Which means, that if we become involved in black market acquisition of weapons, the Hunters will find out,” Wraith said.
“We can use proxies,” another vampire suggested.
“Proxies can be bought. They aren’t to be trusted,” Arya said.
“How about we table this suggestion for now. Any other ideas?” Wraith asked. I pressed my lips together…I was tempted to suggest working with the wolves. The Hunters wouldn’t see that coming and we’d be able to eradicate them effectively with the wolves’ help.
“Well, we need to decimate the Hunter presence in our region and cripple their ability to train more elite Hunters…” I mused. “This suggests both brute force, head-to-head battles, and battles of intelligence to strike them at the source,” I added. All eyes were on me.
I said, “There will be a short and long-term to this war. Gaining definitive knowledge of the Hunters’ inner workings will take time. But, if we strike them hard and fast now, we decimate their numbers and discourage them, then that could work for our immediate safety, not to mention the long-term fight.”
“Your logic is sound, but this brings us back to the Hunters’ current numbers. We do not want to charge into the forests they patrol and walk into a slaughter,” Paelin said, speaking up for the first time.
“We could double our numbers…” I said slowly.
“How so?” Arya asked curiously.
“The other factor in my surviving the escape of Gifford Pinchot was working with the wolves. As difficult as that may be to digest,” I said. There were two long heartbeats worth of silence before the room erupted again.
“Work with the wolves?”
“That is ludicrous.”
“Those dogs would likely stab us in the back rather than work with us.”
I took a deep breath and let them all get their grievances out. The vampires were small-minded. We were at a point where the very survival of the vampires in our region needed something as extreme as working with the wolves. I glanced at my father who was staring at the map on the table in stony silence.
“The Hunters won’t expect a coalition with the wolves. It will throw them off kilter just enough for us to strike a crippling blow to their forces,” I said. But it didn’t seem to matter. All the vampires were shaking their heads and turning up their noses. I snorted in annoyance. “If you’ll excuse me. I feel as though I should plot my escape from this doomed way of life. Close mindedness and willing ignorance is not the way forward on this planet,” I said. With that I got up and left the room in shocked silence.
I didn’t realize the gravity of what I did until I was halfway to my old room. Wraith had kept it unoccupied for me. It was the only other suite tucked away in a private hallway, across from his own suite. Slight trembling started in my hands and moved to my very bones. I’d possibly just exiled myself. No need to run away without explanation, I’d given plenty reason to be disowned from my father and the region even. I sat down on the sofa chair situated in the small reading nook and stared into the hardly used fireplace.
“Sophia…” My father’s voice snapped me out of my daze. I didn’t know how long I’d been trying to pull myself together.
“I’m sorry…father, I just—I don’t know what came over me,” I said. “I foresaw that slaughter in the woods and I truly believe the only way we can deal with the Hunters now is if we work with the wolves,” I said. I wasn’t sure where I was going or what I was doing. I had plans with Kai, we were leaving soon. I should’ve let Wraith think I lost my mind so it would be that much easier to leave.
“You’re lucky I passed your comments off as a simple opinion and suggestion and not some serious consideration you were putting forth to the council,” he said. “As for your departure…I’d like to think you aren’t truly so vehement in wanting to work with the wolves,” he added.
“I wasn’t feeling well father,” I lied. He stepped into my view and tilted my head up by my chin. “I’m pregnant,” I told him. His eyes widened briefly, then his brows furrowed.
“With whose child?” he asked.
“Damien’s…” I said in a low voice. He took my reluctance to say Damien’s name as sadness, I saw it in the way his eyes softened.
“I see now…your behavior has been strange, though I couldn’t fathom you’d be carrying a child,” he said.
“I hope my foolishness back there didn’t taint you in any way,” I said.
“It’s as I said, I made appropriate excuses for you. Though you did storm out rather dramatically,” he said. “I want you to keep out of any danger during this war Sophia,” he added.
“I don’t plan on fighting unless it’s necessary,” I said.
“Good…you should be well fed too. As the child grows your need for blood will increase,” he said.
I almost smiled. He was concerned for us, the baby and I…it was endearing. Unfortunately.
“I’ll have a glass of blood brought up for you,” he said. “Why don’t you take the night to reset?”
“Alright…but what of the conference?” I asked.
“We’ll give it another go tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll at least live another day,” he said. I smirked and watched him leave the room. I hadn’t expected him to be willing to hear me out. He let me make my excuses and readily accepted Damien as the father of my child even though the revelation came after my outburst. After I sympathized with the wolves essentially. My father did love me…and I couldn’t believe I was only realizing that as I was preparing to leave him.
I wanted to see Kai, I needed to see him.
I waited for the blood to be delivered to my room, but when it arrived, I left it untouched. Instead, I slipped out of my room and took the service halls to the garage. I used the garage exit to leave the house and ran on foot to the gate, there I used the walking entrance to get out and called for a car when far enough from the grounds. While riding back to Portland, I called Kai.
“Hey, I didn’t expect to hear from you so soo
n,” he answered.
“I know, I need to see you. Can you meet me at the studio?” I asked.
“Sure, how soon?” he asked. He’d quickly picked up on my urgency.
“Right now, I’m on the way from Olympia,” I said.
“Okay perfect, I’ll be there,” he said. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“I…I’ll explain when I see you,” I said.
“Whatever it is…it’ll be alright,” he said in a reassuring tone. I smiled and forced myself to take a deep breath and relax. As long as I had Kai everything would be alright.
“I know,” I whispered.
“See you soon,” he said. We ended the call. I gazed out at the cloudy night sky as the Uber driver took his time in getting to Kai’s studio. When I finally got to the building and stepped out of the car, the back of my neck prickled; my instinct was warning me of something. I turned around, but saw nothing but a few human pedestrians. The apartment building was in the middle of the city. There wouldn’t be any supernatural being snooping around. I scanned the balconies of nearby condos nonetheless. The feeling of being watched was gone with the gust of a damp early spring breeze. I went inside to find Kai.
Kai was waiting for me in the living room area, pacing. He turned to greet me, but then his eyes went wide and he opened his mouth to speak.
“You look…incredible. Where are you coming from?” he asked.
“Thank you,” I said. He finally walked over to me and gave me a long hug, one I needed. “I want to go, right now,” I said.
“We have two more days…why do you want to leave now?” he asked.
“Because. The region covens have convened to talk about how to take out the Hunters before they become a problem too big for us to handle,” I sighed. “That’s where I’m coming from. Those conferences require me to dress up.”
“The covens have convened?” he asked, incredulous.
“Just the leaders, we haven’t all massed together. But I don’t want to stay. I don’t want them to assign me responsibilities I won’t fulfill because we’re leaving soon. So I say, let’s leave right now Kai,” I told him.
