by Martha Woods
I was actually pretty astonished at the complete lack of subtlety they’d shown in their attacks on the surrounding towns, they were showing a complete disregard for secrecy that hadn’t been seen in a few hundred years, when this country was just a collection of towns not even connected by telegram, when the chances of being discovered by a gang of roving hunters was so much lower than now. They seemed to be utterly tribal in nature, just lashing out at who they perceived as invaders, ignoring their fellow shifters that were content to keep to themselves and live their lives in relative peace. What could make them change from that, beings of pure destruction that wouldn’t be caught dead helping anyone, to what seemed to be an organized group that counted a hunter among their numbers, fairly intimately if Anthony was to be believed. The transformation was… hard to believe to say the least.
The trail that Anthony and his clan had been cutting to get away from them was interesting as well, they hadn’t made a straight line towards us, they’d zig-zagged and doubled back in places, like they were trying to shake them off, or maybe even ambush them before they could ready themselves for an attack. Going by the bodies that had accumulated in these areas, they hadn’t been the picture of successful, though they may have succeeded in killing or wounding one or two of the enemy. If they’d just made a beeline to us we maybe could have helped them before any of them could be lost to violence, but sometimes decisions could only be seen for what they were in hindsight.
Still, the fact that their first instinct was to fight back was both a good sign and a warning to me. It meant that they were willing to fight for what was theirs, to defend their number against an outside threat, but it also told me that the brothers that were in charge were perhaps too quick to rush into a fight without thinking over the potential consequences, but going by the straighter path they had hit by the end they were starting to learn their lesson on that. Only time would tell if it was going to stick, as soon as they met face to face again who was to say what would happen? I know that I wouldn’t be able to resist a fight if I was in their shoes, what right do I have to judge them on that?
“Look at you, hard at work.” I jumped when Vincent pressed his lips against my temple, ready to tell him to get back into bed before I looked up at the clock.
“Holy crap, it’s already been two hours?”
“It’s already been two hours,” He replied, “And I have to say, I’m all rested up and ready to go. You on the other hand look like you could use a cup of coffee, thanks for leaving that up to me.”
“I know that you’d have my head if I drank anything else,” I laughed, focusing back on the reports in front of me and leaving him to go about his business.
When he sat down next to me and placed a cup of coffee in my hands I drank it on autopilot, too absorbed in everything that I was reading through to focus on anything else around me. From what I was reading it seemed like the shifters that we were about to get into bed with were proud, and old, the exact kind that would take great offense to having something stolen from them. By doing what they’ve done this rival clan has likely made an enemy for life, though they have more than the numbers and ruthlessness to be able to back up a bold move like they’ve made.
“I can’t say for sure without meeting them,” I said to Vincent, “But I think that these brothers are going to be hard to negotiate with. I don’t want to get us into some… kill them all style war, and I don’t know if they’ll accept anything less. If it comes to that I’m going to have to turn them away, which is the exact opposite of what I want to do, but what other choice will I have really?”
“It’s definitely a dilemma.” Vincent nodded in agreement, reading along with me. “But what are you going to do if that’s the only solution that would work? After all, if they were bold enough and determined enough to chase them across three states then who’s to say that they won’t try to do the same thing here?”
“There’s a difference between a small town out in the boondocks and an entire city like ours.”
“There was a big difference between Rome and the barbarian clans as well, that didn’t stop it from falling to hubris and the enemy. There have been countless victories throughout history that seemed impossible at the time, and even seem impossible when you read about them now, but that doesn’t make them not real.”
“I know…” I sighed, “I just… I don’t want to have to worry about that right now ok? If that’s the only solution then I guess… we should step in, shouldn’t we? If it looks like they’ll only expand, or that they’re crazy enough and blood thirsty enough to keep killing even after they’ve killed all the shifters, then the moral thing would be to stop them, right?”
“It would be,” He said, “It might not feel right, but something like that shouldn’t feel right. People are capable of the most horrible things when they think themselves right without question, it’s good to question yourself sometimes.”
“Yeah, I’d rather not take what we’ve built here and ruin it by becoming Hitler Two. The decision to do that wouldn’t be up to just me, even if they said that it was. I wouldn’t go ahead with getting us into something that big unless everyone agreed that it needed to be done, no exceptions.”
“Good idea, you shouldn’t ever think lightly of something like this. We want to create life here, and sometimes that means taking others, but that shouldn’t be our first course of action.” He looked off into the distance, his mind going back much further than the events of recently. “To be honest, I think I’ve had more than my fill of war and fighting, Joseph will always love it but me… I was sick of it years ago.”
“I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to offend you or anything but… whenever I’ve seen you fight you seem like you’re having the time of your life.” The events in the hotel had definitely been bloody, and through it all he seemed to be taking glee in tearing the hunters apart. I don’t know if maybe I was seeing things but… it certainly seemed to be the case.
“I can’t help what I am,” He answered simply, “I don’t want to seek out violence, but once I’m in it… vampires have a hard time around blood at the best of times, but when it’s that much and the stakes are that high… getting into a fight like that is like getting high for vampires, it’s no wonder that Joseph is addicted to it.”
“It… yeah, that sounds pretty intense. I’m sorry that I’ve kept getting you into situations like that, I wouldn’t have if I’d-”
“Don’t apologize Amy,” He said, placing his hand on mine, “It was a small price to pay if it meant keeping you safe, I would do anything to make sure that you were safe, don’t ever forget that.”
I believed him, god did I believe him, there was no way that I could look into the raw love in his eyes and believe anything otherwise. I wouldn’t try to get him into anything that would put him in that same situation, but there was always what we intended to do and what we actually ended up doing. Hopefully tonight would be a start to not needing to fight anymore, or at the very least to not need to fight as much.
“You should probably start getting ready huh?” Vincent led me to my feet, pushing me not so subtly in the direction of the bathroom. “I don’t need to join you, I don’t think I have to tell you that we’ll only end up wasting more time in there if I did that. You can take care of yourself.”
“What a shame,” I giggled, “A little wasted time wouldn’t have been so bad…”
His smirk as he turned away before I closed the door is something that I’ll dream about.
* * *
When night had fallen once more it was time to move on to the meeting point, and if the fact that it was the highest rooftop on the outskirts of time didn’t clue me in to the fact that this was such a Joseph place to choose for a meeting, the throngs of vampires perched on the nearby spires and camped out in the shadows of the hallways would have.
“Do you think that Joseph is ever not going to be dramatic?” I asked Vincent, already knowing the answer, “It’s charming, but
it’s a bit much sometimes.”
“Tell me about it,” He laughed, “I’ve been saying the same thing for decades now, there’s not much that you can do to change that about him honestly. Not that I would try, it’s been pretty amusing to see.”
“Are you talking about Joseph,” Said a voice from behind us, “Because I’ve gotta tell you, he might need to tone it down a little in the future.”
“Damon!” I shouted, throwing my arms around him as soon as he stepped into view, “We were worried about you, how’d everything go?”
“Well, it went…” He looked down at me, smile slowly spreading across his face. “Great! I’ve gotten a bunch of hunters to agree to help, it’s not unanimous or anything but we should be looking at about a dozen hunters ready to go, and they’re going to try and get more of us involved. Some of them have contacts out of town that they can call in, but they’re not sure if they’ll be able to call them in to defend paranormals or not. It’s… kind of a weird period that we’re in right now.”
“You don’t say?” I pressed a kiss to his cheek, tugging him to stand by my and Vincent’s side. “You did good Damon, I can’t even begin to tell you how much they’re going to help us out on this.”
“Yeah well, don’t tell them that alright? It’ll just go to their heads, and trust me when I say that hunters don’t need any more of that.”
“Well, you would be the expert of that wouldn’t you?” Relaxing against him, I was suddenly aware that aside from the three of us and the other vampires that were milling around, we were completely alone up on the rooftop. “Where are they? We showed up on time right?”
“We did,” Vincent said, “Right on the number, not early and not late, just perfect.”
“Then what the hell? They better not have flaked on us, otherwise that’s going to be such a pain in my a-”
“Hello! Sorry we’re late!” Called a voice from the other side of the roof, a freckled, chiseled face appearing from the fire escape and rising to show an easy smile, “We ran into some delays, but here we are!”
“The delays,” Came a voice from behind him, shoving him forward to climb up the rest of the ladder, “Are that my brother cannot tell time, and is an idiot to cap things off.”
“Really? You’re going to have that be our introduction?”
“We’re already late Caleb, I think you’ve done enough to ruin our introduction as it is.”
“Oh fucking great,” Damon groaned, “More of these kinds. Me and Vincent are enough, we don’t need more of this.”
“Excuse me,” I cleared my throat, stepping forward under the watchful eyes of the vampires and stopping them in the middle of what looked to be a building argument, “Can I ask who you are?”
“Oh!” The freckled one started, rubbing the back of his neck before bowing deeply. “My name is Caleb, and this is my brother Nathan. We’re here to negotiate with you so that we don’t all die.”
Chapter 5
The peppy response wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting, nor was it what the others had been expecting either. When we had been walking up I’d had an image in my head of two dour, bloodthirsty warriors, the type that would willingly get their people into a fight if they knew that they could have a good time doing so, not… two bickering siblings that seemed half a thought away from forgetting that other people were there.
“I apologize for my brother,” Nathan said, bowing his head and suppressing the barest irritated twitch of his eyebrows, “He forgets himself sometimes, if I wasn’t here to guide him I’m certain that he would never actually get anywhere at all.”
“It’s no trouble, really,” I said, holding my hand up to interrupt any potential bickering, “We’ve got some very important things to talk about don’t you think? We should probably get started if the other shifters are as close as you say.”
“Oh right! Yeah we should definitely get to that!” Caleb grinned widely, seemingly his default expression before grabbing his brother by the shoulder and dragging him forwards. “So what are we doing? Are we just doing it here or are there some chairs that we can sit in? Because I’m kind of cold.”
“Out here will be fine,” Nathan sighed, “We won’t take up anymore of your time than we already have, Anthony informed us about what you talked about already as well. No need to waste time covering ground that you’ve already gone through with someone else.”
“Alright…” I stepped forward, bringing Vincent and Damon with me as I took my place two steps from Caleb and Nathan. Negotiations should be held closely, it wasn’t going to be a good showing if we both had to shout across a rooftop to be heard. “Why don’t you start off and we can go from there?”
Nathan cleared his throat, clearly the one out of the two that they trusted more to speak first. I was already starting to like them if I was being honest, but I couldn’t let that cloud my judgement, I had actual friends that I loved and cared for, but that didn’t mean that all their ideas were good ones. “Our people are being pursued across the country by an offensive force that wants nothing more than to see us dead for things that happened before some of us were even able to think properly for ourselves. As much as my brother and I would like to fight them to reclaim our honor… we’re not stupid or proud enough to think that we can handle this on our own.”
I gave him a moment to gather his words, clearly this was tough for him to say. In that regard I think he wasn’t really that different to the hunters, werewolves and vampires that we had in our ranks today, all so proud and wanting to solve everything on their own before having to bitterly admit that they could do no such thing. I could sympathize, no one wanted to admit that they couldn’t do something at the best of times, let alone when lives are on the line.
“We, Caleb and I, would like to request that you allow our people entry into this… alliance that you’re building, protection in exchange for protection. You help keep the young and old alive from this threat and we will make damn sure that we can do the same for you if you ever need our services.”
“Protection?” I asked, “Is that all that you would want?”
They looked between each other, weighing up whether or not they should tell me the whole truth before Caleb nodded his head. “We… would also request your help in helping us repel whatever attack it is that they launch against us, which we feel is coming in the next few days.”
“I would assume that would come under the realms of protection, wouldn’t it?”
“It would but…” Caleb rubbed his temple, smiling nervously, “We were thinking that maybe you push out a little further with us, a little further than could be called ‘defense’, if you know what I mean?”
“Ah…” I looked back at Damon, who understood perfectly. “You mean you want us to help you kill them?”
“Not kill, just… make sure that they don’t come back. Look, ideally we would get a fighting force together, we’d ride right back into where we came from and we’d wipe any trace of them from our homes before just getting our lives back on track, but I’m smart enough to know that’s not possible, and I’m not dumb enough to ask you to commit to wiping out a group of people you don’t even know for another group you also don’t know. All we want is to make sure that we can take a breath without being afraid that it’s going to be our last, that’s all.”
“We’re not asking you to wipe them out,” Nathan continued, “We just want you to show that you’ll stand with us if it comes to that, even if you won’t. They don’t have to know that we’ll be on our own if the worst comes to worst, but maybe the threat of all of you behind us will be enough.”
“That’s a very big ask,” I said, “I hope that you can understand that. We just got finished with a fight, I’m sure you could read between the lines if you picked up a newspaper over the last few months, I don’t know if I can ask everyone to commit to another so soon. Some of the bodies are barely cold by now.”
“We know, and trust us, we understand fully.” Nathan took a s
tep forward, raising his hands so that everyone could see that he wasn’t a threat. “We bear shifters are proud people, if there was literally any way that we could solve this under our own power believe me when I say that we would take it, no question. But it’s a changing world, your organization is proof enough of that, and if we want to survive then we’re going to have to change too. Otherwise we’ll just end up as more bones under the soil, and I do not want to see the young of our clan there so soon. I’ll do anything to keep that from happening. Anything.”
Vincent chuckled behind me, shrugging at my questioning look. “He’s reminding me of someone right now, but if I don’t want to sleep on the couch I think I should keep it to myself.”
“Glad you said it,” Damon laughed, “I wasn’t going to.”
“Regardless,” I interrupted them, “I’ll agree fully to bring your people into the fold, and we’ll do our best to defend you when you are in these limits, but as for going after them with you… I’m going to have to say no to that for the time being. I’m not going to make a decision like that lightly, and neither should you, if it comes to fighting we will defend ourselves and that is it, understood?”
They mumbled between each other, not wanting to reveal the topic of their conversations to anyone except themselves, which I couldn’t exactly blame them for. They didn’t owe us all their secrets right now, and I wouldn’t really believe them right away anyway, a little bit of private consideration would do everyone a bit of good.
