Chapter Ten

The combination of voices rang through the meeting hall in echoes of argument. The room wasn’t extraordinarily large, but fifteen of the country’s top vampires managed to sit around the oval meeting table comfortably in their black leather cushioned chairs.

“This could be the start of a new age,” one voice shouted.

“It could be the end of us. Do you have any idea how this may affect our world?” another boomed.

“Stop,” one voice finally rose above the others as a figure stood. His chair moved backward, nearly tipping with the sudden force of his movement. He stood at the long end of the table, his amber eyes held a dangerous intensity as they scanned the room. The vampire ran his hands through his short ebony hair as he took a deep, calming breath.

“This constant bickering isn’t going to solve anything.” He took a moment to run his tanned hands over his dark vest, the color of coffee, smoothing out a few of the wrinkles. To anyone who did not know him, it would seem odd that everyone in the room listened to this man. He was likely the shortest of the men in the room, less than six feet tall. Five feet, and six inches, at most.

“How do you intend to solve the problem? What side do you take, Alexander Sef?” the vampire at the far end of the table shouted at him. His chocolate hair was pulled back away from his face in a black ribbon. His angry blue gaze was set on Alexander. His eyes were as deep a blue as the ocean. When Alexander’s gaze settled back on him, he sank back into his chair quietly. After a long moment of consideration Alexander finally spoke again.

“I think we need to take both viewpoints into consideration. I don’t believe either way is right or wrong, but I do believe both have the opportunity for advancement and for our own doom. What I do know is that we can’t keep living this way. We can’t keep threatening one another, at least not right now when we need to stand together. The world may be against us shortly. If we all unite, we stand a better chance of survival. However…,” The last word took a sharp turn. “I will not put my people in danger over someone’s flight of fancy. I’m not going to leave my people to die to pursue a dream that could very easily be the end of—”

His words were cut off with a sudden boom as the doors crashed open. Amara walked past the broken doors and splintered wood and into the room. She looked furious as she stood framed in the broken doorway.

“Sorry boys,” her voice rang through the room of vampires, “Meeting’s over.”

Alexander brought his hand to his forehead as he shook his head. Amara always did know how to spoil any sort of social event.

“This is an outrage.” Warrick shouted, looking infuriated by the sudden intrusion. He slammed his fists down on the table. “What sort of circus are you running here, Alexander? We come here to meet with you, and your pet explodes into the room like this? Is this some sort of joke?”

Alexander sighed deeply, trying to remain calm. It wasn’t always one of his most prominent features. Patience was not his best virtue.

“My apologies,” he tried to remain professional. He would rip Amara apart later. “Please, take this as an opportunity to recess, get something to eat, and come back refreshed,” he said to the others as he walked out of the room through another smaller door. He held it for the group of hunters as they walked in.

As soon as the door was shut, his anger filled the room. He turned quickly to Christopher who looked almost sheepish as he stood there, slightly buzzed, and unsure of what to do with the situation Amara caused.

“I invite you into my office at your request, and you barge in here like you’re going to kill someone?” he shouted at them. “I did this as a favor for you, Chris. D; don’t try my patience.”

“I tried to stop her. You’re the one who made her this way, so stop pointing fingers. You should have known she wouldn’t sit for more than two hours while your friends met up for the pep rally.”

“You have no idea just how important that meeting was. I told you I would ‘squeeze you ‘in,’ , not that you could burst into—”

Amara cut him off again. “As much as I would love to watch you two bicker like an old married couple, wouldn’t it help if we just talked and got out of your way?”

The vampire clenched his fists. “Sit down,” he snapped pointing to three chairs at the other side of his desk. He sat in his own chair. Anger still radiated off him like the heat of a blazing fire—not that Amara would take that into account.

“‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ go a long way,” Amara said as she sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk, across from the vampire.

“If you want me to be polite to you, then you’ll have to do the same,” Alexander almost growled the words at her. “Now what do you want?”

“There’s a vampire killing people and taking parts. Maybe a serial killer vampire. Seems sort of Kyren’s style, bleeding the victims dry and then taking a few parts home to fry up later. These aren’t vampires being killed, they’re humans.”

“Kyren has been known to go after humans from time to time. Have you looked into her any more deeply?”

“The victims weren’t always women,” Christopher updated him. “More often they’re men.”

Alexander’s anger diminished a bit;, he was thinking clearly again. He had to if he wanted the hunters out of his way more quickly. Kyren was a psychopathic vampire. Her trademark signature was to cut out the more lean or succulent parts of her prey’s body and take them home to cook and eat later. The only hole was that she only killed other women. After a moment, he shook his head.

“I’m really not sure then. There haven’t been any new arrivals in town other than the guests I’ve invited here for the conference. I doubt if any of them would be the sort to do something like this.”

“What? Master vampires are too polite to do something like this? They’re above it?” Amara asked skeptically.

“No, but it’s in my territory. It’d be seen as a challenge. I don’t think any of them would come into my land and do something like this. They would know that I would know what they’re doing and would retaliate.”

“Over humans?” Amara’s voice dripped with doubt. She crossed her arms over her chest as she said it.

“Alexander protects the humans in his area to…some extent.” Chris glared at the vampire a little as he said it. “Or so he says.”

“Chris, I’m sorry,” Alex looked suddenly defeated. “You know it’s not what I meant to happen. I never wanted any of it.”

“What about my parents?” Amara asked quickly. “Were you ‘protecting’ them too?”

“That is a completely different story,” Alex said quickly.

“Why? Both our parents were hunters,” Amara pointed out.

“None of this is about his parents though,” Alex corrected her. “Now, are we going to sit here and point fingers or are we going to try to figure out who is killing people on my land?”

Stephanie took that moment to silently lean forward and put the file on the desk. She sat back afterwards, suddenly not feeling looking so very well and wishing she had taken the advice of the EMTs.

The vampire opened the file and flipped through it quietly. For a few minutes, the room fell into an awkward silence. Stephanie watched Chris carefully. There was a sort of foreboding pain in his eyes as if he were reliving some dark part of his own past. She touched his hand gently, and he seemed to snapped out of the his daydream and gave her a light, reassuring smile. Alexander glanced up at the two through neutral eyes, his expression kept carefully blank. He looked back down into the file, and finished reading, then looked up again and sat back.

“Who have you looked into so far?” he asked.

“No one yet, but we were attacked on the way over here,” Amara explained and pulled out her phone. “Funny thing is, this was on our gunner’s arm.” She held her phone out to him to show him the pictures, and Alexander paused again.

“Kafele?” he asked. He recognized the writing and took the phone from Amara’s hand to get a better look. “He’s in town?”

“He is,” Amara confirmed. “Any idea why he’d send someone to kill us?”

Alex shook his head quietly , then looked up at the group as if something had hit him, a reason why. He shook his head again.

“No. I really don’t know. I’d say if he’s out to get you, that you should keep an eye out. As for the killings, this isn’t something he’d be likely to do. Have you looked into Kyren’s friends? Acquaintances? Maybe she keeps like company,” the vampire suggested.

“You think there’s some sort of Royal Order of the Cannibals?” Chris asked, his tone even again.

“Maybe.” Alexander couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “You really never know. Kyren was never the sort of vampire—or human—, to enjoy being alone.”

“Pretty quick to pass the buck, aren’t we, Alex?” Amara questioned him.

“If you want to chase after Kafele be my guest. If you kill him and bring me his head, I’ll even pay you for it. You’ll be chasing the wrong dog. Kafele wouldn’t do something like this. If raped, gutted women start turning up, then you know who to look for.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Amara said with a nod as she got up. “I’ll leave you get back to your meeting now.”

As Christopher got up, Alexander grabbed his wrist.

“A word?” Alex asked quietly, softly. It made Chris instantly uncomfortable.

“I really don’t have time for this. People are dying,” Chris said as he tried to pull away.

“It’ll just take a second,” Alexander pleaded quietly.

Chris sighed and looked to Stephanie and Amara. “I’ll be right there.”

* * * *

Amara glared at him but walked out of the room. Stephanie, on the other hand, watched him, worriedly looking worried as she followed Amara.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” she asked as she sat back down on the couch.

“He’s probably just reminiscing,” Amara rolled her eyes. “Taking a walk down memory lane.”

“Why can’t you just leave him alone?” Stephanie glared at her. “Everyone has some sort of skeleton in their closet.”

“Do you?” Amara asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well,” Stephanie hesitated. “No, I guess not, but you do. Just leave him alone, okay?”

“What are you going to do if you find out he’s in league with the vampires? With the bad vampires?”

“We’ve already had this argument. I’m not having it again,” Stephanie barked. “Now just sit there and, for once in your life, keep your snide, accusing remarks to yourself because I don’t want to hear them.”

Amara’s eyes widened a little. She was shocked that Stephanie raised her voice, so shocked in fact that she just sat there quietly and waited. It worried Amara too. Stephanie defended Chris quite often. It might not turn out so well for her in the end.

It was only a few minutes later when Chris walked out of the office. He looked a bit calmer, but not entirely at ease. As he walked out Alexander followed. The vampire brushed against him lightly and Christopher tensed.

“I’ll see you soon,” Alexander whispered to him and stepped past him to the girls.

“I’m going to send one of my wolves with you. Her name is Spirit. She’s visiting from out of town. I’ll trust you to take good care of her.”

“Why would we want one of your mangy dogs following us around?” Amara lifted an eyebrow curiously.

“Because she’s got human intellect and the nose of a wolf. I’m ordering her to protect you all. I suggest you be a little more grateful.”

Amara rolled her eyes but didn’t argue. He had a point. If they were going to catch whoever or whatever was doing this, they needed the monsters on their side as well. Generally, she made a rule not to work with them, but there were always exceptions. Steven being one of them. Now she would have to make more exceptions. She didn’t like that list growing.

“I‘ll be sending her along a little bit later,” Alexander said, then repeated himself. “Again, take good care of her.”

* * * *

Stephanie nodded and pulled Amara out of the room before she could make any more remarks. Chris looked back to Alex as he walked out, following the two girls.

The night air was still warm when the group got outside. It would likely stay warm through the entire night. If it wasn’t cold by midnight, it probably wouldn’t get very much colder.

Stephanie watched Chris from behind. He looked happy to be out of the club and it made her even more curious about his past with the vampire. She wanted to ask what happened, but after some of the comments Amara already made, she doubted if he would be ready to open up. The worst part was, as much as Stephanie wanted to trust Chris, she was having problems now. What had happened between Chris and Alexander behind those closed doors?

Stephanie opened her mouth to talk ,but Amara was one step ahead of her.

“Have a nice chat with your boyfriend?” Amara asked, her voice even and neutral as if everything were just as she would have expected.

Chris spun quickly to face her. “Would you just shut up?”

“I’m wondering if he gave you any valuable information when he took you in back.”

Chris clenched his fists and kept walking, but Stephanie had as much as she could stand.

“You really don’t think this is going to affect the way we work together? If he did have information, why on Earth would he share it with you?” Stephanie finally said. “I’m totally sick of hearing it too. If you don’t want to be part of this mission, just go back to the HQ and explain it. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“You know, people aren’t always as good as you think that they are.” The hunter rolled her eyes.

“The world isn’t as bad as you make it out to be.”

“Can you both just stop?” Chris finally chimed back in as well. “People are dying, and all the three of us can do is argue. Stop instigating, Amara, and maybe we’ll get this done faster and be rid of each other.”

“Okay, okay,” Amara said defensively. “If I keep my remarks to myself then you need to open up.”

“I’ll tell you anything about the mission that I find out, but you don’t need to know my life’s story.”

“Agreed,” Amara said and went quiet.