“I would warn you, Tomas, to leave my family out of your raging. You were invited here today to seek peace. If you will act like a child, we would be happy to treat you like one.” He looked around the room, magic lifting in the air. “There is no conspiracy. There is no revolution. There is no attempt to consolidate power. There is only an effort to help our brothers and sisters in Europe find a way to peace.”
Silence fell and magic kindled, breaths bated for his next move.
My father looked at Claudia. “These talks do not pertain to the activities of fairies in Europe, nor to any supernaturals in Chicago. But if you wish to observe, to offer your expertise, it would be rude and injudicious of us to decline it. You may, if you wish, join us tonight as our guests.”
I bit back a smile. My father was very good. Make the fairies an offer they couldn’t decline without losing face—and one the vampires in the room couldn’t complain about without looking foolish and ungracious.
“We will join you,” Claudia said, chin lifted. “And we will see what trouble you seek.”
• • •
Two chairs were located and placed in the empty gap in the outer ring of chairs, while my father sent vampires to check on the guards the fairies had managed to get past.
The chairs weren’t fancy—armchairs probably borrowed from one of the hotel rooms. But Claudia and Ruadan seated themselves like royalty, her hand over his atop the rolled arm of her seat.
Unfortunately, the fairies’ seating was the only problem solved during the first abbreviated night of talks. While most of the vampires agreed some kind of governing body was necessary, they couldn’t agree on how that body would be formed, or how voting rights would be allocated. The oldest Houses argued they were the wisest, the most experienced, so their votes should carry more weight. Newer Houses with more money argued they had more value to society, so their votes should carry more weight. And everyone in between feared being swallowed by the larger fish.
Blood and food were offered an hour into the meeting. The fairies remained in their chairs—and well guarded—while the vampires partook. But the refreshment didn’t make the second half of the session any more productive.
They’d barely gotten discussions started again when the Houses derailed them by arguing about how they’d contribute to paying the council’s expenses when they were in session, and where they’d meet.
The European vampires faced some of the same questions America’s founders had faced more than two hundred years ago, except that the vampires had centuries more ego and arrogance behind them.
We adjourned with little accomplished beyond identifying thereal problem: how to get dozens of vampire Houses to sacrifice in order to come up with a plan that benefitted them all.
The fairies were escorted out first, and the room itself seemed to exhale with relief when they were gone. The shifters also disappeared quickly, and I couldn’t blame them. They hadn’t exactly gotten a warm welcome from the European Houses.
I spoke with Marion, agreed to talk to my parents about the path forward while she returned to the hotel, where the odds of a fairy attack seemed lower. And then I walked into the plush antechamber beside the ballroom to wait for their arrival.
I was checking the news on my screen when the door opened and my parents came in, followed by Theo and a tall, lean man with medium-brown skin, dark hair, and dark, somber eyes.
“Elisa,” my father said, “this is Roger Yuen, the Associate Ombudsman.”
We shook hands. “It is good to meet you, Elisa. Your great-grandfather is a good man.”
“We think so,” I agreed, then looked at my parents. “How are the guards?”
“Magicked,” he said, and ran a hand through his hair. “We hadn’t even considered the possibility magic—other than glamour—would be used as a weapon.”
Glamour was the vampires’ innate magic, the ability to lure humans and lower their inhibitions when it suited our purposes.
“So many hours of work,” my father said, sounding uncharacteristically dejected, “with very little to show for it.”
“It was unlikely the first round would result in a treaty,” Yuen said kindly. “Perhaps now that the bad blood has been aired, so to speak, the real negotiations can begin.”
“And we did avoid an apparent fairy revolution,” my mother said, perching on the arm of my father’s chair. “That’s twice in two days we’ve seen Claudia in her finery.”
“I could have done without the second,” my father said, and looked at Yuen. “Thoughts?”
“She wants to be seen as powerful,” Yuen said. “In control, and an important part of the city’s leadership.”
“Quite a change from their previous attitude,” my father said dryly.
“Why would the fairies believe the talks were some kind of conspiracy?” I wondered.
“Claudia is unstable,” my mother said. “She has been for a very long time.”
“But why the sudden interruption?” Yuen asked.