5. LISTEN TO MY VOICE

LISTEN TO MY VOICE

J ulian breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Christian enter the room along with Rajani. Their minds briefly touched in greeting.

Everything going okay in here? Christian asked.

Oh, sure! It's going great. We're making progress, Julian stated, trying to think of each moment closer to normalizing human-Vampire relations. But that collapsed quickly upon itself. No, not really, no.

What's been happening? Christian asked.

A whole lot of… nothing.

Things were a little tense--okay, maybe a lot tense--between the Vampires and the humans. Well, Daemon seemed immune to the tension as he stared at their human "guests" with only mild, amused interest. The fact that he rarely blinked--and when he did it was slow and catlike--was causing the humans no end of distress though they were fighting not to show it.

Are you trying to freak them out, Daemon? Julian asked the Vampire King.

I do not know what you mean, Daemon professed innocence.

Julian actually turned in his chair. You don't know--

Daemon gave him a smirk. I am enjoying this. I want to understand these people. Letting them talk is… best.

Okay, but they've been stone faced so far. It's like a standoff here, Julian sighed.

The two groups were at opposite ends of the dining room table. Daemon sitting at the one head with Balthazar to his right and Julian to his left. Arcius was on the other side of Balthazar while Seeyr was beside Julian.

Arcius got up and offered his seat to Christian who was going to wave it away, but Julian felt the mental request from Balthazar for Christian to settle in. Arcius moved behind Daemon to lean against the wall, which is also where Rajani and Fiona were. Christian's parents were almost in the exact middle seats between the Vampires and other humans. Christian's mother hugged her son while his father smiled broadly at his boy across the table.

On the other end of the table in the head seat was Colonel Warren Monroe. To his right was FBI Special Agent in Charge Katherine Goddell. To his left was a man that wore black and gray fatigues with no name tag or insignia, but through looking into his mind, Julian knew he was Special Operative Steven O'Connor with the CIA and several other clandestine agencies within the US government.

In the very center of the table, on it, in fact, was Meffy. The cat was attacking a bit of ribbon while everyone--when they weren't looking at one another--was watching the kitten tussle with its "enemy" that seemed to include its tail. Despite the ridiculousness of it--or perhaps because of that ridiculousness--Julian approved of this kitten centerpiece. After all, who didn't watch videos of cats? It was somewhat of a common ground. It made the Vampires seem more human .

"I think Meffy needs treats," Balthazar said with a frown. "He's tiring himself out. He needs more energy."

Although things could get a little too ridiculous...

Fiona sighed as she pushed off of the wall. "I'll get them. Anything else?"

"Water. Meffy needs water," Balthazar insisted.

"How do you know that? Are you guessing?" Christian asked even as Balthazar's arm snuck around his waist and pulled him close. "Or are you reading Meffy's mind?"

"Trying," Balthazar admitted. "But his mind is… well, it's like that bit of ribbon all over the place. But I definitely think water and treats are in order."

"Is that a Vampire cat?" Colonel Monroe asked. He was a man in his late fifties with a buzz cut of gray hair. He had a craggy face with acne scars pitting his cheeks. Heavy lips and a broad nose completed the picture.

"Vampire cat? He'd love that, but alas, no, cats can't be turned," Balthazar said with a put upon sigh.

Julian was certain that Balthazar would be so devastated when Meffy died that he might have Caemorn animate the bones for him. That would be a little creepy, but Julian could totally see it happening.

"So cat treats and water. I'll be right back," Fiona said and teleported.

All the humans except Christian's parents started when Fiona disappeared.

"I never thought I would see the day when she would get you anything, Eyros," Seeyr chuckled. "You've been pulling her hair for as long as we've been together."

Balthazar kissed Christian's nearest temple as he said, "She's succumbed to my charms."

"Don't let her hear you say that," Arcius warned with a rumble, "or you'll find crushed cat treats in your bed."

"Ugh, could you remind her that it's my bed, too, Arcius?" Christian requested.

"I shall," Arcius promised, which had Christian smiling and Balthazar scowling.

"Well, you are my better half, Christian, so I suppose I won't take offense that Arcius wouldn't defend me to her," Balthazar lilted.

"You can defend yourself quite well." Arcius stroked his beard.

He was in his full-on all leather and spiked collar Order regalia with his big, bare arms revealed by the leather sleeveless shirt. The CIA Special Operative Steven O'Connor seemed fascinated with his bulging muscles, though not in a romantic way. Arcius was big, so was Daemon, but Arcius looked like a berserker from the past, which he, in fact, was.

From a brief glance into his mind, Julian found O'Connor sizing up the Vampires in the room and was finding each one an oddity. The only similarity between them was the predatoriness . But not all were muscle-bound like Arcius. Rajani seemed a slip of a thing, but O'Connor was sure she'd shiv him as much as smile at him. He found Seeyr utterly unnerving, certain she'd poison the water in front of him. Fiona, with her ability to appear and disappear at the drop of a hat, was most certainly some kind of assassin.

Balthazar was a dangerous playboy type that would appear all languid and dreamy before becoming razor sharp and deadly. Christian seemed like a sweet boy who would strangle him the moment his back was turned. Daemon was… O'Connor wasn't sure what Daemon was. But Daemon appeared the most inhuman.

And as to Julian himself, he found Julian the most dangerous, which shocked Julian utterly. The reason? Julian appeared so likable, not ordinary by any means, but someone people would want to have a beer with, hang out with and listen to. Julian, in O'Connor's eyes, was a threat of the highest order.

"So no cat Vampires," the colonel remarked. "That's… something."

"Have you noticed the dead animals walking about among the troops, Colonel? I don't think I'm relieved that they can't turn a kitten into a Vampire," FBI Special Agent in Charge Katherine Goddell remarked.

She was holding herself rigidly. Her arms were crossed over her chest. She did not let her elbows, or any other part of her, touch the table. Julian had an idea that she thought the whole place was contaminated somehow.

"I did see the bear-thing, yes," the colonel remarked slowly.

"I know it's a shock," Christian's mother, Elizabeth, said with an understanding smile. "Vampires are real! Who knew?"

"Evidently, your son's best friend knew," Katherine Goddell remarked with a lifted eyebrow.

"Yes, and his parents knew… know," Elizabeth said as her gaze grew distant.

Julian reached into his pocket where his parents' soul gems were. Caemorn had already promised to start the process of freeing his parents the next night. This one was already packed full. Besides, it would take incredible time and energy to accomplish this, but Julian had no doubt that Caemorn could do it now. His parents would be returned to him.

"Aren't Julian's parents dead?" O'Connor asked with a frown.

" Prince Julian," Arcius crisply reprimanded.

As always, Julian wanted to wave away the lack of title, but he did not. These people were impressed by rank. So by having to call him Prince Julian it would just reinforce the idea that they were dealing with the top Vampires. Besides, despite most Americans' happiness to have thrown off the yoke of being ruled by a king or queen, they still had some reverence for noble titles for some reasons. Further when Arcius said it in that steely tone with those furrowed brows, even Julian did not want to gainsay him.

" Prince Julian," O'Connor corrected. "Aren't they dead?"

"Surely, you understand that your concept of dead and alive are not the real ones, don't you?" Rajani asked with a lilting laugh. "After all you've seen tonight, I would recommend you keep an open mind."

"Here are the cat treats and water," Fiona said as she teleported back into the room right by the CIA operative.

O'Connor nearly toppled his chair over, but Fiona managed to grab the back of it and set it upright while only spilling a little bit of Meffy's water on the table. The CIA operative went from moving to sitting incredibly still in half a second. Fiona put the dish of water next to Meffy, who stopped playing with his ribbon, to lap some of it up. She put a few treats beside it before tossing the bag over to Balthazar who caught it one-handedly with Vampiric reflexes. Meffy devoured the treats, licked his whiskers and then curled up in a ball to sleep.

"Now that the cat is fed and watered, why don't we get down to brass tacks here," the colonel said, threading his fingers together before stretching them out before him until they cracked.

"Uhm, you were the ones that attacked us ," Balthazar pointed out. "So maybe you should start and explain yourselves?"

"You're Vampires," Katherine reminded him.

"I'm actually an Immortal as are Daemon, Seeyr and Fiona, but there are Vampires here too," Balthazar explained, which had the woman from the FBI blinking in confusion.

"Immortals aren't Vampires?" Katherine asked.

"The Immortals are the ten original beings who came to Earth and created Vampires from humans," Heny explained, adjusting his glasses.

"Are you some kind of Vampire scholar?" Katherine asked Christian's father.

"I certainly hope to be!" Henry said with a smile. "I answered on their behalf, because, like you, I had to understand the structure. I think if you hear it from me, it might be more… palatable."

"Because you're human?" O'Connor asked.

Henry nodded. "And because I'm a teacher. If I can get history into the heads of my students, I surely can get this into yours. There are ten Vampire Bloodlines, each ruled by an Immortal, and every person in that Bloodline has the same or similar gifts. Eyros can read and control minds while Wyvern can teleport and so on and so forth. King Daemon has all of those gifts and more."

There was a lot of blinking going on.

"Think of them like Harry Potter houses and that will help," Julian said.

Henry continued, "Within Bloodlines, you have Houses that are ruled by a Lord or Lady. Normally, the Houses are of one Bloodline, but Balthazar's may be expanding."

"They are clamoring to get in when, before, I wasn't on their dance cards at all," Balthazar muttered.

Christian patted his hand. Balthazar kissed his cheek. Then they both fed Meffy treats, which seemed to cheer up people quite a bit.

"I've been authorized to explain to you by King Daemon that there are rebellious elements that have caused…" Here Henry looked at Daemon and carefully said, "unrest. They upset the order of things where humans are unaware of Vampires' existence. Clearly, that has changed now. The rabbit cannot be put into the hat."

"So you decided to just reveal yourselves?" Katherine looked disbelieving.

"We could hardly not do so. But let's get back to you ," Balthazar said languidly, "why did you come in here guns blazing? We broke no laws."

"You raised the dead! You killed all those people in the museum!" the colonel barked.

"Actually, we saved you," Christian said with a deep frown. "We stopped more people from getting hurt. We were not the ones that did the rest."

"So Vampires or Immortals or whatever you are, weren't responsible for several cemeteries' worth of corpses rising up? Or the deaths of all the people in the museum?" Katherine demanded.

Balthazar opened his mouth, tilted his head to the side, shut his mouth and opened it again before saying, "Technically, yes , there's an Immortal and a bunch of Vampires responsible for that, which Henry mentioned. But they'll be crushed soon enough. Yet as a point of contention, are you , personally, responsible for what every other human being does? No? So why is it so hard to believe that we aren't responsible for everything every Vampire or Immortal does?"

"So there are good Vampires and bad Vampires, you're saying?" the colonel asked with a grunt.

"Really why so surprised? Oh, you thought we would all be bad," Balthazar said with a sigh as he clearly read the colonel's mind. "Still, you could have come to the door and knocked . You didn't have to arrive in a bunch of unmarked vans. That's hardly friendly."

"We had no reason to think you were friendly," O'Connor grunted.

"Still not sure of that," Katherine remarked.

"We came here because we see you as a threat to national security. If you think by capturing us that this ends things or something, I've got news for you. There are plenty more of us and if we don't check in, they'll come!" The colonel jabbed a finger at each one of them.

"Oh, we're aware," Rajani said sweetly.

"You've got moles in the government?" The colonel's eyes narrowed.

"We have people everywhere," Rajani smiled broadly as she said this.

The three humans shifted uncomfortably.

Eyros, I want our people to sleep in the Ever Dark from now on, Daemon said as he regarded the humans evenly. I believe things are going to get messy before they clear up.

Balthazar gave a quick nod and shut his eyes. Julian heard the command go out. It was like a shiver over his skin.

King Daemon commands that every Vampire return to the Ever Dark to sleep. Earth can only be accessed during nighttime hours, Balthazar sent, Further instructions will be forthcoming as we deal with humanity.

Julian could have sworn that a breeze swept through the room. But it was only a mental one as Balthazar sent the orders to every single Vampire. Balthazar's eyes opened and he was smiling.

"I'm getting quite good at that," Balthazar said.

"At what?" Katherine asked.

"Never mind. It's our time to question you." Balthazar wagged a finger at her. "So your grand plan was to storm my home and lock up everyone you found? And then what? Dissect us? Interrogate us? Oh, dear, I see you meant to do all of that. Well, that's not good. Quite bloodthirsty of you , I might add."

We'll be starting the Whisper campaign tonight, Daemon sent to all at the table, but the humans.

Shall I summon Elgar? Balthazar asked.

Not quite yet. Let's see how much more forthcoming they are about their motivations, Daemon said as he reached over and took Julian's clenched left hand and stroked the back of it.

Julian hadn't realized he was clenching both fists and shaking a little at what the humans had been planning. If they had come during the day, things might have ended up just as they wanted them.

It is all right, my Childe, Daemon soothed. I would never have allowed that to happen. What Kaly did was necessary to bring us together. These are mere children. Infants really. They cannot hurt us.

But they wanted to! Julian found himself crying.

We are not like them. We do not simply destroy out of fear, Daemon reminded him and that had Julian flushing.

He had wanted to strike out because of anger and, yes, fear of what the humans could have done. But was that not the same thing these three were doing? Would he be any better if he did?

We must expect this response at first, Daemon explained. Unlike you, who were open to the idea of Vampires, they are not there yet. They see us as weapons, not another species they are encountering. Kaly did accomplish much here.

Kaly… we really need to tell Caemorn the truth!

Yes, my Childe, we will. Tomorrow evening in Nightvallen. He'll know everything, Daemon said.

Julian focused himself on the three humans again "Why would you think to harm us without finding out more first?" He leaned forward so that both clenched fists were on the table, his purple eyes flashed red for a moment. "Just attacking blindly before you understand what is going on is a sound strategy in your opinion?"

"Do you really blame us?" Katherine asked as she rubbed her hands together as if chilled. "The things you can do… how can we ever be safe with you?"

"Safe? Humans are hardly safe from one another!" Elizabeth pointed out. "Simply having the ability to harm doesn't give you the right to simply storm into a private home and--"

"Your son is one of them! You can't possibly be able to speak about this rationally!" O'Connor scoffed.

Elizabeth's eyes flashed, too. Not red, but steely. "This wasn't what I hoped for my son or Julian. But if I ever thought that becoming Vampires was a worse choice than staying human you're starting to change my mind!"

Henry's brow was furrowed. "Fear is blinding you to the possibilities. Think of everything we could learn from them. The history they've seen. The things they can tell us. The possibilities of even becoming one of them."

"Just before they rip our throats open and drink a geyser of our blood," O'Connor muttered.

"If you really think that, why on Earth are you saying it out loud?" Seeyr asked. "Do you want to encourage us?"

"He can read minds!" Steven pointed at Balthazar. "So what's the point in lying?"

"How refreshing, but you're still lying," Balthazar said. "And I'm not the only one who can read minds here."

That had the three humans gazing about the room nervously. If they thought that by knowing who could do it would allow them to stop it, that fallacy was blown away now.

"We've lived among you for thousands of years," Rajani said. "We haven't destroyed humanity yet. You've done quite a bit of that on your own."

"Oh, so Hitler wasn't a Vampire?" the colonel asked.

Rajani looked pained and said as if to a small child, " No , of course not."

"Why, of course not?" Katherine asked.

"Because you're not only our food supply--so why would we kill you?--but also we come from you," Rajani reminded them. "The Immortals are different, but every Vampire was a human once. We don't breed like you, but we do create Children and all of those, of course, come from humanity, too. The kind of destruction that a Hitler or a Stalin or a Mao Zedong committed against humanity would never be our way. We would be destroying ourselves in the process."

"So you'll put us in camps and bleed us?" O'Connor snarled.

"Again, have we done that so far?" Seeyr turned her bandaged eyes upon him. "The fastest way to foment a rebellion is to do as you suggest."

"Don't you feel any wonder ?" Julian asked as he studied each of their faces. "Even when I thought I hated Vampires, there was a sense of wonder about them and what their existence meant. Doesn't any of that occur to you? We have Vampires who can raise the dead! We have Vampires who can communicate with spirits! Forget all the other things we can do, those things should make you pause and… and just consider! But you would have destroyed all that."

"We would-- will --study you and keep ourselves safe," Katherine stated.

"So not even a question of co-existence?" Elizabeth looked ill. "Just cut them down or cut them up?" She shook her head. "That's not what the people of this country or the world would want you to do!"

"People often don't know what's good for them," the colonel stated. "Can you honestly tell us that we are wrong to consider you enemies? That we are not in danger from you?"

Daemon spoke for the first time out loud, "You are only in as much danger as you choose to be."

"So if we bow down to the king, we'll be just fine?" The colonel gave a colorless smile.

Daemon inclined his head regally. "You would be under my protection then. You are under it now, but you do not yet have certain rights."

"We're United States citizens, we already have rights that you are currently violating by keeping us here," the colonel stated stiffly.

"I don't know. I pretty much think we can argue self-defense," Balthazar muttered. "And we have plenty of lawyers and judges in our pocket to make that work. But I don't really think that you want this out in public."

"You don't," Julian realized as thoughts bubbled to the surface. "Elizabeth is right. You know that the majority of people won't want Vampires harmed!"

"They think Vampires sparkle ," Katherine said with a flattening of lips. "They'd give you talk shows and make movie stars out of you. They wouldn't understand the danger you pose."

"We already are in those professions!" Balthazar snorted. "We are beautiful. And we are deadly. We drink your blood and we want to turn some of you. The public knows all that and is okay with it. In fact, they're thrilled at the idea." Balthazar spread his arms wide. "I can hear their thoughts. The thoughts of this entire city and I can tell you that they cannot wait to meet us!"

Eyros, bring Elgar now, Daemon stated.

"As I was saying, you do not yet have full rights under my rule. Your actions have been in bad faith," Daemon told the three of them simply.

Katherine's right hand drifted to her throat. "What--what are you going to do?"

O'Connor hissed, "You won't get away with this!"

The colonel added, "If you attack us, you're making the entirety of the United States your enemy!"

Daemon laced the fingers of his hand through Julian's as the door opened and Elgar came in with his skull. The three humans lurched back in their chairs at the sight of him.

"We are not going to attack you," Daemon assured him. "In time, there will be laws about doing this, but… you weren't invited and, though you are truly not a threat to us , you are endangering others and yourselves. So we must save you."

"Save us? How?" Katherine gasped.

Elgar lifted his eyes from the skull and looked at them head on. "You will listen to my voice. My voice is all you will hear…"

There was almost a sussurating noise. Julian watched as the colonel, Katherine and O'Connor's eyes went blank. Their mouths parted slightly. And Elgar spoke in a gentle, whispering tone that had harmonics to it.

Daemon stood up and pulled Julian gently to his feet. "Come, Julian, I wish to be alone with you. Elgar has this well in hand."