My mother inclines her head, her expression cool. She pulls her chair out from the table and sits. We all do the same, the humans slightly clumsy in their haste. I hate that for them. I meet their puzzled gazes; perhaps they think me some sort of human pet. They will soon learn I am no such thing.
‘I am Penelope Raven,’ my mother says. ‘Head of the house of Raven. My husband, Aleksandr.’ She gestures to my father. ‘And my daughter, Emelia, who will be the next Raven.’ She places her hand on my shoulder.
‘I’m sorry, Lady Raven. Did you say this was your daughter?’ This is the woman, Jane. Her hands are still clenched together, but her voice is clear and strong.
My mother squeezes my shoulder, lightly.
‘She did,’ I say. ‘The next ruler of Raven will be human.’ I smile, just a touch. Jane’s lips part, and she glances at Andrew again.
‘Tell me.’ My mother’s voice slides into the room, like a silvery poisoned blade. I think again of her rage in the library. Of blood on her face, in a darkened meadow. I know her. And she’s still angry. ‘What is it you would like to achieve tonight?’
‘Your forces have destroyed all but a few of our settlements.’ Jane’s hair is greyish-blonde and curling, tied back from her fine-boned face. She looks tired, yet there’s still fire in her grey eyes. ‘The ones that remain … there are children there. We wish, therefore, to ask for peace between us.’
‘We didn’t know that Mistral’s promises were hollow. Nor of his plan to harm your family. But you have to understand—’ Andrew is tall, broad-shouldered, his angular face tanned, his dark hair greying at the temples, a scar across the back of one of his hands like a badly-stitched seam ‘—we just wanted things to be better for us.’
I wince internally. I get it. Vampires stole so much from humans when they took over the world. Their blood, of course. But also their freedom of movement. Their choices.
‘I can appreciate that.’ My mother’s tones are measured. ‘But there was always the opportunity to speak with us, rather than embark on this cycle of destruction. It was you who chose that path, and your movement is now paying the consequences.’
It’s funny she thinks humans would have dreamed of approaching her to ask for changes. Would the cow in the meadow ask the farmer for mercy? My mother is ruthless when crossed. I saw her order the death of twenty humans as punishment for the attack on my father, then stood on a darkened cliff top and watched her carry out the sentence. She sent her former lover to a spiked and burning death for what he tried to do to me.
I wonder what she wants to do to these humans.
They’re wondering, too. I can almost smell their fear. What will Raven demand as payment for what they’ve done? All at once it feels impossible, that there could be any sort of peace between vampires and humans.
But my mother just smiles, though her eyes remain dark. ‘I ask again. What do you want to achieve here?’
‘We want the attacks to stop. Want your dark forces withdrawn. We want…’ Jane falters momentarily. ‘We wish to rejoin the human community. Then, perhaps, we can talk about the possibility of change.’
Rejoin the human community?
‘Our dark forces, as you call them, are no longer attacking your movement.’ My father’s voice is deep. ‘So, I don’t understand what it is you want to stop.’
Jane and Andrew glance at each other. ‘But … there was a raid, just the other night. On a camp near the Darkmeadow, where you hold your Gatherings.’
A camp near the Darkmeadow?I don’t understand. Humans live in Safe Zones, work in vampire towns and on the estates. At least, that’s what I’ve always been told. I glance at my father, but his face gives nothing away.
Jane speaks. ‘No one was left alive. If it wasn’t Raven, then who was it?’
Shit. Surely that’s not how we do things. My mind is racing. Was it Reapers again, like the attacks on the Safe Zones? I try not to think of the floating bodies, the shadowy dark figures.
‘As Lord Raven said, this is not our doing.’ My mother’s dark brows draw together. ‘We are no longer actively engaged in breaking your organisation apart. As far as we’re concerned, it’s already broken. Your presence here tonight is proof of that.’
Ouch. My mother isn’t wrong, though. A few months ago, a meeting like this would have been out of the question. I wonder again at Ira’s presence. Why has he been allowed to stay for such high-level negotiations? Again, there’s the feeling of something more here, something I don’t quite understand.
Jane looks close to tears. I can’t hold back any longer. ‘When you say, “rejoin the human community,” what do you mean? Aren’t you already in the Safe Zones?’
Andrew turns his attention to me. ‘No. But we’re willing to return and start monthly blood donations, if it means our families are safe.’
I think fast. Aside from the mind-blowing fact that these humans have been surviving outside Safe Zones, I don’t feel that decanting a bunch of rebels back into them is going to be great for human morale, nor will it ensure a lasting peace. A kernel of an idea takes shape.
‘What if there was somewhere else to go? Somewhere you could actually be free?’ I know they’ve done terrible things. But so have my family, much worse and for far longer. Kyle said something about it, once.Any animal will fight, if cornered. And humans have been cornered for a long time.
Everyone in the room is looking at me. This might be madness. But, faced with such quiet desperation, I feel the need to do something. ‘How many of you are left?’
‘Around two hundred, including children.’
Two hundred? That seems like a lot of rebels. I know my father is surprised as well, by the way his hand twitches. Still, it’s just about the perfect number of people for what I have in mind.
