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But until that happens, we’re all riding high on the hog, with the average lower-middle-class family in America living more luxurious lives than the kings from centuries ago. Fruit available year-round, a comfy mattress on just about every bed, heavenly footwear, sweets at the corner market for less than an hour’s wage, and even vampires appreciate heat and air conditioning. We might be okay without it, but our possessions certainly fare better in climate-controlled homes.
The plane took off as expected, and I was reading the intro to a report Ryan had given me shortly before we left, something he’d obtained from the slayer overseeing Charlotte, when I sensed another presence on the plane, and looked up to see Alaric walk out of a back room of the plane.
Stand down for now, I telepathed Furio, and I unfastened my seatbelt and stood to greet the vampire who is so old, he looks more like the models of Neanderthal man than he looks human. He’s at least tens of thousands of years old, and possibly much older than that. No one knows, for certain.
“Alaric. Are you here on your own, or as a representative of the Concilio?” He wasn’t wearing anything with the Concilio’s insignia, which led me to believe this was a personal visit, but I wouldn’t know for certain until I asked.
Later, I would freak out because a powerful vampire had been in my territory — had made it on to my private plane without my knowledge — and I hadn’t sensed him, but there wasn’t time for that in the moment.
“A conversation. Concilio business, I suppose, but this isn’t an official visit. A heads up, perhaps. How is Julian working out for you?”
“His work is beyond reproach. If I’d known you were coming, I could’ve brought refreshment for you, but I’m afraid I need to keep my wolf in reserve for Julian and myself.” Not to mention, the wolf wasn’t available for the kind of sex most male vampires would require of him for a feeding. He’d agreed to fuck Julian’s ass while I fed lust and blood from him, but Furio hadn’t agreed to be fucked, and I wasn’t of a mind to do so and make him forget.
“No need,” Alaric said. “You’re aware the slayers have broken into two factions, and the Concilio needs to renegotiate with both, yes?”
“I am.”
Was he here to find out what I knew? I’d already reported all I intended to. I certainly knew more, but I’d talked to Ryan about what I should and should not share, and I wasn’t going to break that trust with the slayer.
“There are those of us who feel we should go to war with the old-school slayers, and those of us who feel we should negotiate.”
“I negotiated to get them out of my territory,” I told him. “As far as I know, they’ve stayed out. Ryan says they won’t foreswear themselves, even to the monsters, unless they can justify it by saying they’ll save dozens of humans, at least. None of my people are a danger to humans. I’m not sure that can be said of the oldest of you.”
Once Ryan’s parents were no longer on the council, it turned the tide enough that those like Ruth and Gideon could vote out the slayers they deemed a danger to the peace we’d all enjoyed since the contract negotiations just before the Renaissance. This meant the old-school slayers had formed their own ruling body, and now there were two councils. Thankfully, most of the hard-liners were in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Alaric put a dampener around us, so my two companions wouldn’t hear, and said, “Some of us feel that the American vampires are out of touch with what we’re dealing with on the Eurasian continent. We feel it might be good to bring the most powerful of you to Europe, to help with the negotiations. Also, to understand some big changes coming. Changes we aren’t ready to create rules about yet, but everyone needs to be considering how to handle what could be a new era in how vampires live.”
“You have a working prototype of the skins?”
A brief nod.
“You’ve used one?”
“I’m much too old to be a guinea pig, but I’ve ordered some of my coterie to try it on while I was in their heads. They can stay awake at dawn, and can even sit outside and watch the sun rise. They can eat, and they can impregnate day-walking women. There are currently a number of human and shapeshifter women carrying babies made by vampires wearing such a skin, but until they give birth, no one knows whether the babies born by humans will be all human or will have special powers, and there are even more questions about the pregnant shapeshifters — questions which possibly won’t be answered until those children reach puberty.”
“You didn’t make certain I would keep this to myself before you shared this information.”
He tilted his head to the side ever-so-slightly. “And yet, you’ll discover you can’t share this information, should you try. You’ll be one of the vampires invited to Italy, and if you wish, you’ll have an opportunity to sit outside and watch the sun rise, and to eat the foods you favored during your human life.”
“When the skin comes off, what happens to the food still in the vampire’s digestive tract?”
“If you take it off right away, you sometimes regurgitate it, sometimes not. If the food is past the stomach and into the bowels, you shit it out. Those under me find it most uncomfortable, but completely worth it.”
“There’s more.”
He nodded. “Of course there is, but we can’t cover everything during this short flight.”
It was barely an hour and a half flight, and we’d been talking forty-five minutes. This vampire is magnitudes stronger than me, so being polite was my only option. Challenging him would likely result in my death, and he’d take possession of everyone else in the plane, along with the plane itself, if forced to kill me.
Alaric reached up into the rearmost compartment and pulled a garment bag down along with what appeared to be a cooler, but I realized was designed to keep heated food at the correct temperature.
“A modern-day pot roast, but with the spices and vegetables of your childhood, rather than the carrots and potatoes of today’s recipes. I’m told by your contemporaries this will be something you’ll want to eat.”
He showed me the skin, and I had a feeling declining wasn’t an option, so I stripped down to nothing and stepped into the well-tanned skin. I put my feet in first, then one arm, and my second arm was probably eighty percent in when the skin molded to me all over from the neck down, leaving my face and hair bare, but covering the rest. The front of it had just been open with no fastener, but the magics had taken hold once it was mostly on me.
Alaric opened the container and the stew smelled heavenly.
But I didn’t trust it, so I only had a few bites. I had a heartbeat, and I couldn’t get my fangs to drop down. When I walked, it was without magic, powered by my muscles alone. I stumbled, at first, but found my coordination within a few steps.
