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"True. All right, so I'm in, but don't make me regret this," Jasmine said.
"I will try not to." He telepathically told the others Jasmine was staying with them.
His friends were all thrilled. She wasn't sure if it was because they would have lost Stasio too if she had left them behind and he stayed with her or because they genuinely wanted her to be part of the team. She realized that was just what this would be. A team effort.
Four rogue vampires, one vampire/witch, and one vampire assassin. She had never been part of a team like this. Certainly, never with a group of rogue vampires, but Stasio just drew her in like a vampire could with a human, though she was a vampire, and they couldn't use their charm on another vampire like that. Yet she felt he cast a spell over her that she couldn’t break free of and didn’t want to either. Jasmine hoped Caitlin hadn't used some love spell on her and Stasio.
Then again, Caitlin hadn't been around when Jasmine had first met Stasio and immediately she'd been hooked on him. Just a little bit.
“Some time I need to go shopping for some clothes. You all grabbed your bags before you left. All Stasio did was grab me,”Jasmine said.
* * *
For two weeks,the new council met undercover with Levka and his friends, making plans to fight the battle. Stasio thought Jasmine might even be ready to fight. They'd done everything they could to keep everything under wraps. Who knew if the walls had ears, or there were traitors among the rebels who might be willing to turn them in so they would be rewarded for stopping the battle before it even began. Stasio was ready for this. They had to fight in the ancient way with swords and fangs. Though Jasmine was all for using something a little more advanced. So was Ruric who loved to think of the future with laser weapons like they had in “Star Wars.” But they needed to just concentrate on causing as little bloodshed as they could so they didn't alienate too many people who had strong bonds with the current League council members. They also didn’t want other councils to come to their aid, should they worry about their own vampires wanting to follow suit. They hoped they could do this and then it would be over. Stasio and the others could just settle back and enjoy some peace and quiet and do some fun things without having to look over their shoulders all the time.
They'd agreed—if everything worked out okay—that they would stay in Scotland for as long as they felt comfortable with it, and maybe even plan their own coup in Wales. They just truly hoped that the London League didn't send reinforcements to the established one in Edinburgh. What a mess that would be. They'd tried to come up with every contingency plan to counteract any problem they could foresee. They thought they'd done a good job of it.
Two more weeks until the Friday that they would go to battle.
* * *
Jasmine had seriously thoughtof taking off and not participating in this battle. She usually didn’t waffle about missions, but this one was different. She still didn’t feel like she was a rogue vampiress. She didn't feel the need to side with the Scots who wanted to fight the establishment.Shewaspart of the establishment! Or had been. As far as everyone knew, she was still trying to track down Stasio's cousin, so she hadn't been deemed a traitor—or rogue—yet, that she knew of. But if she got into a fight to overthrow a foreign league’s rule that they didn't win, or even if they did, her own League would consider her a rogue. There would go her job and she would be in the same mess Stasio and his friends were in. She really cared about Stasio. So it wasn't like she could just say goodbye and be gone.
She didn't want him to get hurt, or worse, killed. She didn't want him to do this alone, even though they now had 1500 vampires at their disposal, a few from Wales, because Levka and his friends were involved, and they'd helped in the first attempt at overthrowing their League in Wales. Even some vampires from England and France had shown up to help them fight. She figured they all wanted the same thing. If they fought for the Scottish vampires to overthrow their league, they would want help in turn to do the same thing with their leagues and their archaic rules. It was a sound idea, if the Welsh vampires did help them, and if they were successful in their own coup. That was a lot of ifs. And she wasn't sure that they would make it.
She liked more of a sure deal. Which was why she liked her job so much. Take down rogues who would put all vampires in a bind. She just hadn’t expected to fall for one who was bound to get her into a world of trouble. She realized she was brave when it came to fighting rogues, but when it came to doing something totally out of her comfort zone? She couldn’t think straight.
But she had to decide, one way or another. Go with him, fight their cause, whether it was a lost cause or not, and pay the consequences, or leave them behind, tell the New York League that her target had been taken down by hunters, and sign up for a new one. There was always a new vampire rogue who needed to be terminated.
Gareth, Stasio's cousin, suddenly showed up and he couldn't believe Jasmine was still with them. He eyed her with distrust. Yes, yes, she wasn’t forgetting she was with Levka and the others, and she couldn't honor her contract on Stasio’s cousin any longer.
"Leave it to Stasio to fall for an assassin who is out to take my head. Youcan'thave it, you know," Gareth said.
"Yeah, I gathered that. Not after I learned Stasio is your cousin and he and his friends would support you and eliminatemeif I tried."
“Well, as to the coup, I’m always up for a good cause,” Gareth said. “I’m in.”
* * *
Levka said,“Do you have alternative plans if we fail, Scotty? A way to safely get out of the United Kingdom? You know everyone who is involved with the coup will have to find a safe way out.”
“We have safehouses lined up to go to if we fail at this. Everyone has made their own arrangements. It’s better that way,” Scotty said. “That way none of us know where the others have gone in case some of us are caught and the elders try to force the locations out of us.”
“Okay, that’s an excellent plan,” Levka said.
“You have connections though,” Jasmine said. “We’re not from here.”
“Exactly,” Scotty said. “Some of the elders or their cohorts might have an idea where we are going, if they know of any of our known associates. But with you, you’re all unknowns. So you can make plans on your own that they’ll never be able to tap into.” Scotty moved off to talk with someone on his phone.
“I can cloak us until we can find a place to hide,” Caitlin said to Levka and the rest of their party.
“But not for hours,” Levka reminded her.
That was if Caitlin even made it through the fight. Jasmine wondered if Caitlin had ever been in any kind of a vampire fight. Probably not because she was so newly turned.
So if Caitlin didn’t make it, then what? Jasmine liked a more substantial exit plan than that. “If we fail, should we split up?” Jasmine had worked by herself for so long, she was used to fending for herself and not having to worry about others. It seemed to her that it would be easier to hide as individuals rather than if they tried to stay together. But the others had always done things together, so she suspected they would stick with each other.
“We stay together,” Levka said. “We have always taken care of each other, forewarned the others when we learn of trouble, made sure all of us stay safe. When I was injured so badly after saving those girls, I would never have made it out alive if my friends, and then Caitlin, hadn’t taken care of me.”
