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“I think it’s time to move things along,” I told James. “We can give them some of the tour before the ghosts start. A demonstration to make them understand that if they go back and plan something bad they will not win.” I swallowed a sigh when they all went tense. “Or we could just fucking eat them.”
Several people choked on their breakfast or coughed, everyone in the large dining hall slowly turning to look at me.
“Are you okay, My Princess?” Kristof muttered, giving me a worried look.
I sighed, gesturing to the humans. “I get it to some extent and yeah, sometimes you have to play along with the crazy not to get dead. I’ve been there, but we saved their asses last night. That comes with a cost, especially to me, and they immediately turned around and headed to St. Louis with tanks. So I’m not holding my breath this turns out well.”
Duh. Like for real… Duh.
The humans shared several glances again before one closer to me cleared his throat. “I was actually planning to ask for help, not attack or give threats as I was ordered.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Sundar said from behind me. “And he was one of the two we pulled from those battalions.”
The human didn’t even glance at Sundar, keeping my gaze. “We had no way for something different. You did save us and clearly could help. So I don’t know how those notes landed with the governors that you’re not human and a threat to us, stealing all of our supplies, but you’re not a threat if you saved us. We’re not as stupid as the enemy you have thinks.”
No, they weren’t. They clearly had figured out it was someone working against us.
I nodded. “We’ll explain who they are, but it’s… It’s not going to be easy to wrap your brain around. It’s a lot of—I heard someone say once that it didn’t matter if they didn’t believe in the devil because the devil believed in them. It’s like that, and even if you don’t believe in it all, we’ve seen the proof, so believe us that we’re doing what’s best to make sure we survive.”
He studied me for several moments, most everyone seeming to hold their breath as they waited for his response. “As much as I want real hot showers and a better plan, my gut is telling me to see the reason why a lady as young as you is the boss for the belief I need to make this work in my head.”
“I appreciate smart people.” I glanced at the others. “Sorry that this is going to make you nauseous again, but what we have set up is in New Orleans. We’ll also show you Albuquerque for now. You’re going to have a ton of questions, but my people are busy, and you have millions we’re going to have to sort through. So let’s use our time efficiently.”
“Sort how?” that oldest guy worried.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “You said yourself that you have crazy there. We’re not allowing that here. We welcome good people who want the world to continue and aren’t bigots, zealots, or assholes. This is my coven, and people need my permission to join it and have access to our resources. It’s not an open state people can just move to.”
“You will need to let go of your notions that the future will be a democracy,” Kristof warned as he moved up next to me. “Inez is our leader and the boss now and forever.”
“She listens to us,” James said when the humans didn’t know how to respond to that. “There are shifters and will be humans at the outposts who have a voice once we clear the Americas of corrupted. She’s not just a figurehead princess though. And there aren’t elections. You need to get on board with that.”
“Okay, then let’s see what we’re agreeing to,” the eldest human there muttered, sounding like he wasn’t as confident in the plan.
It was one thing to say everything was up in the air for now and we had the plan to survive, but to declare something like that for the future after the apocalypse… Yeah, it was harder to accept.
Too bad.
We took them to Albuquerque first. I thought that wasn’t the right play but kept my opinion to myself.
Except too many people around us could sense what I was feeling.
I sighed when the discussions around me stopped and people focused on me. “How do they know these people are really human?” I gestured to the protected part of the outpost. “That would be the first thing I’d pick apart. That we were just showing them other vampires or shifters. We can’t prove they’re human without hurting someone.”
“How distrusting you are has kept us safe many times, my love, but…” Kristof said, giving me a look of love.
And frustration.
I simply shrugged. I couldn’t have been the only one to have thought it.
Looking at the humans… I might have been. They all seemed baffled at my picking apart what my own people were saying.
Okay then.
Fine, they got to see it a bit and then we went to New Orleans. They saw the convention center, but then we were at the docks for them to see the fishing and understand where we were.
There was more talk of ideas and plans that had promise… Except one.
I walked over to the group and moved so James noticed me, stopping midsentence. I crooked my finger to him to lean down. He raised an eyebrow but did what I wanted.
