Miss Me When the Sun Goes Down (10 page)

“That’s right, Thomas was a stand up guy, and he’ll be missed.  The important thing I wanted to convey tonight, if there is a message we can take from the way he died, is to remember that none of us is truly immortal.  I think we all forget that from time to time, am I right?”  He paused to smile at the crowd, but they’d all gone still in the way that only vampires can.  You could have heard a pin drop in the back of the room.  Well, okay, so most of us could have heard something like that anyway with our super-hearing, but you get my point. 

Byrne plunged again, his smile dimming, replaced with an expression of grim determination.  “All of us have played a little loose and fancy-free with the laws from time to time, and I understand the temptation to run amok in times of transition like this.  Now, I can assure you, your leaders are doing everything we can to appoint the next Elder, whoever that may be.  But in the meantime, I urge you to remember the laws.  Now is not the time for chaos.  The laws are there for our own protection.”

“Yeah right,” I snorted under my breath, surprised when half a dozen heads turned in my direction.  I sat on my hands to keep from covering my face in embarrassment, and he continued. 

“As I was saying, now is not the time for chaos.  Now, I know it’s popular to hold some resentment towards the Order – and hey, I get it – nobody likes the cops.  But if we can all remember the reasons behind why the Order was established, I think we can all agree they serve a very important function in our society.  Without them, either the humans would hunt us like vermin or the city would be overrun with our progeny, completely out of control.” 

Why did he have to make it sound like an all or nothing thing?  Like without the Order to police the population we’d be up to our eyeballs in vampires by the end of the year.  “Oh come on, there has to be some middle ground,” I grumbled, unable to keep the thought inside.  This time nearly everyone went still again, pinning me with their eyes. 

“Is there a comment? Something you want to address?”  Byrne stopped, offering me a clipped smile. 

Jeez Louise, when was I going to learn to control my big fat mouth?  My experiences, both in town and England, had sure filled my head with plenty of opinions of the subject, and they were itching to get out.  Still, I wasn’t the type to speak up in a public forum like that.  I swallowed, the backs of my knees feeling moist, when I caught sight of Leander’s hopeful face.  I was the Jarl of the Northwest – were they counting on me to speak up against the magistrate?  I swallowed again, nails digging half-moons into my palms as I forced myself not to back down with a mumbled apology. 

“It’s just that I think a lot of us wouldn’t put too much faith in the laws solely existing for our own protection.  I mean, how many of us know people, good people, who’ve fallen to the Order in the name of the law?”

There was a light smattering of applause, and I drew in a shaky breath, forging on.  “I think we need to remember that the laws are only as strong as the power we give them.  Some are good, but some are discriminatory, and if they’re no longer working for us, something needs to be done about it.”

The magistrate looked pale and clammy up on the stage, his brows drawn together into a single bushy line.  “I don’t think you’re qualified to judge…” 

He was missing the point.  “All I’m saying is, we have the right to speak out against oppression and I’m here to say – if something is unfair, we have the right to change it.”  This time there was a louder rumble of approval from the crowd, even a few shouts of support.

Byrne looked like I’d shoved a red hot poker up his behind.  Sweat stood out on his brow, and his face was twisted in a rictus of pain as he brought he microphone back up to his mouth.  “You can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  These laws were set by our forefathers…”

“Actually, they were set by the
Ellri
,” I interrupted him, willing to bet I knew more about the origin of the Order than he did.  “The Order was formed for population control, pure and simple, in a time when humans had far too many hints of our existence.  Things have changed since then.  We’re not living in crypts and caverns anymore.  Most of us know how to move adeptly through society with humans none the wiser.  No one is talking about repealing the laws restricting progeny willy nilly.  No one is talking about vampires taking over the city, or any of that power hungry crap that belongs in B movies.  I’m talking about common sense.” 

I paused for a breath and another smattering of applause filled the silence.  It felt weird to keep speaking from my seat behind the booth, so I rose to my feet before I went on, nerves disappearing as I warmed to the subject.  Every frustrating aspect of Jakob’s high handedness len
t my words a degree of passion I hadn’t known I possessed.  “The
Ellri
haven’t concerned themselves with our development for hundreds of years.  They have no concept of the bureaucracy that’s sprung up in the wake of their laws.  I think it’s time we started to question the way things have evolved.  Let’s at least start to talk about what is or isn’t working today.”

Byrne had fallen silent, regarding me stonily, the microphone impotent at his side. 

I had them.  It was an exhilarating sensation, knowing I had the rapt attention of each and every person in the room and I decided to drive my point home by bringing up someone close to many of us in the room.  “We all knew Scotty.  Did he deserve to die because he turned Marta without permission?  Maybe he had a very good reason for breaking the law.”

“Yeah, not enough cash,” someone called out.

“This is exactly what I’m talking about.” I seized upon the point with excitement.  “We all know what greases the wheels around here, it’s money.  Money decides who lives and dies, and money decides whose petitions are granted, isn’t that so, Mr. Byrne?”

“I don’t um…”  H
is hand came up, but the microphone was too low, his voice sounded tinny and small.  “There’s a time honored process…”

“Why should our lives be dictated by money?” I ran over the rest of his answer, convinced it’d be a pile of
gôu pì
.  “Is that fair?” 

“No!” the crowd sounded.

Fueled by their response, I kept going when I probably should have sat down and shut up.  “Why should we be ruled by someone we have no choice over for that matter?  Who decides who is appointed the next Elder?  A handful of old men who are completely out of touch with the populace?” I shook my head, gaining steam.  “Maybe that’s the way it was done in the old world, but this is America.  This is the land of democracy.  Everyone should have the same rights, rich or poor, purebred bloodline or mongrel.”

The crowd erupted into enthusiastic applause, the hoots and hollers drowning me out, until I held my hand up and they quieted.  I turned to the magistrate, waiting until I had his eye before I spoke.  “You said now is not the time for chaos, and I agree.  But it is
absolutely
the time for change.  As our magistrate, I hope you’ll take our concerns to Felix and the council in LA.”

“You should go, Anja!”

I couldn’t tell who yelled that out, but the crowd immediately took up the chant. 
“Anja, Anja, Anja…”

Holy guacamole
– what had I done?
  All I wanted was for Byrne to pay attention to our concerns, not to take up the banner and charge LA myself!  But in looking across the sea of faces in the room, I saw absolute faith and trust written there.  They deserved better than the oily politician up on the stage.  As if he’d echoed my thoughts, the magistrate stormed off the stage in a huff, accompanied by the only enthusiastic cheers he’d received all night.

With Byrne gone, it was
safe to talk more openly about thoughts that had been percolating in the back of my mind since I’d taken over the position of Jarl.  A position I took seriously, even if Bishop or even Jakob didn’t think I was up to the task.  Remembering Rob’s encouragement, I put my hands up and the room fell silent. 

“I don’t want you to think the kind of change I’ve talked about is something that happens overnight, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take control of our futures.  Like I said, some of the laws are good ones, and I think they’re designed to keep the peace between us and the humans, which does keep us safe in the end.  In the meantime, I think we should all consider the concept of sanctuary.”

It was a concept I’d been toying with ever since I tallied up the contents of the strongbox they’d paid me with.  I could afford a place of my own now, instead of sleeping on the couch.  I could get a place big enough for all three of us, and maybe even a place to give sanctuary to those that needed it every now and again.  I stopped short of coming right out and offering it just then though, that would have been premature, and definitely against the law. 

A ripple of excitement went through the room.  We all knew I was talking about something much closer to treason than general reform now.  “Sanctuary doesn’t mean throwing the laws out the window, it means we rely on each other, as a community, to help each other out when we need a little breathing room and the Order is on our backs.  If we’d had a safe place for Scotty and Marta to hole up for a week or two, they might have straightened out their paperwork and they might still be alive today.”

I was pretty sure such talk could get me hauled in by the Order or worse if word got out, but I knew I had the crowd from the way they responded.  And if Byrne or someone ratted me out, I could always deny it.  There wasn’t any proof I’d done anything wrong besides suggest they all pull together and help each other out as a community. 

“Again, I’m not saying you should ditch the normal channels entirely, but if something hits a snag, or your money doesn’t stretch far enough, it shouldn’t be an automatic death sentence.”  The sea of faces around me shone with rapt attention, but Ellie looked one step away from declaring herself a recipient of my brand of sanctuary, and I knew it was time to cut it short before I took it too far. 

Raising my glass, which had been replaced with a flute of champagne at some point, I waited until everyone else had their glasses in hand again.  “To Scotty and Marta.  May their sacrifice give us purpose and determination to find the future we can all live long enough to enjoy.”

“To Scotty and Marta,” was echoed around the room, glasses tipped back solemnly.

Leander leapt to his feet, holding his glass even higher.  “To Anja Gudrun, Jarl of the Northwest.  You’ve given us much to think about, and more importantly, you’ve given us hope.”

“To Anja!”

In the wake of the toast, I was bombarded by vampires on all sides.  Many I’d met before, but there were quite a few new faces, all eager to lend their support and gratitude for my brave words.  Once I had a few minutes to sit and reflect on what I’d actually said, I started to think they were more reckless than brave, but it was too late to take them back now. 

It was many drinks and more than a few dances later that I felt my bodyguards stiffen even before I saw him.  Byrne approached, lips pressed into a contrite smile, his hand extended.  “I don’t think we’ve been introduced.  I’m Terry Byrne, magistrate of the greater Northern California district.”

I took his hand, disliking the way his palm slid against mine, but I resisted the urge to wipe it off on my dress once he let go of me.  It was time to play bad-ass vampire to the hilt, and I drew every smidgen of protocol I’d learned around me like a shield.   

“Greetings Mr. Byrne, magistrate of the Northern California district.  Your reputation precedes you,” I replied, letting him take from that what he would and offering no introduction of my own.  I figured by now he knew who I was, but just so he understood my position, I decided to throw in a bit of pomp I’d picked up at the House of Vetis.  “I invite you to hunt in my domain and I offer you sanctuary come the dawn.”  Not that I had a place to put him up for the night, but I couldn’t resist the bluff, if only to see his eyes bulge that much wider. 

“Your domain?” 

I shrugged a bare shoulder, doing my best to appear calm and confident,
all the while wondering if he could somehow tell I was a total fraud.  Then again, I’d held my own against the Wardens of the West and Vetis – why should I sweat a talk to the local magistrate?  “Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Byrne?”  It was a deliberate move on my part not to invite him to sit down, leaving him standing beside my table like a waiter. 

“That was an interesting speech you gave.  I’m not sure how it’ll be received by the boys holding the r
eal power down south, but…”

“I’m the real power here.”  I cut him off, doing my best impression of the Spock eyebrow lift.  “In case you haven’t heard, there’s a big vacancy where Lyons used to sit.  Until someone tells me differently, this is how it’s going to be in my territory.”  Heck, even if they did tell me differently, I’d probably keep advocating for change
. 

Byrne slid into the seat on the other side of the booth without being asked, and I recognized it for the power play it was.  “I’d be careful with my words if I were you
.  The Order has many loyal to it.”

“More like many afraid of it.”

“Most of us can’t afford not to be.”  He leaned forward, arms on the table as he studied me more closely.  “But you, you’re not afraid of the Order?”

Heck yeah, I was afraid.  Despite my brave front, the idea of coming up against even on
e of them scared me to death, but I couldn’t let him know that.  Besides, I did believe in everything I’d said.  “I’m not afraid of doing what’s right, and this is what’s right.  If I need to rattle a few cages to make my voice heard, that’s what I’m going to do.”  I left out the part where somebody had to do it if he was too chicken to do his job, figuring that would be ornery. 

“I can see you’re trying to help, believe me, but you’re going about it all wrong, you know.”

“What’s wrong with talking about the issues at hand?  I’m not recommending people chuck it all and revolt against the system, I’m only saying it’s time for some changes.” 

“That’s
not the way things are done.  You’re going to rub a lot of people the wrong way if you keep spouting that stuff in public forums.  If you want to preach reform, the way to do it is behind closed doors.  That way nobody loses face.”

“Like you?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“That’s what you’re really worried about here, isn’t it?  You’re worried Felix and those guys are going to hear that your district is getting too uppity and you can’t keep your people under control.”

“The thought has crossed my mind once or twice.”  Byrne’s oily smile spread wider and I could appreciate his position. 

“It’s true.  You can’t keep people under control when they’re being unfairly p
ersecuted.  Change the law or change the process, but things can’t continue as is without things boiling over sooner or later – with or without me talking about it.” 

“It’s not so easy.”

Ugh
, I couldn’t help think that if I had Jakob with me, he could change it all with a simple decree, but I’d have to do it the hard way.  “If you’re not willing to speak up for us, that leaves me no choice but to do it myself.”  That meant a call to Felix at the least, and possibly a trip down there.  Idly, I wondered if he’d loan me his plane if I asked pretty please with sugar on top.  Then again, I could always compel Byrne to change his beliefs and champion our side, but frankly, I didn’t credit him with the smarts to pull it off.