To Protect and Serve Ch. 08

"Please. I wish to speak to you, but wanted to greet this charming young man first."

"I'll let you two get to business then," Sebastian said, kissing the Representative's hand and then backing away.

"Charming turncoat," Shamira muttered. "Yes?"

"Yes what?"

"You wanted to talk to me?"

"Why is it that you are the only one here who seems less than thrilled to accommodate me?" Alessandra asked amusedly. "Now that I have had a chance to meet Lord Stapleton's were contingent, I would like to have a smaller gathering with just the vampires of Shane's line. I so rarely get to visit family," she ended in a whisper meant for Shamira alone. "Please, escort me to the dining hall."

Shamira looked over her shoulder. The dining hall was clearly visible through a set of double doors. "It's right --"

"I want you . . . to ESCORT me . . . to the dining hall. I would like your presence there for the dinner. And to think everyone has been telling me how bright you are." She made a tsking noise and then directed Shamira to doors. Shamira was beginning to feel like window dressing, since her opinions or desires seem to be pretty much overlooked. The Representative simply disguised her commands in pretty packages that resembled requests.

Shamira noticed except for some of the remote people as well as Yosyp, all the vampires in the house were here. 'These are all Shane's? He's a total vamp slut! Well, it just means that he won't miss me when he's got the rest of these to choose from.'

Shane approached, smiling at his guest while his eyes held questions that Shamira couldn't answer if she'd wanted to. She had no idea why the Representative seemed attached to her at the hip.

"M'lady, I'd like to introduce you to Reaper if you have a moment. I don't believe you've been here since he was brought over."

"I would love to. He's that strapping dark-skinned fellow isn't he? You've always had exquisite taste," she replied, then gave Shamira a quick look.

"Please," she said through gritted teeth, "don't let me keep you."

"Very well. But don't go far. I wish to speak with you again later."

'Go where?' Shamira thought. 'You just dragged me in here and locked the doors.' She sighed and looked for a spot where she would be inconspicuous. All of the other vampires seemed wary of her, probably not wanting to be too chummy with the new black sheep of the family. It bothered her more than it should that those gazes that once looked upon her with fondness and sometimes lust now only seemed cool and distant.

'Well, you've got to take some of the responsibility for that part,' she reminded herself. 'Taking a stand means that sometimes the people around you had to pick sides. And they've known Shane a lot longer than they've known me.'

She pulled up a chair at the table, making herself the first to sit down while everyone else fraternized. She nibbled on hors d'oeuvres and avoided making eye contact with anyone. She did notice that Alessandra was now captivated by Bunny, who wore a bright pink cocktail dress that actually made her look pretty mouth-watering. Only Bunny could pull off pink in a roomful of black.

That was when Shamira noticed that she was the only vampire still in body armor. 'When the hell did everyone change? Should I go . . . fuck it! She said not to go too far, and I'm not looking to impress anyone anyway.' So she just kept eating until the chair next to her shifted and a body settled into it.

"The Representative seems to have taken a liking to you," Clara said softly, not looking at Shamira but partaking of the cheese and crackers.

Shamira shook her head. "She's taken an interest, not a liking. Big difference."

"With her, the two usually go hand in hand. Hopefully they will this time. I'd tell you to trust me, but that doesn't seem like something you're likely to do these days." Clara's voice edged both sorrowful and hurt, and it pissed Shamira off that she was responsible for it.

"I trust you," Shamira replied. "You've told me the truth as you know it. But the telling the truth . . . that's not the problem. What the truth IS is the problem." She glance out of the corner of her eye and saw Clara's face. 'She's so damn beautiful.'

"I've missed you," Clara said. "The bed never felt this big before. I take it this means that you're still planning on leaving? Either that or you're just not attracted to me anymore. Either way, a girl's ego can only take so much." She wrung her hands together under the table and asked, "Can't you just let it go? Maybe try to work within the system?"

Shamira felt that anger building up inside again, but she refused to let Clara be the target of it. She closed her eyes and concentrated. "I've played by the rules my whole life, and I got stepped on for it. But I kept doing it because I believed in it. I got passed over for promotions and transfers, but I did the best I could. Women like me didn't get boosts to their career. Women like me didn't get happy relationships. Women like me could be counted on to do the shit work, and they would do it with a smile. But at least I understood it."

In response to Clara's confused look, Shamira continued. "I'm given all these abilities and can do some real good because everyone is supposed to trust me, but it turns out that it's all still just a joke. I get to do what Shane lets me, when Shane lets me. And for four days, I haven't been able to shake the feeling that I could be doing something, but I'm not 'allowed' to. Why? For this?" she said, waving her hands at the room.

"Yeah, for this," Clara replied. "Believe it or not, you and Shane want the same things. Yeah I'm mad at him, but it's not fair to say that he's a bad guy because his methods and yours disagreed. And what do you mean that women like you don't get happy relationships? What the hell am I? Chopped liver?"

Shamira was on the verge of replying when Shane started tapping his wineglass with a fork, calling everyone to attention. Shamira realized too late that she was close to one end of the table, giving Alessandra an excuse to sit next to her. Shane stood at the head, just two seats away. 'Crap!' she thought.

Shane gave a quick toast, emphasizing the honor of having a member of the Tribunal present but, for the moment, it was more important that the matriarch of the house had come home. Shamira saw such adoration on all those faces . . . all except two. Shamira was a bit awed but for her, respect and adoration was earned, not expected. Clara's face just seemed . . . empty.

Then the Representative stood up. "I look upon those in this house . . . ALL of those in this house, and I see the best of our world." Several people glanced at Shamira while the matriarch spoke, and the younger vamp's blood boiled. She didn't need this woman defending her. "I have followed each of your exploits with great interest, as well as the others in my line. A time of great trials is upon us, and I can think of no others who I would trust so much to be at the vanguard."

She looked around at each member of her extended "family," her eyes seeming to rest on Shamira a moment longer than the others. "I have an ulterior motive for wanting to speak to those of Shane's blood . . . those of MY blood . . . even before the rest of the house."

Shane cleared his throat. "Representative, I know that you value the blood, but if it is something that effects my house, then I would request that all be invited, included our were brethren."

"As you wish," the Representative said. She waited until all the weres and adopted vamps had come in, which took a couple of minutes. "I wanted to tell you the basic gist of what is going to be announced on Monday, since it involves all of your lives. None of what I am about to say should be spoken of outside of this house until after that meeting. Do you understand?"

She was met with a series of nods. "I came initially under the pretense of discussing zoning and districting and such. In fact, the Tribunal has been discussing something for several years that will change the world." She put her hands on the table. "They believe it is time to make ourselves known to the humans."

Dead silence. "Wait . . . come out of hiding? All of us?" Renata asked. They were stunned. Never in a million years would they have guessed this was coming.

"At first, no. The Tribunal felt it would be better to test a small population first, then use that to determine how to best reveal the rest. Plain and simply, the vampires will start the process. We are so indoctrinated into modern lore that it was felt that we will be less of a shock to the humans. And it is this house that shall lead the way when the time comes."

Shane looked paler than usual. "This house?"

"Yes," she replied, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Not right away of course. This will take years of preparation, but I have faith in my line to show the human world that we are not their enemy." Again, her gaze drifted across the room. "It has become far too difficult to maintain or anonymity in this modern world. The world has become smaller and the human race has become too numerous. We have kept our numbers low to avoid detection, but that is less and less effective. We either come out as a race or are eventually captured and dissected as animals. Choose the time and place, or have them chosen for us. Rogue weres, homicidal vampires, merfolk that cannot defend their waters against pollution and overfishing out of fear of discovery . . . We have always lived in the shadows to protect us and the humans, but that protection now seems to be killing us. If we do not find a way to exist with humanity, then the time will come when one group or another feels it is time to defend itself, violently if necessary."

She looked at Shane. "I realize that some or all of you may be angered at me for playing roulette with your lives without asking you first. For that I am sorry, but of all the options in our entire world, this house . . . all of you . . . are our best chance. If the world cannot accept you, then how much hope do the rest have?"

The room erupted in noise as everyone started to talk at once. No one knew what this meant, but they all wanted to know the plan. "Why us?" and "Why now?" kept reverberating through the room. Shamira just sat there, realizing all those rules that everyone lived by were soon going to mean two things . . . "Jack" and "shit." Strangely, this didn't exactly give her a sense of vindication.

"It's a mistake," she muttered. "This is going to be a mistake."

Alessandra raised one hand, and instantly the room quieted. "Why do you feel this is a mistake?"

Shane was looking at her as if to tell her to tread cautiously when questioning the Representative. 'Screw you,' she thought. 'She asked me a question, so --' "A human being can be good, but it's people as a whole that scare me."

"Explain."

"You have one person standing on a roof and one on the ground. In this scenario, the person on the ground freaks out, but probably calls 911. Now put a bunch of people on the ground. One of them decides to scream 'jump,' and suddenly one or two join in. When a single human gets scared, they often try and do the right thing and we call them heroes. Get a bunch of humans scared, and they start feeding off each other's fear and listening to the lowest common denominator."

"What would you suggest?"

"Representative, surely there are those more qualified--" Shane started to say.

"Lord Stapleton," interrupted another female voice . . . Clara's voice . . . "maybe we should at least listen to what she has to say." Other members of the house looked at her questioningly. It was unlike Clara to publicly question Shane, however politely.

"Indeed," the Tribunal member said, her lips forming that amused half-smile.

Shamira felt warm inside. Clara had stood beside her. 'How could I ever have doubted her?' she thought. "Maybe instead of worrying about who will come forward, maybe we should be worrying about who to come forward to. I mean, showing up on CNN or heaven forbid, (comma) FOX," she continued, shuddering at the thought of the "fair and balanced" perspective they would get, "could be bad. There's gotta be certain groups that would be more receptive to our existence. Come out to a few groups at a time, you know? Have some allies in the human world before going public."

The elder statesmen nodded. "Good thinking. The Tribunal has considered some of this, but we may need to put more thought into it," she addressed the entire throng. "This meeting will be to make the announcement and to begin a dialog on how to make this happen. If you have any ideas, please do not fear to bring them up. Each lord shall have a voice and shall speak for his or her people. I know that you all have a lot to think about, as this was probably NOT on your list of possible scenarios for this meeting. But I have faith that we can make this work. You all are the key to making it happen. And remember, speak not of this until after the meeting. Thank you. That will be all for now."

Shamira could barely listen, as Shane and Clara were in an intense whispering session off to one side of the room. She was incensed. If he was going to punish her for actually standing up for Shamira -- 'No, apparently no,' she thought as Shane finally nodded as if the two had reached some kind of agreement, then he went to attend Alessandra while Clara just stood there. Their eyes met, and Shamira stood up, walking over.

"What was that about?" Shamira asked.

Clara looked away. "He wanted to know why I challenged him. So I told him. Then we discussed some housing complications and --"

"Wait a minute. Why did you --"

"Oh, like you don't know," Clara said, turning to her and looking kind of pissed off. "It was bad enough that he punished you for being right without his permission, but now he's behaving just like you."

"Like me?!"

"Yeah. He's sticking to his guns, whether it's the right thing to do or not. He was going to ignore what you said just because he doesn't want to look like he's backing down or being a weak leader."

"Hey, if he'd just admit --"

Clara was in no mood to let Shamira complete a sentence. "It doesn't matter who's right anymore! Don't you get it? One or both of you are just going to have to let it go. But between your stupid pride and his stupid ego, you're going to fuck up a perfectly fabulous team."

Shamira actually took a step back. "But you're not getting punished, right?"

Clara crossed her arms. "No. Part of that's probably because the Representative agreed with me, which was pretty much the trump card."

"Thank goodness."

"Why? You going to give me another speech about not wanting me to get involved because this is between you and him or --"

It was Shamira's turn to interrupt. "No, because you being locked up in a cell would piss me off and prevent me from doing this." She grabbed both sides of Clara's face. "This is NOT goodbye." Then she kissed the beautiful Native American full on those amazing lips. Clara was surprised, but damn if she didn't recover quickly. The two were so into the moment that they almost missed the authoritative --

"A-HEM!"

Both women slowly opened their eyes and glanced over to see the Representative staring at them. "Pardon us," Clara said, her lips still touching Shamira's when they moved. "We . . . uhm . . . we were just --"

"Young lady, I know what you were doing. I have done it a time or two myself." To emphasize her point, she leaned in and kissed Clara, then kissed Shamira.

"Okay, she's good," Clara muttered.

"Just something for the two of you to work on," Alessandra whispered. "Miss Shamira, I'm going to be retiring shortly, as my body is still on European time, but I wish to speak with you again tomorrow afternoon. Then I would like both of you to attend me tomorrow evening. Acceptable? Good," she finished, then offered her arm to Shamira. "I'll have her back to you in a moment. Now please, show me to the guest quarters."

Shamira took her to the room that Shane had laid aside for her, which literally looked like it had been set up for royalty. Not that any rooms in this palatial estate were exactly shabby. "As always, my Shane displays his taste," Alessandra murmured, looking around the room.

"It's a step up from a roadside inn, isn't it?" Shamira realized it was the first time that the Representative had called Shane by his first name rather than his title.

Alessandra smiled. "He could make me feel at home with nothing but a cardboard box underneath a bridge. A place that feels like home is hard to find. It is certainly a place worth fight for . . . worth sacrificing for. And of course home is where the heart is."

Shamira blinked a couple of times. "Nine hundred years old and that's the best line you can come up with?"

Alessandra's eyes squinted. "See how wise and sage-like YOU are when you've been on a plane for nine hours. Be back here at five o'clock in the afternoon. Sharp."

"Yes ma'am," Shamira said as she retreated. She was on her way back to look for Clara when she almost ran head on into Shane. The two of them just stared at each other for a minute before Shamira gulped an unnecessary breath and then spoke.

"Sir," she started, then couldn't figure out how to proceed. She wouldn't apologize, so maybe . . . maybe it was time to just get back to work. "I was discussing the morning star case with Sebastian, and he seems to think that the amount money required to set up the type of ambush that we encountered in Macon isn't just floating around. Someone with deep pockets is behind it. And since the disappearances of the faeries started down close to Savannah, we felt that it is possible that Lacroix could be involved."

Shane was surprised at the topic of conversation. He had expected her to chew him out, give an apology she didn't really mean, or tell him to leave Clara alone. He hadn't expected her to talk about work. But he'd go along, seeing as picking fights with this woman apparently was not going over well with the rest of the house. "That is possible. But if Lacroix has the wealth to start this operation, why does he need the morning star trade?"

"More money. I'm sure that greed doesn't cease to be a personality flaw when someone dies. He may need the extra money to support these attacks on you. You even said that the Dark Pools and the Shell Walkers must've been brought in as hired help of some kind, and we're willing to bet that this kind of help isn't cheap. One vamp, one were, and two faeries are enough to make ten to fifteen million, based on the figures that Henry gave me."

"True. How would you and Sebastian advise finding this out without alerting him?"

"Sebastian said that you can't requisition his financial records through the Tribunal without him knowing, right? Well one of my donors works for Global Financial, and she says that she could check on the status of his finances without drawing any attention. I haven't given her a name yet, because I don't want her getting involved if it is possible she'll get hurt. And I figured," she said, giving an inch, "that I needed to ask you first."

If Shane's heart were still beating, it would have just stopped. Shamira was trying to be diplomatic? With him? "I appreciate your restraint," he replied, and he wasn't just referring to asking him about the job. He knew she was probably restraining herself from punching him. Or at least attempting to. "Do you really think that she could help? Your donor?"

"She seems to think so, and she doesn't seem the type to brag."

Shane steeled himself for what he wanted to say. "Maybe sometimes if someone knows how to do the job, then they should just be allowed to do it."

Shamira wasn't going to smile, even though she kind of wanted to. Shane had just apologized without actually say the words "I'm sorry." It was as close as she was going to get. "I'll talk to her on Tuesday."