“Deception?” Montmorency echoed, with a sharp look between Kendrick and Genevieve. Kendrick merely sat back in his chair and smiled a little.
Genevieve explained, “If you’ve only lived a handful of years as a vampire, everyone remembers who turned you and where you came from. You start with nothing, ripped from your human bonds. It’s only when those older die off or you outlive your peers that you gain respectability and class. Because now you are older than those you deem ‘rabble.’”
“You cannotageinto respectability.” Montmorency shot another look at Kendrick. “Is that what all this surveying has been about? I’ve been presented with abill,” he said, producing the offensive document and rattling the sheet.
Kendrick raised an eyebrow. “You don’t believe it’s accurate?”
“It’s a damned disgrace! What haveIgot to do with ‘Ossuary upkeep’?” He scoffed.
“You don’t believe makers are responsible for their dependents?”
“What?” Montmorency said, his eyes popping.
“According to those we’ve surveyed so far, we’ve found seven vampires who were turned by you or your wife, sir,” Kendrick said. “Three with an active blood bond. We’ve calculated what you owe them.”
“Owe?Owe?”
“What my husband means to say,” Mrs. Montmorency said hurriedly, “is that shouldn’t they make their own way in the world? How will doling out handouts encourage them to abandon their shiftless nature?”
“How does turning them and abandoning them to their own devices serve them?” Genevieve said tightly. “Leaving them penned up in the Ossuary, leashed by your commands?—”
Montmorency looked from her to Kendrick. “Think what sort of a precedent you are setting,” he warned, shaking his finger warningly. “You may find support waning if you institute these policies.”
“Is that a threat?” Kendrick asked mildly.
The Montmorencys paused. The wife stepped into the breach. “Sire,” she said in a particularly sweet tone. Only those with a good ear could hear the venom under it. “Please pardon my husband. The pressures of this age weigh on him. It was concern for the future that made him speak out of turn.”
“Madam, I understand fear of change. But staying in a broken system is its own kind of death.”
Genevieve said firmly, “Vampires cannot be allowed to turn and abandon humans with impunity. That is why we have instituted a turning ban and have put oversight of blood bonds into place.”
Montmorency opened his mouth, but Kendrick drawled, “My wife is quite right, Montmorency.” His eyes glittered. “For one thing, it looks suspicious.”
Silence descended on the room.
In the stillness, Kendrick stood and planted himself in front of the fireplace, holding his hands out to the fire in the grate, though he did not need the flame to warm him. “After all, you went out of your way to turn them.” He spun around and nailed the other vampire with his gaze. “It makes us question whether or not you obtained their consent. Whether or not you applied to the ruler of the Ossuary for consent.”
“The Draugodrottin did not require it,” Mrs. Montmorency said in her tinkly voice.
Kendrick smiled at her, all teeth. “We do. It also makes us question your goal in turning them, if not to bring them into your own household. I’m curious.”
She didn’t move a muscle.
“It’s something we like to mull over. A little thought exercise, positing different vampire motivations. Perhaps you are thinking of setting up your own little kingdom in the Ossuary. Your own power base, if you will. But that, of course, would be akin to a contestation of rulership.” He fingered the sword that was never far from his side, even now. “Wouldn’t it?”
They did not have any response to that.
Genevieve spread her hands. “Mr. Montmorency, if you don’t wish to make restitution to your dependents, we have a very simple solution to make sure everyone contributes fairly to what you term ‘Ossuary upkeep.’”
“What is that?” Montmorency said, drumming his fingers on his knee.
“Taxes.”
As the Montmorencys recoiled, Genevieve raised an eyebrow. “Well, we clearly can’t depend on good Christian charity, can we? Either way, we will not turn a blind eye to the less fortunate among us anymore.”
Kendrick just smiled. “What you may not understand about my wife, Montmorency, is that she was one of the Ossuary ‘rabble,’ and a more industrious woman I have never met.”
Mrs. Montmorency jumped into the breach. “How romantic,” she breathed, “that you met in such a way.”
