“Mean. Deep voice. Old and crusty like you.”
“Very funny.” He narrowed his ice-blue eyes.
“Calling it like it is,” I said. “Please untie me. I’ve told you everything I know. Please.”
Stark scooted forward in the chair. “Not yet.”
“What more do you want?”
“Who gave you that moonshine on my island?” he asked.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Why?”
Because I never drank all those bottles.And the poor woman who helped me fake it would die. “Please, Stark, just leave it.”
“I cannot have my island, my command center, infiltrated by traitors.”
“Command center?”
“Yes, Masie. My island is our Alamo. The last stand. Our place to retreat and move to plan B if all else should fail. Why else would I bring you there?”
My mind attempted to piece it all together. I couldn’t. “You have to tell me what’s really going on.”
He walked over, uncuffed my wrists, and then untied my ankles.
I sat up, rubbing the inflamed skin. “Well?”
“I am secretly leading the anti-coexistence movement, but our mission is to send all vampires back into the shadows. Of course, I could not tell you this until after your transformation. Humans are susceptible to vampire torture.” He glanced at the feather on the floor.
“Fair ’nuff.”
“But it all went sideways when you fled. I lost allies. Then another leader, Roman Momackian, began plotting to hijack the VCP for another movement far more sinister than anythingwe have ever seen.”
The VCP, or Vampire Coexistence Party, was the party Charlie had once belonged to.
Stark continued, “Roman is really the leader of the VCEP, the Vampire Communal Existence Party. One small group to rule us all, humans included.”
How many dang parties did these vampires have? “So this Roman guy, he doesn’t even like the idea of a good old-fashioned vampire war?”
“No. War always redistributes power. The covens on the winning side acquire a majority, their votes counting for eighty percent. The losing covens are given the remaining votes to split amongst themselves. In the past, once a war was over, everyone moved on. Roman wishes to change this. No more covens, no more voting or debates. All wealth, land, and sustenance will be controlled by Roman’s self-appointed council. Humans will be banned from breeding without permission nor be permitted to own anything. Same for us. Think communism, but without the fancy propaganda, the appallingly hideous apartments, or the underwhelming bureaucratic healthcare system. It will simply be…hell. For us all.”
Oh, so now Stark cares?Before, he had a plan B that left him as a powerful coven leader. Humans be damned. Now that he was facing losinghisprecious power and assets, he cared.
Funny how even vampires didn’t learn from history.Never trust someone in power who tells you thesolution to everyone’s problems is giving them more power.The moment vampires began considering a human takeover, Stark should’ve known those leaders wouldn’t stop there. Vampires would be next.
“We have to stop him,” I said.
“You don’t say?” he replied bitterly. “Perhaps you should have considered that before you fled my island.Youwere our rallying cry.”
He meantAnna. The one vampire who could unite them all.
I threw back, “And perhapsyoushould’ve considered telling me what the hell was going on to begin with.” But like with everything else, he just couldn’t be up front. He misdirected, lied, gave pieces of the truth. He was probably doing the same right now. “Is there anything we can do? A plan C or D or whatever letter we’re on?”
“The vote on the bill will happen in three days. Once it passes, money will begin flowing in from thousands of vampires to Roman’s coven. Communications will go gray. Not black, but gray—heavily censored—and the subjugation of humans will begin. Roman is already offering his allies positions on his council. They are being enticed with promises of land, humans for food, and other luxurious perks such as unlimited spa treatments.”
“Spa treatments?”
