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CHAPTER SIX

MADS

When I arrive at the council hall, I find the VRC crew waiting by the front door. I also see two other members of the UK council, a woman named Leona and a man named Callum. Beyond them are many other members I don’t know, so I just go over to those I do.

“Good morning,” I say.

Leona gives me a glance. “Ah, Mads.”

“Don’t seem so excited to see me.”

“I have absolutely zero ability to be excited about much of anything anymore,” Leona says.

“You act like you’ve lived a long and tough life but you’re one of the youngest of us,” Callum says in his rich Scottish accent. I don’t see him as often since he resides in Scotland and only comes over when there are things of concern. “I guess I don’t know how old Mads is.”

“Not very,” I assure him. “A baby compared to the rest of you.”

“I thought as much but didn’t want to assume,” he says.

I notice Marcus staring at me and offer him a smile. He doesn’t smile back but seems caught up in our conversation. Turning back to Callum and Leona, I ask, “You two just arrived, did you get a chance to meet the VRC?”

“Not yet,” Callum says.

“I saw they were here, but it sure didn’t look like they were interested in speaking,” Leona comments.

I wave them over to the VRC. “I’m eager to introduce you all to my colleagues.”

“I’m less than eager,” Alexei mutters.

“I’d love to be included in introductions,” a member from the Asian council says. “I’ve met Marcus and Claude but the rest of you I have not. You can call me Ha-joon.”

“I’m Callum and this is Leona,” Callum says as he holds out his hand to shake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Finn responds. “I’m Finn, and this is Marcus, Brooks, Alexei, Claude, Orin, Briar, and Bentley.”

“Let’s get started,” Harris calls, interrupting our introductions. To my understanding, he’s the only one who is still on the US council besides a few people who are unrelated to the main seats, such as secretaries or assistants. And from my observation, the VRC has an extreme dislike of him.

We follow Harris into the room where a few others who I don’t know are seated. We all take our seats as Harris avoids looking at anyone from the VRC.

“I would like to begin by hearing the events told from the viewpoint of the VRC,” Callum says.

“Not that I don’t believe what’s been said.

I’ve just… stories travel and change, and I’ve heard a few things from others who claim to have been there.

I’d love to hear what happened right from the source.

This is why I requested they were all here today. ”

I swear Harris pales considerably.

“Let’s start off with Harris being an absolute waste of space who caused all of this to happen ,” Marcus growls.

“All of it? Impressive,” I say.

Marcus’s glower whips around to face me. Apparently, I should have kept my mouth shut.

“Can you elaborate?” Callum asks.

“I think I should be allowed to deal with him,” Marcus says. And even though he’s a sworn member of the police, “deal with him” oddly sounds like “murder him.”

Finn sets a hand on Marcus’s and smiles at the rest of us, as if any of us could ignore the enraged vampire who probably wouldn’t struggle to rip the heads off a significant number of the vampires currently in this room.

Hell, his aura alone is suppressing enough that quite a few of the council members are melting in their seats to get away from it.

“Hon, let me deal with this,” Finn says. “Alright, I want to begin by admitting that we’ve had some disagreements with the council?—”

“The council found proof that he had vampire blood in his veins. But he does not have permission to be turned into a vampire,” Harris cuts in.

Oh? Intriguing.

“Clearly he is not a vampire,” I say. “So you’re saying that the council… harassed Finn for… being a human?” I’m prepared to toss Harris under the bus to get on Marcus’s good side. I will play whatever game I need to play to get the results I want.

Harris opens his mouth, hesitates, then goes, “He has vampire blood in his veins .”

“I feel like any human could shoot vampire blood into their veins and while it probably wouldn’t turn out well for them, it wouldn’t make them a vampire,” I say. “Am I wrong? Is there a new way of making vampires that I’m not aware of?”

“Not that I know of,” Ha-joon replies. “Detective Hayes, Orin’s daughter is a dhampir, right? And she’s your half sister? Maybe your blood is compatible because of your mother and not actually Orin.”

“Thank you,” Finn says. “This is what Claude questioned as well. I don’t know if you know Claude?—”

“I know Claude quite well,” Ha-joon says. “We’ve met a time or two on his travels. I think Callum has spoken to him before as well.”

Callum nods. “I have. And I agree. I would trust Claude’s research as well. We don’t have much information on dhampirs, but I agree that it could be dependent on their mother. Whatever allowed her to give birth to a dhampir could have given Finn the ability to be compatible with vampire blood.”

“Why weren’t you guys here when we were going over this?” Claude asks with a laugh. “It would have been nice to have people present who were knowledgeable.”

“It sounds like the former council were just hearing what they wanted to hear,” I comment. “Anyone can look at Finn and tell he is quite human.”

“Thank you,” Finn says. “So Eugene and Harris began to stalk me, I think hoping to see me trying to become a vampire or something. Marcus… notoriously has a short temper when it comes to me, and when he caught them stalking me outside our property, he threatened them. But you have to understand, I was stalked for years by Watson. The idea of two vampires following me and watching me made me quite paranoid and to find they were even doing it outside of my house? I really don’t blame him for what he did.

“When Eugene died suddenly, they tried to blame Marcus, and we believe the council leader at that time, Addison, fed Harris lies to get him to drag Marcus away from me so she could attempt to take me. She wanted information out of me as well as another person. At that point, Ender was forced to save my life from the council member Kaden as well as some others who were working for Addison. Not knowing who was in the wrong, the VRC, who still believed Ender was at fault, arrested him and was forced to hand him over to the council. You have to keep in mind that at this point we still were not aware that it was the council who’d tried to take me.

But instead of imprisoning Ender, they were torturing him to get information out of him.

“They then took Marcus in again on false charges, knowing that the only way to get to me was to make sure Marcus was incapable of protecting me. When I was taken in alone, I was afraid for my life, so I let Ender free. Lies spread that Ender is the one who killed everyone in the council, but I know for a fact Addison was involved in trying to create true vampires with the intention of overtaking the human race instead of living with them, and Ender only killed those who threatened to kill us.”

“What about the deceased vampires who Ender didn’t kill?

Who killed them?” a man asks. I believe he’s from the South American council, but I’m not sure.

“This is why we are all truly here. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t really give a shit if the US council kills each other off.

I want to know about whatever is killing vampires that leaves no marks or signs after death.

Something like that could eradicate all of us. ”

Harris fiddles with his hands. “At this point, we don’t know.”

“I’d like to see the case files and photographs myself,” he says.

Briar leans forward to draw attention to herself. “We have been trying to gain answers about this, but it seems like every step of the way, the council has been blocking our progress. It’s astounding that the council wants to prohibit what we can do to protect them.”

“At this point in time, we are not opening our data about this to anyone outside of the VRC,” Marcus says. “We don’t know who we can trust. If we start sharing our information and it were to get in the wrong hands, it could escalate the issue instead of deescalating it.”

This makes quite a few people upset and I can tell they’re not going to let it fly, so I interrupt before they can.

“May I say something about this? I understand that I wasn’t here during the event, and I know how terrifying this can be, but look around you.

Would you want every person here at this moment to have the knowledge of how to kill vampires with such ease?

Vampires aren’t always the trusting type, but if the information stays within the VRC, it stays with people who are dedicated to saving lives.

We could easily request that it stays only within this small group who are made up of members who have mostly been with the VRC a while or who are well known in our community.

We are all aware that Marcus could very well take over the council.

He could take down pretty much everyone here at this table, but he’s never chosen to do such a thing.

I think we should put our faith in them. ”

“I see both sides,” Callum says. “What if we offer up our best scientists to assist? We can brief them and only when everyone within this room believes they’re a good fit, we will hand them over to the VRC to help?”

“I like that idea. I actually know quite a few of the scientists who have been involved with the council,” Claude agrees. “I could help approve them.”

Marcus’s body stiffens and at first, I question if it’s something Claude has said before the door opens and Ender, of all people, steps inside.