"What do you mean?" she asked.
I unbent my left arm, showing the scars. "The mound of scar tissue at the crook is where a vamp gnawed on me. He broke the arm. I was lucky not to lose the use of it."
"What about that?" She touched the claw marks that trailed down the lower part of the arm.
"Shapeshifted witch."
"How did the cross get burned into your arm?"
"Humans with a few bites like you thought it was amusing to brand me with the cross. Just amusing themselves until their master rose for the night."
Her eyes were wide. "But the vampires in the Church aren't like that. We aren't like that."
"All vamps are like that, Caroline. Some of them control it better than others, but they still have to feed off humans. You can't really respect something that you see as food."
"But you are with the Master of the City. Do you believe that of him?"
I thought about that and answered truthfully. "Sometimes."
She shook her head. "I thought I knew what I wanted. What I was going to do for all eternity. Now I don't know anything. I feel so... lost." Tears trailed out of her wide eyes.
I put my arm across her shoulders, and she leaned into me, clinging to me with her small, carefully painted hands. She cried soundlessly, only the shakiness of her breathing betraying her.
I held her and let her cry. If I took the nice firemen down into the darkness and six newly dead vampires rose as revenants, either the firemen were dead or I'd be forced to kill the vampires. Either way, not a win-win situation.
We needed to find out if the vamps were alive, needed some control over them. If the council was causing the problems, maybe they could help fix it. When big bad vampires come to town to kill me, I don't generally turn to them for help. But we were trying to save vampires lives here, not just human. Maybe they'd help. Maybe they wouldn't, but it couldn't hurt to ask. All right, it could hurt to ask, and probably would.
43
Even over the phone, I could tell Jean-Claude was shocked at my idea of turning to the council for help. Call it a guess. He was literally speechless. It was nearly a first.
"Why not ask for their help?"
"They are the council, ma petite," he said, voice almost breathy with emotion.
"Exactly," I said. "They are the leaders of your people. Leadership doesn't just mean privileges. It has a price tag."
"Tell that to your politicians in Washington in their three-thousand-dollar suits," he said.
"I didn't say that we did any better. That's beside the point. They've helped make this problem. They can, by God, help fix it." I had a bad thought. "Unless they're doing it on purpose," I said.
He gave a long sigh. "No, ma petite, it is not on purpose. I did not realize that it was happening to the others."
"Why isn't it happening to our vampires?"
I think he laughed. "Our vampires, ma petite?"
"You know what I mean."
"Yes, ma petite, I know what you mean. I have been protecting our people."
"Don't take this wrong, but I'm surprised you had the juice to keep the council from messing with your people."
"In truth, ma petite, so am I."
"So you're more powerful than Malcolm now?"
"It would appear so," he said quietly.