"I am told you needed to speak with me."
I wondered whose lips he was using, whose body. "Thank you for calling me back, Traveler." A little politeness couldn't hurt.
"Thomas was surprisingly eloquent on your behalf. What do you wish of me?"
I explained as briefly as possible.
"And what do you wish me to do about this problem of yours?"
"You can stop taking energy through them. That would help."
"Then I must feed on live humans. Is there someone you would offer in their place for each of us?"
"No, no offers, no bargains. This is police business, Traveler. I'm speaking with the authority of human law behind me, not Jean-Claude."
"What is human law to me? To us?"
"If we go down there and they attack us, I'll end up killing some of them. They may kill policemen, firemen. That's bad publicity with Brewster's Law to be decided this fall. The council has stopped all vampires in this country from fighting amongst themselves until the law is finalized. Surely slaughtering policemen is forbidden, too?"
"It is," he said. His voice was so careful. He gave me nothing. I couldn't tell if he was angry or amused or gave a damn either way.
"I'm asking you to help me save the lives of your vampires."
"They belong to this Church of yours. They are not mine," he said.
"But the council is the overall leadership of the vampires, right?"
"We are their ultimate law."
I didn't like the phrasing, but I plowed ahead. "You could find out case by case if the vampires were alive or dead in the burned-out buildings. You could keep the vamps from rising early and attacking us here."
"I think you overestimate my powers, Anita."
"I don't think so," I said.
"If Jean-Claude will supply us with... food, I will be more than happy to cease borrowing from the others."
"No, you get nothing for this, Traveler."
"If you give me nothing, I give you nothing," he said.
"Dammit, this isn't a game."
"We are vampires, Anita. Do you not understand what that means? We are apart from your world. What happens to you does not affect us."
"Bullshit. Some fanatics are out here trying to duplicate the Inferno all over again. That affects you. Thomas and Gideon have had to repel invaders while you slept. It does affect you."
"It doesn't matter. We are in your world, but not of it," he said.
"Look, that may have worked in the 1500's or whenever, but the minute vampires became legal citizens, it changed. A vampire got taken to the hospital in an ambulance. They are doing their best to keep him alive, whatever the hell that means for you guys. Firemen are risking their lives to go into burned-out buildings to save vampires. The fanatics are trying to kill you, but the rest of us humans are trying to save you."
"Then you are fools," he said.
"Maybe," I said, "but we poor humans have taken oaths to protect and serve. We honor our promises."
"Are you implying I do not?"
"I'm saying that if you don't help us here, today, then you aren't worthy to be council. You aren't leaders. You're just parasites feeding on the fear of your followers. True leaders don't leave their people to die, not if they can save them."