Chapter 5 Tess #2
Loren stood and clasped his hands in front of them.
He looked out at his fellow Council members and gravely said, “If we’re going to use the word ‘kidnapped’ in reference to children in creches, I might remind the Council that every half-Vampyren infant has been forcibly taken from their human mother who also forced to birth them—
The Council grumbleda lotat that and Tess smiled to herself, the crowd behind her crowing in agreement. Two of them got up and argued loudly with Loren and there was much flailing of hands before things calmed down again.
“Moving on,” Loren said, clearing his throat. “There is an unusual number of supporters here for Markole and Kal. I imagine they have something to say?”
“Loren!” One of the older Council members said. “This is unacceptable!”
“Shut up, Jalen,” Loren all but snarled, narrowing his eyes.
Nobody stopped him. Tess smirked to herself. This was going better than she’d thought.
The old guard was now outnumbered.
“We do have something to say.” The speaker was Danton and one of the other Vampyren men who had shown up with the resistance the day before stepped forward with him. “My name is Danton and this is Alek. Like Markole and Kal, we are deserters.”
Alek said, “And we also want to confess to the raiding of that creche.”
“So do we!” Several others shouted from the crowd.
“So do I!” Tess said, stepping forward with Kiera and Crystal as they joined in, shouting their confession with everyone else, including the breeders and their matrons.
“So do I!” Loren’s voice thundered above the rest and a few members of the Council gasped before several of them stood up and said the same.
Tess tried and failed to swallow the lump in her throat.
She never thought this was possible, not when she remembered the brutal first days of the invasion when it had felt as if the world was ending for good, and not when she thought of the things she had seen in creches and when she remembered hearing the stories about women who were forced to breed.
That brutality had an end date and that justice had a real shot, had never seemed realistic before.
And yet, her work had always functioned under that assumption, when she thought about it.
Why bother to free children from their imprisonment if there was no hope for their futures?
Now Loren spread his hands before the holdout Council members who looked more than a little perturbed by this turn of events.
“Fellow Council members, who among us is not fatigued from this endless fighting, this colonization? We have brutalized a species because they offered us land, blood, offspring. We’re at an impasse now.
We have children with the humans. Many of us have relationships with them.
And perhaps more importantly, there is now a much greater threat than humans that we will soon face and if we don’t find unity between our species, wewillfind our death as a people.
I would like to vote that we find arealsolution to the creches, that we abolish breeding pits, and that we endeavor to find a way forward as Vampyren and humans together in a shared government.
I also vote that we release these two men who have obviously given a false confession.
I would like the Council to vote on all this. ”
“I agree,” Mahn said and several other Council members nodded though the holdouts looked angry.
“Our solution to the creche report was no solution. Before these two men came forward, we were under the impression that these children had been liberated by their own mothers and who among us did not feel some amount of sympathy for them? If you didn’t…
you have forgotten what it means to be Vampyren.
We have tried to devalue humans but they are every bit our equal and we can no longer pretend they are not deserving of rights.
We can no longer ignore the Lucian threat and our need for humans as allies. I vote with Loren on every point!”
It was four men on the Council who jumped to their feet and one of them who shouted, “This is outrageous! I order the arrest of Loren! And Mahn and any other Council member who has expressed solidarity with them! Guards!”
Tess looked to the guards standing around the chambers. They looked at each other uncertainly and Tess noticed how very tired they looked. That was, she thought, perhaps the thing that swayed most of the Council and the Vampyren who had come around to their side. They were just tired of all this.
The guards nodded at each other and approached Loren.
Everyone in the room seemed to tense up.
But the guards walked right past them to the holdouts of the Council, calmly coming behind them, and before the Council members could react, the guards silently drew their daggers and slit their throats.
The four Council members gasped and their blood gushed all over the table, their eyes bulging in surprise before the light went out of them.
There were a few members who Tess suspected had been on the fence, perhaps with no loyalty of their own and only waiting to see what would happen.
She could tell who they were because they jumped to their feet and gaped at the dead Council members, paling and probably afraid they would be next.
Loren said, “That’s… not how I hoped things would go but...here we are.”
Mahn slapped his hand on the table and said, “Then let’s vote!”
Loren held votes on all his initiatives and they all passed although the one about breeders was very close. Tess stood there, astounded. History had just been made. She had not expected this. Mark and Kal were let go and Tess ran to Kal, throwing her arms around him.
“What just happened?” She said, feeling stupid with astonishment.
“Revolution,” Kal said, shrugging. “That’s what you wanted, right?”
“ Yes,” Tess said. “I’m just surprised.”
“Sounds like Loren got persuasive,” Kal said. “I think that liberation of the creche really got to them. Anyway, I’m starving.”
Tess stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Then let’s get you some blood, baby.”