Chapter 8 (Revised Version)

Blake sat in his plush black leather executive chair at the head of the long wooden table that took up the center of the large windowless room. He looked over the other vampires who filled up hardly a third of the conference table near his end. There were ten of them, all Third Orders, of which he was considered a member himself.

He tried not to show his annoyance as his eyes automatically skipped over the one and only First Order vampire in a valiant attempt to forget she existed. Gabrielle sat quietly at the other end of the table and had yet to say a single word or take part in any of the votes he'd called for over the past few meetings, which wasn't unusual, but he was sure her presence was affecting the meetings for the worse, despite the fact that it was going no differently than it had the past several months.

Blake huffed loudly as Michelle reminded him once again that it was he who had counseled them all to hide in the first place so many centuries ago and what a good decision it had been.

"But things are different now," Blake said insistently for what felt like the millionth time. "Back then, there were so few of us and the world was largely unexplored. The choice to live hidden from the humans was truly the only one we could make. But now, I believe we have enough numbers to make a bid for supremacy and succeed. The Upper Orders alone count at over a quarter of a million worldwide."

"You're still talking about a massive undertaking," Shiri interjected. "A quarter of a million against over eight billion—"

"That's not entirely accurate," Victor cut in. "Out of that eight billion, how many could stand against us? Half? The rest are children, the old, and infirm. And of those that could, it becomes a matter of who actually would. I think the odds aren't nearly as bad as you've been thinking."

"Even so, let's say you're right and only a couple billion rose up to fight. That's what... Eight thousand to one? That isn't exactly in our favor," Shiri argued.

Blake looked around at the group and decided to take a chance even though he knew there would likely be consequences.

"What if it wasn't just us? What if... What if we brought in the Lower Orders?" Blake continued quickly to stave off the immediate protests he saw several of his counterparts about to make. "Our estimates put their numbers at over two and a half million. That would bring the odds down, wouldn't it?"

"To about eight hundred to one," Michelle said quietly.

There was silence around the table as each of them digested that much more reasonable number. Not that any of them wanted to go up single-handedly against eight hundred armed humans, but with a large enough group of vampires, such a task wouldn't be impossible. Moving faster than the humans could react and doing even minimal damage to most of them would destroy any kind of organized response, and humans couldn't heal themselves nearly as fast as a vampire could. While the humans would take major casualties, the Order would be unlikely to suffer more than a few they couldn't heal in a day or two, or simply replace with willing humans.

"Fine," David conceded. "But what about their military? The humans might not be much good in a one on one fight, or even as you suggested eight hundred to one, but they more than make up for their frailties with the weapons they've invented. Fifty-caliber machine guns, rocket launchers, tanks, aircraft with guided missiles, and let's not forget technology like night vision, infrared, sonar, radar... How do you propose we stand against all that?"

"Exactly," Shiri took up the ball again. "The only reason we've survived this long is because as I've said, they aren't looking for us. But if we push them, they won't stop until they've found and staked every last one of us."

"So we go after the military, too," Blake said without missing a beat. "In a coordinated attack, we can wipe out the VHA in a single night, leaving them no ability to rally or fight back. And while the humans are still attempting to organize themselves in the middle of all that chaos, we strike again, hitting the top echelons of the government and armed forces, until the humans are left with only a few soldiers who have no idea what to do with the equipment they have. If we also round up their women and children, executing them until the others stand down, there will be no fight left in them. I doubt it would take us more than a month to subjugate the entire planet."

"Blake's right," Victor seconded. "And no one has even mentioned our servants, who I believe would be more than willing to fight right alongside us, especially if we Gifted most of them. That would easily triple our numbers overnight. And once the humans saw they couldn't possibly win, how many of them would beg to take our servants' places?" He turned to Blake. "You know, I think you're being a little pessimistic about it taking a whole month. I'm betting we could force their surrender in less than two weeks."

"You're assuming everyone in the Order wants to not only start a war, but fight in it," Celia spoke up. "Personally, I'm quite content with my life the way it is. I live in luxury, I can have nearly anything I want anytime I want it, and at my whim my servants provide me with most of the blood I need with only minor supplementation from the Arena. Life is good for me. Give me one good reason why I would want to change any of that."

"We're not talking about a long drawn-out war," Blake reminded. "As Victor pointed out, it would be a few weeks at most. And at the end of that war, we would be free, truly free, to live openly, however we wanted. As it stands right now, according to human law, we have no rights. Even their animals have rights, but we don't."

"Hell, there are even some plants that have more rights than we do."

"That's true. Thank you, Raymond. They've decided they can hunt and kill us, torture us if they want to in their quest to find better ways of killing us, and we've let them do it. We walked away once because we didn't have any other choice. Well, I say no more. I say we stand up and take what's rightfully ours. We have a choice now. Let's make it."

Celia shook her head.

"You keep trying to make it sound as if they're hunting and killing us, but they're not. They hunt and kill the Lower Orders, who make themselves easy targets. As far as I can tell, we're completely safe from the hunters, as long as we don't give them any reason to suspect of our existence. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm not sure there's anything you can say to convince me it's worth risking my life for some abstract freedom I mostly already have."

"Well, that might be fine for you, but what about the Lower Orders?" Blake questioned as he looked around the table. "I believe it's high time we accepted our responsibility to protect the younger ones, to lead them and show them the way."

"Funny how you didn't seem to care about that back when we first split the Order to protect our interests," Shiri commented.

"You're right. But while I still stand behind that decision, that doesn't mean it's set in stone. Times change and whether we like it or not, we must change with them. I, for one, intend to take responsibility for my actions and I will no longer cower behind our fledglings. Our own kind doesn't even know we exist—"

"And for good reason," Celia interrupted. "I don't know about the rest of you, but the Lower Orders give me the creeps."

"That's because they lack guidance," Blake said patiently as he sensed some of the others beginning to consider his proposal more seriously despite their initial knee-jerk reactions of dismissal. "They don't have the same education and support that we have. They have no rules, no laws, and no society. We mentor our children and provide for them, while their sires cast them to the wolves and leave them to fend for themselves against the hunters. But if we could bring the Lower Orders in, show them a better way, we would be more than strong enough to take on the VHA and put the humans in their rightful place... as our slaves."

Blake saw a few more nodding heads than there'd been before and decided to capitalize on his momentum and call for a new vote. He hoped to coerce some of the holdouts into caving in, but though he gained two more votes, it wasn't even close to the unanimous vote he wanted or the eighty percent majority he needed.

Blake adjourned the meeting with a few words and a wave of his hand and wasn't surprised when Gabrielle was the first to disappear out the doors.

He was amazed she'd even shown up for all the meetings during the past few weeks she'd been back, rather than gallivanting off again to parts unknown. But it seemed his admonitions about being there for their people had finally gotten through, though not by much, since she still refused to participate in the actual governing.

Not that Blake minded that part, he was quite capable of handling those duties on his own, but usually her presence bestowed a kind of unspoken support for whatever measure he was trying to get approved and he just wasn't getting that this time. He was now regretting pushing Gabrielle to concern herself with their current endeavors. It seemed he was now going to have to try to counsel the First Born into leaving again if he hoped to get anything done in a timely fashion. It would just be a matter of putting it in such a way that Gabrielle believed she'd come up with the idea herself.

Blake pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind to think on later as several of the others came up to him to discuss what progress had been made on repairing several of the more important tunnels. An administrator's job was never done.