Eric

Chapter II

The meeting with the queen of Louisiana had been very much like the one I had with Freyda, too much alike in fact. Wanting to marry me for my name and wealth was one thing but this seemed off. I was an asset financially but surely some of me was better than none. Then again, they knew about my issues with the human government. They might have deemed the risk of scrutiny from unwanted eyes too great and marriage was their price. Plausible, but not likely. I was frustrated.

Nothing I could come up with seemed like strong enough of a motivator for both Freyda and Sophie-Anne to refuse. There was something else, something major that I was missing. I didn't keep up to date on vampire politics. It was too fickle a thing and didn't much affect me as I had sworn fealty to no one. Now, it was proving to be a pain in my immortal ass. Times like these killing people that annoyed me was tempting, but I refrained.

I didn't have all the pieces to make the best available decision, whatever the solution turned out to be it wouldn't be marriage. Even if by some measure of insanity I decided to wed, the negotiations for such a thing took years, time I didn't currently have to spare. I'd been in limbo and it had long begun to grate on me. I'd been based in Canada for two years and was using my jet the way most people used a car. It wasn't just the traveling. The laws in Canada didn't allow me to do much while I was there because I wasn't a citizen nor did I want to be.

Bobby hadn't been able to confirm Alexander's presence at any point during our flight. But I saw the Grecian vampire leaning causally against the car that had been awaiting me. He looked as all vampires did, stoic bordering on statue like. He wasn't alone. Wrapped comfortably in his arms was a human infant. It was covered in a pink paisley blanket and was fast asleep.

The older I got the more I understood anomalous behavior. Still, I didn't even pretend to understand the life Alexander led but it didn't matter. He was great at his job. He watched over the major venues I owned in this state. It wasn't a small task but despite the preoccupations with his personal life he did an excellent job of it all. In addition to that I valued his input, intelligence, and stable disposition.

"Alexander," I greeted with a nod of my head. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't have insisted had it not been urgent."

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't already know that," he said with a smile and a nod of his head. "So what's on fire?"

I explained and he wasn't at all surprised. "I know," he said. "I assumed you did as well. They had a summit ten or so years ago. You and Illeta were a major subject of discussion. None have forgotten the old days and they fear its return."

I hadn't contemplated that angle because it seemed so asinine. I would have thought vampires knew better but apparently not. I rolled my eyes. "If we desired chaos we would have never put an end to it."

"The humans fear your wealth and the power it brings. The vampires fear the same but they know your past." he said. "Illeta is west, Pam is now north—"

"Illeta I can see," I interrupted. "But Pam is playing dress up," she was very young and threat to no one. She was building a fashion line. She spent more time with human models and designers than she did with vampires or anyone else.

"And now you want the south," he said. "With none of you tied to any of them…" He shrugged while adjusting the child in his arms. "It just looks bad."

For a few blocks through the brightly lit streets of the city I was quiet trying to think through this wrinkle in my plans.

"I assumed you had a son?" I said inclining my head to the infant. "Why do you call her Andy?"

He smiled. "It's a nickname I detest but it stuck. Her mother doesn't call her by her full name, Andromeda."

"How is Rebecca by the way?" I asked thinking of his human wife. I'd met her once, didn't have notice her enough to have an opinion on her. I found her as unremarkable as every other woman. I had no idea what Alexander saw in her or how she was able to put a leash on a vampire of his stature.

"Tired," he replied with a slight smile.

~oooooo~

The interview and photo shoot with 'Time' Magazine tried my patience. Coming out as the vampire mogul with a heart of gold had been Gabby's strategy. Sure I gave to charity but I was forced to remember which ones. I needed to be relatable to women and men of all classes. It would better serve as a buffer from the human government. Also public approval would be beneficial for certain venues I wanted to pursue in the future. I swallowed, grinned, and bore it because I had bigger problems.

The conversation with Alexander was churning in my mind as I boarded my jet out of New York several hours later. There was a clear consensus with all the regents in the four territories to box me in. While there were many that would be willing to enter a marriage with me, none would allow me to relocate to their state without it.

I was old enough to rule and I had amassed enough wealth to usurp any state I coveted. Not having done so was making my kind wary. When they weren't trying to end one another for power they were unified in upholding the need for the hierarchy. My terminal lack of attachment was viewed as a threat. Sooner or later they would feel the need to do something about it.

I wasn't worried exactly. I really just didn't want the hassle of having to kill anyone. I also knew I wouldn't be the only target if fighting broke out. Illeta had taken a vow of nonviolence some centuries ago. Knowing what had brought that drastic change about I would never ask her to violate it for me though I knew she would. Of the dozen who had come and gone at the hands of our maker only the two of us remained. Contrary to what the vampire world thought, Illeta wasn't my child. She was my sister and two hundred years my elder.

It was Pam I was worried about. She was centuries younger and I never trained her to be warrior. On a deeper level I felt like I would taint her by placing swords in her hands. I never even showed her how to survive in the wild. I'd always been there and when I wasn't I afforded her the best protection. She didn't know what it was like to not have her way or to move with caution. Since the night she rose to this life I've indulged her to the point of spoiling her.

There was an air of adventurousness in my only child that had drawn me to her the night I made her. After almost two centuries in the night it still endured. She possessed a sense of enthusiasm about the way she viewed the world. Time and the bleakness of eternity had not yet robbed her of it. It was one the many things I loved about her.

The last thing I wanted was to be labeled persona non grata amongst the undead. By the time I was in Canadian airspace I had accepted that marrying was inevitable. Prolonging it would only make the situation worse. It was now a matter of choosing the most suitable bride.

"Eric,"

I heard the voice long before my coffin was opened just before dark. I knew who it was. Vampires, when they were first made went instantly dead with the rise of the sun. As we got older we could fight the pull. It was still hell on our bodies to be awake. With prolonged sleep deprivation we suffered bleeds and weakened with the blood loss. For some reason I couldn't understand, Pam had her guards wake her an hour before dark.

"I know you're awake," Pam said lifting my lids.

"No I'm not," I replied swatting blindly at her. "Go away. I could swear I had bodyguards to prevent this sort of thing."

She laughed, "I've missed you," she said resting her head on my chest.

"Why are you awake?" I mumbled wrapping my arm around her.

"I'm having relationship issues," she said.

Despite myself I laughed. Pam fell in love every other week and it always ended the same way. She got bored. By her soft features and dainty frame she was the picture of the hopeless romantic. Nothing could be farther from the truth. She was a young vampire and had stamina that she liked to put to the test as often as she could.

While we lived together, our schedules rarely agreed. I couldn't recall the last time I saw her face. Having no other choice and generally missing her company, I rose. Pam and I fed. Regardless of the propaganda, vampires didn't prefer bottled blood. It sustained, but nothing ever tasted as good as drinking warm blood from a pulsing vein. While that was most appealing to the pallet it took longer than I liked to spend feeding. I found a happy medium in Royalty Blend. It was part synthetic and part human blood.

After listening to a ridiculous but comical break up story, we got to work. I helped her with her tasks of the evening because it was easier for me. I'd been doing it longer. For a while she had been my second in command. Back then she would have sworn she did all my work but now she knew she had been only doing the minimum that would prep her for her own work load. We actually talked and I explained my current situation. We both concluded that it was slightly worse than her issues with her recently discarded lover.

"Marry whoever," she said shrugging her shoulders. "Then we kill her and you remarry who you choose and name them regent," she concluded, brushing her palms in the gesture that signaled the end of the issue. "They keep the state and you come and go as you please."

I shook my head. It wasn't that I was opposed to the idea of killing one royal; I'd kill as many as I needed to in order to maintain my freedom. I simply wasn't sure it would definitively solve the issue; in truth it might exacerbate it. Plus fighting and killing wasn't what I did, not anymore. I'd long ago made the choice to handle things in as civilized a manner as I could afford. If I killed each and every competitor I'd ever had it would be a very lonely world.

"The only ones I would marry would be you or Leta. Leta is safe because she was grandfathered into California before the division of territories. Plus I'm pretty sure that would make things worse. So, my love that leaves you," I said with a taunting smile.

My child shot me a look of poorly veiled horror. I chuckled at her expression. She didn't look like a century old vampire. She looked nineteen and disgusted. If I was averse to marriage then Pam might as well be deathly allergic.

"Okay," she concluded. "We'll keep thinking."

I bet. I rolled my eyes derisively but otherwise made no comment. For a few seconds Pam drummed her fingers on her chin.

"Maybe a new changeling or a mainstreamer with no sire," she looked up from a spread sheet that spanned two computer monitors.

I caught on almost immediately. "I have to marry to settle in the state I want but it doesn't have to be a regent or a vampire even," I mused, following her train of thought.

There was a mischievous grin on her face. "And you guys say I'm not devious," she inserted smugly.

Another eye roll. "Technically I could marry the first human I saw in Oklahoma as long as she was born in that state under the rule of the current vampire regent." That law was very outdated but it hadn't changed as far as I knew. It would solve my problem.

"So you have decided on Freyda's kingdom?" she asked.

I nodded. "I think in the long run it will serve me best."

She pulled out her phone and sent out a text. "I'll check with the lawyers and scribes of the Pythoness."

Marrying just anyone meant I could control them. It didn't come with the benefit of any clout but it didn't come with risk either. Ideally, I needed an alliance with someone that had fighting power but was known for peace. It would ease the worries of the regents that I wasn't out for conquest. The answer came to me as I was retiring for the day. I could do scores better than a plain human.

The Sky Prince of the Fae had once asked me for a favor. He'd refused to specify so I told him I'd think about it. Three hundred years later I was still thinking about it. What he wanted no doubt constituted some risk on my part. He hadn't been worth the risk then, but he might be now.