Chapter 7

Questions

Intro song: Should I Stay or Should I Go, The Clash

Talbot sighed into the phone. "Yes, Edward. I know I owe Christophe a debt of gratitude, but I can't make- "

He ran his hand through his short hair in frustration. Was he the only person who spent his Friday nights trying to placate people who could not be satisfied? Who thought he owed them something?

His mind wandered back to his college days and Friday nights spent drinking tequila with Josh Lindsey and a couple of their buddies. After a long week of studying, they would all feel as if they were due the release after being stressed and overworked as law students all week. He missed Josh. He missed that feeling. Hell, he missed having any kind of life outside work.

"If I only knew," he muttered bitterly. Who would have thought that he would look back on that time as among the happiest of his life? Here he was now, alone on a Friday night, still doing work. Was it worth it? He couldn't answer that.

"Excuse me?" With a sigh, he came back to the conversation at hand. "I'm sorry, Edward. Talking to myself. Just tired, I guess. I'll get it done." He wedged the phone between shoulder and chin while he opened the refrigerator and grabbed a cold beer before responding to his mentor. "I haven't forgotten you want to meet Kostan. I'll get something set up when I can get to St. John."

Finally, the ADA had had his fill of dictates and orders and abruptly changed the subject. "How's Donna?" He listened for a minute. "Oh, I'm sorry I missed her. Well, give her a kiss for me and tell her I love her." He hung up before Garfield could come up with anything else to add to his 'to-do' list.

"Dammit!" He tossed the phone on the couch and followed it there, leading his head against the back and wedging the sole throw pillow under his neck. Why did it seem as if everything in his life had been going to hell ever since... Ever since you first met Mick St. John? St. John and that damned list of names he couldn't decipher.

With a tired sigh, he closed his eyes, shutting out all thoughts of work and a certain P.I.

Josef paced restlessly while he waited for the video conference to start. After the first virtual meeting during the party in Temecula, Kostan had decided that these discussions with Victoria, Elijah and Julian should be a weekly occurrence until they deemed that the potential threat to their communities was eliminated.

He had to admit, however, that there hadn't been much in the way of updates for these calls. There was still no trace of the nurse whom they thought might have been involved in Sara's death, no leads on the whereabouts of the detective who had shot Mick, no more attacks anywhere that might allow them to capture and question an operative...

"Damn it!" he sputtered. His gigantic computer screen chose that moment to come to life and an amused Julian Coubertin gazed out at him from his spot in Chicago.

"Feeling frustrated are we, my friend?" Coubertin's dark brown eyes sparkled with amusement. It was always fun to see the ever-glib Josef Kostan lose his cool. "Perhaps you should come visit Chicago now that I'm here to liven things up. Get a change of scenery. Taste a new freshie or two..."

Josef grimaced as he dropped into a chair in front of the computer. "Yeah, that's all I need. Get caught up in that little love triangle you've got going there. Or is it a foursome? What's Thea up to these days?"

"Not funny, Josef." In his irritation over Kostan's cracks, Julian's French accent reasserted itself. "First of all, Olivia and I are no longer together. We haven't been for many years, as you well know. Mon dieu, she and Elijah have been married for close to two hundred years now. Secondly, I no longer engage in group sex after that unfortunate...incident... in Boston a few years ago. Thirdly, Thea is no joking matter."

"Wow, hit a few sore spots did I? So, you are trying to tell me that you and Olivia are completely platonic. You have no feelings for her whatsoever." Loving awkward as he did, the whole dynamic between Julian, Olivia, and Elijah had always intrigued Josef.

"Of course I have feelings for her, you imbecile!" the New Orleans vampire snapped. "She's Olivia, how could I not? However, she made her choice years ago and, in order to maintain a friendship, I must respect that."

"So, you aren't hanging around Chicago, waiting to pick up the pieces if something should go wrong between Elijah and Olivia?" Josef knew he was pressing his luck with Julian, but he wanted to see just how things stood there. He told himself it was strictly for purposes of managing the current situation - but, if he were being honest with himself, it was really driven by the voyeur in him.

This time, however, he had pushed one button too many.

"Josef!" Coubertin exploded. "I know how you love to live vicariously through others - and how much you adore stirring up trouble - but I will not going to entertain any more discussion about my relationship with Olivia! You are well aware of what happened to my community and the need for Thea and I to be nomads! That is why I'm in Chicago, not because Olivia is here. Why do you dredge up such horrible memories?!"

For once, Kostan had the good grace to be ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry, Julian. I apologize. We all owe you an apology for not listening to your warnings when Katrina hit. In all honesty, I think we just believed it was your French blood making high drama out of a situation. It was our mistake and I, for one, will always regret it."

"Yes, it was your mistake - and mine, for not forcing the issue more," Coubertin admitted. "If there is a connection to what we are experiencing now - and I believe there is – we need to learn that had we only acted more decisively then, it might have been possible to head this off before Victoria and your friend were almost killed and Marie disappeared. Before Thea was...damaged." His handsome face looked sadly out at Josef. "We have much to atone for - on all sides."

"What do I have to atone for?" Victoria Silver's elegant voice sounded before her face appeared on the screen. "I'll have you know that I don't believe in regrets or apologies."

"We know!" The two men already on the conference call chimed in together, then laughed.

"My dear Victoria, if we know nothing else about you, we certainly know that." Elijah Lucas's face appeared on the screen.

"Elijah! When did you shave your goatee?" Victoria exclaimed.

"When my friend here grew his." The Chicago tribe leader gestured toward Julian, seated next to him. "I didn't want Olivia to confuse us!"

"He just has hair envy... among other things." Coubertin wise-cracked.

Everyone laughed and Victoria groaned. "Oh god, not more penis jokes. I feel like I'm in a frat house when I'm on these calls."

"You are," Josef responded. "Tell me you don't enjoy it."

There was laughter again, then Victoria sobered. "Well, enough of the fun. I am sad to confess that we have no new information on Marie's whereabouts. Gabrielle and others have been working non-stop, but all of our efforts have, so far, been in vain. Given what's happened recently, I really fear the worst at this point. What does everyone else have to report?"

"Nothing," Kostan responded glumly. "Not a damn thing." He proceeded to give his fellow leaders an update on the various investigations and their lack of progress, concluding with, "At this point, I think the only thing we can do from our end is to keep my guys digging, but I'm not optimistic that we'll find anything we haven't already uncovered."

"What about silver purchases?" Julian's dark eyes were almost black with concern.

"Not much new - and most of what we are seeing is, I think, a market hedge against the declining stock prices. Hell, even I've bought silver."

"Maybe we all should." Elijah chimed in. "You know, protect our portfolios - and our behinds - at the same time."

Julian snorted. "Eli, my friend, you have a very inflated view of the value of your posterior. Now, Olivia's on the other hand..." He smiled over at the husband of his ex-lover as the two vampires sat side-by-side in Lucas's Chicago office.

Josef tried to get the conversation back on track. "I think we can all agree that Olivia's ass is well worth protecting. The point is, we have not seen significant shifts in actual silver stockpiles, just in investments."

"How far back have you looked, Josef?" Victoria's tone was mild.

"The beginning of the year."

"And what," Victoria asked pointedly, "makes you think that whoever is behind all this hasn't been planning this for a long, long time?"

"Shit!" Josef exclaimed, smacking his forehead with the palm of one hand. "You're right. How fucking stupid am I?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Julian responded wickedly.

"Shut up Julian!" Elijah barked. "None of us thought of it until now. Josef, how quickly can they do a look-back of several years?"

"Not sure, but I'll find out as soon as I get off this call." Kostan's forehead wrinkled worriedly. "I hope I haven't done us irreparable harm."

"Stop it, Josef. I didn't even think about it until just now." Victoria's voice was firm. "We may be vampires but we're not omniscient."

"Omnipotent maybe, but not omniscient." Coubertin quipped.

"Oh for god's sake, Julian!" Victoria had reached the limits of her patience with the perennially joking vampire. "Someone remind me again why we include this guy in these calls?"

"Because I have first-hand experience with annihilation of a community of vampires, perhaps?" There was no joking tone in Coubertin's voice now. "Imagine, if you can, Victoria, all the vampires you know in your fair city being wiped out within a matter of a few days. Watch over an assistant you care deeply about, who was so tortured and scarred that she's been left virtually psychotic and needs constant supervision. Be forced to flee your home. When that happens to you, you won't need me any longer as a resource and I'll gladly bow out of this little gathering."

There was silence on the call as each of the participants grappled with the images conjured up by Julian's words.

Coubertin broke the stillness. "Now that I have your attention, there's one other item we should discuss before we adjourn. Your closest associates need to be fully brought into this now, not later."

"Not yet," Josef shook his head vehemently.

Victoria glared into the computer monitor. "Absolutely not. I've made my feelings on this quite clear. They know what they need to for now. At this point, I do not want Gabrielle any more involved with the Council than she already is."

"How many times do we need to go over this?!" Julian exclaimed impatiently. "They need to either get on board or you replace them! If you can't count on them for this, they have lost their effectiveness. We don't have the time for delicate sensibilities, I'm warning you. Victoria, you agree with me on the threat we are facing. It's just a matter of ferreting out who exactly is involved. I cannot believe you are fighting me on this!"

"Julian, is it just possible that your feelings on this are colored by your past experience?" Victoria's voice was kind. Even though he got on her last nerve, she had great admiration for the French vampire. And he was exceedingly easy on the eyes.

"Of course it is!" Coubertin was fuming now, a rare event for him. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Any of you heard that one before?"

"Shakespeare, right?" Josef grinned into the computer, knowing this was incorrect - and calculating that this would set off Julian even more.

He was right.

"Oh for heaven's sake, Josef! What have you done with your four centuries on this earth?! Certainly not educated yourself, that's for sure. George Santayana said that. I met the man in Europe - in Madrid, actually - at the turn of the last century. Brilliant philosopher."

"The wisest mind has something yet to learn.' That was another quote of George's," the billionaire replied sarcastically. "I met him when he was at Harvard - we were good friends, actually. He bounced a lot of ideas off me when he was writing 'The Last Puritan'."

Elijah began howling at this point, holding his aching sides as his eyes streamed with tears. When he could finally bring himself back under control enough to talk, he managed to gasp, "I don't know which is funnier - the look on Julian's face when you told him you were friends with George... or the idea that you would have collaborated with anyone on a book about Puritans, Josef!" He went off into paroxysms of laughter again.

"Well," Kostan responded with an impish grin, "at the end of the book, his protagonist does convince himself that it is wrong to be a puritan. Let me tell you, though, it took many a late night to persuade George of that ending."

Victoria couldn't resist joining into the verbal sparring. "Julian, dear, you should shut your mouth - you'll catch flies in it the way it's hanging open."

"Oh, fuck all of you." Coubertin muttered, his dark eyes flashing. His normally fun-loving nature reasserted itself almost immediately, however. "Well-played, Josef."

"Thank you. He was a great mind. Just because I like a somewhat hedonistic lifestyle doesn't mean I've never learned anything along the way, my friend."

"On that note," Elijah broke in, "the lovely Olivia is approaching and I have my own hedonistic tendencies to fulfill..."

"All right, gentlemen. We will conclude this conference and reconvene next week? Unless someone comes up with anything significant, of course. In that case. Reach out and we'll schedule something right away. And, we can reach an agreement on the matter of our assistants then," Victoria added. I don't think we are treating this urgently enough.

The three handsome faces looking out at her from the oversized flat-screen monitor nodded solemnly before the screen went black.

Victoria leaned back in her chair with a sigh, contemplating the ornate molding edging the high ceiling in her study. She did agree with Julian's sense of urgency - even though she'd been unsuccessful so far in her attempts to get the Eastern Council to agree with her. Perhaps Julian was right. Maybe it was time to sit down with Gabrielle and Olivia... and Mick... and tell them everything the elder vampires knew.

Perhaps.

End Song: Nobody Told me, Puddle of Mud