"Absolutely. For a price, of course."

My first instinct was to laugh uproariously that the imbecile before me thought he could blackmail me based on such flimsy evidence, regardless of the veracity of his claims. The cocksure fool was clearly bluffing, and I was not about to fall into that trap.

But I would indulge his little fantasy, for just a moment.

"Oh, and what would that price be? I do prefer to avoid trouble, even when it is completely without merit." I tried to look as if there was even a possible universe in which I might consider giving in to such shameless extortion.

"I think we could agree to keep these suspicions to ourselves and even let you keep this vampire slayer that you are so fond of, for the simple price of, oh, I don't know, perhaps a dozen feeders a year, three per quarterly seems fair."

My temper surged through me, and I resisted the urge to try to wring his neck, although my sharp nails longed for the feel of his flesh. The final dregs of amusement I had for Magnus and his cronies disappeared, leaving only rage and loathing.

The idea that I would give them even one human was absurd, but, perhaps I could still salvage the situation somehow. Jamie was doing an admirable job of not acting like himself, but his decent performance had not mollified these vultures in the slightest. He was learning, but it was not enough.

"While your offer is...interesting, I don't really see how it benefits me in any way. Your entire offer hinges on the assumption that my slave has killed vampires, when he clearly has no capability and there are thousands of humans who fit a similar description."

Willow had been letting her greedy eyes wander over my humans who were standing passively along the walls with their heads and eyes lowered and she finally turned her attention back to me. "No. You keep your humans especially fit, and I've never seen any like this, anywhere."

Katter stood up and spoke again, still an unusual occurrence. "You're bluffing, Councillor Vienne. I think you not only knew that this human had killed other vampires, but I believe that you find some sort of perverse pleasure in the fact. I wouldn't be surprised if you let him loose for your own twisted amusement."

I ignored that the pot was calling the kettle black. "I am frankly shocked that you could think so ill of me," I said, trying to sound hurt.

Willow scoffed as she stood up and moved closer. It seemed the little trio was trying to intimidate me, as if they were capable of such a feat.

"I'll give you my offer just one more time, Vienne. Do you agree, or do we take our suspicions to Ivan and the council? Your activities have been nothing less than suspicious, I wouldn't be surprised if your deceit goes even further than that."

I sighed. It seemed they really had figured me out, at least on a surface level, and more than enough for the council to come around asking uncomfortable questions. After many decades of keeping one step ahead, finally one of the fools had discovered a fraction of my secrets.

"Very well. I'll give what you ask, in return for your silence."

I ignored the tensing of my humans around the room. Their reactions were not what mattered now.

I stood up and looked at each one in turn. "I suppose it was my predilection for difficult humans that was my downfall. I only saw his pretty face when I first bought him, but underneath there was an impressive stubbornness. It was only recently I came to suspect that he might be the slayer," I lied.

"Did he escape?" Willow asked, slightly breathlessly as she looked Jamie over in a way that flared my anger.

"No insofar as I know. Perhaps, instead, he had an accomplice, or a number of accomplices? It seems unlikely that any single human could take down even one vampire alone, doesn't it?"

"True," Magnus agreed.

I walked between Magnus and Katter as if they were not even there. The three turned and watched me as I strode directly towards Jamie. He had his head down and his eyes on the ground, and I was as impressed as ever by his self-control. How much energy must this spectacular human extend to keep all that rage hiding below the surface?

"I am rather fond of dousing this one's fire," I lied. "I will not be giving him to you." I ran my fingertips along his arm, before turning back to my antagonistic guests.

"I little care, Vienne," Magnus said, triumph clear in his tone and the straightening of his back.

I strode back towards the other vampires and asked over my shoulder.

"Little Human, do you have that little trinket I gave you?"

"I do."

"And do you remember what I once told you?"

He paused. "You've told me a lot of things, Mistress."

"Well, do you recall the one in which I implied you might have certain opportunities once again?"

"Yes."

I met Jamie's eyes and then I moved my gaze onwards to meet the other humans' in the room. Some had their faces too downcast in their pretence of passivity, but some met my gaze with their own and the fire that I had nurtured so carefully was present in their eyes.

I smiled, my fangs on full display. "Well, this is your moment, humans."

Lunging forward, I grabbed Magnus on both sides of his head and I wrenched his neck off to the side with a loud crack. Releasing my hands, I let him fall to the ground, the ridiculous expression of victory slackening into unconsciousness.

Willow shrieked in horror in a most undignified and terribly unvampiric fashion. I rolled my eyes.

"Murderer!"

"I prefer to call it self-defence. And he's hardly dead, yet. He'll heal, if he's not properly destroyed," I told her musingly as I turned to deal with her.

Her face was contorted with her rage, but I had no more time to ponder how truly ugly she could look, because Katter had apparently decided to take the initiative and attack.

I avoided his attack, although he was quite fast, almost as fast as me. Only my age gave me the advantage, but it was not enough to make the outcome of this fight certain. Magnus was already stirring as Willow lunged towards Jamie.

I forced my attention onto my attacker. I would just have to trust him. My guards were also in motion and I had full faith in them that they could take down a lone vampire.

"Were you behind all that human's other kills?"

I chuckled. "No, I acquired him afterwards. He was caught in the wild, but no one had the sense to recognize the mysterious vampire slayer in the slave pens below the council building. Although, I will admit I did not try that hard to stop him from going after Jack, and Dana got in his way. A pity that he didn't manage to properly destroy her, too."

"What else are you planning?" he asked. Was he trying to get me talking in an attempt to let me lower my guard? Or perhaps he was trying to buy time by a vain attempt to get me talking about my plans.

I was not going to fall for it, but talking did suit my purposes, since Marcel and Javier were moving towards him from behind. "I'm rather impressed that you've surmised as much as you have. Perhaps you were the true brains behind Magnus's wagging tongue?"

Katter frowned, but did not answer as he lunged at me again in a clear attempt to try to get his hands on me.

I slipped out of the reach of his hands before he could get me. "Well, I've decided that there's no harm in letting you know. I was getting so very bored that I needed something to do, and the council is starting to get extremely tedious, more so every year. Perhaps I decided to let the vampire killer out to get some exercise."

And then, I saw his eyes widen and he spun around to see who had attacked him, showing me one of the finely crafted daggers I gave to my humans in the centre of his back.

Before he could lunge for Marcel, I grabbed him and pulled him back towards me.

"Your mistake was as much in underestimating humans as much as it was in underestimating me." I pulled the dagger out and stabbed it in twice more for good measure before turning my attention back to the final remaining threat.

Unfortunately, it seemed Willow was a better fighter than her whining had always led me to assume. I had not had the opportunity to see her in action during the human suppression wars, but it seemed she had not only survived because of the protection of Magnus and Katter. She was brutal and was after my humans with a fury that caused an echoing fury inside me. Two of my guards were on the ground and Jamie was directly in the center of her attention.

I was not going to have it, but before I could intervene, the door opened and Raoul stepped inside and lifted his firearm in a smooth motion and aimed at Willow.

The shot reverberated through the room and the bullet tore through Willow. She shrieked an ungodly sound and redoubled her efforts. I surged forward.

In the moment before I reached her, Jamie slammed the dagger in his hand into her chest up to the hilt. She swept his leg under him and he hit the floor, hard, but before she could further attack him, Raoul shot her twice more. She went down hard, and Theo shoved his dagger into the side of her chest.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Magnus twitching, almost like he was a fish out of water. It was really gross. I walked over and snapped his neck again. He lay still.

"Get Ian and Mantis to the medical wing. We need to deal with these three. They're too old to be destroyed from simple damage and a staking, and the size of the fire that could burn them would be too revealing. It's hours until dawn. Make sure they don't wake up, keep staking and restaking them until the sun is up."

I sighed. This whole thing was going to be such a bother to clean up. Of course, Magnus and his sidekicks would be the ones to mess up all my plans.

Well, if nothing else, it was a nice bit of variation from my routine, and had been the perfect excuse to see Jamie again.