After spending a couple of nights at New Haven, I returned home and resumed my life as it had before I had let one human male shake me so terribly.

It was not that difficult to do so, since I had lived without the delightful entertainment of Jamie for such a long time. It was like falling into old habits. I oversaw my humans and watched their little interactions. Javier seemed quite happy with the addition of Davidson's female, and I found some small satisfaction that he was satisfied, for he had given me much.

If my life seemed just a touch more hollow than it had been before I had acquired Jamie, it was only in my mind. I had everything that I had had before. I was surrounded by humans with that spark of rebellion that so pleased me and I still had my fulfilling plans for dismantling the irritating structural mess the vampires had made of my world. Losing one human was nothing I had not experienced a thousand times before and survived seamlessly.

And so, I did what I did best. I amused and distracted myself. When I was not plotting ways to vex Davidson while still supporting the bill I had agreed upon, I haunted Leif's office, the halls, and challenged my humans to various games. They acquiesced readily enough, but I could not escape the feeling that they were walking on eggshells around me, more than was strictly normal.

I ignored this intuition, because I had nothing to gain from it but more dissatisfaction. I did what I needed to do. I listened to progress reports as they came in and continued to help my humans learn to fight my kind. Many were quite terrified to fight me, which boded ill if they were ever forced to fight a vampire who truly meant them harm. I could only hope that their survival instincts would give them an edge if ever they found themselves in such a situation. I did not inform them of their dismal performances.

It was a relief as we began to prepare to leave for the quarterly, because I fully intended to wring as much enjoyment from these meetings as possible.

It was one thing to look for a challenge when playing games with my humans, but with my fellow monsters for whom I felt little love, I could act without restraint so long as it did not show my hand.

* * * * *

It was evening, a couple of weeks after I had released Jamie and a couple of nights before the next quarterly. Leif was lecturing me on my strategies for the coming meetings. I nodded in agreement while I tried to focus on his words. He was of the belief that if he did not repeat instructions over and over to me I would forget them in a fit of flighty amusement seeking. I would perhaps be insulted, but his opinions often had merit.

Therefore, I tolerated his anxious behavior and did not order him to stop, even though I was fairly certain that my most recent injury I had recklessly courted had damaged my appearance of invulnerability in his eyes. I took a long sip of my indulgently metallic coffee and watched him across his desk.

"I know that you can handle it," he began before what would surely be a description of the reasons he feared the opposite, "But I am still concerned that you're aligning yourself with Davidson too much lately. You are aware that the other councillors already have their attention on you, and—"

"I always keep their attention on me, Leif. I enjoy it, and no one expects the insurgent to be hiding in the spotlight."

He continued as if I had not spoken. "And while I am aware that you have nurtured your wildcard persona, that does not mean that the other vampires might not assume you're losing your edge and starting to get sympathetic towards the plight of humans. We can't have that."

I rolled my eyes at him, merely to wind him up. "It will be fine. I'll have my feeders scream with extra agony while I'm there, and I fully intend to vote on every small anti-human bit of legislation that I can manage this time to offset it." Perhaps I could find some cotton to stuff in my ears while they acted so convincingly.

"What if the other bills presented are so egregious that you can't?"

"Then I'll double my passion about blood security and then remind them that I began the process of having all the ferals branded on a whim. It was quite a popular bill and I gained quite a lot of credit for it from the hardliners. Perhaps I should have put something terrible forward, like mandatory whippings for small infractions or such."

Leif raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"What? I would do that," I lied. As if I would actively seek out another type of damage to my humans' lovely skin. I took another drink of my coffee.

"You don't even like the brands, do you really want a bunch of scars on all your humans? Or on humans you haven't managed to get your hands on yet?"

"You know that I was being hyperbolic." I favored Leif with another dismissive eye roll. Rolling my eyes did not properly maintain my vampiric dignity, but it irritated Leif so it was a worthy sacrifice.

He nodded curtly, but his expression remained severe.

"I promise you that I shall be careful."

He scoffed. I found myself getting annoyed.

"If you're so concerned, why don't you come along? You're still handsome enough to pass as one of my playthings."

"As flattering as that is, Mistress, who would run things here if I left?"

"That's a good point. You should be grooming an heir to your throne. You do not give your assistants enough responsibility."

He chuckled a bit at my description. "It's hardly a throne, Vienne. And are you planning to get rid of me?"

I smiled at him ruefully. "No, of course not, but I just have the feeling that disturbances are coming, and we should be prepared. And I should not have to remind you of your own mortality. You humans are all like shooting stars, you flare brightly then burn out in a moment."

"Well, it's longer than that."

"All analogies fail if you push them too hard." I shrugged. My cup was almost sadly empty.

"Indeed."

The agreement did not surprise me, but the way he continued inspecting me did, as if he were desperately attempting to determine my emotional stability. Did I see something like sympathy in his eyes? How dreadful, I would have to take steps to snuff out that sort of nonsense, but first, a strategic retreat was in order.

"Well,—" I began, but Leif spoke at the same time.

"How are you, really?"

I smiled my usual self-satisfied smirk. "I am fine, of course. I'm at one hundred percent, and I'm looking forward to my next council battles." If I occasionally got an odd pang in the vicinity of my dead heart, I simply chalked it up to the lingering effects of being staked. I was certain all vampires who survived a staking would have an equally similar experience.

"So don't worry your pretty little head about it, handsome human male," I finished in my most condescending tone.

Unfortunately, Leif was well used to ignoring such things. "Vienne—"

I scowled at him. "The matter is closed. I have said I am fine, and I am fine. There's no more to it than that. The only problem I have now is that certain people keep acting as if I am breakable, rather than what I actually am, nearly indestructible. I am well aware my games got me staked, but it is not the serious matter you all seem to believe it was. My games were amusing, but now they're done."

Leif decided to push his luck. "He could have dragged you out into the sun to reduce you to ash if he had wanted. You're here solely based on the fact that his impatience for freedom overwhelmed his desire to kill you."

I was getting weary of these lectures about my recklessness.

"It was a gamble, but it worked out fine. Now, I need to get more coffee before your incessant lecturing puts me back to sleep."

He did not look even slightly perturbed at my comment. "There are more things that we need to go over before you leave."

I translated his words to mean that he was not sufficiently satisfied that I could handle everything. "Very well, but I have things to do, and worst of all, I am out of coffee. I'll come back after you wake in the morning."

"Mistress," he said. I nodded and swept from the room.

* * * * *

After I wandered down to the makeshift kitchens and got more coffee, I had made my way to my chambers. I had been tempted to hang around there and pester them, but the kitchens had enough difficulty what with making do with a different space as well as one less staff member since Madeline was still recovering, although she had been released from the hospital wing.

The new humans had been left languishing in the dungeons, because I had not been in the mood to deal with them after their nearly deadly little trick. I was rather angry at them, although it was fading in slow degrees, but it was never good to deal with humans when I was angry, because I tended to say and do things that were not entirely strategic.

Perhaps after the kitchens were properly restored I would turn my attention to them. In spite of everything, I still thought the humans had promise, and I had been at fault in part for not dealing with them in a timely manner. It was my job to examine them and break them into accepting joining a vampire's cause, and I had barely a handful of conversations with them.

Now, I had no distractions, so once I turned my attention to the task I could test the mettle of my new humans properly, and funnel them into their proper roles.

Taking a deep drink from my newly replenished cup, I entered and sat on my favourite settee. Marcel and Mantis were on duty this day, and I smiled at them both. I had long since dismissed the guards that they had trailing around after me. I would have guards follow me around when I wished, and no more often than that.

I spent a while simply lying back and going over my arguments again for defending Davidson's bill at the council. I focused on witty insults I might use in the moment against Davidson to camouflage my reasoning for supporting him, and of course for my own amusement. I wondered if he knew me well enough by now to know what misery was coming for him along with my support.

A smile crossed my face unwittingly. Davidson and Naomi always had long since assumed the worst of me and I hoped that my recent actions had not made them think too kindly. It would be terribly inconvenient if Davidson stopped reacting with annoyance at my smallest word and started believing I had good intentions.

I began to consider what I might do with myself next. I decided to get a human to come and play games with me. I considered dragging out Nate to play pool, but then I remember how pressed they already were after the kitchen fire. I sent a dark thought towards the humans locked in my dungeons. Perhaps I would deal with them when I returned from the quarterly if I was sufficiently calm.

Perhaps I might see if Carter wanted to play darts, but then I recalled he was on the wall today. Perhaps Leif would play chess, but I rejected the idea considering he would likely take the opportunity to lecture me further.

My pondering was interrupted by footsteps in the hall. "Open the door," I commanded my guards.

When Jon came in the door, he said, "Mistress? You have a guest." He swallowed nervously. He was not used to dealing with me yet.

I was not certain if I was pleased by the intrusion or not. "Oh? Who is it?"

"Drak?"

I scowled. It seemed that he was going with a woefully bad timing theme this year. I rolled my eyes. "Tell Leif to take the necessary precautions and then let him in. Tell Drak to come here to speak with me."

"Yes, Mistress," he said.

His quick footsteps retreated as he hurried to carry out my orders, and I decided that I was quite pleased to see Drak. He was probably here to nag me some more about my behavior, but the idea of having him with me was pleasing none the less, even if he had decided to present himself only the night before I was set to leave for the quarterly.

Still, my humans had everything well in hand and Drak would be the perfect distraction to deal with my growing lethargic boredom.

So I waited, sprawling lazily on my favourite chair and waited for my friend to present himself before me. I did not have to wait for long before His familiar footfalls walked briskly towards my chambers. "Open up for my guest," I commanded.

Drak walked in as soon as the doors were opened, looking so classically handsome I could not help but appreciate the sight, although it had been so long since I had seen him in a romantic sense. "What brings you back so soon?" I asked him, narrowing my eyes although even that could not entirely suppress the smile that began creeping across my face.

"I was just in the area so I thought I would drop in."

"In the area? I was under the impression you were heading back to your little flower child nomad group."

He did not even have the grace to look irritated by my comment. "No, I decided to see what the lay of the land was like for now. There's a lot of anti-vampire sentiment stirring up out there."

"It's not surprising, humans do tend to be a bit oversensitive."

"You know as well as I it's because of their harsh treatment at our hands, Vienne. And that branding bill was a spark in a powder keg."

I frowned for real. "If you just came back here to annoy me about my bill again, you're not going to have any more luck than the last time you came to harass me about it. I have my reasons and they remain solid."

"But, just imagine how surprised the other councillors would be if you brought the opposite bill," he said in the most obvious attempt at trying to tempt me I had ever seen in my incredibly long life. It was frankly insulting to the extreme.

I raised my eyebrow in disdain. "That bill bought me credit with many of the other councillors, and I already have plans how to spend it. And even if I wanted to change it now—and I don't—I would not be able to get the support."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Top secret, my darling hippy," I said to him sweetly. "Did you come here for anything else?"

"Also for a visit. I do intend to return to my little flower child nomad group before too long, but I wanted to see you again first."

He seemed to be telling me the truth so I rose from my settee in one fluid motion. "Sounds good. Now come, you shall amuse me."

He grinned ruefully. "What shall we do?"

"Oh, I shall think of something," I said with a wicked smile meant solely to discomfort him.