I trapped Drak in my games room through the sheer force of my will. We played a number of rounds of various games, which were mildly entertaining, mostly because of our creative handicaps and his vampire reflexes, but he just did not have that competitive spirit that I so enjoyed fighting against. Ultimately, Drak did not care if he won or not. Half of my humans had more killer instincts than my old vampiric friend.

It was difficult to imagine what his sire had seen in him when he had been human, but then when I looked over at those chiselled cheekbones and those clear blue eyes I was pretty sure I could guess precisely what her motive had been.

Still, playing with Drak was somewhat amusing with the added bonus that it kept my mind off of a certain someone who I was not going to think about and it kept his mind off of annoying me about what he thought I should do while I was at the council, although he was still certainly more than happy to sneakily pop it in whenever he got the chance.

I began to suspect he was trying to manage me and I did not like it one bit. That was the tragic job I had given to Leif and I should hardly like to see one of my favourite humans unemployed.

"What if you submitted a bill about basic human rights and dignities?" I scowled under my blindfold. Was he trying to mess up my shot by asking foolish questions?

"Don't be ridiculous." I hit the cue ball and heard it knock into other balls and then the satisfying clunks as two fell into the pockets.

"Human slave unions?"

I pushed my blindfold up to look for my next shot and also so Drak could properly see my scowl while I answered. "Politics is the art of the possible. It would be utterly stupid to waste my indefinite yet precious time chasing my own tail. If you care so much what happens at the council, why don't you just join it yourself?"

He laughed at me incredulously. "Do you really believe for a second that they would let me on the council, and even if they would, do you know how hard it would be to get the necessary support? Not to mention I would need to be sponsored by a current seat holder."

He made good points, and I was actually surprised that he seemed to know so much about the process. Had he considered attempting trying to work his way into politics? He had little hope based on his soft ideology, but if he did manage to wriggle into a seat, it would not be the first time someone made it in politics with little more than a pretty face.

Still, my goals were far more important than humouring Drak's soppingly mushy sentiments. I leaned down to take my next blind shot, this time aiming for the eight ball.

"I've worked extremely hard to get where I am and I'm not at all keen on destroying that over a few of your sentimentalities."

As he replied I took my shot and heard the cue ball slam into the eight.

"Vienne, I know that under your prickly exterior you actually care abou—"

At the satisfying sound of my victory I pushed up my blindfold to scowl at him.

"Ew, Drak. Stay back. You might get some of that gross sticky do-gooderism rubbed off on me."

He looked at me with his stupid blue puppy dog eyes set in that classically attractive bone structure.

"You can knock that off right now. I'm resolute."

"Vienne..."

"Shut up, Drak."

"But you know—"

"Fine," I said with an exaggeratedly long breath and an eye roll for emphasis, "I'm going to support Davidson's bill about increasing hunting restrictions on ferals in the name of blood security."

"Oh?" he looked interested.

"But don't you start getting your hopes up. I'm only doing it because Davidson gave me something I wanted, and you'd better not run around telling anyone that. If you try to paint me as some hero you're only going to find yourself disappointed, and as much as I would love to feast on your despair, I'm already stuffed full of the misery of my own human slaves and I have no more room for more."

"Very well."

I scowled at him to ensure he got my point, although it was a dismal failure. He looked entirely too pleased with my words.

I racked up the pool balls for another game. I didn't usually like the lack of challenge presented by winning all the time, but Drak deserved a sound thrashing for trying to boss me around.

"Make sure you don't breathe a word. It's a special surprise for the council. I shouldn't even have told you."

"I promise," he said. "The last thing I would ever do is help the council."

"And you can only stay the day. I have to leave at dark tomorrow and when I go, so do you."

"Of course. As I said, I want to find the nomads before they get too far."

I inspected him while he went to break without the benefit of vision. I wanted to keep his mind off nagging me, so a diversion was in order. "You know, I might actually have something that you could do while you're wandering about to make yourself useful for once."

He hit the cue ball and sent it careening into the neat triangle. Balls bounced off the edges and two of them sunk. He pushed up the blindfold and looked up at me. "Oh?"

"My next project needs a vampire with some feral human relational skills, and you seem to be the best possible choice at hand. I don't know anyone else who walks amongst them so freely."

He looked at me as if I were possibly handing him a snake. "What do you want? I'm not helping you to capture free humans."

"So suspicious." I tutted. "If I were rounding up ferals I would hardly ask for your assistance. Although there is a certain similarity to my delightful new idea."

He waited, his mistrustful regard directly upon me. For a softy, he was certainly wary and stubborn. One who did not know him would expect him to have more give.

"So, when I had that visit from Davidson and Naomi, I got thinking."

"What did they suggest?" He pulled down his blindfold for his next shot.

"It was not so much what they said. They were more like a blank screen on which I projected my own brilliance. Regardless, the method is unimportant." I paused to give my brilliant idea the proper dramatic flair. "I have decided it is far past time to resurrect Hollywood. I'm naming it New Hollywood, and I shall be its Mistress. We'll have a new golden age of cinema. And that, Drak, is where I need your assistance."

"I don't see what you could possibly want me to do." He took his shot and accidentally sank one of my balls.

"Well, you have humans who actually like you, so you can be the talent scout. And also the vice-president, although perhaps we'll have to keep that quiet for now since no vampires like you."

He ignored the point. "I'm not nearly so unpopular as you portray, it's simply that you spend too much time around the worst sorts."

"If you say so." I inspected the table for my next play.

"Anyway, if I'm the vice-president of your little scheme, who's the president of New Hollywood?"

"Me, of course. This way there'll be no confusion over whether mistress or vice-president has supremacy. Unless you wish to be vice-mistress?"

His disgruntled expression was answer enough.

I hid my great amusement and continued. "So, I'm thinking, I'll petition the council to make New Hollywood a neutral territory where feral humans are not to be captured."

"They'll never agree to that."

"That's what you think. I'll propose the production some pro-vampire propaganda pieces for the ferals to watch. The council will simply adore that." I took my shot and was pleased to hear my chosen ball sink solidly into its proper pocket.

Drak frowned. "I'm not helping you brainwash the free humans, Vienne."

I pushed up my blindfold and leaned up against the table, facing him. "Ignore the brainwashing bit, Drak. I just miss media. Do you remember how amazing it was the first time you saw a moving picture? Don't you want to be able to sit in front of a television screen or tablet and binge watch fifteen seasons of some show while drinking a blood smoothie again? Is that so much to ask? You know how this new generation of vampires is, they have no vision. If I don't do this, if we don't do this, no one will."

Sadly, my friend did not yet seem convinced to go along with my flight of fancy.

"And honestly, I don't care about the propaganda angle at all. That's just the hook to get the council on board with my latest plan, a devious bit of marketing. We could just do really bad and obvious propaganda to cover subversive messages or something if that makes you happy enough to join. Remember the power of the media?"

"Why is everything subversive propaganda and brainwashing with you?"

I ignored his questions. "Just think, Drak, we could eventually harness the power of the internet!"

I could be Mistress of the Internet. The world would tremble before me.

"I know you've got bits and pieces of tech, but do you even have the capabilities to do that?"

"I don't know, but I bet my humans do. Or at least they will in a couple of generations. We have to start somewhere, and we've already got security cameras. They're black and white, but it's a start. They'll need to devise film reels or something, I suppose." I rolled my eyes. "They make so many vampires, you'd think they could have sought out some technicians, or a computer programmer, or something in the mix. Short sighted, that's what they are."

Drak shrugged. "Do you think either of our sires turned us for our human skill sets?"

He had a point I could not disagree with. What had I been besides a wealthy man's daughter he meant to marry off? "Vampires really are so shallow."

Drak raised his eyebrow to the most skeptical arch possible.

"I'm not being a hypocrite, much. I just collect pretty humans, not thoughtlessly turn them into indefinite beings. And, I'll have you know, all of my humans are more than just pretty faces. They've got some serious skill sets."

"Vienne, you're even conceited when it comes to your humans."

I shrugged. "I choose the best. Give a human a bit of freedom and purpose and they thrive."

"Freedom?"

"I said a bit. Do you really think they'd be better off out there? They come in in the worst, most dismal condition."

"Well, being free is a risk, especially with the vampires harshly oppressing them."

I sighed. "Enough with the seditious talk, Drak," I said with all the sternness I could manage, and I pushed down the part of me that wanted to bring him into my real plans. It was better if he simply went back to his hippy nomads. "If you don't watch it you'll find yourself on the wrong side of the council."

He raised his eyebrows. "Was I ever not?"

"Fair point." I sighed dramatically. "Okay, Drak. I'm going to level with you, but if you ever repeat my words I will have you staked in the sun, and I promise you my excellent humans have the skill sets to see it through."

His eyes met mine steadily. "When have I ever betrayed your confidence?"

He had a point. "Fine." I scowled at him for good measure and lowered my voice. "I really do miss the old world."

Drak's brows drew together in sympathy.

I never said those words out loud. They sounded horribly pathetic in a most unvampiric sort of way and his reaction was the exact reason I did not say such things, ever.

"I liked when humans did their own thing and I would live my life and seek out a few humans I could trust. Everything was so colourful back then. I could have lived forever in that world. But this world? It's is so grey outside my domain. So grey, so black, so red. Where's the vibrancy? It's tedious."

"It's all out there, in the parts of the world the vampires aren't touching, Vienne. Far from here, there are quiet tribes of humans who have not seen a vampire in generations."

I shook my head. "I don't want that. I want the old world back. How long will those peaceful tribes survive once the idiot council runs the blood supply into the ground and vampires get desperate? They'll all be hunted to extinction."

"Well, aren't you in a position to affect change?"

I was hoping to affect more change than he could imagine. Like the last time I had seen him, I was tempted to bring him into my plans, but I hesitated. While we shared similar vampiric natures, Drak lacked my inherent duplicity, and Drak's well known human sympathies would be likely to cause suspicion to rebound onto me. I could not afford it.

No. Things were better as they were, and everyone, including Drak, were safer if he remained uninvolved, no matter how tempted I was.

I shook my head. "That's much harder than you seem to believe. For now, I'm going to focus on my New Hollywood project. Are you going to help me?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, all traces of pity thankfully gone. "You seriously want me to wander around looking for actors?"

"And people with a good eye for film. Maybe some directors? Editors? Technically astute people? I don't know anything about how movies were made. But for now, I'm more interested in you just keeping your eyes open for potential. If you do luck out, you could send them to me."

Drak looked at me with disbelief. "You want me to wander amongst the free humans saying, "Hey, you seem like you would be good at acting in a hypothetical movie made by Vienne, the vampire who put forward that bill that forced you or someone you know to be branded?"

"Hmm. That does seem slightly problematic."

"Exactly."

I let him believe I saw reason just for long enough for him to let down his guard and then I looked at him with wide eyes and asked, "Could you simply kidnap them?"

"Vienne!"

I rolled my eyes as if he were being unreasonable. "You're so squeamish."

"I am not kidnapping any humans, ever."

I batted my eyelashes. "It's for a good cause."

He looked distinctly annoyed with me now, just the way I liked him. "You know there are lines I won't cross."

"It doesn't hurt to ask. How am I to know that you're still holding the line?"

He gave me a contemptuous look that seemed oddly out of place on his open face. I did not really like the intensity so I dialed back my theatrics a notch.

"I've got my own lines—well, line—that I've never crossed."

He raised his eyebrow at me so I did him a favour and explained. "I've never made a vampire yet."

The slight tilt of his head acknowledged my point. "Neither have I."

"Ugh, that only makes me feel bad about my resolve if it means I'm being grouped with you. Perhaps I shall go out and make a hundred vampires to set myself apart."

"Apart from me and like the rest of them?"

"Good point. You go out and make a hundred vampires to set me apart."

"I'll bet you'd love another hundred vampires running around your humans."

It was a really unpleasant thought, even if they were Drak's fledglings.

"And isn't making that many against the law?" he asked.

I nodded. "True. It was merely a thought experiment. The law must be upheld. All hail the new vampire order, etcetera." Darn Drak and his ability to make me forget myself.

I lined myself up for my next shot.