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.Leonore was sitting in the back of the church, looking simultaneously annoyed and curious.Her apprentice, a dimwitted vampire named James, looked dumbfounded as usual.Sasha had expected these two to arrive early, and they had not disappointed her.Leonore desperately wished to be involved in anything of significance that was happening in the vampire world.The last two vampires in the cathedral were both Ay’Araf.The elder, who was standing near William and glancing around with interest, originally came from England and was named Peter Markham.Of the Ay’Araf in the country, he was younger only than Malik and Jakob, nearly three hundred years old.His apprentice Kanene, a strikingly beautiful woman with jet-black skin who had become a vampire on board a slave ship bound for the Caribbean, stood at his side.“This is highly unorthodox, William,” Markham commented.“I understand your concern, Peter.I assure you, if there were any other choice …” William let the sentence trail off, shrugging.The vampires of this country knew that he, of all people, would not break protocol without a reason.“Do you think more will show?” Sasha asked.She had barely left William’s side since arriving at the cathedral, understanding that if she did so, she and Molly would only be ostracized.The other vampires would avoid them both, Molly for her humanity and Sasha for her role in this seeming coup d’état.William was protection, and not only of a political sort; as the single most physically powerful vampire in the new world, with Abraham and Theroen dead, he could offer support that no other could give.“Malik will show, certainly,” William said.“I assume he will bring Theresa with him.”Theresa was Malik’s apprentice, only recently elected.When Abraham had still lived, neither he nor Malik had taken an apprentice.Malik had served the subordinate role, despite being older than any other vampire on the council, because Abraham had not wanted to involve Theroen in vampire politics.Naomi claimed that this was because Abraham both detested and feared Theroen’s nature.The other vampires, having had no contact with the Eresh-Chen, could only take her word for it.Theresa was a sycophant, able only to parrot Malik’s views on the rare occasions when she spoke to anyone.Her own sire had been killed by the Comanche in the years just following the Civil War, and she had spent the time since latching on to vampires in various positions of power.She worked diligently for whomever she served but seemed incapable of surviving on her own.Malik had chosen her not because he wished for a weak apprentice to control, but because there were no other Ay’Araf interested in the job.“Will he be angry?” Sasha asked.“I should think so,” William replied.“Don’t concern yourself.I will handle Malik.”“I will be concerned with all of this, until a decision is made,” Sasha said.William nodded at this, smiling slightly to himself.“You were wise to bring the girl,” he said.Molly was sitting on a church pew not far from them, playing a video game on her cell phone.She glanced up at this but said nothing.“It was her idea,” Sasha conceded.“Why do you think so?”“Although it sometimes seems like all those on the council – save perhaps Lewis and Richard – have lost touch with their humanity, we are all still at our cores the people that we once were.Molly can touch that.Her youth, her exuberance, her comfort with her more basic emotions … these things may be useful.They could help perhaps to reawaken the council members from what has become decades of complacency and apathy.”Sasha considered this.“She has certainly had some impact on me.I’ve become quite fond of her.It hadn’t occurred to me that she might have a similar effect on the others.”William turned toward her, eyebrows raised.“If you’re going to be successful in politics, you must learn how to manipulate people.You must do it consciously, without shame, no matter how distasteful you may sometimes find it.”“I’ve no interest in playing political games,” Sasha said.“Yet you serve as apprentice to a man who is quite adept at it.You must learn to connect with people, the way Jakob does, and use that to your advantage.”“Why?”“Do you believe the current structure will exist forever? People, even vampires, get old and tired.Sometimes they die.Jakob and Naomi will inherit this council soon enough, and you will find yourself even more deeply enmeshed than you already are in what goes on here.”Sasha frowned, trying to keep from betraying the concern that welled up within her at this statement.William put a hand on her shoulder.“There are many years yet before all of this comes to pass.Jakob has taught you well thus far, and will continue to do so, once we’ve found him.”“If he’s not dead,” Sasha said.William shrugged.“We’re working to prevent that, if it can still be prevented.”Sasha sighed and nodded.It was as she had told Molly on the night when they had visited her fixer, Jerry, they were doing all that they could.That would have to be good enough.A few more Ay’Araf vampires entered the cathedral, greeting those who had already arrived, and more came after that.Sasha waited, observed, glancing occasionally at her watch.They were ten minutes past when the meeting was supposed to start and there were still six council members missing, including Malik and Theresa.Sasha was surprised by this last, having expected Malik to be one of the first to show up.Eventually, two more council members strolled in, and William turned to her.“I don’t believe the Janssen twins will show up,” he said.“They’re notoriously unconcerned with this sort of thing
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