Sleeping in Henry’s bed once more brought back all kinds of childhood memories. On far more than a few occasions his childhood days had been marked by bed sharing, cuddling, and all the things that cousins who were closer than brothers did. And maybe they were a little older now, and a lot less dependent on each other, but in the face of yet another traumatic upheaval, sharing a bed again with Henry made Mark feel safe.

“You should try to get some rest,” Henry said quietly. His fingers were stoking the soft skin at the back of Mark’s neck, attempting to lull him to sleep with their broad swipes.

“I can’t,” Mark said honestly, pulling an arm to his chest as he laid on his stomach, one leg crooked under him, his shoulder against Henry’s. It was a little awkward, how they were a little sprawled on each other, but it worked. “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Bloodwhore.

It was a slur that Mark had never heard before, but he knew it couldn’t be good.

Henry’s fingers stilled for a moment, just long enough for him to shuffle a little closer, then they were soothing again and he was saying, “Try not to. When you wake up it’ll be like it never happened, you’ll get to sleep in your own bed again and things will be normal again.”

Mark severely doubted that.

“You’re safe,” Henry said. “I promised you that, and no matter what happens, I’ll keep you that way. If anything, sleep easier knowing I’m here and Zhou Mi’s outside the bedroom keeping watch from there. No one’s getting past him. I guarantee you that.”

At his cousin’s words, Mark pushed himself up a little. Dislodging Henry’s fingers he propped himself up on his elbows and in the pitch blackness of the sun protected room, Mark questioned, “Why is he here?”

“Zhou Mi is actually part of the school’s safety committee. He and several other senior students are in charge of securing the population’s safety during the school year. Mostly he spends a couple hours every day making sure wayward students get back to their dorms for some rest, and that sort of thing.”

“This feels like more than just that.”

He knew he was right the moment Henry flopped completely onto his back and gave a loud heave of air. “Zhou Mi is my friend. I told you. He’s trustworthy. He’ll protect you with his life, and that’s something incredibly powerful, Mark. Loyalty in the vampire world isn’t something you can buy. It can’t be forced or faked. It has to be earned, and Zhou Mi’s earned it a million times over. He’s watching over you especially close tonight because he is loyal to our family, and to you.”

“Me,” Mark said, mulling it over. “Why?”

It was probably the most curious thing on his mind, more than the culprit who’d defaced his dorm door. Why would Zhou Mi, who came from a prominent family of his own, and who was older and smarter and more capable, and who could be doing anything he wanted, be paying Mark special attention.

“The why isn’t important,” Henry said, his tone saying not to push the issue. “All you need to keep in mind that he won’t ever betray you. He’ll keep your secrets. And he’ll keep you safe. There aren’t a lot of people that are safe to trust, but after me and Amber, he should be next on your list. He should be the only other person on your list.”

Mark stuck a hand under his chin. “He’s kept secrets of yours.” It was an observation more than anything else.

And tersely, Henry replied, “He’s keeping the biggest one I have at the moment. It’s a secret that could wreck me if it got out before its time, and Zhou Mi is keeping it with utmost confidence and reliability.”

A secret. Henry was keeping a secret. Mark didn’t dare ask what it was, but it had to be something big if he hadn’t shared it with anyone else, including Mark.

Henry continued on, “Speaking of, Zhou Mi and the headmaster and I are all in agreement that for the time being, it’ll be safer if you have an .”

“To class?” Mark questioned.

“Everywhere,” Henry said. “Just until we root out the threat to you.”

Mark’s shoulders sagged. That was the last thing he needed. He had so little freedom as it was, and he could feel Henry leeching away the rest of it as the seconds passed, no matter his intentions.

“Henry,” Mark asked, getting settled back against his pillow again. He was going to try and sleep no matter what. Even if it meant laying perfectly still for the rest of the day until it was time to get up and go to class. “What does bloodwhore mean?”

He felt Henry stiffen beside him. “Don’t repeat that, okay? It’s a dirty, dirty slur towards a pureblood.”

“I’ve never heard it before.”

“That’s because your parents didn’t expose you to that kind of vulgarity,” Henry said right away.

Staring up at the ceiling, Mark felt Henry’s fingers slide along his and then interlock.

“Henry,” he tried again, still feeling restless. “Is everyone making such a fuss about the graffiti because of who I am?”

“Aren’t you sleepy yet?”

“Henry?”

Henry pulled the blanket a little higher over the two of them and said reluctantly, “It’s worrying, Mark. More than you know. The slur ….”

“Yes?”

Zhou Mi had been pacing in the living room attached to Henry’s bedroom. Mark’s senses had been attuned to the sound for almost an hour, but upon this new breach of topic the sound of his shoes shuffling stilled for the first time. Mark swore he could sense something shift around him, too. This was something Henry didn’t want to talk about, and it went beyond an offensive word.

“The slur,” Henry finally said, his grip tightening on Mark’s hand, “it’s worrying because it’s the kind of slur a human would say to a vampire. No vampire would call another the word. No vampire would dare, not even at their worst moment. Only a human could be so disrespectful.”

Mark felt the realization settle over him. “You think a human wrote that on my door?”

“Yes,” Henry snapped. “So do you understand why everyone is so worried?”

Zhou Mi was pacing again, this time quicker than ever.

Mark understood. Henry and the others were worried because that meant a human had been on school property. A human had infiltrated a place that was supposed to be a vampire only protected zone, and they’d done it to make a threat. The kind that came with intention.

“Promise me,” Henry said, his voice pitching slightly, “that you will be extra careful. The humans that targeted the council and their families … the ones that killed members of our family, they haven’t been apprehended yet. They’ve gone to ground and we can’t find them. I don’t even know what we’d do if we did, without violating the treaty at all. Maybe it’s already violated. The point is, Mark, there are very dangerous humans out there who have already stuck successfully. It’s just sheer dumb luck that you survived the hit on the family, and finishing the job would throw our whole bloodline into an even more fragile position. I don’t think you understand how important it is that you’re safe.”

Live. He had to live. Even if it was hard, he had to go on.

“Sleep,” Henry urged, nudging Mark. “Fake it if you have to. But be still now.”

Mark wiggled a bit more, trying to get comfortable, and then finally succeeding. He ended up with Henry almost pressed solidly against his back, their feet tangled together, and falling asleep after that wasn’t nearly as difficult as he thought it would be.

By dusk, however, he’d had enough rest and was rolling out of bed. Henry mumbled something on the bed and flopped onto his back, clutching a pillow close. Mark gave a small laugh and then shuffled out of the bedroom.

“Oh,” he remarked, seeing Zhou Mi at the sofa against the far window, a book open in his lap. “You stayed the whole day.”

Zhou Mi gave him a serious look. “A very real threat was made against you. I wasn’t about to leave you unguarded.”

Mark thumbed towards the door. “I’m sure my uncle’s shadows, well, more like mine now, are out there. You didn’t have to stay the whole day. You’ll be tired for your classes.”

Zhou Mi’s face softened and he closed the book he’d been reading. “I wanted to make sure you slept safely through the day. I wouldn’t have been able to rest myself if I hadn’t been sure.” Zhou Mi patted the spot next to him and requested, “Sit with me?”

Mark only felt the briefest hesitation, then nodded and settled in on the bouncy sofa. “What are you reading?”

Zhou Mi flashed him the cover of the book, but it was in traditional Chinese and Mark made a face. “It’s a book on Confucius, written shortly after his death, and chronicles many of his teachings. I find Confucius to be … calming.”

“You do seem very calm,” Mark observed.

“And you seem it as well,” Zhou Mi returned. “I expected at least a bit of panic from you, considering the previous night’s incident.”

Mark crossed is legs under him on the sofa and confessed, “I am scared. How could I not be? I’m just more determined to keep on living than let that fear get to me. And I trust Henry to make it safe for me here. Plus, Henry trusts you, so that means I trust you, too.”

There was such a look of reverence on Zhou Mi’s face that Mark wasn’t sure what he was going to say. He only knew that it was cut off completely by Henry swinging open the door to the bedroom loudly, yawning, then complaining, “It’s too early.”

“It’s dusk,” Mark said with a shrug. “Hungry?”

Henry looked instantly more alert. “Absolutely.”

It seemed the slur written on his door was all anyone wanted to talk about during first meal. Mark had to suffer through an endless amount of people announcing their shock over the situation as a whole, almost as if it was any of them who’d been threatened. Mark just tried to keep his head down and manage the meal.

He was forced to miss a good portion of his first classes, something that was not a relief, because the headmaster apparently found it necessary to beg and plead for forgiveness over the situation.

The elder vampire assured him, “We’ve absolutely never had a breech of security on this campus! I swear to you.”

For the first hour it was all Mark could do to simply endure the man’s insistence that it would never happen again, and that the culprit would be apprehended. Of course by the second hour of the headmaster’s attention Mark was made fully aware that nothing had been caught on cameras, they had no leads, and no one was claiming responsibility.

The biggest issue seemed to be that Mark’s uncle had already heard of the event and was well on his way.

“He doesn’t need to come,” Mark said, arms flailing a little. “I’m fine, honest!”

“A prince was attacked,” the headmaster wailed, seeming more incompetent by the second, “under my watch! How will the council respond!”

Mark wondered briefly if his uncle coming did have something to do with council business. His uncle was his proxy for the next few months until he came of age.

Mark came back to the present just in time to hear the headmaster say, “--by tomorrow. That’s not nearly enough to provide sufficient proof that we’re making progress with the situation! Prince Mark, you must understand, the demands your uncle is making are unreasonable. We’re going the best we can amidst the chaos!”

“I’m sure,” Mark said, swinging to his feet, “everything will be fine with my uncle. I’ll talk to him when he comes. This wasn’t your fault.”

The headmaster was starting to wail again when Mark slipped out of his office.

“Makes you wonder how he got his job, right?”

Mark’s head snapped down the hall to find Jackson waiting for him, a smug look on his face, arms crossed, seemingly nonchalant in such an easy way that Mark envied him. “What’re you doing here?” It was Jackson’s lurch period, and he should have been in the cafeteria with his friends.

Jackson replied easily, “I’m captain of the basketball team, remember? Beginning of the school year means I have to drop off the official roster of returning players from the previous semester, and all the information for tryouts. I could hear the headmaster wailing from the main office.”

Mark made his way to Jackson as casually as possible, wondering what it was about the teen that drew Mark in. There was nothing overly exceptional about Jackson, other than apparently the gigantic level of bravado he carried around, but he was definitely alluring.

“He blames himself, I think, for what happened yesterday.” Mark had to shrug a bit. “I’m not sure exactly why he’s so freaked out, though. Other than my uncle planning to show up sometime tomorrow. Take it from me, he can be pretty intimidating, and sometimes you’re so distracted by how good looking he is, you never see it coming. But no one was hurt, and this could be, and probably is, just petty prejudice.”

A sudden, serious look overtook Jackson’s face and he asked lowly, “Are you okay?” The way his voice turned a bit scratchy in tone had Mark’s knees knocking together like he was a fourteen year old girl.

“Me?” Mark said. “Of course. I wasn’t even there when it happened. I wasn’t in any danger.”

“Mark.” Jackson gave him a dark frown. “I don’t think you understand the severity of--”

“I do,” Mark cut in sharply. “I do.”

“Okay.” Jackson gave a slow nod. “But still, kind of rough, right?”

“It ,” Mark said. He leaned back against the wall next to Jackson, a sad smile on his face. “I never did anything to anyone, you know? I tried to be a good son, a good brother and a good friend. My parents had their heir with my sister. And she was amazing at what she did. But that wasn’t my world. I didn’t know anything about the council and I didn’t want to. I just wanted to be a kid. But here I am. And now people hate me because something terrible happened to put me in this position, and maybe worse, they hate what I was born as. How is that fair?”

“It’s not.”

Mark scratched his fingers into his hair. “It’s just overwhelming. I know I shouldn’t be complaining. I’m alive and here and I should be so, so thankful. But I feel like I can hardly breathe at times. Sometimes I feel like I don’t want to--like it might be better if I was dead too.”

He didn’t know why it was all spilling out of him suddenly, and to Jackson of all people. But it was coming out so easily and it felt right. He didn’t need a response from Jackson, who was looking at him with a mixture of sadness and sympathy, he just needed someone to listen.

“You want to get out of here?”

Mark paused. “Get out of here?”

Jackson threw him a flirtatious wink. “Yeah. You look like you could use a little stress relief, and I know just the place to take care of that.”

There were a million reasons why the idea sounded horrible, and Mark had to say firstly, “We have class in less than half an hour.”

“You think someone is going to call you out on missing class? After what happened yesterday? I’m surprised you haven’t gotten a free pass for the week. And I think it’s probably pretty safe to say that class isn’t my number one priority. Anyway, class here is more like daycare. We’re just supposed to occupy our time and not get into trouble. I know someone’s told you that already.”

Mark put his hands on his hips and reasoned, “I’m not supposed to leave campus, or be by myself right now. Someone’s supposed to come pick me up from the headmaster’s office soon.”

“One,” Jackson said, ticking fingers off expertly, “we’re not leaving campus. Two, you’re going to be with someone--me. And three, I’m way more stubborn than you are, so you should probably save your breath and just give in now. How can you say no to this face?”

The very real issue that was growing with unmatched ferocity was that Mark wasn’t sure he would be able to say no for very long.

“Stress relief,” Mark said. “What kind of stress relief?”

Jackson wiggled his eyebrows at Mark. “Follow me and find out.”

They ended up heading directly to arts department of campus, down stairs instead of up, and to a place that Mark hadn’t even known existed. He wasn’t sure many people knew it existed at all with how deserted it was, only a stray student or two passing them as they walked on.

Mark heard the music before anything else, and then the vibration of the beat.

“Is there a party going on?” Mark asked, trying not to panic as his fingers brushed Jackson’s carelessly.

“Sort of,” Jackson threw at him. “One we get actual school credit for, too.”

The so called party was actually a school class.

Dance class.

“You’re going to love it!” Jackson had to shout to be heard, then pulled Mark fully through to a large room without windows, mirrors lining one wall, and around forty people packed in, most of them dancing.

“Jackson!” JB called out. Then he followed it up with, “Mark! Get over here!”

Mark, who’d been accused of being too timid before, too shy, and not nearly enough of a people person to make friends easily, felt his heart swell with how easily he was accepted by the group of people gathered around. It seemed that they naturally discounted his title and bloodline, and accepted him simply as Jackson’s friend.

And stress relief it was.

Within minutes Mark found himself hopping around with JB and Jr., his eyes locked on the sight of Jackson and Youngjae working on what looked like complicated and highly choreographed moves.

Yugyeom swung into Mark’s view suddenly, part of what looked like something of a conga line, and followed his line of sight. “You want to learn?” he asked a bit breathless.

Nearby a lithe and fit female form spiraled through the hair, catapulted by a bigger boy. A huge cheer went up as the girl landed perfectly and accepted praise.

“That,” Mark said, one hundred percent sure. “I want to learn that.”

Yugyeom laughed, then called out, “Jackson! Get over here! Mark’s actually about to be impressed by something you can do.”

Awed, Mark asked, “Jackson can do that?”

Yugyeom said, “You have no idea.”

Tricking. They called it tricking, and Mark was in love with it.

Of course Jackson and the earlier duo weren’t the only ones who could trick. It seemed like almost everyone in the room could do a little, but Mark could only concentrate on Jackson who gave a boisterous display, flipping to the side, spinning wildly, and then landing perfectly.

“You want to lean?” Jackson asked. The music had been kicked up a notch or two again and Jackson had to shout into Mark’s ear to be heard. “I can teach you!”

Mark nodded wildly. “Please.”

“Next time!” Jackson called out, a new song starting up with a radically different beat that had everyone moving to a new tempo and the floor practically bouncing under the combined weight of everyone jumping.

For the next hour, Mark felt free.

No one was watching him, no one was judging him, and no one seemed to care in the least bit who he was. They only cared if he participated, and if he was having fun.

People began to clear out too soon for Mark’s tastes. The music was turned down and the leader of the impromptu dance session, a stern looking vampire named Key, called an end to it all.

“Clear out, clear out,” Key demanded, waving at them to finish up. “The ballet students have to use the room in twenty minutes.”

Jackson snagged them each a water bottle from the nearby dispenser and told Mark, “If you really liked today, even a little bit of it, you should consider joining the actual dance class next semester. It’s more formal than what we just crashed, but it’s the same basic concept. And once you get into that class, you can do the more advanced moves you saw some of the others doing. And the tricking.”

Mark climbed the stairs back to the ground level and took a long drink of water. “I really want to learn tricking. To be able to fly through the air like that, and be so out of control and in control at the same time, is absolutely amazing. I want that. I want to be free.”

Jackson stopped him with a sudden hand to Mark’s arm and a worried expression. “Mark.” They were alone on the stairwell, close to the ground floor, but not quite there. And with the poor lighting of the stairwell, it made Mark feel like they were the only people for miles.

“Huh?”

“I don’t …” Jackson shook his head. “You’re a prince. You’re the head of your family, even if you got that way through some pretty ty things happening. People fear you, and respect you, and obey you. How could you not be free?”

Jackson’s hand on Mark’s bare arm, the skin superheated by the workout he’d just gone through, felt like it was threatening to sear right down to the bone.

“You don’t think you’re free?” Jackson asked quietly, his hand sliding a little up on Mark’s arm. It was such an intimate gesture that Mark didn’t know what to think of it. In truth not many people actually touched him, other than Henry and Amber. But Jackson’s touch didn’t feel wrong, and Mark found himself leaning into it, almost wanting it.

“It’s complicated,” Mark told him, trying to sound confident in his response. “But I’m convinced the more power you get, the less freedom you have. It’s like--”

“Prince Mark.”

The moment with Jackson shattered in an instant and Mark looked further up the stairs to where a stern Zhou Mi was waiting.

“You know this guy?” Jackson asked.

Zhou Mi, still the perfect picture of reserved behavior, asked, “Do you have any idea the panic you’ve set the school into?”

“Me?” Mark pressed a finger into his chest. “That I’ve what?”

Zhou Mi reminded, “You were supposed to wait for me at the headmaster’s office. When you weren’t there, and couldn’t be found elsewhere, there was panic.”

Mark felt a heavy weight settle in his stomach and he felt absolutely terrible. “Zhou Mi,” he said, jogging up to where the taller man stood. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Is Henry … freaking out?”

Zhou Mi gave him a weathered expression. “He’s very worried. You should have let someone know you were going off with … questionable company.”

“Hey!” Jackson snapped, charging up to Zhou Mi, anger radiating from him. “Who do you think you are?”

“Who I think you are is irrelevant,” Zhou Mi said, pressing a solid hand between Mark’s shoulder blades to guide him from the stairs. “I need only concern myself with what I think your intentions may be with Prince Mark.”

“He’s my friend,” Jackson bit out. “Which is more than I think you are.”

“Jackson,” Mark said softly, almost certain that the tenseness in Zhou Mi’s shoulders and the clipped tone in the way he was speaking meant that he’d been just as worried as Henry likely was now. “I really had fun today. Thank you. But I think I need to go calm my cousin down now. I’ll see you tomorrow? In class?”

He felt bad, leaving Jackson standing in the stairwell, but Mark couldn’t help thinking what a burden he was being to Henry, and how he needed to apologize. Or start wearing a tracking bracelet. One of the two. He knew which his cousin would likely prefer.

“Mark,” Zhou Mi said, his voice a tad more pleasant sounding when they were on their way to the main building, “has Henry spoken to you about choosing your company carefully?”

Mark’s jaw locked. “You are not going to tell me who I can and can’t be friends with. Don’t you dare.”

“Of course not.”

The simple and easy statement caught Mark off guard, and he peered up at the taller man in disbelief. “Really? Because Henry seems to think that I only need pureblood friends, and that I’m just wasting my time with anyone else. That’s not a sentiment I share.”

Zhou Mi’s large, firm hand prodded Mark along. “I believe you are fully capable of choosing your own friends, and I trust your judgment. What I do not trust are the intentions of others. You are not nearly as worldly as you perceive yourself to be, and others will see that in you, attempt to take advantage, and likely get away with it if you allow them to.”

“Jackson just wants to be my friend,” Mark defended. The issue of Mark wanting to be more than simply friends with Jackson was a whole different story. “How could that be something anyone could take advantage of? Or is this really just about the fact that he’s got a human mother?”

With a placating look, Zhou Mi said, “I simply want you to be very aware of the company you keep, the questions they ask you, the things they want from you, and how it reflects back on you and your family. You have a bloodline to support now, Mark. You have weight on your shoulders. If anything happens to you, there would be vampire unrest, the likes of which none of us can begin to predict the depth of. You have no direct heir, and that must always be at the forefront of your mind.”

Mark frowned. “How would there be unrest? If, not that I really like imaging anything happening to me, something did, wouldn’t my uncle inherit the head of the family position? I am the last of my mother’s children and she was the heir before me, but he’s her brother.”

Zhou Mi shook his head slightly. “Your uncle was invalidated decades ago from the line of succession. Therefore, after you, several of your cousins come into contention, but you could say the blood goes thin with them. Without you staking this claim, there would be nothing but inner fighting within the fourth family, and that kind of instability ruins not only the bloodline in question, but the others tied to it. It’s a bit of a mess to consider.”

His uncle was invalidated? How was this the first Mark was hearing about the subject? He’d always known from a young age that eldest siblings inherited the head of family position, and though his mother and uncle had been twins, she’d been older by fourteen minutes. But his uncle had never let that fourteen minute head start get the better of him, and he’d spent his life steeped in vampire politics. What could one do that was so bad to be invalidated from the line of succession? And then what about Henry?

“Don’t look so glum,” Zhou Mi offered. “Your cousin and I, along with many others, will keep that from ever becoming an issue. You have allies here, Mark, even if some of them are hard to see. And for as much as I suspect your cousin has warned you not to trust others, there are many here loyal to the fourth family. In fact, you have cousins here from the eight family, the one in which your father belonged to, that will ally with you out of respect for your father alone. For as many here who will test you, there are many more who will stand with you.”

Mark thought Zhou Mi thought to comfort him with the talk, but he could only think back to hours previous when Henry had said so confidently that Zhou Mi was loyal to them, and to be absolutely trusted. “Why are you taking care of me like this? Why are you invested?”

“Our bloodlines have been allies for a very long time,” Zhou Mi said. “My family benefits from your survival, just as one day you will benefit from mine. This is the nature of the thirteen families.”

It seemed an odd comment to make. But Mark was quickly realizing there were so many things that lacked context for him at the moment, and so few answers that were actually tangible.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Mi offered, “The only thing you need to know is that I will always act in your best interest, and when you don’t know where to turn, look for me.”

Mark let slip, “You’re different from a lot of the other purebloods here, Zhou Mi. Much different.” And not just because there was an elegance and class to him that was far superior to anything the others had.

“Does it suit me?”

Mark offered a quick nod.

“Then I’m satisfied.”

Mark filed the whole exchange away for inspection on another day.

Henry, mercifully, was far more lenient in his scolding than Mark expected. There was a lecture, a drawn out one about keeping his phone on him at all times, going off only with acceptable people, and making better judgments calls. All the while Zhou Mi stood near them, looking distant, not offering a word either for or against Mark’s actions.

It was likely Henry was only going easy on him because by the time they were turning in for the day, Mark getting to go back to his own room for the first time since the graffiti, word had gotten around that Mark’s uncle was expected to show in less than twelve hours. The look on Henry’s face said he didn’t envy Mark in the least bit.

The only good thing about his uncle coming, apparently, was that Mark got to go off campus.

His uncle took him to a posh restaurant, one that required Mark to wear his school uniform because he was lacking anything more suitable, and had more forks on the table than Mark thought had existed before in his house. And when they were seated they had a huge berth of privacy that unsettled Mark’s stomach.

“Henry tells me there’s been an unacceptable incident,” his uncle began, a flute of fresh blood caught between long fingers. “I want you to rest assured, Mark, I will personally see that this taken care of and poses no future threat to your well being.”

Mark toyed with the condensation on the glass of water in front of him, an iron tablet to the side of it. “Henry said it’s the kind of slur only a human would make against a vampire. That means humans were on campus, weren’t they?”

“Most likely,” his uncle said right away, and Mark appreciated his upfront nature more than anything else about him. “But they will be caught, and punished. No human will ever be a threat to you again. I won’t let my sister’s only remaining child endure things such as these.”

When the waiter came to take their order, Mark was silent as his uncle spoke for the both of them. And he certainly didn’t ask why his uncle still enjoyed food, despite it being such a human thing. They obviously didn’t eat for sustenance. They ate purely for the social aspect of it, and because whether or not hey needed food to live, it still tasted good. But his uncle, who was staunchly anti-human, seemed the type of vampire to give it up completely.

Or maybe the kind of vampire to embrace the old ways and pick off unsuspecting humans. That kind of behavior was indicative to their very nature, even Mark understood that. They were predators, humans were natural prey, and fighting that wasn’t something all vampires were necessarily equipped to do. Not all wanted to.

Despite the tentative peace between humans and vampires, accidents did still happen. Accidents in the way of rogue vampires, and over zealous hunters, and all kinds of Misunderstandings. The council’s very role was to interpret and handle these instances, and it was not something Mark looked forward to. What vampire could take joy in the idea of having to put one of their own down?

His uncle cleared his voice and said, “Truth be told, I’m not merely here to discuss your school’s abysmal security breach. I’m also here as your acting proxy. There was a council meeting yesterday, a provisionary one with only around half the representatives, but you need to be informed of it none the less.”

A year from now, no matter how difficult it was to imagine his life so far in the future, he’d be attending council meetings. He wouldn’t have a proxy anymore, and he’d have to pick up and leave without the slightest bit of advanced notice, if the council called.

“We were discussing the attack on your family, along with the others,” his uncle said, ruining Mark’s appetite.

“Did you find the humans responsible? Or at least determine a motive?”

“Motive?” His uncle scoffed, then took a long drink from the glass, downing almost half the liquid, likely before it got too cold to enjoy. “Their motives are clear, Mark. They mean to disrupt our proceedings, destroy our societies’ very structure, and reduce our numbers. These humans, for as foul and vile as they are, see us as the threats we are to them. Their targeting of influential, powerful, and pure families, is not coincidence.”

Mark eyed the fine line of scar tissue just visible underneath his uncle’s shirt’s collar. It was a faint reminder that he’d had this throat slashed by an iron blade, nearly bled out, and was probably any even bigger target now for surviving.

Clearing his throat and trying to be as serious and mature as possible, Mark questioned, “The council and its enforcers can’t root the humans out?”

His uncle shook his head. “As I said before, they’ve gone to ground, and until they expose themselves again, all the digging in the world won’t find them. The council, however, has been considering reviewing and possibly revising the treaty for instances such as these. In fact the motion has been on the table for years. Only recently has it gained momentum.”

“Revising? Do you mean changing?”

The treaty was the only thing keeping the humans and the vampires from all out war. The humans had the numbers, multiplying rapidly and in mass, but vampires were deadly and ruthless in ways humans could never be, not to mention superior physically. The last instance of human/vampire conflict, the moment that had led to the first provisional treaty, had incurred hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides. Mark’s grandparents had helped forge the first treaty, and many of his family members had given their lives to uphold it.

The treaty wasn’t perfect, Mark knew that much, but it worked. It allowed for humans and vampires to coexist, and more than that, fall in love and have families. Even if it worked just barely, it worked. It kept the two groups from waging war on each other through its zero tolerance policy for violence. But it was clearly ineffective against radicals and anarchists. The kind of vampires who attacked humans for fun, and humans who burned vampire children alive simply for existing.

What would a change to the treaty mean for that peace?

“The night your parents and Grace left for the council meeting with me, Mark, the topic was the treaty itself. There has been much debate for years, and finally a vote has been approved.”

“What kind of vote?” Mark felt his chest seize.

His uncle looked absolutely terrifying when Mark met his gaze. Like a true predator. The kind with a personal vendetta.

“The treaty allows for no provisions for ailing vampires who have suffered a loss at the hands of a human. Retaliatory attacks are forbidden.”

Mark nodded slowly. “There’s a join human and vampire task force for crimes involving both parties. They’re the ones handling my family’s murder.” And, in Mark’s opinion, making no progress. Part of Mark knew they probably wouldn’t make any progress ever. There was no way the council would ever divulge enough information to give the human’s anything to work with. Not that humans and vampires worked well together even with an even playing field.

“The vote may change that.”

Dread crept across Mark’s skin in a warning. “But if we start taking justice into our own hands, like vigilantes, the humans will strike back. We’ll be on the cusp of war within a year. Maybe less. The council of vampire families and the human government only remain at peace because both parties uphold the treaty. If one or both buckle under the stress of radicals, it will come to war.”

His uncle reminded, “There is more momentum for this consideration than you would believe, and you are not the only one who is hurting desperately from the human attacks. Mark, when this vote comes to pass, it will be you who casts for this family. Therefore, you need to think very carefully about the subject at hand. Will you allow the humans to continue to hurt us? Attack us? Will you let mothers be stolen from children, and sisters from brothers? Will you allow the humans to pluck us from existence one by one until there are so few of us left we are more of a dying breed than we already are? Or will you vote to change how we have been silenced from justice?”

At a whisper, Mark asked, “What if we start a war? Even the idea of possibly going back on our terms of agreement could spark that.” What if he cast a vote in favor of something that started a war with the humans? How could he live with himself?

“We are already at war,” his uncle said softly. “When humans burned your sister and brother alive, that was war. When they cut your mother’s throat, crushed your father’s skull, and did worse to Grace, that was war. A vote to reconsider the contents of the treaty will merely make it official, and give power back to the vampire community.”

“Stop,” Mark snapped, hands twisting in his lap. He couldn’t hear this. He wouldn’t. “We can’t go to war. Humans and vampires nearly wiped each other last time it happened.”

“They attack us every day in every way,” his uncle snapped back. “And we allow them to because we wish to protect an archaic treaty that is as ineffective as it is outdated. A change needs to happen, Mark. That’s my belief. Or else the next person the humans kill may be Henry, or Amber, or any other vampire you care about. What will you do then? Nothing?”

His uncle was still so angry at the humans for killing his wife and then his sister. He was filled with so much hate and anger. Mark could see it clearly when he spoke, and there was no doubt in Mark’s mind the way his uncle would vote if he had the chance.

But Mark, for all his own anger and fear, couldn’t so easily consider a course of action that would destroy peace. Not all humans were representative of the ones that had murdered his family, and there was plenty of proof everywhere that humans were capable of such goodness.

“I’ll think about it,” Mark said slowly, and with a promise. It wasn’t a lie.

“They’re getting more bold, Mark,” his uncle said, peering off to the window nearby. The city was alight with life. “Fifty years ago these humans were so few in number the other, less radical humans could manage them. Now they’re the majority, Mark. The humans resent us. They hate us. And they will destroy us if we don’t do something. We cannot continue to operate under a system that allows for the systematic slaughter of vampires, with only human bureaucracy to show for the justice we seek.”

“A vote just seems so extreme,” Mark whispered. “A vote to break a treaty that my mother believed in.”

“To revise,” came the quick response from his uncle, though Mark understood the euphemism for what it was. Revise and break were utterly interchangeable.

Mark mumbled, “You have my world I won’t take this matter lightly.”

His uncle urged, “Think wisely but quickly. Thirteen families exist to allow for a clear majority in any situation. And the way things are structured now, taking into account alliances and hostilities within the families due to recent events, you will very likely be the deciding vote. It will be on your shoulders to make the right decision.”

Feeling sick to his stomach Mark picked up the iron tablet and dropped it in the glass of water in front of him. He watched it dissolve in an instance and wished he were the tablet.

Or anyone else in the world.