Laurell Hamilton - Kiss The Dead

“You may think what you will, Anita Blake, but I am telling the truth.”

“Were you there, or is this just what Benjamin tells you?” I asked.

Weiskopf looked at me, very serious eye contact now. “You know as well as I do how complete the memories can be between master and servant. I know the truth, whether this body was present for the events, or the other body was alone for the making of certain memories. We were there. We saw the truth.”

I didn’t like the way he kept saying we ; it was creeping me out. Was that what would have happened to Jean-Claude and me if we weren’t so very careful about all the psychic connections between us? I thought about the months of learning curve when Richard, Jean-Claude, and I had all intruded on each other emotionally, sensorily, and in dreams. If we hadn’t done anything to fight that… I remembered moments when I hadn’t been sure whose body I was in, and who was seeing what. Yeah, if we hadn’t set up rules of psychic etiquette, it could have made us into one mind with three bodies, or that was what Richard and I were afraid of. I wasn’t sure if it scared Jean-Claude or not, only that it scared the hell out of me. To the point that I’d run for the hills for six months at a time, and left them both alone physically, emotionally, and as tight as I could shield psychically.

I sat there and listened to Weiskopf say we , and knew he meant it. They were a we , no longer an I . My skin ran cold with the thought of it.

“What has frightened you?” Weiskopf asked.

Fuck, I wasn’t doing a very good poker face. Double fuck. I tried to rally and distract him. “So, some long-ago vampire hunter hunted the head of Benjamin’s line down and killed him. Killing the master never kills all the little vampires, Mr. Weiskopf. It never has, not a single time, when I’ve done my job.”

He studied me. “But they were small masters, the creator of a bloodline, the fountain of blood, the Fontaine de sangre; slaying that vampire is supposed to kill everyone descended from them. But it was a lie to keep us from rebelling against our creators. It was a lie, because we woke the next night. We, alone, woke.”

“Benjamin was strong enough to make his own heart beat, simple as that,” I said.

“No,” Weiskopf said, and he leaned toward me over the table. “No, it’s not that simple.”

“Then why didn’t the other vampires wake that next night? If it was all a lie, they should have all woken up,” I said.

“The vampire hunter killed many of them. He murdered them in their caskets, their caves.”

“Had they murdered people in the surrounding area?”

He nodded. “Our master had grown depraved with power. You cannot seek to control other vampires without it leading to corruption of your very mind and soul. So we sought to control no one but ourselves.”

“And how did that work for you?” I asked.

“We were drawn to make followers, but we resisted. We traveled, always, so that we did not come to the attention of any other master. We did not want to fight for a territory, and we didn’t want to be forced to bend our knee to any other vampire. We wanted only to be left alone.”

“You had followers. They killed two police officers. One of them was about to kill his pregnant ex-wife when we stopped him.”

“Killed him, you mean,” Weiskopf said.

I nodded. “Fine, yes, killed him, but if it was him or a pregnant woman who’d done nothing wrong besides leaving her abusive ex-husband, I’d make the same choice again.”

“As would we,” Weiskopf said. “Saving the woman and the unborn child was the right thing to do.”

I couldn’t help but frown at him. “Glad you see that.”

“Don’t be so surprised, Anita Blake. We believe in violence to save the innocent. We are not complete pacifists.”

“Good to know,” I said.

“We had followers in the way of any human leader, but we did not make them bow to us. We did not make them take an oath to us. We were very careful to use only words.”

I shook my head. “Weiskopf, a master vampire exerts control over lesser vampires just by being near them; it’s like some kind of preternatural pheromone.”

“You lie,” he said, and he sounded so sure.

“Don’t you understand, that’s how a Master of the City knows another master is in his territory. They sense it.”

“But your Jean-Claude did not sense us.”

I tried to think of a safe way to reply to that. “Which means your Benjamin is very old, and very powerful. Let’s say that he truly is trying not to exert control over other vampires. Let’s say he honestly believes that he is just talking to them, just telling them that they deserve to be free of any master.”

“That is all we want, for us, and for them. Freedom from eons of dictatorial rule, is that so awful a goal?”

“No,” I said, and I believed it. “No, Weiskopf, it’s a good ideal, it’s a great ideal.”

It was his turn to look surprised. “I did not expect you to agree.”

“I’m just full of surprises,” I said.

“I should have known you would be, Anita Blake.”

“Anita,” I said, “just Anita.”

“Being friendly will not fool me,” he said.

“I’m just tired of hearing you say Anita Blake. I feel like I’m in trouble with a teacher at school.”

He smiled and nodded. “I understand; very well, Anita, and thank you for letting me use your given name.”

“You’re welcome. So, you and your master decided to try to free the little vampires from the control of the master vampires?”

“Exactly.”

“I believe that vampires are people, Weiskopf, or I wouldn’t be dating them; I wouldn’t be in love with one, or two.”

“Then how can you continue to execute them?”

I sighed, and felt my shoulders slump. I made myself sit up straight again. “I’ve actually been having a little crisis of conscience for a while.”

Dolph stirred beside me, a minute involuntary movement. I fought not to glance at him, but to pay attention to the man in front of me.

“So you believe you murder them?”

“Sometimes,” I said.

“All the time,” he said.

I shook my head. “I’ve seen vampires do horrible things. I’ve walked through rooms so thick with the blood of their victims that the carpet squished underfoot and the room smelled like raw hamburger.”

He flinched at that.

“I don’t believe killing the animals that did that was murder.”

He looked down at his hands on the table, then back up at me. “I can see that. Just as the one who tried to kill his wife, Bores, was in the wrong and had to be stopped.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Would you kill a human who had done awful things?”

“I have,” I said.

Weiskopf glanced up at Dolph. “Do your fellow officers know that?”

I nodded. “Sometimes the bad guys aren’t all vampires. I’ve helped the police hunt down and execute them, too.”

He narrowed his eyes at me, so cynical. “Humans have more rights; you can’t just kill them.”

“Do you consider shapeshifters human?” I asked.

“The law gives them the right to trial, unless the warrant has been issued for their deaths. Once the death warrant has been issued, they are as much a pariah of human society as a vampire.”

“So, is Benjamin trying to free the wereanimals from their pack leaders?”

He looked startled for a moment, as if the thought had never occurred to him.

I smiled, but knew it wasn’t pleasant. “All the old vamps think the shapeshifters are lesser beings. You think of them as animals, not people.”

He truly looked disturbed. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then said, “I cannot dispute your accusation. It did not occur to us to try to free them of their oppression, because they are animals, and animals need discipline, a leash of sorts to keep them from running amok and slaughtering the innocent.”