The Pull

Chapter 20 (Henry)

Henry

A week after our initial meeting with Alex, Felix, Fawn and I were forced to return to court. It wasn't ideal but we had a plan, and my poor Little Fawn was going to be integral to its success or failure. I wish she had more time to prepare but circumstances forced us to act quickly.

During the week, Lawrence and David had arrived, bringing Angelica with them. Felix and Angelica's reunion was so intense that we all left the house for half the night. Fawn in particular was affected by it, being such a new Vampire meant her Lust was easily brought on either by hunger, desire or heightened emotions. Other than that one evening, we all stayed together in the lodge.

Fawn and Angelica got along well too, which was perfect for our plans, her knowledge of women and their activities would play a part if our plan to overthrow my father with as little bloodshed as possible could be achieved.

The past week was tough on Fawn. She would spend her days with Charlie at Alex's house, I would spend most of my time in meetings with Alex, his two guards, Felix, Lawrence and David. When Fawn would arrive home, she would get lessons on how to behave in court, how to address people, Angelica taught her about the machinations of the females in the court as best she could, although I can't imagine much has changed in 120 years. We, vampires, tend to move slowly. Then she would meet with Lawrence and start preparing for her role in the uprising.

We had an argument about what she was expected to do. I almost put my foot down and refused to allow her to be involved, but I was the only one who said no. I even implored David to ask her to stop, but he wouldn't. 

On the fifth night, we heard a rifle shot. Felix was patrolling the area around the lake house and cried out urgently, "We may have been discovered."

I told David to come with me and told Lawrence to stay with Angela and Fawn. I expected a fight from her, but she didn't argue. 

David and I ran to Felix as we ran David spoke to me, "This is the first time we have been alone and I wanted to say, thank you for treating my sister so well."

"Did you think I wouldn't?" I asked annoyed. David shrugged. "And yet still offered her to me as you did that night."

He shook his head, "It's not what you think Henry, I had no idea about the political aspect of Lawrence's plan. All I knew was how happy being with Lawrence made me, how whole I felt after finding him. I wanted that for Row. I knew she was increasingly lonely with me not being around the last few years. I thought she had suffered enough and deserved happiness. You had always seemed like a good male to me."

We were close to Felix, but I thought David and I needed this chat. I checked that Felix had the intruder under control and slowed to a walk. "Have you and Lawrence discussed what he did?" I asked David.

He nodded, "Yes. I made my displeasure known, but I couldn't stay mad at him. The only person he loves other than me is you. But more than both of us, he loves Vampires and loves our world. I think he would destroy anything and anyone to maintain who we are and our way of life.  He loves humanity, and what they offer, culturally and scientifically. For some reason I don't understand, it seems despite our long lives we have little interest in that."

"The only fields we seem to thrive in is philosophy, music and the arts. You'd be surprised how much comes from our kind. But you're right we don't make full use of our lives the way humans do. And I also think we would be poorer if they were not free to make their own world." I said. "I'm glad you and Lawrence have reached an understanding. You are right, Lawrence does love Vampire society. He can be very single minded as you say, but he is a very good man, with a good heart."