A Slave to Love, Broken Hearts, and Everything In Between

Chapter 9: Charming Revisited, Part 1

Slave to Broken Hearts, Chapter 51: Charming-- Ace POV

Kiana had half heartedly tried to assure me I had nothing to make up for after our hang out was cut short the other day thanks to yet another meeting, but it was moot point. I knew I had nothing to make up for, Kiana was not the kind of person who would blame me for my job though I kept waiting for it to happen as it had with everyone else, but it gave me an excuse to see her more and get out of the house. An excuse I pretended had everything to do with my job to keep an eye on her and make sure she was okay and offer distraction from her life, but if I was being honest, I just wanted her company.

If only this last meeting would fucking end. We were still circling over the topic of blood feasts, which was one I preferred to avoid on a regular day, but especially now after months and months of hearing the same old song and dance from these crusty old assholes. 

Blah, blah, blah, tradition, blah blah blah, preserve our heritage, blah blah blah, the majority of vamps were still in uproar of them being banned blah blah fucking blah.

What they failed to admit was that it was the majority of the older vamps, males only, who had a problem with it, which was a small fraction at best and they were just being so obnoxiously loud about it that it made it seem worse than it was. Those who were too set in their ways to embrace the fact that we were several centuries past the point of being so brutal. Even humans had laws against such things, and for a species that prided itself on being above the primitive levels of mortals, it sure it didn't act like it. 

We definitely didn't need the added risk of exposure blood feasts brought either as they were big productions and missing girls tended to be noticed, even if you mostly culled them from the outer edges of society or under guise of 'I was out drinking, I don't remember how I got home' kind of situations. Memory wipes and bribes only took you so far and I had no desire to risk exposing us especially for something as disgusting as a blood feast. Unlike Aros, I didn't give two shits about keeping the favor of the older conservative set. They would die off eventually and hopefully take their backwards ideals with them, leaving the younger generations who were smart enough to know that invisibility and blending in was to their benefit. 

I stared at the grandfather clock hanging just behind Mr. Leduc's greasy head, under guise that I was actually paying attention to anything he had to say. He rarely said anything useful, most of it was incredibly offensive to downright illogical and self serving. And because he refused to let the banning of blood feasts go, even after all these months, I was now late meeting Kiana and therefore it was just one more strike against the man. By now, I'd lost count of all the ways I hated him.

Jaime sat by my side, taking minutes, though it was more for show than anything else. Nothing he was saying was new and I was sure we had plenty of transcripts that were almost word for word the same. 

A quick glance around the room told me everyone else was similarly bored, even those who had defended the point alongside Mr. Leduc originally had learned it was useless and now stared at him, glassy eyed, pretending to pay attention as they waited for his sermon to end.

The second he paused to take a breath, I jumped in. 

"Thank you for point of view," I began, and his mouth opened, no doubt to explain he wasn't finished, but I certainly was. Pain radiated up the back of my neck and skull, shoulders tense and tight and all I wanted was for this day to be over so I could forget for a few hours about everything. And also to stop hearing his grating voice. "But as we have already discussed, there are no advantages to running the blood feasts anymore. They draw undue attention to us, the risk for exposure is astronomical, they are a waste of money where funds could be better spent in other sectors to better our community, and they are fundamentally wrong while also contradicting many of the laws we have against harming humans. The only justification for keeping them is to preserve our heritage but I don't believe that is something anyone finds worthy of our history to boast about, not to mention, that feeble reason is not enough to outweigh all the negatives they bring to the table."