The Trouble with Hades

Chapter 3

Niko stood near the dining table and shook his head. Putting the only dining chair to survive my anger down, he flicked his fingers and gestured for everyone to get out of their seats.

"Why?" Brad grumbled.

"Because we are going to start conducting proper meetings. Evie is the leader, therefore she sits at the head of the table. Her second in charge, which is you, sits to her right. Anzide should be on the left. Beatrice and I will take the other places."

"Don't you think you should be in the dining chair?"

Niko looked at me curiously.

"You are the leader, Evelyn."

"No, you are."

"I am dead to the world."

"And I'm an Eternal. I should not be allowed to lead a coven. Aren't there rules against it?"

"No."

And with that, Niko ignored my frustration and sat down on the bench seat. Beatrice silently smiled as she sat on the opposite side. Once they'd both slid across the vinyl, Brad and Anzide sat down.

Niko pushed a scrap of paper across the table, nodding at it when I looked at him.

"That's your order of business."

With a huff, I moved the chair closer, sat down, and took the piece of paper. Brad was smirking, which earned him a scowl. He didn't care, which was not surprising.

"Okay, so old business."

I looked up and saw the plain faces.

"Well, this is working well."

"Perhaps we could address your attitude." Brad offered.

"Sure. This is a meeting for the Corbin coven. Everyone in that coven is in this tin can, and they know that Niko is not dead. I'm not supposed to be sitting in this chair. Niko is the leader."

"You are only partially correct, Evelyn. The fact that I am not dead, that everyone in our little coven is sitting here and knows that I am not dead, is correct. That's where it ends, I'm afraid. Regardless of your deity status, you are the one that engaged Drakkus in the ending of the blood war. Only you can complete it, and a part of that is that you are the leader of the Corbin clan when you do. I cannot take over as leader until you have done that. If I do and Drakkus dies, we enter into a negative void that will engulf the town. Vampires will leave, and we won't get any new members to enter our coven. There is no physical wall, but one will emerge in the days after the void begins. It will shroud the town in darkness and abysmal weather."

"Wait,"

I sat up, looking at Brad.

"The weather was atrocious when we first came here. Now it's not."

"That's because the void that Drakkus caused when he tried to take the leadership from me has receded. You freed me, and you took leadership of the Corbin clan. I actually find it surprising that the Europeans didn't notice that I wasn't around."

"They did." Beatrice offered. "Drakkus played nice, pretended that he knew nothing about what happened. The idiots left without an investigation or even bothering to interview anyone other than the clan members. I was considered new to town, so they didn't even glance in my direction."

Niko gave an indifferent shrug and turned back to me.

"Is that the explanation that you need to accept that you cannot change things at the moment?"

"I guess."

"When the time comes, I will take back the leadership, and you will be free of the burden. The only thing that I ask of you and Anzide is that you remain within the clan as senior members and members of my committee. Beatrice will take on the role of my second in charge, and Bradley will be taking on a senior role as well. Now, if we're done with coven roles, I suggest that we discuss the house. I've noticed there has been talk about the old plans."