The Vampire And Her Human Mate

22| Plotting

They had been thick in working through different strategies and options all evening.

Bianca stared at the message for a good ten seconds before responding. Drinks with his friends. Well she couldn't very well say no, right? She too wanted Beau to have some kind of relationship with her friends, now that she knew they weren't going to harm him. It was expected he would feel the same.

If you want.

"We're back to square one again," Rose grumbled.

"There is one other way," Raven said. They said it in a way that Bianca knew they had had the same thought as she had on that flight to Italy.

"It's the riskiest of the lot, Raven. It'd be better if we could blackmail Cordon into swearing a protection oath. It won't help should the council decide to make an example, but it's the safest bet."

"Am I missing something?" Bronson asked.

Rose sighed, having come to the same conclusion as Raven. "She fights for her title at the head of the council. Boot Cordon out on his narrow arse- probably have to kill him as he'd never bow to her- and hope that makes her untouchable. Not that it helped Vigo."

"I'd need to garner the support of the majority of the families first," Bianca added. She had a few- many were not happy when her father was brought down and still supported her claim- those that favored Vigo over Cordon were also likely on her side, but that was only about a third of the families.

"We just need some leverage on Cordon." Bianca said again. Rose was right, they just kept looping around. While it wasn't directly illegal to bring a human into her world, it was her position and obligation in the council that was the problem and she couldn't leave. It was not a choice, it was hers and her friend's birthrights as part of their individual family ties. They were lucky they had proven they worked better in their independent unit otherwise they'd be at the beck and call of the representatives of their country in the council. Diluting their lines with humans was not acceptable either.

"You could promise to have a vampire heir- you'd just need to have one," Rose offered, unhelpfully.

Bianca just stared at her. "Sure, let me just go tell my mate that I will need to have a child with a vampire before we can be together."

Rose grinned at her. She was being a deliberate shithead.

"Actually..." Bianca recalled what her mother had said on what Cordon had her work on. "He's looking for his mate."

"Cordon?" Rose asked.

"Yeah. My mother told me, in a roundabout way. What if we could find them before he does and..." What was she suggesting? Hold them hostage? How would she even approach that with him without disclosing her squishy soft human mate?

She got a notification on her mobile that Cordon had arrived in LA.

"Damn," she mumbled. None of her monitoring had picked up that he was due to be here today.

She showed Raven, who quickly checked their own system. "Hmmm. Looks like a last minute request from the committee. He has a meeting with them tomorrow. I guess he decided to come tonight"

"Let's keep an eye on that. What's the agenda?"

"Discussions on the information trade- I think the Americans are starting to realise they got the short straw in the deal."

"Hmmm." Bianca was thoughtful. "What do we know of their rules and customs? Anything that could help us here?"

Raven shrugged. "I'll look into it."