Vampire Queen (Completed)

Chapter 2- The Council

I check my schedule I have on hand. It's just a little black notebook I use to write everything down. Yes, I have an amazing memory, but when you are Queen you have a higher responsibility and I can't afford to mess up when everything has a specific time and place. There's a meeting with the council in exactly thirty minutes. I sigh inwardly. The council only consists of vampires who were all alive when the incident happened. They are all older than me and Aaron, and often treat me as a child. I don't tolerate that treatment, though. They know that now.

The council has eight members, including myself. There used to be nine until someone disagreed with my idea and refused to support me. The remaining members are Ciara, who is oldest. She is five thousand and something years old. We look up to her for wisdom and knowledge. Then there is Leandro, three thousand seven hundred years old. Ashling Is closest to my age, at 164 years old. We have talked sometimes, she relates to my situation, as her parents were killed by humans too. She is by far the friendliest, even to me. The rest are Jareth, Orazio, Jesabelle, Aaron, and me, Lilith. Avianna, Aarons sister, was also alive in the Grim Time. but she was too young to remember much and wasn't interested in joining the council.

I go to the council room to see everyone already sitting down. I go to the front of the table, with Aaron and Ciara by my side. As old as Ciara is, she still looks like she is in her twenties. Her hair is in a messy bun and she has a sophisticated look. They all bow their heads as I enter. Sitting, I look at the clipboard in front of me. I often write down notes on the decisions made, or I forget everything.

"So, what concerns are needed to discuss?" I ask.

"Well, my Queen, we are running low on human blood," I look at Jareth who spoke.

"Low? How low is this?"

"As you know, we would find about 15 humans each week. They would supply us with one portion of blood each for that week. Now, while our population has been growing, we have only been finding seven humans a week at most." As he reaches the end of his sentence, his voice trails off.

"Seven? Our Hunters have been training hard to go out there and disguise themselves to not be seen and capture them easily."

"Yes, but, we think the humans are growing aware of their kind disappearing," Leandro mentions. "It's hard to spread out the takings without traveling too far from here."

"It's been predicted that in a few decades, we will be at three humans per week," Orazio informs us.

"How can we prevent this?" I look around to room for suggestions. This problem has never occurred before, I'm not sure what to do.

"We could lessen the portions," Ashling says quietly.

"No!" When I realize how loud my voice echoed, I lower my voice. "Human blood is what keeps us strong. We will grow weak." I explain. I can't lose any power, I can't become weak again. After what the humans did to us, the least they could do is sacrifice at least ten of their kind. I mean, there are billions of them. Ashling looks down at the table, disappointed that her suggestion had upset me.

"What if we spread out the humans that we have been draining of blood?" Aaron looks at me.

"Continue," I nod at him.

"Well, right now the humans are used three times before they are disposed of. If we can have them last longer, then we won't need as many."

"Good idea, young one." Ciara smiles at him. See, Ciara used to call me young one too. I guess once you are five thousand, everyone in this room seems like a child. But I don't tolerate being called a child, so she has stopped for me.

"Let's do this for a few weeks and record the outcome," I tell them. "Anything else?"

"Um, can I ask a question, Queen?" Jareth asks. I give him permission.