North American Vampire Council & Past Calling (Hypernaturals 12 & 13)

Something Has to Change

It is sometimes difficult to ascertain how someone feels about something over the phone. I am used to being able to supplement all the usual voice and body language cues with scent. Scent is a crutch for me these days. I need to listen closely to try to suss out Victoria's feelings only by her voice, as compressed by the phone. Phones have limited voice bandwidth and can remove subtle tones and inflections. This would be easier as a video call. At least then I could see her face.

I finished relating the events at 'The Firehouse' to Victoria, and she is being quiet. I presume she is digesting them. Or getting hold of her temper that her rogue CouncilCritter is at it again. I decided to not add any more details and wait.

"Do you think the question will go up to the Siren Assembly? About a female Liaison and any rule changes regarding whether female Sirens can engage in their 'eye for an eye' rituals?" Victoria asked at last.

"I am not sure. I called Ginger about it and let her know it might occur. She and Wyatt need to be ready for it." I said.

"Before you called me." Victoria asked, flatly.

"Correct." I agreed, also with little inflection.

"What did Ginger say about it?" Victoria asked.

"Well, she seemed to think that she should have expected I would do something like that. Vera and I perhaps might engage in something like this. She knows Vera well, after all. Other than that, she thanked me for the heads up."

"I suppose I should have expected this as well." Victoria commented.

"Yes, Victoria. Everyone should have. When I told Helen about it and Morgan showed her the video of the thrashing, she was not surprised. Only unhappy she was not there to see it."

After the video, she took Vera to bed. Vera reminded me I still owe her a session of sex 'how she likes it', but there is no way she is going to turn down Helen in the mood.

I am not in any way going to apologize to Victoria or anyone else for what I did, or the fact that I did it without consulting anyone first.

"So, like Vampiredom, and all the things you are doing to try to change us and our ways, you are now after Sirens to change theirs." Victoria said.

That pressed my passion button. "Yes. Also no. This change already occurred. They did not know about it. They need to get on the reality train. It is not general knowledge that we turned part of the Assembly, but you cannot count on that staying a secret. It will get out. There are great unknowns here. We converted older male Sirens. Wyatt and the other Assembly men. We never converted young ones. What if they get stuck in their misogynistic youth? The thing Vampires were killing their males over for millennia for. What if a converted adolescent male Siren stays in that immature state as a permanent condition? We have to find a way to fix that if that happens, and that means several things, including a new world order imposed upon them. No more Siren tolerance of boorish adolescent male behavior."

I could feel Victoria about to interrupt, so I plowed on to keep her from commenting yet. I needed to complete this thought. "A young female Siren turned Vampire becomes a Vera-like entity. A Vampire that has to put up with zero shit from a converted male Siren, and even less shit from a non-converted one. Once this gets out, and it will, it is going to change everything. Siren misogyny is cultural, not genetic. We have to be ready to change the Siren culture, or we are going to have a problem. You know how I feel about Siren culture, but this is not that. This is not personal. It's bigger than that. We cannot indulge male Sirens in their seduction bullshit anymore. It was bad enough before, but soon it is going to be intolerable. I'm not saying that as a female Vampire. I say that as a male one. This must stop."

"You are very male. Agreed. So: we have struck the first blow. Vera, pretending to be a female Siren, dusted a male Siren in a fight, by Siren rules. How does a real female Siren deal with that?" Victoria asked, thinking that is a good question.

It would have been in the old days.

"Same way Vera did. She used none of her VMC-given Vampire advantages. She used training. If Cert going rogue did us any favors, it is that my family trains all the damn time. Vera took out Larry with moves. Not power." I said.

"Female Siren boot camp? You planning on another training facility? We have not even had the opening ceremony on the current one." Victoria said.

"Think about Ninovan. Female Sirens fled to there and for eons. Male Sirens were not allowed. These new possibilities make all those reasons worse. A male Siren needs to lose all their rapey ways. They have to change."

"You just can't stand male Siren's." Victoria accused.

"I totally can't. Not most young ones. I except Kuzman. That's OK because neither can you nor any other female Vampire. Nor should you. I may be a little close to this, but no one should be doing anything against their will, except where there has been due process. See Cert and Alexander for details." I agreed.

"What's done is done. We'll see what happens." Victoria sounded a little tired. Sometimes she regrets putting me in this role.

"Look. I have evidence that youthful male Siren BS is cultural. I was in Bulgaria. I saw how Kuzman ran his Hall. They tolerated some Siren shit, but not all of it. We can change more. We have to. There is a time limit. We don't know what it is, but it is there. When it gets out we can choose Vampire conversion now? When it gets out that long life is a choice inside the community? Not all Sirens are going to hate the idea of being Vampires. We have to be ready for this. I absolutely will not let there be another rivalry like how Angel's father was killed. I won't allow it. Sirens hate Vampires, but that is cultural too. There is nothing genetic about it. It's more of the 'middle east I hate you because I was told to' or the Republican hatred of minorities in the US kind of thing. A learned as a kid thing. Young Sirens will not hate us as much as the current ones do. Female Sirens, at least some of them, if Leslie is any measure, are ready to join the other side now."

"We can't convert everyone, Adrian. You know that." Victoria admonished.

"Oh: I know. We have to be getting off this planet in the next century or so. Between Catalysts and conversions, the population it is going to be unsustainable. The price of knowledge."

Victoria was quiet. Finally said. "I will want one of those children too. True. As you and I have discussed. I suppose now you want me to get going on that space research program you keep bringing up? Vampires in Space?"

"With my Dad in it. Yes, please." I agreed happily.