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

Someones Knocking

The first knock on the cabin came at around 8:30 AM. I think we had been asleep ten minutes.

I slid out of bed and padded to the door, trying not to wake the Angels. They did good work last night.

It was Denise and Anne. Given Denise lives here, not sure why she knocked. Probably because she is with her Crew co-lead, back from her Cruise.

The pair looked over my bleary-eyed form. "I can't believe the Crew that was here just let you do that. I just want you to know I hid a box of the pens." Denise said, no little anger in her voice.

I blinked. Tried to remember through the haze of near sleep and a long night of doing the gods of heaven and earth's work. "The box of 500 on top of the cabinet, or the box of 20 in the secret drawer in the desk?" I asked, trying to think how I might have missed something. I thought I looked pretty hard. When I found the secret drawer, I was scanning the room in IR looking for exactly that kind of hiding place. I know Denise.

"Oh... Fuck you! Why am I marrying you again? Asshole. I mean, other than that cute ass. Damn, that looks nice." She shook her head. "Getting distracted. I can order more pens from the supplier. I am going to lay in bed and write with one every damn night. Get used to it. Boss." Denise treated me to some swearing in what I think might be Czech? Old version probably, from her youth. The pair of pissed off Crew leads spun and marched off across the open area toward the cafe. Anne scowled at me before she followed.

Weird. She rarely lets Denise do all the talking. I guess this just messed up her happy Cruise vacation buzz.

Since I am allowed to via being lovers and sort of engaged, I admired Denise's receding and angry form. She knows how to walk pissed off.

Our cabin is arranged away from the primary set of buildings of the Camp. I suppose someday if this place continues to grow we'll be near other things, but for now, we are semi-isolated from the principal part of the facility. We planned it that way because we like privacy for our family, and also we did not want to rub it in that our cabin is bigger than most. Has to be, if the entire family is here. Compared to Casa de Gato, it's not that big.

From the doorway of our place, I can see smoke still curling up over the rooftops from the bonfire of the vanities. It was a big, hot fire. No way it is all the way burned down. The coals might smolder for days. Fine with me: the metal stuff in there needs a good baking to scour any remaining enameled on ink. At least those stupid pens were not engraved. Saved me having to hammer 520 of them into sticks.

I closed the door and went back to bed. Jessica woke enough to pull me to her and Morgan. Helen flopped an arm possessively over the three of us, so she was that awake too. Damn it. They need their rest.

At 10:45, I answered the door again. It was Victoria, standing by herself, fists balled on her hips. I got a lingering once over. Again. Nothing she has not seen before.

"Really?" She asked. No point in asking what she meant. At least she did not comment on my tush.

"Yeah: that was about my first reaction when I saw the abomination." I replied and rubbed at my eyes. "Don't worry Victoria. We fixed that fucking train-wreck in time. Took all night. Still need to clean up a few holes in things here and there. Maybe some eaves and stuff. We could not preserve a lot of things. The pranksters were pretty complete in their tagging. Determined to ruin today and the celebration of everyone's good work, I guess. I don't know. I know why people like to deface property like that. Assholes is all I got. People being jerks trying to tear down other people's hard work building something."

"Assholes..." Victoria was unsure how to take that. I just called her an asshole, indirectly.

"We may have to buy some more dinner plates if we did not get enough: It was everything Walmart and Target had, according to Morgan, who loves me deeply for reasons beyond understanding but that I will not fight and she would not let that injustice stand. The bad guys can't win. They knock you down, you get back up and fight again."

"The bad guys..." Victoria repeated.

I nodded. "We only had so much time to right that wrong last night. Can you believe the complete dipshitery of that whole thing? I mean, I have heard of people tagging things, but that was over the top ugliness. Deep dark hated of the teamwork that went into this place. Don't worry: whoever the asshole is that defaced the camp like that, I am a PI. I will catch them, and if they managed to get a few things by me, we'll have another bonfire. And another. And another. Eventually, they will get tired of their unmitigated bullshit and move on to try to tear down someone else's teamwork. We must watch out for that too, in case they go after an animal rescue organization or something."

"Animal rescue." Now Victoria is now merely repeating things I said.

"Exactly. It can't be cheap to deface property like that. They can deface, I can replace. I suspect the fucking Sirens because I made them accept Vera as Liaison." I said looking Victoria directly in the eyes and telling her I suspect nothing like that.

Victoria needed to know in her heart as if the destruction of everything did not give her a strong clue, that I am not sorry, and that I will stop this over and over. My family and I.

As I worked my way through that recital, I saw in her eyes that she understood I am not backing down on this travesty. Victoria knows I'll take being fired over not standing my ground on something I am passionate about. The downside for her of me being on Council is that I do not enjoy the job, and that leaves her little in the way of controlling what I do.

"Ok. Well then." Victoria said, squaring her shoulders after her dressing down by her employee for her crimes against Vampiredom. "Will you be at the dedication? Noon?"

"Sure. Why we are all here, right? To dedicate this place to the mistakes we have made and are trying to undo? To the entire team that made this a reality. From the Council being willing to accept change and invest in it to the Crew that designed and built this place, and all the people helping along the way. Not the conscripted labor, but the volunteers that give their time and money. You keep ceremonies short and sweet and to the point. Something I like about you as head Vampire. If it gets long and boring, I can always sneak out and take my Rachel over to kick balls on the sports field while you run down."

That got a glare, and she left. I am getting that a lot glaring morning. I took a shower. What is their problem?

Whatever.