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Vidar watched as the conference room filled with vampires. It was rare for all of them to gather in one place like this. He knew most of them, if not closely at least by face and name. It was almost im
living for as long as he had and not run into many of the other vampires. There were those that isolated themselves, living alone without wanting contact with their own kind. But they were few. Most vampires had the desire to withdraw from time to time, when the constant changing of the world became too much. But it was for the most part a passing state. No one thrived in isolation. He looked down at Charlie who stood by hist side, watching the crowd. He was proud to have her there, he was proud of her. She had handled everything without problems. He remembered that he had messed up by not letting her know his parents would be attending and he flinched internally. Vidar hated that he had added to her stress. To him it wasn’t a big deal that his parents were attending, but then they were his parents. If she had sprung relatives at him that way, he would have been nervous as well. He would just have to take his punishment and be happy that the meeting had gone as amazing as it had. To be truthful, Vidar had known his parents would like Charlie. She was a wonderful person and he loved her, so why wouldn’t they like her? But it had gone better than he had expected.
“Is Jun going to make it in time?” Charlie asked him. Vidar checked his phone to see when Jun had sent the message that they were heading from the airport.
“They should be here any moment,” he told her. She smiled at him and nodded. He could see how excited she was to meet Liwei. Jun’s wife could appear cold and dismissive and Vidar hoped Charlie wouldn’t be disappointed or take it as an insult. In reality, Liwei was a loving and warm person. But as many of them, she had lived in times where such things would be seen as weaknesses, and weaknesses would get you killed. But it would be nice to have another imprinted couple in the clan. Vidar could see Jun and Liwei making their way through the crowd to get to the rest of the clan members that stood by the stage. He nudged Charlie and she nodded, she had seen them as well. Jun was just about to introduce Charlie to Liwei when Vidar got an idea. ‘Tell him‘ he sent to Charlie.
“Know?” she asked.
“Yes.‘ Vidar watched his friend as he opened his mouth to speak to Charlie end then just get stuck in that state as he starred at her. Vidar had to chuckle.
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“Jun?” his wife asked. When he looked at her with blank eyes, she frowned at him. “What’s the matter with you?” Liwei asked.
“I’m sorry. It’s all Vidars fault, he convinced me to do something childish. He’ll be fine in a moment. Hello, I’m Charlie,” Charlie told the other woman and held out her hand. To Vidar’s surprise, Liwei smiled and shook Charlie’s hand.
“Finaly we meet, Charlie. I’m Liwei. I hear I owe you for punishing my husband by making. him call me.”
“I thought it was about time,” Charlie told her.
“You were right. Thank you,” Liwei said. “Would you tell me what you did to my husband? I might want to use it from time to time.” Vidar watched as the woman’s eyes grew big and realised Charlie had shared her ability with her. “Truly amazing. We need to say hello to the others, but then you and me are going to have a nice girl talk, “Liwei promised Charlie.
“That sounds like a lot of fun,” Charlie agreed.
“Hello, Vidar. I like your partner, now that we are at least two imprinted pairs in the clan, Charlie and I can start a little council of our own. You don’t mind if I steel her away for a couple of hours, do you?” Liwei asked Vidar. Vidar unconsciously pulled Charlie closer to him.
“I don’t know about that,” he said.
“Men. We will arrange something.” Liwei said to Charlie.
“Let’s do that, I’ll make sure Vidar is busy with other things,” Charlie told her. Liwei laughed.
“I like you.”
“It’s nice seeing you again, Jun,” Charlie said. Jun had recovered from his surprise and he smiled.
“It’s nice seeing you as well, Charlie. Vidar,” he then said nodding at Vidar. Vidar smiled and nodded towards him. A while later Henry walked up to them.
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“I think we have everyone we can expect,” he told them. Vidar nodded, they all knew this was it. This was the moment they needed to convince the others of what they had found.
“I love you,” Charlie told him and k*ssed his cheek. He smiled at her.
“I love you too, lilla lo.” They joined the rest of the clan and together they all stepped out on the big scene. The seven of them faced the joint vampire community, at least the part of it that they had deemed trustworthy.
“Friends, we the Manarola clan have invited you because we have been made aware of a threat not only to our clan, and not only to us vampires, but to the world as we know it. You are vampires we know to be honest, honourable and reliable. I ask only that you listen to what we are to tell you and then make your mind up if you belive what we will tell you,” Adisa said. One after the other, they all talked, they all told a part of the story from the first seeds of betrayal to the finding of the truth. The large room was completely silent with the exception of their voices. As everyone were vampires, no microphones were used.
“That bring us to this moment, we have gathered all of you here to help us stop this before it is to late and we can’t do anything to stop it. You have heard our story, we have presented our evidences. We ask you to take the rest of the day and the night to discuss and think. Tomorrow morning we will all gather back in this room to plan our defence, those who will stand with us are welcome to join us. For those that chose not to, we wish you luck in the coming days. You will surely need it,” Henry ended their presentation. The seven of them stood on the stage in a close group, watching the room as the vampires started talking to each other. Most of them sounded shocked or outraged. From what Vidar could hear, very few doubted them. They had laid out compelling evidence.
‘Do you think they will join us?‘ Charlie asked him in her special way.
“I think most of them will,‘ he told her. She nodded. They all took a moment to calm down and then they split up and moved through the crowd of vampires to answer questions and just talk. Many of the vampires Charlie and Vidar spoke to said they would join forces with them. Even Millard’s parents came to give Charlie a hug and say they were honoured to have been given an invitation to the gathering. Since their son had been a part of everything, they hadn’t expected one. Vidar had to smile when Charlie scoffed at that.
“You have been of so much help already, no one would doubt where your loyalty lies,” Charlie
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told them.
“She is speaking the truth,” Vidar assured them. As the evening moved on, the crowd started to thin out. Clans were gathering on their own in their rooms to talk and make plans, old friends and allies scattered around to discuss what to do next. “Come on, baby, there’s not much we can do here. We will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings,” Vidar said to Charlie. She nodded and sighed.
“Are you coming, Caine?” she asked.
“No, I will take the first watch as security commander. I’ll get off my shift at three,” he said.
“Don’t forget to eat and be careful,” Charlie told him and it still amused Vidar to see the look.
of surprise on his friend’s face when Charlie showed him kindness. Vidar took Charlie back to
their suite, she gravitated to the panorama window showing the city that never sleeps. She was stunning as she silhouetted against the bright lights of the city.
“Are
you hungry?” Vidar asked softly and stood behind her. He wrapped her up and she leaned back against him.
“Not really,” she said.
“Want me to order room service anyway?”
in his arms
“We should eat,” she agreed. Despite their agreement, he didn’t move. Something about the moment reminded him of the first night he had take
Charlie to their apartment. She had.
stood watching over the city then too. He had been just as enthralled by her.
“Let’s eat and I still have to apologise to you,” he told her.