Page 14 of Vampire's Cupcake
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Chapter 4
As darkness fell, Thano stepped into the clearing.There were more people than he'd anticipated, though fewer than they'd been last year.
Armelle stood in the middle, towering over most of the others, the crows painted the trees black, and the vampires were wispy shadows on the sidelines.
"Good evening."
Fala, Raven, Conal, and Tuur were all in human form, though Fala was without clothes.He was amazed she didn't freeze.
"Why are we here?"Ciar sounded grumpy, most likely because Romeo was still at home.It was comical how the once fiercely independent panther now got snarly if he had to be away from his mate for more than ten minutes.
"To discuss the board in Last Hope."Thano gave him an impassive look.
"Are we taking them out?"Draven looked confused.
"It's not my intention at this point."Though he wouldn't miss them if they were gone.Stupid humans.
A few crows made soft caws and fluttered their feathers.
"I wonder if maybe we made a mistake getting involved."He looked around, his gaze landing on Armelle.He valued her opinion.
"How do you mean?"
"We spend hours every week discussing tolls and taxes, and future plans for the settlement, and so on.We spent weeks watching the humans argue about a telephone."
"A telephone?"Armelle looked confused.
"Like in Romeo's stories?"Humbert hurried out from between the trees.
Armelle glared at him."I told you to stay in the den."
Humbert ignored her and turned his round eyes to Thano."Is it like the telephones in Romeo's books?"
"It's a landline, not one of those portable ones we heard about in the last story."
He looked disappointed.If the round bear ears he had in both his forms could've drooped, Thano was sure they would have.
"The kind of phone is irrelevant.What I'm wondering is if we're wasting our time with the humans.None of their decisions affect us, and while we need to know what's going on, and knowledge about human behavior is crucial, maybe how we had it before was a better approach."
"With only you on the board?"Conal's tone gave nothing away, but Thano believed he detected a hint of disappointment.
"With one representative from The Moonlight Ranch."
"But we get paid for our work there."Tuur stepped forward, so everyone could see him."For every meeting we attend, we get more digits in our bank account."
"Yes, but have you been able to do anything with those digits?Have you bought anything?Been able to use them for anything at all?"
He didn't speak, but Thano knew the answer.The humans had forbidden breed to have human money.At first, no one had cared since breed traded favors, they didn't buy stuff, but now more and more wanted things from the settlements.Those who worked with humans had a bank account with funds in it, but they weren't allowed to make any withdrawals.If they could get a shop to agree to give them an invoice, they could file it at the bank, but few businesses did.
Thano remembered a time when invoices had been a slip of paper.Not anymore.Now the shop owner had to go with you to the bank, and few wanted to since they then had to close the shop.Plus, most humans didn't want to do business with breed at all.
"If we withdraw, we can't steer decisions."Conal's eyes had turned to those of his wolf.
"True, but maybe we should let them do it on their own.If they haven't learned their lesson, then we'll teach it to them again."
There were a few nods, mostly from vampires, which had Thano suppressing a wince.He tried hard not to be like the other vampires.As with every species, there were those he liked and those he disliked, but in general, vampires considered themselves superior to every other species.Many wanted to keep humans as cattle, and they looked down on the shifters.Assumed they weren't smarter than their animal spirit, which wasn't true.
