Anthony's and Mister The Eye

The next night, I woke up peacefully. It was a Saturday, but the bands weren't going to be playing until at least 8 so it was quiet upstairs. When I got to the main floor and said my customary hellos, I saw Mike in the doorway just past the bouncer's podium. I prickled a bit at his presence, but made myself give him a break considering he was waving timidly waiting for my permission to enter. I allow him in and we chatted for a bit. He seemed rather impressed by my singing the other day. Maybe it's not the smartest thing to be letting on, but damn, it felt really good to sing like that again. At least he appreciates it, I guess.

After a bit, the bouncer came by us and said that there was some dude in a limo outside looking for me. Limo? I'm sure I wouldn't have forgotten someone picking me up in style. I excused myself, but Mike said that he should get going anyway so we walked out together. Just as the bouncer said, there was a limo driver outside with a small stack of envelopes. He handed one to me with my name written on it. After catching sight of Mike, he waved him over and handed over a similar one to him as well. I flipped it over and saw that it was sealed with wax and embossed with a signet of "G. H." Ugh. There's only one person I know with those initials. I rolled my eyes and opened the envelope. Inside was in invitation to a formal event at Anthony's down on the waterfront on Sunday at 8pm.

At that moment, I got a call from a bar down in Pioneer Square. It was Jericho on the other end of the line. I asked him a barrage of questions relating to the staking, but he didn't really have very many answers. All he remembered was being woken up by something and falling right back asleep. He didn't even know about the tunnel in the ceiling! He was polite, but seemed impatient to get off the phone so we wrapped up the conversation. Mike and I walked down to the Denny triangle and met up with Vince and Xavier. He had some news to share. It turned out that Genevieve and Rafael have reconciled and thus, our death sentences were nullified.

The four of us got into a discussion about what we should do next. Mike sought out his opportunity in the conversation to say I should join Ordo Dracul. For fuck's sake, no offense to Mike, but I am not a damn pawn to add to a team just for an increase in numbers! I gave him the same answer I gave to Vince when he invited me to Invictus a few days ago. Man, that started quite the conversation. I feigned interest for the most part because honestly, until things actually explode into a fight, I'd rather not worry about it. I don't like the thought of being on edge all the time. Being too defensive is just as bad as being on the offensive and I'm sure as hell not going to be responsible for sparking a fight. I'd much rather take things as they come. Yes, things are brimming with danger now, but it's ridiculous to feel like you have to wear a bullet-proof vest all the time!

It feels like Mike and Vince have a bit of the wrong impression. They seem to think that because I'm refusing to take a side, I must be thinking that I'm totally invincible and that I won't get pulled into the mess. Please. I may be young, but I wasn't Embraced yesterday. I know full well that if a fight breaks out, everyone will get involved in some way or another. I have no problem with being on the side I feel is right, but absolutely refuse to take a side just because others in a clique do. This is why I stay out of covenant bullshit. It may mean I get into trouble, but at least I'll be in trouble for the decisions I made rather than a flock of sheep. What's the point of this endless life if you don't stand up for yourself? I guess the others are just a little too old-fashioned to see this. Well, Xavier might be thinking like me. After the initial chiding, he resorted to just telling me to be careful, be prepared, and save my own ass. I wanted to stop talking about this "what if" crap so I steered the conversation, at least with Xavier, about what I was going to wear to this party tomorrow. He offered to buy me some sparkly accessories to go along with that amazing dress from the night of the opera! We somehow managed to coax Mike into coming too. I'm sure he'll look much nicer in a suit rather than the ratty old sweatshirt he always hides in. He may even be able to impress some girl there who I'm sure will be around as hors d oeuvres.

I arrived at the restaurant a little early. We had a private banquet room in the back reserved so I sat down at an empty table. Vince and Blade were talking in hushed tones a couple tables down. Jericho came in and he seemed startled after exchanging glances with Blade. He pulled out the chair next to me to sit and asked, "what happened?" I gave him a puzzled expression and said that I just got here. He chuckled a bit nervously. "This should be good..." The chair on the other side of me was pulled out a moment later and I was elated to see Rafael there! He gave me a warm smile, but Jericho seemed confused. When he asked what he was doing here, Rafael plainly answered that he was a Seattle kindred just like the rest of us.

Genevieve started the meeting when all of us were seated. Well, almost all of us. There was still no sign of Little Jim. She announced that the restrictions on childer are now lifted in addition to the city's borders being opened as well. Rafael, though found innocent, was restricted from this for a year as punishment for fleeing the council of justice. There was a bit of commotion that stirred among us at that. Genevieve paid no attention to it and went on to the next order of business: a new sheriff was appointed. She wanted someone with experience so she brought in a Tacoma native called The Eye. It was also announced that Mike was appointed head of media relations as well. Good for him! Given this new state of affairs and perhaps the laws being on a bit more stable ground, I asked to speak just before Genevieve was about to adjourn the meeting. I asked what was going to be done about a mercenary who was intent on killing some of Seattle's kindred and she simply dismissed it saying it was our problem. What the hell?! Ugh... Elena Kasparova, the Mekhet elder and Mike and Xavier's sire, passed by me and whispered to come find her if I needed help with my problem that Genevieve oh so kindly said was mine.

I went and found Liam after we were all milling about. I wanted to see if he had any information on why Paul's family was so thoroughly searched. It seemed like, given the tension in the city among the kindred, too much of a coincidence that MY retainer's family was the one being searched. But I had no proof of anything so all I could do was to politely introduce myself and ask him to look into it... which, of course, got me no where. When I returned to my table, I saw Xavier had taken my seat and was chatting with Rafael while Jericho looked extremely annoyed. Rafael touched Jericho on the shoulder, and he jerked away and snapped, "don't touch me!" After Xavier left, Rafael apologized to him saying he didn't mean to upset him, and Jericho looked at him straight in the eyes and replied, "yes, you did." Whoa, boys...

The Eye was making his rounds of introductions and soon it was my turn. Given that he's supposed to be the law now, I asked him directly about Vincenzo like I did to Genevieve, wondering what he plans to do about it considering our fearless leader just announced that she was opening our borders because in order for us to hold power over the kine, we must increase our numbers. I'm sure some murderous rouge wasn't going to be helping with increasing our numbers. But to my disgust, his attitude was the same as Genevieve's; it's your problem. While I was talking to him, I caught Elena's eye and she looked quite offended. After wrapping up my disappointing conversation with The Eye, Jericho came by and mentioned he was going to get going. I wanted to chat with him so I asked him to wait up for me while I took care of something. He said he would wait for me outside. I approached Elena. Sure enough, I guess I pissed her off because she thought I was refusing her offer for help just because I expected someone who was here to govern our laws to... govern our laws.

When the night was drawing to a close, I met Jericho outside, linked arms with him, and had him walk me home. I tried to coax him to play violin, but he changed the subject. "Watch out for Pope," he said. "He's up to something." I asked what Rafael had to do with playing violin and he just told me to think about it. What?? It was my turn to change the subject and I asked him if he and Blade were okay. I was still a bit perturbed at him about the whole "oh, he's fine" incident, but Jericho seemed okay since they go way back. I grudgingly figured that if Jericho was okay with him, I had no reason to be upset at him either. I also asked him how he felt about being unaligned and I was glad to know that we shared the same opinions about being able to act based on your own opinions.

When we got to the Fairview intersection, he said he had to take care of some things in the opposite direction. He reiterated to be careful, I said goodnight to him, and squeezed his arm in a hug. To my surprise, he lifted me right up and gave me a half-hug too. As he was walking away, I shouted back to him that we should get together for some music sometime and his chuckle echoed back to me.