“This is ridiculous, surely you realise that!” Elder Gareth Stanley exclaimed slapping his palm on the mahogany table in the vampire council meeting room. Jeremy Rightley stifled a sigh. Today’s discussion was not going very well. He had not expected it to, but if he were to be honest it was going even worse than predicted. He took a deep breath and forced his words to come out in a calm and measured manner.
“You read the report, Stanley, they followed all the procedures, the kid went through the stages, had the symptoms… Lance has no clue why the transition failed. By all signs it should have worked. They have no idea how he is still as human as ever.” Jeremy repeated the same argument for what felt like the hundredth time. The other council members looked very uncomfortable. Jeremy could sympathise. They had had that conversation in a previous meeting, but Elder Stanley had been away on business during it. Ultimately, there was nothing that they could do. Robin was Alpha Stoneheart’s nephew, and all the procedures have been followed.
Jeremy had felt a bit uneasy forcing his werewolf friend to go with the transformation in the first place. He thought it was a barbaric solution and quite unnecessary at that. There was a good chance that the child in question would transform spontaneously in the first place if exposed to the paranormal community. Also, Robin was a child of twelve, what danger did these council members think he posed to them? But they lived in a democracy. The individual councils voted and sent their representatives. Those representatives then put pressure on Foster Stoneheart. And Foster, as Jeremy knew, was a good guy with a lot of empathy. So ultimately he had agreed to bite his nephew and change him into a werewolf.
“It doesn’t matter! So what if he didn’t change into a wolf. Maybe Stoneheart didn’t try hard enough. Or maybe there is something wrong with his bite. He comes from the Eastern wolves after all, and what do we know about them? Maybe it takes more than one Easter wolf bite for the transformation to take? Or maybe it won’t work on blood relatives?” Elder Stanley was getting more and more agitated, standing up and pacing back and forth. He pushed a hand through his short cropped, salt and pepper hair, his eyes narrowed in thought. “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter!” He returned to the table and slapped both his hands on it looming over the others sat around it. “What matters is, why are you not insisting he follows through with other avenues? So the kid didn’t take to the wolf-bite, so what? Why aren’t we trying vampirism next? Or a wendigo strain? Or any other kind of supernatural change? Why is a human child attending our school?”
The other five council member looked between themselves, uncomforttable. They had had that conversation previously and it hadn’t been pleasant. Jeremy aimed to shorten and summarise it for the benefit of Elder Stanley.
“To be concise, we attempted to present that option to Alpha Stoneheart, however he is strongly resistant to it. He claims he had fulfilled his part of the bargain by putting his nephew through the transformation. His nephew experiencing full effects of the transformation is, in his mind, equal to completing it, whether he can now change into a wolf or not. Therefore he will not entertain the thought of attempting any other changes being pushed on the child.”
For just a moment Elder Stanley was left speechless. To be honest, the other council members had experienced a similar reaction, Jeremy included. It would be hard to argue with the argument that Robin Blackwell had gone through the full transition. All of the process had been recorded by the medical team in the smallest detail, as was their habit. And they proved beyond reasonable doubt that he had indeed experienced the full extent of werewolf transition. But the sole purpose of the child going through the transition was for them to end up a supernatural and therefore a part of the community, never being able to expose the supernatural secret to the human world least they expose themselves as well. This vital part of the equation was missing. This had dawned on the council members in their previous meeting and fierce arguments had then ensued. Those arguments had lasted hours but they all ultimately came to the same conclusion.
“I’ll be frank with you, Elder.” Jeremy let his exhaustion show in his voice. “We are lacking any kind of real leverage to push this matter. Alpha Stoneheart had agreed with our demands originally due to his sensitivity to our cultural issues. However, he is not a born supernatural, he is a transitioned one himself. He does not possess the intrinsic fear of humans. As such, he is more likely to dig his heels in if we try to push him, rather than cave in to our demands. As such, I would advise a ‘wait and see approach’ to avoid aggravating the matter.”
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Stanley frowned but sat down without saying a word. Everyone else waited in silence. Vampire council of Fulsham consisted of seven representatives with Stanley’s title as Elder being the highest. That gave him the nominal authority over many of their rulings. It wasn’t normally too important, they weren’t dealing with life and death matters on daily basis after all. Minor things like organising the vampire youth yearly summer camps and organising conferences with other vampire communities countrywide was not exactly hair-raising level of drama. Still, even in those mundane types of politics Stanley had proven himself steadfast and reliable. Seeing him so riled up over this matter left Jeremy quite unsettled. He hoped the man would be able to see the reason. Nothing good would come from pushing Alpha Stoneheart. While the others might see Foster as young and untried when it came to ruling the supernatural community, Jeremy knew that his werewolf friend had a spine of steel when it came to things and people he cared about. And his young nephew had very quickly become one of the most important people in Fosters life.
“Very well.” Elder Stanley said after pondering over Jeremy’s words for a while. “I will take your words under consideration.”
Jeremy breathed a quiet sigh of relief. He really didn’t know what he would do if the vampire elder insisted on conflict with the Alpha. Jeremy was the vampire council representative to the town council and it sometimes put him in a truly undesirable position. Being a small-town politician could be treacherous, but being one in a supernatural town meant that one not only had to deal with political and business divides but also ones caused by everyone’s supernatural factions. It was an additional layer of egos, pettiness, and self-interest to juggle. It could be exhausting. But ultimately Jeremy did it because he believed that he could make a positive difference. He wanted to make the world a better place for his son. He wanted Tomlin to grow up in a nicer, more equal, safer supernatural community. He wanted him to be happy in Fulsham. That was why Jeremy put up with all the stress, and the annoyances, and the petty squabbles. Elder Stanley’s voice pulled him out of his musings.
“What is next on tonight’s agenda?” Just like that they refocused on what resources should be allocated to organising the next year’s youth vamirethletics.
*****
Later that night Jeremy came back home completely mentally exhausted. Dealing with vampire council matters was always draining, but this meeting felt especially tiring. He dropped off his briefcase on the kitchen island and grabbed a glass of wine, then made a bee-line to the living room. Sara’s eyes met his from behind the thick-rimmed glasses. She only wore those in the evenings, to let her eyes rest.
“Tough day at work?” she queried, the corner of her lip curling up in a half smile.
“You could say that.” He ignored the empty sofa and pushed his way into the tiny space left on the one next to her. Sara’s smile grew as he wiggled closer and embraced her, never letting go of his wineglass. She was curled up in comfy clothes and under cosy blankets, her own wineglass sat on the side-table next to her. She had some book open, but she marked the space and put it aside to cuddle with him. Jeremy ignored how he was rumpling his suit and how he should probably change out of it first, before relaxing like this with his wife.
“Want to tell me about it?” She asked as she snuggled her head under his chin.
“Not really.” This. This is what I needed. With his wife safely in his arms and a glass of wine to sip from, Jeremy could finally release some of the day’s tension.
“Mmm, Okay.” Sara knew him well. She didn’t say anything else, just stayed like that with him. They stayed like that for a while, slowly unwinding, drinking their wine and listening to some soft jazz playing in the background. Jeremy didn’t even realise there was music playing until a few minutes in. That was the level of stress he was under. Now that it was disappearing he could begin enjoying the soft tunes. With his wife here, he hoped that things would go as planned. He didn’t want some silly conflict to disturb his life in Fulsham. It was a good life he had built for himself and his family here. He could not stand for anything to destroy it. Definitely not some close-minded people who couldn’t deal with a single human child living in their eclectic supernatural town.
