The Five Cursed Witches: Volume 2 - Crimson, the Witch of Night

Chapter 56 Prejudice

Lamech

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The meeting started with Darren simply going over the problem. The frequency of attacks, the number of rouges, any pattern they had noticed which wasn't really any, the various ways they had tried to make the problem disappear for good without any success. It was all things that I had read in documents he had sent over beforehand, but I listened attentively. There was always information that was missed in a document. In this instance, the clear frustration he felt with the situation and even partly hopelessness.

"It would take us at least one hour to reach your pack land from here," I pointed out when he reached the end of his monologue. "So it won't do with you simply sending words as soon as there is an attack. We wouldn't be able to arrive in time to be of much help."

"I know," Darren sighed. "That was the easiest part with the witches, they could appear in a blink of an eye. The help we would need, would mean that a few of you would have to live with us."

I could see the hesitation in his eyes and his voice carried little confidence. But he didn't waver as he met my eyes.

"That wouldn't be a problem for us, speaking from a defense point of view," Stuart came in. Then to my surprise he gave Crimson a quick glance before continuing. "In fact, I believe it could be beneficial for us. Our fighters are good, but even someone meeting them for the first time, is able to see that they lack experience. It would benefit them to acquire some and I believe it would be beneficial for us as well as you, if we could train our fighters together. Let them learn from one another."

I nodded in approval of what Stuart said and turned to wait for the Alpha's response. That was exactly the outcome I wanted from this, though I hadn't expressed it per se when discussing the situation with Alair, Stuart, and Olivier beforehand. I wanted it for the reasons Stuart brought up, but mainly for other reasons. For it didn't matter how much of one alpha's trust I could gain if the majority of his pack members still held prejudices against vampires. But if a few could live with them for a while, befriend them hopefully, then the change in attitude would happen much quicker.

"I do like the idea. And I agree that learning from one another would be a great opportunity. But..." His voice broke off. It was obvious what the but contained, but he seemed thoroughly uncomfortable with saying it out loud.

"Many pack members will disagree to this," one of the Gammas said in Darren's place. "A lot already argued against us even coming here in the first place."

"It's ridiculous," Darren said and the anger in his voice caught me somewhat off guard. He had so far almost only seemed joyous no matter what in a way that had made me wonder if he was capable of dealing with wrong-doers. However, the tone now said that he very well could. "The peace-treaty has been upheld for much, much longer than any of them have been around. It's shameful that they can't let go of century old issues."

"Not to worry," Stuart said. "I'll hand pick the ones that'll come and pick among the older ones. The ones that still remember how only two generations ago, half an army joined in when your grandfather visited here and that was around for when the treaty was signed with only two of us present surrounded by wolves."

Darren's face paled. "I'm sorry. I..."

"You're misunderstanding what Stuart means," I hurriedly said. "We are fully aware of the prejudices that exist and there are several of us that comes from a time when those prejudices had their rights. Vampires aren't blameless but we are pleased over that our change of ways have slowly been acknowledged. For instance, the fact that you are here, in a closed room and not outnumbering us, shows us how far we've gotten since the treaty was signed."

I had truly been surprised by that. I had assumed that the entourage of fighters would be like flies on the wall during the meeting, ready to jump in if they thought us dangerous. So the fact that only Darren, Cassie, and the two Gammas was with us, making the number of shifters and vampires in the room equal, spoke volumes to me.

Darren gave me a smile and nodded. "Right then. How many would you like to bring?" he asked and turned to look at Stuart.

"About a dozen. Should be enough to be sufficient help in an attack, but not so many that it would overwhelm the pack," he answered.

"It would be for the best if accommodation could be arranged slightly apart from others. A separate house for them," I pointed out.

"And we'll make sure to bring plenty of supplies," Stuart added.

"Only donor blood, would be the best. To avoid the risk of any getting the wrong idea," I inserted and Stuart nodded his agreement.

"The old pack house is still empty," Cassie said at Darren's side while looking at him. "It would just need a bit of work first, but it should be fine, right?"

He smiled at her. "Good thing you stopped me from tearing it down."

"That's settled then. I have to pick who that'll come. But essentially, we could leave later today," Stuart said but Darren shook his head lightly.

"It would have to wait a little. Many will want to argue against this arrangement. So they need some time to get used to the idea of vampires living on our land. However, would the end of next month work? Dragging it out too long won't do any good either."

"Perfect," I said to finalize it. "It's decided then! Any other issues we should discus?"

To my surprise, it wasn't any of the wolves that raised their voice at my question, but Crimson. So far I had avoided looking at her, worried that it would cause far too many emotions to boil over. But as she cleared her throat and started to speak, I had to turn to her.

She looked as beautiful as always, but just like I had avoided looking at her, she seemed to avoid looking at me. Her eyes were fixed on Darren as she spoke.

"I got an idea yesterday that I would like to run by you and see if it would be of any interest."