No one moved.
Riley made a disgusted sound. "Unity!" he shouted. "We don't have it! What kind of a threat can we pose when we won't stop kil ing each other?" He kicked the dust, sending up a smal black cloud. "Can you imagine them laughing at us? They think taking the city from us wil be easy. That we're weak with stupidity! That we'l just hand them our blood."
Half the vampires in the room snarled in protest now.
"Can you work together, or do we al die?"
"We can take them, boss," Raoul growled.
Riley scowled at him. "Not if you can't control yourself! Not if you can't cooperate with every single person in this room. Anyone you take out" - his toe nudged the ashes again - "might be the one who could have kept you alive. Every one of your coven that you kil is like handing our enemies a gift. Here, you're saying, take me down! "
Kristie and Raoul exchanged a glance as if they were seeing each other for the first time. Others did the same. The word coven was not unfamiliar, but none of us had applied it to our group before. We were a coven.
"Let me tel you about our enemies," Riley said, and al eyes locked on his face. "They are a much older coven than we are. They've been around for hundreds of years, and they've survived that long for a reason. They are crafty and they are skil ed and they are coming to retake Seattle with confidence - because they've heard the only ones they'l have to fight for it are a bunch of disorganized children who wil do half their work for them!"
More growls, but some were less angry than they were wary. A few of the quieter vampires, the ones Riley would have cal ed tamer, looked skittish.
Riley noticed that, too. "This is how they see us, but that's because they can't see us together. Together, we can crush them. If they could see al of us, side by side, fighting together, they would be terrified. And that's how they're going to see us. Because we're not going to wait for them to show up here and start picking us off. We're going to ambush them. In four days."
Four days? I guessed our creator didn't want to cut it too close to the deadline. I looked at the closed door again. Where was Diego?
Others reacted to the deadline with surprise, some with fear.
"It's the last thing they'l expect," Riley assured us. "Al of us - together - waiting for them. And I've saved the best part for last. There are only seven of them."
There was an instant of incredulous silence.
Then Raoul said, "What?"
Kristie stared at Riley with the same disbelieving expression, and I heard muttered whispers around the room.
"Seven?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Hey," Riley snapped. "I wasn't joking when I said this coven is dangerous. They are wise and... devious. Underhanded. We wil have power on our side; they wil have deception. If we play it their way, they will win. But if we take it to them on our terms..." Riley didn't finish, he just smiled.
"Let's go now," Raoul urged. "Let's get 'em out of the picture fast." Kevin growled enthusiastical y.
"Slow down, moron. Rushing into things blind isn't going to help us win," Riley chided him.
"Tel us everything we need to know about them," Kristie encouraged, shooting Raoul a superior look.
Riley hesitated, as if deciding how to word something. "Al right, where to begin? I guess the first thing you need to know is... that you don't know everything there is to know about vampires yet. I didn't want to overwhelm you in the beginning."
Another pause while everyone looked confused. "You have a little bit of experience with what we cal 'talents.' We have Fred."
Everyone looked at Fred - or rather they tried to. I could tel from Riley's expression that Fred did not like being singled out. It looked like Fred had real y turned up the volume on his
"talent," as Riley cal ed it. Riley cringed and looked away quickly. I stil didn't feel anything.
"Yes, wel, there are some vampires who have gifts beyond the usual super strength and super senses. You've seen one aspect in... our coven." He was careful not to say Fred's name again. "Gifts are rare - one in fifty, maybe - but every one is different. There's a huge range of gifts out there, and some of them are more powerful than others."
I could hear a lot of murmurs now as people wondered if they might be talented. Raoul was preening like he'd already decided he was gifted. As far as I could tel, the only one around here that was in any way special was standing next to me.
"Pay attention!" Riley commanded. "I'm not tel ing you this for entertainment."
"This enemy coven," Kristie interjected. "They're talented. Right?"
Riley gave her an approving nod. "Exactly. I'm glad someone here can connect the dots."
Raoul's upper lip twitched back over his teeth.
"This coven is dangerously talented," Riley went on, his voice dropping to a hushed whisper. "They have a mind reader."
He examined our faces, looking to see if we got the importance of this revelation. He didn't seem satisfied with his assessment.
"Think, guys! He'l know everything in your head. If you attack, he'l know what move you're going to make before you know it. You go left, he'l be waiting."
There was a nervous stil ness as everyone imagined this.
"This is why we've been so careful - me, and the one who created you."
Kristie flinched away from Riley when he mentioned her. Raoul looked angrier. Nerves strained universal y.
"You don't know her name, and you don't know what she looks like. This protects us al . If they'd stumbled across one of you alone, they wouldn't realize that you were connected to her, and they might have let you be. If they knew you were part of her coven, there would be no delay in your execution."