"Hi Jess," I greeted the tall redhead at the door. "Come on in. Where's Daniel and Kathryn?"

Jess shook her head, "They wouldn't bring anything to this meeting that I don't already know, and it would have been too suspicious for all three of us to disappear again together."

It was Monday, just past eight in the evening. Apart from going out hunting on Saturday night, me and Tara had spent most of the past three days here in the hotel room. We'd been taking lots of advantage of the comfy king-size bed, not to mention the big jacuzzi tub.

Now the two of us were fully dressed and armed, ready incase Jessica brought trouble with her.

Jessica moved into the room and greeted Tara, while I closed the door and reset the deadbolt and security chain. Tara was sitting on the edge of the bed while our guest took a seat on the sofa.

I sat next to my girlfriend and slipped an arm around her shoulders then asked Jess "So what's the news? Do you have any more information we can work with?"

Jess sighed, "I can't think of any way to lure Julian or Olivia out of the mansion, let alone off the property. Since you killed Isabelle and the others, they've been completely paranoid. Not that either of them were more adventurous in the past of course. If anything, I'd say they were even more secretive and private before? I don't recall seeing Olivia around much, and Julian rarely travelled further afield than the office where he managed the bookkeeping with Clive and Harold. At least now the pair of them have to make appearances now and then to meet with some of us? Those meetings used to be handled by Isabelle."

I frowned, but had to admit she was right. I'd never met Olivia, I didn't even know what she looked like. And Julian kept very much to himself too.

"You know," I said as I slowly shook my head, "Thinking back now and looking at all this from a fresh perspective? It's mind-blowing how fucked up the whole thing is."

Tara asked, "How do you mean?"

I shrugged, "The way the whole Family was organized to keep us so isolated? I mean from the world, from the humans, and even from each other? Like now I look back and ask myself, how the fuck did I think it was normal to be top enforcer without ever knowing how many vamps I was supposed to be protecting or policing? I look at what we have in Winnipeg now and I can't even fucking imagine being that clueless or disconnected."

My girlfriend nodded, "Yeah, good point. I mean, they call themselves a 'family' but they never even let us know who all our brothers and sisters were, or how many of us there were. What the fuck kind of family is that?"

Jessica seemed uncomfortable with the direction our conversation had gone. She obviously still wanted to save the thing, which I really couldn't understand at this point.

"Can we please just focus on the task at hand?" she asked. "Since we can't get the elders out of the mansion, we're left figuring out how to get you to into the mansion."

"That's easy," I shrugged. "We can just walk up to the front door and let ourselves in."

Jess frowned at me, "You think you won't run into any trouble doing that? Have you forgotten the orders to kill you two on sight?"

I shook my head, "I haven't forgotten, but who's going to carry out those orders? There's only three enforcers left and they're all on our side, right? Who's that leave? Victor? Eric? Cheryl? None of them would have a chance in hell of stopping us. But that's not the problem."

She was still frowning as she asked, "Then what is the problem?"

"It's a big building," I replied. "If we have to search the place, there's way too much opportunity for them to escape somehow. We need to coordinate it so me and Tara arrive when we know exactly where in the building the two of them are. We need to come in right when the pair of them are in the open somewhere. Then we can take them down before they have a chance to escape."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

Tara spoke up, "First option, do they have routines? Like a weekly meeting, or something along those lines? Second option, if they don't, can you arrange one? Request to speak with them both, make up some reason you need to see them. Either way, you get them somewhere so we know where they'll be and when they'll be there."

Jessica looked uncomfortable again.

"Jess you know you have to be an active participant in this," I stated. "You're the one who's insisting on saving the Family. We'll cut out the cancer at the top but you have to be a part of it. How are you going to handle things afterwards? Have you put any thought into that? Do you have a plan for how you're going to establish some order and gain control over the separate factions?"

She grimaced, "I don't want to have to use force, or even the threat of force. I don't want this to be a matter of removing one regime only to replace them with another. Without the elders' shadow looming over me I'm going to try and talk to the others, and take a census. Explain the situation as much as I understand it, and get their input and their perspective. Then we can work together to guide the rest of the Family, to bring some order to the chaos."

There was a skeptical look on my girlfriend's face, which seemed like an appropriate reaction as far as I was concerned. Jess was either being naively idealistic, or she didn't have a plan and she was just winging it. Another possibility I couldn't discount was she did have a plan, but it was something she didn't want to reveal to me and Tara so she was just bullshitting us with this stuff.

"What's your fall-back, if people refuse to cooperate?" Tara asked. "We've been talking about this from the start, remember? The family's falling apart without a matriarch, without strong leadership? As top enforcer you're the strongest one left now, but the two ineffective elders are in your way? Does the family need strong leadership, or does it need understanding and cooperation?"

Jessica looked and sounded frustrated as she responded, "Well of course it needs strong leadership. But that doesn't automatically mean it needs another despot ruling by decree. And cooperation doesn't necessarily mean ruling by committee. You two act like it's all so easy. Just do it, it'll work out fine. Things aren't that simple and maybe when you two are older you'll understand that."

I sighed but didn't comment. And I tried not to be too offended, she probably didn't even consider what she was saying. Because the truth was I'd never get older, I wasn't going to age or mature. I'd already been around for fifty-five years, but I was still just two weeks past my eighteenth birthday. Same with Tara, she was going to be twenty-two forever.

For that matter I wasn't convinced the world was really that much more complicated or that another ten years of maturity would grant me some insight or knowledge that I lacked now. In fact I was fairly confident it was the other way round. Kids and young people saw shit for what it really was. It was the adults or grown-ups, the so-called mature folks who made everything more complicated than it really was. The only reason kids and teens got confused about the world was because of all the bullshit and lies the grown-ups told us.

And this case, Jess wasn't frustrated because Tara was asking silly or naive questions. She was frustrated because my girlfriend was calling her on her bullshit and putting Jessica on the spot. Not to mention Jess ignored Tara's actual point and harped on that last question as if it was the important comment rather than something rhetorical.

I decided I'd had enough for now.

I stood up, "Ok Jess. It sounds like we're just going around in circles right now, and there's no point in antagonizing each other. What you do with the Family is your business. So here's your marching orders for now ok? Figure out if there's a schedule, and if not, figure out how you can get the two elders somewhere that we can reach them. It has to be predictable and accessible. Like the front hall of the mansion, or even that meeting room where Isabelle used to have us gather. Plan for the operation to take place some time next week. We'll meet back here around eight or nine Friday night to discuss the plan, and I'd like you to bring Daniel and Kathryn next time so all five of us are on the same page. That gives you four days to observe and plan and prepare."

She knew I was basically dismissing her, so Jess stood up as well. She sighed, "All right Samantha. I'll do what I can. If I need you before Friday, I'll be in touch."

"We'll be around," I replied. "We're probably going to do a little sight-seeing while we're in town."

I walked her to the door and unlocked it as I said, "Take care Jessica. We'll see you Friday."

She just nodded and stepped out into the hall without another word.

After she was gone I closed and secured the door again, then looked back at my girlfriend.

Tara shrugged, "I'd say there's a fifty-fifty chance this whole thing's a sham and she's setting us up. We're trying to plan a trap for the elders, she might be planning a trap for us."

As I moved back to join her on the bed she continued, "Maybe the reason she and the others didn't attack us at your mom's place was the covenant? Don't reveal ourselves to humans? Five vampires fighting to the death on the front lawn of suburbia would bring a hell of a lot of attention to them and us."

I slipped my arm around her and pulled her into a cuddle as I sighed, "Yeah, I agree. I don't trust Jess, I feel like her story's changing with the wind but it's vague enough she can come up with excuses or bullshit her way through it. I have no idea what her real intentions are. That almost makes me think she doesn't know either? Maybe she's playing both sides, leaving all her options open right down to the wire."

Tara hugged me as well as we cuddled, but she frowned "So what do we do?"

I thought for a moment then gave her a wry smile. "To paraphrase an old role-playing game: Stay alert, trust no-one, and keep our weapons handy."

Before she could respond I added, "We'll watch our backs and follow our instincts."

My girlfriend sighed, "Or we could just leave. There's nobody here to stop us, we could just get in the car and drive home right now."

"We could," I shrugged. "But we promised them two weeks, it's only been three days. We'll see what Jess comes up with on Friday. Apart from that, the more I think of it the happier I'd be if we knew we got rid of the last of the Slúag Marb. And I'd like to be certain The Family will leave us alone once and for all."

Tara was quiet for a minute or two as she thought that over. Finally she asked, "So what'll we do for the next four days?"

I smiled, "Let's go sight-seeing? Be tourists. Enjoy a little vacation."

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