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Raymond scowled “He needs a scar”

I assu abouton a dais at the front of the room, surrounded by beautiful people who looked completely at ease in their clothes And jewels And elaboratelylances and raised lass to them

“Diepretty sure that they could hear me We were across a crowded ballrooe And they were all va flunkies of the North African Vampire Senate

It was a subsidiary of the huge African and Middle Eastern Senate, which had so eable chunks But it was all under the control of its iron fisted consul, Hassani He was here, too, his handsoood one—shown to effect in a turban and a blindingly white burnoose He and Louis-Cesare were soon to reat victory that our united front had won us

Then would co spoils taken from the plundered capitol of an alien world They were already on display, in warded cases scattered around the large roo and explaining the exotic booty to all and sundry, in order to help shore up the tentative alliance between the world’s six vampire senates

It had been forged after so Aeslinn to wreak havoc, and the only way to get them to stop had been to invade Faerie and kick soht a war on another world So, we’d united our forces, for the first tied into reluctant allies by a serious threat

But that threat was over, right?

So, what happened to the alliance now?

It was a problem, since the threat wasn’t really over We’d won a battle—a major one—but a battle wasn’t a war Yet people who hated each other’s guts tended to forget that, especially when they were also worried that the consul of the North Aht decide to make her rule over vampire kind permanent

After all, it hat they’d do

Enter Louis-Cesare and I, on a good will tour to hand out largesse and compliments in equal measure, and try to keep the allies allied