The Broussard Offer - Another perspective

[Robert Pratt]

Robert got up from the computer terminal with a frown on his face and headed out into the wider city. His fingers drummed against his thighs as he walked, the humans moving out of his way when they saw him coming - the look on his face not a pleasant one. He'd just read the message from Mircea that supposedly came from the Broussard. He had of course heard the name Broussard whispered through the ranks of the Blood Thieves before - usually accompanied with some tall tale or other that he was now more likely to believe. Before, when he'd been under the impression that he was collecting blood for a medical study he'd poo pooed the tales that were told of people with super human strength, powers of all sorts and a thirst for blood. Now of course - he knew them to be true to varying degrees.

He headed north, to the Cherrydale area. There was a small grassy knoll he liked to sit behind and lie back on, hidden from immediate view. Settling himself down he reached into his pocket and pulled off the print out of the post that had been made on CrowNet. He read it over. And over. And once more for luck. He couldn't get his head around it in the slightest. It was well known in the vampiric community and the Blood Thief community - not to mention the general seedy underground population - who he was. It was this that confused him the most and which occupied most of his thoughts.

"Why would a Broussard pick a vampire who has a fencepost permanently up his *** instead of approaching me?"

His mind wasn't big enough to hold the thoughts and so a few of them escaped his lips in a mumbled question, that didn't mask the anger he felt bubbling within. His hands found the grass and clutched it as they balled up into fists and ripped the grass from the ground. He brought the blades up to his face and studied them, thinking about how their little stems were now parted from their roots. They were cut off in their prime now dead while still looking alive - much as he had been. Slowly he opened his fingers and let the little blades of grass drop and fall, blow in the wind to cover the ground once more in a scattered fashion.

As he looked at the scattered blades in his lap and around his sides his mind raced over every possible reason that the Broussard would have chosen Mircea over him. All sorts of random ideas popped into his head and were then dismissed, equally as quickly. Until that is - one in particular began to form and take shape. It was one that made sense to him from all angles and the only possible reason he could see for what was being presented on CrowNet currently as the truth. It was in fact - a lie.

His face broke out into a smile and he turned his head to find his sister now curled in the crook of his arm - a cloud having come over the moon to cast a shadow over him. He leant down and kissed the top of her head in almost a cheerful manner before explaining his thinking to her in a way that started off bright and cheerful, but then ended up in annoyance.

"Of course! Mircea knows I am a Blood Thief Diane. He's seen the Blood Hunt crap on CrowNet and doesn't want to see me dead..... no..... he doesn't want to see me speak out against it all the time. He thinks I'm embarrassing the family right?"

Diane's head nodded as she listened, agreeing to what he said whole heartedly.

"So - rather than have this conflict, this anger and hatred aimed at his line, he's come up with this ploy. Most any Blood Thief would have heard the name of the Broussard. All he had to do was ask one for a tale and he'd probably have got a Broussard one. He's taken the name, and come up with this ploy of a peace treaty."

He nodded, continuing to mull the thoughts over in his head, pleased with himself.

"If he can somehow get the vampires to agree to accept the Blood Thieves as a part of city life, then that means that the embarrassment of having me in his line goes away. You see?! He's MADE IT ALL UP! He's done it all himself to make his line look better you see?"

He squeezed Diane tightly to his side, his mind relaxing and feeling more relieved than he had been.

"I knew it wouldn't be right - I knew there was no way the Blood Thieves would choose a vampire like him over a Blood Thief like me. However...... I'm going to have to warn them. Get a message to them so they know what's going on - just like I did before and during the killings. Once more, I'm going to have to save them and keep them appraised of all that's going on!"

He lay back, resting his head on the ground and pulling his sister into his side with a happy smile. He'd worked out the man's plan, he knew what was going on - and he wasn't going to let it happen. Not on his watch.