We'll make it right, I sent to him.
Lissa my love, are you gathering energy? It is there for you to take, m'hala. Kifirin showed me how—I hadn't done anything except observe up to that point. I thought it might be similar to the Larentii feeding off sunlight, only we could gather energy from anything. I was doing it now and realized how weakened I'd become. Maintaining a corporeal shape prevented me from drawing the energy I needed to keep going. And I could only do that while I was energy; stuffing that much power into a fragile, humanoid body was like placing a flame inside a plastic container. If the flame became too hot, the container could be destroyed.
Kifirin pulled me along as I replenished myself. We even wandered into the worlds of light, scooting here and there. I heard voices—talking, laughing, crying, praying. Dark spots cropped up, too, now and then. Those dark spots consisted of worlds the Ra'Ak had taken; now empty of life except for the usual plants, insects and a few stray animals. Other worlds we passed over were not quite dark, but growing increasingly dim. Worlds not worth saving, Kifirin's voice came to me. I want you to see Beliphar—it is one of those, but there are vampires there, love. Some of those may be worth saving, but it must be done soon.
Let's take them now. I was getting information from that planet; we were right above it and the vampires there were used as slaves. It was awful. They were controlled by electronic cuffs that boiled their blood if they misbehaved, or the cuffs were employed at times merely because their human controllers wished to see the vampires suffer. Some of the vampires were criminals, but many were not—falsely accused and turned as punishment. How had this gotten past me for so long?
Send mindspeech to the others and I will gather the ones that should come to Le-Ath Veronis, Kifirin informed me. I sent mindspeech to Gabron and Flavio, telling them that the city ten miles east of Lissia was about to be occupied. Kifirin guided me and I assisted in gathering the vampires who would be welcome on Le-Ath Veronis. Kifirin was the one who turned the others to dust—I couldn't bring myself to do it, although they were better off. You should have heard the angry shouting as vampires disappeared across Beliphar. Kifirin and I rushed our vampire cargo to Le-Ath Veronis and we dropped them gently in the wide, circular courtyard of their new city.
Roughly twenty-seven thousand vampires stared at Kifirin and me as we materialized before them. Flavio and Gabron were there quickly, followed by most of the Council from Lissia. Drake, Drew, Gavin and Tony were there in a blink.
"Where are we?" A vampire made his way through the crowd, which parted to allow him passage. Another, younger vampire was at his heels—he was only days old as a vampire; I could tell by the scent. The other was old—at least seven thousand years.
"You stand upon Le-Ath Veronis," Flavio replied. "That means Heart of the Vampire. Lissa, Queen of this world, and Kifirin, Lord of the Dark Realm, have found you worthy. This is your new home."
The older vampire pulled the younger one against him. "Davan, we are home," the old vampire wept.
* * *
"This is blood substitute? It tastes like blood," Jeral, the oldest vampire from Beliphar remarked as he emptied the bottle. Davan, his youngest charge, was also drinking happily. We were poring over a map of the city with a committee of new arrivals—vampires that Jeral had handpicked. They were also quite old and I could see the City Council forming already. Davan was a baby vampire and I didn't want to interfere with his teaching at Jeral's hand.
"This blood substitute was developed here," I informed Jeral. "The manufacturing plant is just outside Lissia."
"Do vampires run this facility?" Jeral asked.
"Yes. They are extremely meticulous, since they will be drinking quite a bit of it themselves," I said. "It is owned by the crown but everyone who works there earns a salary. They seem happy with the arrangement." I pointed out the spot on the map where the blood substitute plant was located. "We currently have nine worlds represented here—your world is the ninth," I said. Reemagar was standing behind me; Flavio and Gabron were on either side, helping explain things as much as they could.
"What about the vampires on the Reth Alliance worlds?" Jeral asked. "There used to be many of them."
"There still are," I replied. "But the Reth Alliance recognizes them as citizens and they are protected by Alliance laws. They are allowed to petition for citizenship here and we will entertain their requests as they are presented. Not all vampires will be accepted. I'm sure you see my reasoning in that."
"I understand that you may not wish to import a criminal element," Jeral sighed.
"Yes. That is exactly how we feel about this," I nodded. "I assure you, however, that if a crime is committed here, it will be dealt with immediately. I will not tolerate the breaking of the law."
"Are there copies of the laws?" Jeral's face held hope, something he hadn't experienced in a very long time, I could tell.
"As much as we have, at the moment. We are still hammering out some of them," I said. "Le-Ath Veronis, as it now exists, is barely seven months old. We are gathering vampires as quickly as possible but it is a slow process, as you might imagine." Gavin, Tony, Drake and Drew folded in, with electronic copies of the current laws; some of those laws temporary, since we hadn't decided on all of them yet.
"What are the comesuli?" Jeral asked after reading the first law. The handheld devices could translate the laws into almost any language. The one spoken on Beliphar was common to the Reth Alliance, though it was no longer a member.
"Are you interested in history?" I gave Jeral a slight smile.
"In this case, I think I should be," he inclined his head. I explained what Le-Ath Veronis was in the beginning and what part the comesuli played. I described what had happened when the Ra'Ak attacked and how many of the comesuli had been sent to Kifirin, in order to save their lives.
"And now they are back?" Jeral was intrigued.
"Yes. How many of your vampires know how to take blood properly from a donor?" I asked.
"A few," Jeral said. "The oldest, here, all know. The younger ones have not been taught."
"Then teach them. I will not allow the comesuli to be harmed by an untrained vampire," I said. "They wear bracelets, with two numbers," I added. "Those numbers represent the dates on which they can be bitten and then only once on that particular day. They must be given two weeks to replenish their blood supply."