Chapter 160 - To Fame

"I still don't exactly understand why you need me specifically," I had to point out after some consideration. "It's not like your plan requires many people. All you have to get is online following, and I imagine this would be easy enough. Hell, I'm pretty sure you aren't the only people with similar ideas."

"We know." Prom Queen pursed her lips at my last statement, like it was a personal insult to her that she wasn't the only bright enough to come up with this. "But it would be more solid with more solid people. If someone like you, and esteemed member of our community, would speak up, it will make clear to everyone that we aren't just some fringe group, we are the core!"

I wanted to keep something at how Prom Queen put it out. Esteemed member of their society, my ass. I was just someone lucky enough to be born with the right set of magic genes, or what it was that made some people into witches and some people into… what, muggles?

Huh. Weird that I didn't hear anyone refer to non-magic people this way before, though I think I heard someone saying "normies" and "commons" at one point or another around the coven. But not in any company I preferred to keep.

"Well, well. I like your idea, really, Alyona, but you are saying about more solid people—and what about other kinds of supernaturals? Vampires themselves, shifters, spirits, what else is there? Won't it be even more solid with them?"

"Vamps shouldn't be even spoken about," it was Lyuba again speaking. "They'd be like a black spot on us all."

Other two of Prom Queen's friends agreed with nods. Prom Queen herself bit her lip. "Lyuba's right. This is the problem for us all, that we have this black spot on us. If we want acceptance from common people, we will have to separate ourselves from vampires. By ourselves, we can say: hey, we are just like you, but we can do magic! Or transform into animals! But vamps? Say, 'We are just like you, but dead and cold and have to drink blood every day'? No one would want to be a neighbour with one! They'd be outlawed."

So this is where they drew the line. I straightened up and glanced at Panda. She just raised an eyebrow, silently asking what was wrong. I hoped she would stay as chill as she was, because the point Prom Queen just raised was the one I had to draw a line on.

What was even the point of going out, if I won't be able to do it together with JJ?

"People accept ill who need donor blood to live, even donor organs. You can say that vampires aren't that different. They aren't intrinsically evil, either. Besides, I'd say that tons of people would want to become one just for immortality alone. And, if we are thinking about fear of their abilities, then a witch can do tons of awful stuff with you just as well as a vampire. Either way, to function well in society, all magic will have to be regulated somehow. Through governments. And I don't know that for sure, but I won't be surprised if most prominent world leaders were vampires' puppets, anyway."

"That's… Not untrue." Prom Queen didn't meet my eyes now. "At least, there are rumours. It's not exactly a secret… but a common knowledge, you know? But everyone who needs to know, knows. It's just so easy for them to plant one thing or another in people's minds!"

You learn new things every day. I couldn't imagine someone like our famous President to be a vampire's puppet… It was easier to imagine him as a secret werewolf, or a vampire hunter. Yeah, I'd be totally unsurprised if this was true.

"And they would have TV channels under their control, too. They shushed the news about the demon, didn't they?" I pointed out as well. "You'd be better off with your plan, guys, if you had a vampire on your team. Someone with knowledge of other vampires, connections, access, possibilities."

"You are talking about Dragonslayer." Prom Queen jutted her chin up in a picture of a proud and unyielding leader… Or just a stubborn one. "We've got records in the coven about old vampires. We've searched for information on him, too. I don't think he's someone who will be of much help. He's a vagabond, not solid at all."

I'd like to look at these records, too. One day, one day. Maybe I could just ask Ghost. If they were in the library, he'd know… if he'd remember.

"Oh yeah? I think he'd be just perfect. Just imagine the headlines." I raised a hand and put the letters in the air. "'Vampire who killed Dracula gives exclusive interview about supernatural!'"

Next to me, Panda let out a chocked sound. "Killed Dracula?"

I imagined JJ cringing somewhere in the hidey-hole he was listening on us from, and grinned. "Oh, I forgot you didn't know. Yeah, Dragon is just the way vampires call Dracula, because Dracula is Romanian for Dragon, so JJ is actually Dracula-Slayer. How cool is that? I'd bet it would get you much more online traction than any arch-witch. It's not like people even know what's the difference between me and any other witch."

Prom Queen looked like she just swallowed her own words. Lyuba looked like she was one impulse away from saying something really nasty to me. Other two looked just torn.

"This doesn't change the fact that vampires are scary by nature! We can't have people fear us," Prom Queen finally said. "And he is a vampire. Bound to follow the commandments. Who's to say he won't just kill us all?" But she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than me.

A buzz in my pocket interrupted the conversation. I pulled my phone to see Elena calling. "That's Elder. I think I just got my next assignment, so we will have to chat more later. Don't get into any more fights without me, alright?"