This story is provided for free by H.S. Kallinger as part of the Lost Humanity universe.
Timing: early Predators.
Content Warnings: police, military mentions, vampire politics
Chain of Command
I
sighed at the report in front of me. Two guards under St. John were
up for disciplinary action. One was marked to transfer, but the other
needed to be passed on to Lukas at the next whiner meeting. I wasn't
really sure what would happen to her then, but it wasn't my problem
at that point. She could appeal to me if she wanted to, but if St.
John had tagged her, I didn't expect to hear a peep out of her. The
guards in Oakland regularly tried to argue their way out of trouble,
and a few times, I had granted clemency, but Diego didn't tend to be
any more unfair than St. John. He just got given more troublemakers.
And
he was about to get another.
St.
John's other discipline case was going to be Diego's as of next week.
Reassignment meant that he had a history of insubordination at the
least. I hadn't seen a transfer order that didn't have that in the
list of reasons why, and this one was no different.
But
those weren't my real issue. No. We had a problem with a pair of
police officers down in Oakland. They were getting heavy handed with
our people, and they were on our payroll. That was not okay.
“Roland
again?” Diego asked as he looked over at the guard staring morosely
at the window. He was leaning against the wall, one foot on it, his
arms crossed over his chest. I frowned with him. I felt bad for
Roland. He hadn't had any issues before having his head fucked over
fighting with Polly, Garret's flockmate, and our ex-enemy. Ever
since, he'd been passed back and forth between Petaluma and Oakland
every few months. “Poor bastard. Still won't talk about whatever
that bruja did to him.”
“I
can only imagine,” I muttered. “Three minutes of it made me never
want to see her again. He actually fought her while she screwed with
his head. You work your own magic on him; get him back in order
again.”
“Yes,
sir,” Diego said, nodding. “Am I getting Ramos, too?”
“Nope.
She's going to Lukas,” I said, following his gaze to our other
surly guard. She had come to St. John from Diego originally. She
lived in Oakland, but she'd made her transfer long before I'd taken
over with the guard. She didn't look hostile, though. She looked
vaguely embarrassed and defeated. “She was only fighting. No
insubordination on her ticket. Looks like she just couldn't control
her mouth. Again. I'm sure as hell not one to talk there.”
“She's
just as likely to talk her way out of it,” Diego said. “I don't
think she's ever failed to. One was certainly close, though.”
“Mm,”
I acknowledged, not really certain what that meant. I had shied away
from asking questions about punishment so far. I didn't need any more
nightmares about changing than I was already having. I knew I'd find
out eventually. That whole 'offering offense' thing made me nervous
because I wasn't kidding about having no stones to throw. My mouth
was going to get me in trouble. It was just a matter of 'when.' “So,
our police situation...”
“Ingrates,”
Diego grumbled.
“Do
they just want more money?” I asked.
“I
don't know. To be honest, I'm not good at dealing with them. That's
why I put in the request for help. I was hoping someone else could
figure it out,” he admitted.
“Maybe
an ex-officer,” Allen Green suggested. “Not me.”
“I
think you have the most ex-police under you,” I mused.
“Suggestions? I could ask Grant Williams, I guess. He—”
“No,
sir,” all three of the captains said together, stopping me. I
looked between them, startled. Allen continued, “We don't involve
Williams in anything shady if we can help it.”
“He
deserves better,” St. John agreed. “He is an honorable man. We
protect that honor.”
“Okay,
who's going to tell me what the deal is?” I asked. “When the cops
found out who he was after Polly and Garret's attack, their whole
tune changed. They were acting like he was one of them. I know he
used to be a police officer, but this was... like he's one now. More
than even the VU gets usually.”
“Well,
he founded the VU,” Diego said. I blinked in surprise.
“Say
that again?” I said, not sure I'd heard him correctly.
“He's
from San Francisco originally,” Diego told me. “From the sixties.
He was a cop pre-Truce.”
“He
was a police officer from the forties to the sixties,” Allen
continued. “After the treaty was signed, his jurisdiction was rife
with anti-vampire hate crime. While a lot of precincts looked the
other way due to post-war prejudices, his continued their record of
service to the whole community: white, black, human, vampire.”
“Williams
was a pillar of that community, and he chose to change in the line of
service,” St. John said. I glanced around the room. Williams wasn't
here tonight because it was his night on at the VU. He was the chief
of the local unit. In the guard, Allen outranked him, but in the VU,
it was the reverse.
“He
and three other members of his department became vampires to better
protect us, as new citizens, and try to end hostilities, prove that
the Truce was the real deal,” Allen told me.
“He
served as a vampire for five years before two of the vampire officers
were firebombed in their squad car,” St. John said softly. All
three captains cast their gazes down at the same time. I looked down,
too. Vampire cops. Holy shit. Vampires had never been allowed to
serve as public police officers in my lifetime.
“Williams'
partner hunted down the bombers and beat them beyond recognition,”
Diego continued, just as softly.
“He
turned in his badge, and the incident was declared an unfortunate
accident caused by a combination of grief and vampire strength,”
Allen said.
“Williams
retired a few weeks later because he felt he could no longer work
with humans safely,” Diego continued.
“More
specifically, he was afraid that any human partner he was assigned
would be at risk just 'cause he was a vampire,” Allen corrected.
“He kept helping the department, though. He joined up with the
vampire guard, got them to start policing their own. Emidio was all
for it, I hear. They say he was a big supporter of the Truce.”
“He
convinced several of his brethren that it was not impossible to be an
officer of the law and a vampire,” St. John said. “He then
founded the first 'Vampire Unit Safety Force' in the mid-seventies
and worked to get it sanctioned, recognized and funded by the
government. Its employees were declared peace officers shortly after
opening, and when it spread to Miami, I joined my local unit. It was
the early eighties when it was upgraded to 'Health, Safety and
Security Station Vampire Unit' when they began employing former
emergency medical personnel, nurses and the occasional doctor to
include vampire ambulatory care services.”
“I
didn't know any of that. The VU has existed the way it is my whole
life—or as long as I can remember anyway. I didn't ever know the
history of it,” I said. “We didn't have a specific station in my
hometown. It's part of why I thought we just didn't have many
vampires in Ohio.”
“You
have so much knowledge about vampires that it manages to surprise me
when you don't know basic things like this,” St. John, said, and I
shrugged.
“You
mean like how Zack thought we wouldn't know who you were?” Allen
teased. My face got hot.
“I
didn't know who he was,” I muttered. “I had no idea who anyone
outside of the council and a few guards were. I didn't know the
hierarchy, and... I basically learned everything and ended up in this
position because of you.”
“Dammit.
I owe Reynolds ten bucks,” Allen muttered. “I bet that you
thought we didn't know. He bet that you didn't know. No one
had the balls to ask.”
“You
have done well learning on the job,” St. John assured me. He made a
sour face and looked away. “I can hardly blame you for assuming
someone who couldn't wake in control of himself was low in rank.”
“You
were in control enough to know not to eat me when you heard my name,”
I pointed out, making Allen laugh.
“I
am still in your debt,” St. John said, nodding to me. “I know who
will work best to deal with the police situation. I will assign him.”
“Who?
It's great that you know, but I need to know for future reference,”
I said.
“Bryan
Phillips. He was a corrupt officer himself, older than Williams. He
generally assists up here,” St. John said. “He'll be able to get
to the root of the issue and deal with it. He will need immunity for
whatever needs doing.”
“He's
got it,” I said. “No consequences if things go sideways unless it
hits Truce threatening levels.”
“Gracias,”
Diego said. St. John and I both nodded to him.
“De
nada,” we said in unison, and I snorted.
“You
speak Spanish or just the easy stuff like me?” I asked St. John.
“I
speak it,” St. John confirmed.
“You
came with Lukas from Miami, si? Did you learn it there, or...”
Diego asked.
“Spain.
I spent time there, but my father spoke it as well, so I knew it
going in. His father was Spanish,” he told Diego, and then they
switched to Spanish. I listened curiously because it didn't sound
like what I was used to. I couldn't follow along and only picked out
a few phrases. I needed to learn Spanish. Maybe I could take classes
after I changed.
“You
speak Spanish?” I asked Allen. He shook his head.
“I
took French in school to try to pick up girls,” he said with a
grin. I laughed.
“Did
it work?”
“A
few times, yeah,” he said, nodding. “I'd forgotten most of it by
the time I changed, though. Didn't need it for my wife. As I
understand it, it would have been useful in Lukas's last flock.”
“Yeah,
French was the primary language of the flock,” I confirmed,
“followed by Italian. Lukas's lack of an accent makes me forget
sometimes how little he actually spoke English before us.”
“Really?”
Diego asked, looking surprised.
“Yeah.
He sometimes starts speaking in French or Italian without remembering
that Sarah's the only one who speaks either of those. She's no help
because she just goes off in French with him, and it takes him a
minute to realize Jamie and I are lost. Italian gets him Jamie
replying in Spanish, and he gets annoyed because he can't speak it.
She doesn't speak Italian, but she can understand more than the rest
of us.”
“Can
you only speak English?” Diego asked. I shook my head.
“Nein.
Ich spreche Deutsch. But, hablo muy
poco Español,” I replied, making Diego laugh. “He's
been speaking more German around the house since Eva was born, so not
only do I speak it fluently, Eva and Mia speak it as fluently as
English. What's weird is that I catch myself thinking in it.”
“That
happens,” Diego said.
“Naturally,”
St. John said at the same time.
“Well,
now I feel like I need to brush up on my French and pick up another
language,” Allen said. Diego and I laughed with him. St. John
smirked.
“I
think I'm going to take Spanish after I change,” I voiced my
earlier thought.
“So
you can annoy Lukas with Jamie?” Diego asked with a grin. I
laughed.
“Definitely
a perk, but I was just thinking that it's practical,” I said. “And
I already know some of the basics.”
“You
excited about the big night?” Diego asked, and I nodded.
“Excited
and nervous,” I confirmed.
“Hey,
at least you get to prepare for it,” Diego said. I nodded again.
“I
got almost a week,” Allen said, getting our attention. His brown
eyes were focused in the past. “After getting infected. Of course,
it was an awful week. They tried to make me spend the whole thing in
the hospital, but I wasn't having it. I watched every sunrise and
sunset, ate nothing but my favorite foods—which I threw up every
time, but I didn't let that stop me—and I went up and down the
coast and had one last hurrah before I came back and met my nest
master. I was so miserable by then that I asked him to end it. I'd
talked to every vampire I could find before that, trying to get an
idea of what was coming.”
“Did
it prepare you?” I asked. He shrugged.
“A
little. Some things, you just have to experience no matter how well
someone else describes it,” he said. He met my eyes. “Some of
that is good—you've got amazing things in store for you. You're
gonna love it.”
“Yeah,
you'll finally be one of us,” Diego said, patting me on the
shoulder. “I can't tell you how weird it is having a human for a
Commander.”
“I
thought St. John was the commander?” I said, confused.
“I
am,” St. John said. “Your rank is slightly different. Being a
council adjunct means that you outrank me. You are the Commander. It
was Lukas's position to Sébastien.”
“Whoa,
whoa, no. No, no, no, no, no. I am not—”
“You
are,” St. John stopped me. “You are not his second but his
spouse. Lukas was second and Commander.”
“I
wasn't planning to take your job.”
“You
haven't. The flock didn't have a Commander position,” St. John
said, shaking his head. “I have been de facto commander ever since
we needed to take on a second and third captain. Lukas fulfilled the
Commander role himself.”
“I'm
confused,” I said, shaking my head.
“American
vampires use the Vampire Revolution Militia ranking system,” St.
John explained patiently. “The vampire general who created the system was an Englishman who wanted it to be different from existing
systems largely for simplicity. Since the majority of Revolutionists were not military, formal ranks were largely unnecessary, but people
needed to know where to report. Thus the system became General,
Commander, Captain, Lieutenant, and soldier.
“Here,
we are not an army, so we do not need generals, but the guards are
essential, so we still use the Commander-Captain-Lieutenant rank in
honor of those who freed us from kings and gave us the power to
overthrow any ruler that did not represent us.”
“So
how do we have two commanders?”
“We
don't. You are the Commander. I command the guards. My rank is
Captain. You command not only the guards but the council as well.”
“Hold
up. I do what now?”
“As
the spouse, you already had power just below Lukas,” Diego
explained. “It's a lateral shift.”
“But
the spouse doesn't command—”
“No,
but it's a general rule that the spouse's word is assumed to come
directly from the master,” Diego said.
“Which
is why I asked if I should report to you,” Allen chimed in.
“The
Commander's power is direct, not an adjunct like the spouse,” St. John said. “It
exists to allow the Commander to take immediate action in the event
of a hostile incursion or to discipline a council member.”
“I'm
not doing that.”
“You
don't need to. Lukas prefers to do that himself. But if he were
incapacitated, you could effectively use it to protect him,” Diego
told me, very quietly. He continued at normal volume, “What you're
doing right now is the Commander's work.”
“Organizing
the guard?”
“Si.”
“The
council as a whole outranks the Commander. Spouse outranks the
council. What that means is that if you declare an emergency as the
Commander and the council takes a united stand against it, they win.
However, if two council members side with you, your power takes over,
and they have to follow your directions,” St. John told me while my
head spun.
“But
Lukas didn't want a Commander position,” I said softly.
“All
that means is that he will not have you disciplining anyone beyond
what you are doing here today,” St. John told me.
“You
know I'm not ready to know what that means,” I realized, and they
all three nodded.
“Lukas
said that you'll know when you're ready and to remain vague until
then,” Allen said.
“Yeah,
I can do this most effectively because even though I'm pretty sure I
know, I don't think about it,” I admitted, turning my attention
back to the tablet with the report. St. John frowned.
“If
you remain Commander, you must stop hiding from such things. You are
no coward,” he chastised me.
“I...
just realized that.” I looked up at the reproach in his eyes, but
it vanished quickly and I wondered if I was just projecting. “Only
a few more guard meetings before I die. Then I'll learn one way or
another. It's not that I'm avoiding responsibility for my decisions,
and I swear that I consider every case with compassion. I know I'm
not sentencing people for lectures and time outs. It's that I'm not
entirely ready to know what's going to happen to Sarah. I can't
handle thinking of one of these revolving around her.”
All
three of them looked at me as I waved the report. Allen reached out
and squeezed my shoulder, giving me a sympathetic look. St. John
nodded in what appeared to be understanding. Diego offered me a
crooked smile.
“You're
worried about your wife,” Diego said and let out an amused breath.
“Not you?”
“Me?
I'm kinda worried that knowing will let me weigh the consequences and
decide they're worth it,” I admitted sheepishly. Diego burst out
laughing, St. John rolled his eyes and Allen chuckled. “But I
remind you of my mouth and my poor control of it, and I just kinda
don't want to know yet.”
“Fair,”
Diego said.
“It
it your choice,” St. John said, and I felt like that was a
disagreement with Diego.
“You
do your job just fine. I don't want to talk about it, either,”
Allen said, surprising me. All of us had gotten quieter as the room
filled, and I did a quick head check to see if everyone was here.
“Well,
thanks for the history and chain of command lessons,” I said,
looking out at the crowd. “But everyone's here, so it's time to get
this party started.”
“Soto
agrees it's a party,” Diego said, smirking. He shouted over at
Frank Soto in Spanish, and his lieutenant stopped flirting with
another guard with a long-suffering sigh before moving to sit with
the rest of the lieutenants. I was surprised to see the other guard
was male. I hadn't realized Soto was bi. Maybe I'd mistaken playful
banter for flirting. God knows I was terrible at recognizing anything
that wasn't super obvious. I stood up and took my place at the front
of the room and addressed the crowd of guards that kept our territory
safe.
“Okay,
everyone. Let's do this.”
