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. Why? I asked the room.Nobody said anything. Come on, guys. I tried a different approach. This is me! I can tbe king. We all know you ll really be the queen, Hamlet said. König Mårten, Oberon said. Scheißehosen Mårten.They lapse into their native language whenever they are tired orafraid.Only Lonny and myself grew up with English; it is a second orthird language for everyone else. And what do you do for a living, Lonny? Lonny said abouthimself in a kind of mock conversation with some unseen interviewer. I fuck the vampire king of Europe.It s a dirty job, you know&.He shook his head, and we all just stood there for a while.Cécilereally knows how to get my attention.She had to be kidding, right?Fangs Over America | 25Maybe she just wanted to go on a vacation but wanted to score pointsagainst me on her way to summer camp. Was she serious? Oberon asked with plenty of anger in hisvoice. Completely, Pierre said. Why me, Pierre? I don t know diddly-squat about being avampire king. Nobody does at first, Pierre said softly. It isn t something youcan learn in school.I think what Cécile saw and this is justspeculation is that you take an impossible situation and figure it out. Sure, but that s out in the field, I protested. Majesty, every problem you re going to see from now on isimpossible.All the simple problems get solved by others.You ll onlyhear questions that have no answer. Great. But that may be what Cécile sees in you, Hamlet said. You canget hit by eight kinds of shit and still figure out a solution. More like I try to put eight pounds of shit into a five-pound life.I laughed. What does that even mean? Oberon said. This is reallyfucked. Okay, I said, sitting down.The others sat too.Maybe I shouldhave moved to the head of the table, but I didn t. Okay, I said again. My number-one job is to get the queen to change her mind. She won t, Pierre said. Short of that, anybody here want the job?Silence.Fucking silence. Why d she pick me? I said. Because she hates us, Hamlet said.My best friend said that.You can always count on your best friend to know just what to say.My mind was blank.Racing, but blank. I know she watched you grow for a hundred years, Pierre said. Tonight she saw you with alpha energy. So that s what you call a fuckup, Oberon said angrily.She had been watching me, and she thought I was ready.Somehow a wave of calming grace covered me.I still had no idea whatI was doing, but I knew that I had the right training.If I was scared26 | Wynn Wagnerinside, I had to perform a new duty.I didn t know that I was beinggroomed to be a vampire king.Maybe I was, maybe not.It didn tmatter what kind of training I had, it was time to perform. OKAY& let me run down what I think needs to be done, said KingMårten in his newfound kingly voice.I thought about what to say.I had nothing.Zilch.This king thingwasn t starting off smoothly.I decided to be honest with my friends. I have no idea how to do this or what needs to be done.If I knewwhat needed to be done, I still wouldn t know how to do it.Pierre, canyou get with me tomorrow night to fill me in on the state of thecontinent? Security? Certainly, Majesty. Hamlet, I need to get up to speed on vampire politics.I don twant a repeat of my performance tonight. We won t survive another one, Your Pretentiousness, Hamletsaid quietly. Lonny, can you get Cécile moved and settled on the island? Sure, tonight? No, I said. She ll probably need time to pack.Check with herto see what she wants.Take whichever of our jets will make it easier.It s on her schedule, not ours.If she decides to stay here, that s fine.Try to convince her to stay, if you can.If she comes to her senses aboutquitting, that s even better. I m on it.We re in the middle of harvest in Bavaria. Sorry, I told him. I ve caused you extra work. You ve shit on everyone here, Oberon said coldly. Oberon, sweetheart, I have no idea how calls come in to theObscurati.Hamlet interrupted. Can we make informing the rest of Europe apriority? We can do that tomorrow night.If we do that first, thenrequests for your services will come to you instead of the queen.Nobody needs to know that you are both the assassin and the king [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]