Private Solidarity in Darkness

Chloe saw the news. Hate crimes committed against vampires at the Manta Carlos Sanguine Society. It made her restless all day, her mind rolling back over the strings of hate crimes and death threats from three years ago, by these same thugs who thought her entire species had no right to exist. She was incensed. She had almost thought these people had been pushed off into irrelevance. How dare they show their faces again? Wave their flag? Put out crosses in these yards? It made her want to fight.

Chloe dropped Natasha a private messages online, and they started talking. She admired what Natasha had done with the MCSS. It was awful what those cretins had done to their organization. She wanted to show solidarity and help her strike back against the hate groups responsible.

They decided to meet at night, when Chloe's girls were asleep, at a restaurant called "Ze'bub." It had a classy atmosphere without being too expensive, and it had options for blood drinkers. Chloe knew the demon who owned the place and served as the head chef. Great guy. He let Chloe reserve a small private room for this meeting. If what Natasha was going through was anything like what she herself went through in 2017, she knew the vampire would appreciate the privacy and security. They could drink and have hors d'ouvres away from prying ears and eyes.

The hostess would guide Natasha to this private room when she showed up. Chloe would be there waiting. "Natasha! I'm glad you came."

Chloe smiled and raised her eyebrows a little. "Pietro's been telling you nice things about me? I'm flattered. I've actually heard great things about him and his accomplishments in my Academy classes." It was still surreal to her that she was a big deal here, or that people she could read about in history books would admire her and talk about her.

"A bit about this restaurant by the way. It belongs to a man called Jean DeMontigny, who I believe I met for the first time at the same fundraiser where I met Pietro. He's actually hired a few of my former classmates, like the hostess who brought you back here." She was telling Natasha this to make her feel a little bit safer.

"How have the last few days been for you?"

Chloe nodded. She could relate to that.

"That's one of the more frustrating parts. Everyone's scared, and hurt, and angry, and they aren't always going to be acting like public relations experts. But, of course, that's not a really a reasonable expectation to have with them. It's important to be gentle with them. And not to let anyone make you apologize for other people's faux pas just because you're a community leader. That's a problem disguised as a solution."

She was saying that from experience. Chloe hoped she wasn't jumping too quickly into giving Natasha advice - some immortals could get weird about someone her age acting like she could give advice. Her impression so far was that Natasha wasn't that kind of immortal, but she had been surprised before.

Chloe nodded, then got confused as she thought about that remark a little more. Defending the MCSS's members sounded like a good thing, but maybe it depended on what kind of 'defending' Natasha was trying to hold herself back from. "I don't know of any reason why they'd doubt you there," Chloe remarked. "And I think wanting to defend your community's members is a good thing. Especially now. "

"As long as you're not going outside of the law," she added. That was always a risk with a community like this. Supernaturally gifted beings whose relationships with the law have historically been complicated.