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for us?”
    “Really? Do you see any corpses of humans who tried to defend Elena?”
    Dravko averted his gaze. “No.”
    “When the gang murdered Paul, several of the humans attacked them and were gunned down. No one tried to stop them from killing Elena.”
    “We don’t know what happened here, so we can’t say for certain,” said Dravko, trying to talk down Tibor. “You know the humans would never willingly harm us.”
    “Really?” Tibor sneered. “What about Vladimir?”
    Dravko had forgotten Vladimir. The incident had occurred shortly after the coven had joined with the camp. Despite Elena and Paul agreeing to have their groups cooperate, hatred still existed between the two species and came to a head one night when Vladimir and two humans went after each other. To ensure discipline, Paul had sentenced the two humans to serve as blood cows for the rest of the coven for a month, giving up a pint a week to feed the vampires. In turn, Elena had banished Vladimir from camp, condemning him to almost certain death out among the rotters. Although the mistress made the decision to exile Vladimir without being asked to by Paul, it was not lost on the rest of the coven that not a single human had argued against such a harsh sentence.
    “And consider this,” added Tibor. “We risked our lives and lost half our clan to retrieve a vaccine that isn’t even effective on us. You know Robson is going to ask us to help him get that vaccine to their government-in-exile. What do you think our reward will be for that? Do you think the humans in Omaha will welcome us with open arms? Do you think they’ll accept us like Robson has? Or will we meet the same fate as Elena?”
    Dravko found himself at a loss for words. Everything Tibor said made sense. Because of his efforts to coexist with the humans, he had never seen it that way before. If Sultanic and Tatyana had thought the same way, neither of them had expressed it to him. Dravko realized that by remaining loyal to Elena and her wishes, he had inadvertently betrayed the rest of the coven. He and Tibor were the only two vampires left. With the destruction of the camp, that left them in a precarious situation. They couldn’t stay with Robson’s team if they hoped to survive, yet their life expectancy if they set out on their own would be measured in weeks.
    “I know Elena and I have put the coven in a tough spot,” said Dravko. “There’s nothing we can do about that now.”
    “Yes, there is.” Tibor smiled, his expression malicious. “We can rebuild the coven.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “There are less than twenty humans left. The Angels are useless as a fighting force. The only ones we really have to worry about are Robson and Natalie, and we could easily take them down. By this time tomorrow night, we could rebuild the coven to its original size.”
    Dravko took a step back, fearful of where this conversation was going. “What if you’re wrong and they fight back?”
    “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees as pets of the humans.”
    “You’re serious about this?”
    “I am. Without this camp, what are Robson and the others going to do? They’ll try to find a new place to live until they’re eaten by rotters. They have a much better chance of surviving as vampires.” Tibor paused and laughed, as if he had thought of something humorous. “Come to think of it, it’s probably more humane to turn them.”
    “I won’t even consider it. It’s barbaric.”
    “Barbaric?” Tibor stared at him. “That’s how we survived for centuries. By turning humans and growing the covens. Now that we’re almost extinct, I’d think you’d want to rebuild our numbers. What changed?”
    “Everything changed when we released the Zombie Virus on mankind.” Dravko got directly into Tibor’s face, his human features morphing into the furrowed brow and fanged mouth of a vampire. “We brought this on ourselves. And you’re right, we do need to