Cedric led Talia towards the large dining table where Cecil and Andre sat and pulled a chair for her.
Cecil raised an eyebrow as he saw the gesture. Talia must truly be above him for Cedric to treat her with this much deference.
"Thank you." She gave a grateful smile and sat, taking in the dubious look on Cecil's face with a knowing glance. Cecil was clueless as usual.
"Greetings, Gentlemen." She murmured politely.
There was going to be none of the 'your majesty' or 'your grace' crap coming from her. At the very least, her man was above both of them in rank.
The crowded throng of both Andre's and Cedric's men were clustered in various groups inside the dining hall, eating and debating boisterously about whatever it was that men discussed.
The attendants promptly appeared and Talia ordered drinks and water along with two orders for their dinner that night while Cedric and Andre talked about, of all things, vampires.
"So tell me, Andre." Cedric fixed his eyes on the dark-haired man sitting across from him. "What are your thoughts on vampires?"
Andre smiled and waggled a finger.
"No no. I'm not going to get into that argument where I'm having to face down two opponents. I don't enjoy shouting over two people to get my point across."
Cedric shook his head. "No arguments. I just want to hear your thoughts."
Andre stared at him for a moment.
"Have you ever thought, Cedric, that perhaps our way of thinking about the vampires are a tad bit superstitious and prejudiced against them?"
"No more than they are about us." Cecil interrupted.
"Shhhh." Cedric glanced at his brother. "I promised the man we would let him speak his thoughts. No interruptions, Cecil."
Andre glanced at both the brothers. Who was the Alpha here?
"I'm not saying there isn't animosity on both sides for varying reasons, but let's take a look at exactly what it is we disagree with."
Cedric nodded. "I'm listening."
Andre picked up his glass of ale and took a sip.
"The most difficult thing for werewolves to deal with when it comes to vampires is the fact that they tend to be on the snooty side."
Talia burst out laughing at that point. She was expecting all sorts of dark reasons, but snootiness was just not on the list of things that jumped out at her.
Andre cast an admiring look at Talia.
The woman had a brilliance surrounding her that almost blinded him the first time he set his eyes on her. His curiosity and interest of her continued to increase the more he interacted with her.
"Snooty, eh?" Cedric queried. "As in they think they're better than us werewolves?"
"Yes, absolutely. They tend to be part of the ancient established royalty with vast wealth. Meanwhile—"
Cedric smiled. "Meanwhile, we werewolves are like the nouveau riche. We flaunt our newly gained wealth in vulgar ways and act gauche about it all."
Andre looked pained. "It's not so much that. It is more like we werewolves embrace much more of what is new and, dare I say, flashy?" He pointed to the watch that Cedric wore.
"It's flashy that I don't trust the bing-bonging of my inn's clock tower for time accuracy?"
"It's flashy that you even need to consider exact time at all. For the vampires, time flows at their discretion. It's time to do something when they say it's time, not when the time clock says it's time."
"I see. Well, life flows all around us. If we don't flow along with life, we will be left behind."
"That is precisely the mindset that is at odds with the vampires, who consider themselves timeless. Hence the missteps, miscommunication, misunderstandings."
"Alright, fair enough. I grasp what you mean." Cedric waved a hand. "Aside from the old rich/new rich theme, what else is there that causes our two great species from coming together in perfect harmony?"
Andre clapped his hands together. "There is also the idea that two predators who are preying on the same prey must fight each other in order to gain the upper hand."
Talia's hand froze over her slices of wild boar roast. Prey? Did they mean human prey?
Cedric sighed as he reached out and rubbed the small of her back with his warm hands.
"What century do we live in that we must talk about humans as prey?"
Andre laughed and tore into a biscuit.
"I completely agree! Although the vampires still need human blood to maintain good physical health, it's a simple thing in this day and age to visit the blood banks."
He eyed Cedric with blazing intensity. "Do you know how much blood goes unused and has to be thrown out due to expiration dates?"
"Hmmm." Cedric raised an eyebrow. "Let's also not forget that the ancient lore of werewolves eating human flesh is mostly that. Ancient lore."
"Although we do have craving for meat, we are not cannibals. The only werewolves that still snack on humans are those who are wackadoodle and need to be medicated for mental aberration." He speared a slice of wild bore and ate with gusto.
Cecil sniffed with disdain. "Exactly! Pork and beef, chicken and duck, fish and lobster. There is such a wide variety of food out there. Why would I want to cannibalize a human?"
Andre laughed. "Age-old instincts die hard."
Cecil gave Andre a baleful look. "We once lived in caves and beat our women over the heads, dragging them back by their hair into the caves to plunder them. We no longer do that. Instincts can evolve into more civilized ways of life."
Andre nodded. "I wholeheartedly agree. Since neither vampire nor werewolf need to gain the upper hand over human prey, it should make this long-standing feud to gain dominance a non-issue."
"Is that all?"
"No." Andre shook his head. "There is also the social aspect of vampire-werewolf interaction."
He took a deep breath. "There was a time when werewolves were enslaved by the vampires and owned as property."
His eyes gleamed with something deep and dark.
"Although this is no longer the case, the caste system whereby vampires hold onto the top echelon, still exists to this very day."
"So this caste system…do humans have a place?"
Andre glanced at Talia. "Vampires have always held the top tier, closely followed by werewolves."
"And we humans…"
"You're at the bottom of the food chain." Andre's eyes narrowed.
"Not any more." Cedric shook his head. "Humans have come a long way. Their lives are short, but they breed like rabbits. They can quickly overwhelm any one of us if we are caught within their traps."
Andre nodded. "Centuries ago, humans slaughtered the entire lineage of ancient vampires living among them. They also hunted werewolves to extinction in their world."
"Payback's a bitch." Talia muttered.
"What's that?" Cecil turned an amused eye at Talia. Of course he had heard her words. His wolf ears were excellent.
Talia shrugged. "So now that all the issues that caused such ancient animosity between werewolves and vampires are no longer relevant, what is the problem still?"
"Mutual jealousy." Andre sighed. "Both are equals in all ways. There are just as many extremely wealthy werewolves," he indicated at Cedric, "as there are…lesser endowed vampires."
"But they have their own kingdom, why would they need to establish themselves in Faria?" Cecil rested his chin on his fist.
"Paradisio is their high command kingdom, absolutely, but there are always outliers. We already trade with them, why can't we commingle and exist within the same community?"
"Because we are werewolves and they are vampires." Cecil responded, as if that was the be-all and end-all of the werewolf-vampire discussion.