Page 46 of The Donor’s Dilemma

But that made no sense. All the reports said that the Hesperian Flu couldn’t be passed by goods. As long as vampires, who couldn’t catch the illness, transported goods and decontamination measures were taken there was no reason to cut off the port.

“What’s wrong with the Cliffhaven ports?”

“The humans keep burning them. They’re trying to take the coast.”

“What? Why would they do that? How would they do that? They’re fucking humans!”

“Yeah, well, they’re causing shit. Salvation are offering their ports and transfer of goods through the Wilds.”

Fuck. That would have been the hard part. If they’re offering safe transportation for the hundreds of miles from Salvation it might be a hard deal to work around.

“How’s your human?” Jesse asked.

“Okay, I guess. She met Petra this morning at the club.”

“Fuck. And she’s okay? Petra wasn’t... Petra?”

“Lucky escape. You know why she’s here?”

“Not a clue, mate. I’ll ask around.”

Agitated voices came from outside, Stella, and… as if his night could get worse, Harris burst through the door.

“I need to talk to you. Now,” he demanded.

“Join the queue,” Theo tried, but he knew he wouldn’t. “I’ll call you back,” he told his brother and hung up.

Harris threw a stack of reports on the desk. “Twenty-eight,” he said. “We’re twenty-eight donors away from disaster.”

Falling into his chair Theo put his head in his hand, words muffled as he asked, “Where are you getting your numbers?”

They had been playing this game for months and Theo was losing his mind. Every other day Harris stormed in with one “disaster” or another, claiming there weren’t enough donors, they’re leaving or disappearing and not being replaced. Theo asked for figures, for proof, and Harris plucked numbers out of thin air. Every database for the Exchange was right there on his computer, and even a cursory glance said Harris was full of shit.

“Independent research,” Harris said.

“Independent? What does that even mean? The Vital Exchange…”

“The Exchanges figures are wrong…”

“How?” Theo shouted, leaning over the reports. “How is the Exchange wrong, you run the fucking Exchange! How can the database say one thing, and you have some random reports that say something totally different? Make it make sense!”

“We need to remove the seventy-year-old age cap…”

“No, that’s for the human’s own safety…”

“Then let them donate younger, sixteen instead of twenty-one…”

“Are you insane?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You want to take blood from children? Get the fuck out. I haven’t got time for this.”

“Eighteen then…” he started, but Theo grabbed him by the arm, forcing Harris towards the door. “Read the reports, Chapel.”

“Tell me where you got them.”

“I can’t.”

“Then I can’t act on them.”

Theo opened the door and shoved Harris out, a little harder than necessary. Six faces watched as Theo loomed over him and even the vampires patiently waiting had the good sense to look nervous.