One would imagine the Senate meeting in a dark hall, with cold stone walls and flickering torches, and voices whispering in the dark. It was a vampire meeting, after all. But this was a large and generously lighted conference room, with white walls and a gray carpet, with a mahogany table in the middle and soft leather chairs around that soaked up the flat blue light of the fluorescent lamps.<br/><br/>If the wine glasses were full of wine, this would have been nothing out of an ordinary business meeting much like the ones this conference room would see on a typical Saturday night. But on this frosty Munich night on Saturday, January 8th 2011, they weren’t.<br/><br/>“I do agree.” Flynn DelaCourt spoke with the hint of a French accent. He leaned forward over his glass. “The Community is growing. We need more space. In Canada, we adopted most of our pets eight or nine years ago. Soon, it will be time for them to be Sired into the Community. That’s twelve more members of our coven all at once; we’ve never had such a wave before. And we can expect more in the next decades.”<br/><br/>“Then why are you against us expanding our coven grounds?” Maria Francesca, the Elder of the Fabiani bloodline, asked harshly. “You have more than enough room in Manitoba.”<br/><br/>“Because,” the DelaCourt Elder waved his hand in a controlled, emotionless gesture, “It draws attention. This is not the sixteenth century anymore. One wrong step and the world will know. And shoving one hundred vampires into an ever-expanding castle in the middle of Europe is a wrong step.” He leaned back and crossed his fingers above his stomach.<br/><br/>The rest of the Elders had followed the conversation silently. The DelaCourts and the Fabianis had been bickering with each other for nearly three centuries. The reason was Blanc – the Younger bloodline owed its existence to a union between a Fabiani and a DelaCourt. And ever since the Blancs took their place in the Senate, the two parent bloodlines have been trying to gain more influence over them.<br/><br/>The oldest member of the Senate – the nearly six hundred year old Cassandra Aurelia, raised her hand.<br/><br/>“Whether expanding our current covens is a wise move or not, is debatable. Whether it’s a risky move is also debatable. But there is another side to this. The growth of the Community has forced many of our kind that consider each other rivals, or unpleasant company the least, to have to co-exist under one roof. When a few such rivalries occur, they can be kept under control. But lately, their number has been growing, and their heat intensifying. And the Siring of over thirty pets within the next three years will make it even worse.”<br/><br/>“Why not just kill off the pets and forbid adoption again?” The rough voice belonged to Corrado, the Rossanera Elder.<br/><br/>“It’s not our way to kill off members of the Community, Corrado.” Cassandra replied. “And human or not, the pets are a part of our Community. They are more than food.”<br/><br/>Silence fell over the conference room. Some of the Elders were pondering over her last words.<br/><br/>“Well,” Cassandra explained. “I mean they are intended to be more than food.”<br/><br/>“I vote for colonizing.” This was the first thing Chun Lao Bo said this evening. The small Chinese man in an elegant suit was sitting still, with his hands on the table. When he spoke, all heads turned at him. But this was all he had to say.<br/><br/>“So do I”, Mei Lin Macabri nodded. One after the other, seven of the nine Elders present gave their vote for the establishment of a new coven. The other two – Maria Fabiani and Corrado Rossanera, nodded in acknowledgment that they will follow the decision of the Senate.<br/><br/>“So… where should this new coven be, then?” the Connor Elder asked after the voting had been concluded. “India is a good place: rural, poor, easy to hide our activities.”<br/><br/>“India is swarming with packs, though.” Fabiani replied. “What about Africa?”…<br/><br/>The discussion lasted for over 7 hours. The decision was made: the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois. The Senate ended the meeting for tonight. Tomorrow night there was going to be a very hot and difficult discussion: how many and who are to be sent to the virgin grounds to take up the task of preparing them for the establishment of a fourth coven.