As he landed the short-range shuttle on the landing pad of the World Council building, Baird caught a glimpse of Aldus Perce, waiting just inside the huge plasti-glass dome and doubted it very much. Still, he respected Sylvan’s determination to try.
“Are we there yet?” his mate, Olivia murmured through their link. “Storn and Mia are getting a bit restless back here.”
“We just landed, lilenta. Please just tell them to be patient,” he sent back. “We don’t want them to be visible until the last minute, in case any human reporters are out here.”
He and Sylvan had decided it would be best to keep the Satyr Kindred and his new mate hidden in the back of the shuttle for as long as possible because of the abundance of human news helicopters flying around, trying to see what was going on at the World Council building.
It had been Sylvan’s idea to bring them—he wanted the humans to see how happy a Monstrum Kindred and a human female could be together. And Olivia had come because she wanted to testify that Mia’s ex-mate was an abusive asshole, not the upstanding male the human media was making him out to be.
Baird was afraid that no matter what they said or did, it was going to be a bust. The humans had made up their minds about Storn and his kind and they could be an extremely stubborn species.
“Well, here we go,” he said to Sylvan, as he finished the landing procedure and unlocked the shuttle doors.
Sylvan took a deep breath.
“Yes, here we go. I’ll go ahead to greet Secretary-General Perce and you follow with Olivia and Storn and Mia, please.”
“Got it.” Baird nodded. “You realize we may have to get through the press first?”
“Of course. I’ll try to draw as many of them as I can so that Storn and Mia aren’t noticed until the last minute.” Sylvan nodded at the row of media people with cameras waiting outside the doors to the large, clear dome.
The humans called it the “Crystal Dome” because they thought it sounded better, but the clear, protective barrier was actually made of the ultra-tough plasti-glass material, which the Kindred had given them as a present. It was bullet and bomb-proof, suitable for a high-security area. Still, it sparkled with iridescent light and looked like the lovely, fragile human material called crystal, which was probably how it had gotten its name.
They all got out of the shuttle, Sylvan leading the way, dressed in the long, flowing robe that went with his title of Chancellor, or Head of the Kindred High Council. At once, the human reporters were on him, asking questions.
“Chancellor Sylvan, can you tell us why you’re here today?”
“Why are you meeting with the World Council?”
“Can you tell us anything about the alien attack on a human policeman yesterday? Was the attacker really a Kindred? Has he been expelled from the Kindred Mother Ship?”
Baird sighed, the questions were endless. But Sylvan held his head high and ignored them. It was better to give no comment at all—the human press would find out the details of the meeting after there had been a decision. In the meantime, letting them know that Sylvan was there on behalf of the Monstrum Kindred would only antagonize the humans and “freak them out” as his mate, Olivia would put it.
“Speaking of freaking them out, are you ready to let us come out of the back of the shuttle?” he heard Olivia ask in his head. Clearly she had caught his last thought through their bond link.
“Just wait a moment more until they’re all gathered around Sylvan—he’s almost to the door of the Crystal Dome,” Baird sent to her. “All right…now. Come out and make it quick, we want to make it to the door before they can get to us.”
“Good luck with that,” Olivia sent dryly, but she was ushering Storn and Mia out of the shuttle as she spoke.
“Okay come on—let’s make this fast,” Baird instructed them.
Mia had a wide-eyed, uncertain look on her face but Storn looked determined. He was wearing his bronze uniform shirt and the black leather trousers which covered his furry legs, but his horns and hooves couldn’t be missed, since they had been polished to a high shine.
“Let’s go!” Olivia urged and then the four of them were walking quickly and quietly towards the Crystal Dome, where Sylvan was standing at the door, waiting for the human guards to clear back the press so he could go inside.
At first, it seemed that they might make it right to the Dome before the reporters saw them. But then, one human turned his head and shouted,
“Look! It’s the devil-monster Kindred! He’s right over there!”
And then, of course, there was a stampede towards them and they were surrounded by reporters, shoving cameras and microphones into their faces and yelling invasive questions.