If it wouldn't have hurt so badly, Pierre would have laughed. "Don't be so dramatic," he said to Nadia in response. "We would never stage any kind of mutiny, even if the Mimic demons weren't under the control of the Oligarchy. That's just not our style."
"I think Nadia's right, Pierre," Damien said. "Either Vomas or McCloud would more likely become the Luminary over anyone else, well before I even apply for the position." There was a brief bit of laughter from the elder vampire. "He'd be a complete fool to elect McCloud above Vomas. At least Vomas is a little older than McCloud, hopefully a bit more serious about his position too."
"Don't get me wrong," Pierre said in response, "I'm not expecting that anything is going to change overnight. I'm not expecting that they're going to call up Damien and offer him a job in government. Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were afraid of us, and a coup is just what they're expecting." Damien's notoriety had been getting rather big within the city over the past few years - since they had found Rachel. While they weren't important enough, thankfully, to be abducted from the mimic demons and questioned by the Luminary for heresy and sedition, neither he nor Damien were stupid enough to think that he was escaping their radar. If they had been, they would have never gotten an invitation to the Masquerade in the first place.
"I just bet there's a nice fat little file with all of our names in it sitting in Kerr's filing cabinet. So what I'm saying is, if Mr. Galvin does decide to step out of office, you better be sure that you look into getting your foot in the door."
Damien sighed under his breath. He could remember a couple hours ago when he was dancing with Odessa, thinking of nothing but the steps of a dance that he had long since walked. It was probably the most comfortable part of the evening for him so far, though he hoped that the rest of the night wouldn't be as jarring and uncomfortable as the Masquerade had been. So far, his wish didn't seem as if it were going to be granted. Not with the awkward tension still existing between himself and Rachel, the awful attempt at civility within the current group, the worrying over Pierre's safety and wound, and of course the ever-tumultuous relationship that existed - and he feared, always would exist - between the young ex-lovers in the room. Not all of a sudden, it became too much for him to deal with calmly.
A short moment of silence had passed between the company, Pierre refusing to acknowledge Nadia's bothersome presence and Nadia acting just as she was always trained to by her sire. Damien was not so much upset by the pair as he was annoyed by their constant game-playing, each party as guilty as the other. It had been a long time since he had stopped telling Pierre what to do with the angry pieces of his broken heart that he didn't show anyone but himself and Jenella. Jean-Luc was a womanizer and he assumed that this was part of the unconscious treatment that Damien had always enforced as punishment. And yet as soon as he had felt annoyed by his son, he felt a pang of guilt because of it, though not enough to prevent him from standing and inviting Odessa - and Odessa alone - outside with him to take a better tour of the property. As he extended his hand to her and the queen took it, the suppressed look of anger in Pierre's eyes told him that his subtley was less than he expected it to be. What Damien couldn't express was that the lover's quarrel between them was only a piece of the mental stress puzzle.
