InsaneJournal

Tao had not gotten a lot of sleep.  Thankfully, he did not need a lot.  He'd cleaned meticulously of course, then sat on the phone all night.  His source did not like to have any suspicion on them that they even liked vampires let alone were indebted to one.  So a late night phone call was pushing things.  Unfortunately, he did not have a lot of time to placate her.  After explaining the problem, and promising this was a final favor she had relented and headed out to the church in the morning.  He had laid in bed, no not a coffin, and stared at the ceiling.  Usually a good couple of hours in the room, even if it didn't last as long as he would like, were relaxing.  He'd instead found he let his guard down more then he anticipated and the shifter had garnered more respect then he had previously expected to give.  Worse yet, he wasn't all that sure the rule of keeping things in the room would stick, as they had finished out negotiations inside.

That was upsetting as well.  He'd had no problem taking out tribute.  He had purposefully given the new leader the information to see how he would deal with it.  Seeing if he would reach for that small bit of power, or even more.  It would be telling on his position as leader and give Tao some weak points to use.  Still, he had planned on enjoying the negotiations.  There was nothing like riling up a shifter.  Even the idiot power hungry ones. 

Deciding sleep wasn't coming he'd headed into work, checking over inventories, new information and new hires.  The club was doing well, they had a steady stream of regulars as well as those coming for the thrill of seeing a vampire.  He drew up the new treaty and even slipped in a clause regarding collars to see if it would be noticed.  The phone call from his plant came early and she had information.  Not that it was good, she promised to stay on it.  He explained it wasn't necessary, but she felt obligated.  If only to spare the pack and vampires more problems.

He accepted a glass of blood to drink, from a blood bank few knew he owned and sat back to rest.  Riley should be calling soon so he could pass on the information.  The phone call, Tao mused, would be short and to the point.  The shifter did not seem to enjoy talking to him much.  The thought made his mouth twitch and he almost chuckled to himself.