Thadeous's nostrails suddenly flared and his eyes snapped towards Kurt.

"So he's finally claimed you properly, hu?"

"Thad!" snapped Blaine as Kurt blushed furiously and ducked his head.

"I don't mean anything by it. Quite frankly, I'm gald; it will keep this one from asking me when you'd get around to it." Thadeous stabbed a finger at Michael who scrubbed a hand across his face in embarrassment.

"I'm very sorry, sir," Michael squeaked under Blaine's hard glare. "You too, Kurt, I didn't think Thad would just blurt that out."

"It's fine, Michael," whispered Kurt, "just so long as you didn't hear us."

"We didn't," Michael laughed slightly.

"You mean you didn't," said Thadeous with a quirk of the lips. "My ears are much better then yours, remember?"

"Thad, do I have to give you a thrashing?"

"Sorry, Blaine, I only let my lover do that."

Michael dropped his head into his hands to hide the rush of color across his cheekbones and Kurt quickly began loading up his plate with food, fingers trembling as he tried to ignore Thadeous's suggestive words.

"I'm the leader of this coven," said Blaine, "I can demand any one of you as a fuck buddy and you wouldn't be able to deny me. Likewise, I can punish any of you in any way I see fit."

Thadeous had nothing to say about that and he quickly changed the topic.

"Have you thought about next month, Blaine?"

"Vaguely," he mumbled.

"What happens next month?" asked Kurt.

"Every year the covens throw a celebration commemorating our, ah, rise to power. This year, the Dalton Coven is to host the festivities. Blaine's not happy about it." Thadeous added, flicking his eyes towards the count.

"Why would I be?" Blaine said moodily, "The fucking things are completly vulgar and I'm being kind in that assessment."

"Why? What happens at them?"

The atmosphere at the table grew heavy as Thadeous and Blaine glanced at each other and Michael picked at his food.

"Go ahead and tell him, Blaine, he'll find out next month anyway and it's probably better to prepare him for it now."

Blaine began tracing patterns on the table with his forefinger. He refused to meet Kurt's eyes as he said, "Often times, as these...functions, the personal humans of the attending vampires are...humiliated for entertainment purposes."

"Humiliated how?"

Blaine looked at Michael quickly as if afraid of offending him. Michael began wolfing down his food instead of playing with it as if to drown out the count's words with the sound of his chewing.

"Well, do you remember how I told you that many of my kind are prone to participating in BDSM? Well, at these things humans have been passed around for sexual purposes, placed in cages completely naked, fondled and fucked right there in public with no say over what is done to them."

Kurt's eyes grew wide, "Can't you keep them from doing that?"

"It would be considered in 'bad taste' if I did," Blaine ground out. The finger that had been tracing patterns into the table was beginning to dig into the very wood of the table in his anger.

"But you're the count!" Kurt exclaimed.

"That doesn't matter, Kurt," said Thadeous, "it's against our laws to tell another vampire how to treat his slaves."

"But can't you control what goes on in your own mansion?"

"To an extent," said Blaine.

When Kurt continued to stare at him, he sighed, massaging his temples in exasperation.

"I will not place you in that position and can demand that the other servents here be treated with the utmost respect. However, I cannot force members of other covens to start anything with their own, personal humans. Nor can I keep any members of my own coven from treating their personal humans the same way."

"Not that many of us would," Thadeous put in, placing a loving hand on Michael's shoulder.

"But shouldn't they show some sort of common courtesty to you?"

Thadeous and Blaine both laughed uproariously at this comment and Kurt stared at them as they came down off their highs.

Regaining his composure, Blaine said: "You really think they care about that? We'll be fortunate if they agree to my terms and conditions about how to treat the servants under my command!"

"But..."

"Kurt, don't," said Thadeous, "you'll only upset him more."

Kurt turned his attention to his food and ate silently as the tension around the table dissipated.

After he was finished eating, Kurt asked if they could go to the living room as he wanted to watch television. "I never have before and I've always been curious about them."

"Your colony didn't have a TV?" Blaine was astonished.

Kurt shook his head, "We relayed messages to each other through spies and as far as the head of the colony was concerned, we didn't need 'the damn things for fucking entertainment purposes'."

Blaine laughed, "Sure, okay."

They entered the living room and Kurt sat down on the couch as Blaine went to get the remote from the top of the entertainment stand.

"I can't guarantee anything good is on, mind you," Blaine said as he joined him on the couch. "But I guess we'll see."

Blaine clicked on the television and then handed Kurt the remote, explaining to him what the buttons did. The vampire watched with some amusement as the human eagerly started flipping through channels.

"Did your colony manage to commandeer any electrical equipment?"

Kurt nodded, "Yeah we had lights of course and some radios...." He trailed off as he began concentrating on a wildlife documentary he had stumbled upon. It appeared to be centered on tigers and both men watched the striped cats quietly.

When it went to a commercial, Kurt frowned, "These are...sponsors, right? I heard that's how you have to pay for it or something?"

"It's how the programs are paid for, yes," agreed Blaine, "bloody awful when you're wrapped up in some action flick and then they cut away to advertise some new toothpaste."

Kurt smiled at that then grew sober.

"Blaine," he hesitated, "I know the subjects kind of...touchy for you, but about this celebration..."

"What about it?"

"Well, you can't possinly be the only vampire around here who decided to keep the memories of his former life."

"You're right, I'm not. At least I know some will act civilly, but what's your point, Kurt? I just invite them and none of the others? It'd be considered rude."

Kurt wanted to point out that the way the others would blatanly ignore Blaine's wishes in his own home was much ruder, but he held back.

"I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that maybe you could somehow convince them to tell the others of their covens to treat their slaves politely while--."

"Kurt, you don't get it. The leaders of the these other covens are not neccessarily led by people like me and I already told you that one cannot tell another how to treat their personal human."

"Right," he paused, "will Karofsky be there?"

"Unfortunately, he's part of the McKinley Coven."

"Where will you want me to be during this thing?"

"You may stay in the bedroom if you'd like."

"That's not what I asked. I want to know where you want me to be, not where I'd feel the most comfortable." Kurt looked up at him expectedly.

Blaine sighed, "Have you gained the ability to read minds? Yes, I would like you by my side, but at the same time, I don't want to put you in any danger of wandering hands."

The vampire caressed Kurt's cheek with the back of his hand. "You're such a handsome man that I will kill someone for even looking at you lustfully and then where would we be? I'll tell you where, in the courtroom of the king himself."

"Really, it would be that great of an offense?"

"For a count?" said Blaine, "Yes."

"Have you ever met him? The king, I mean."

Blaine shook his head, "Not many people have. I've met his heir though. Nice enough woman. She was turned at the same age I was actually. Not the same time period, of course, but still."

"What's her name?"

"Tina," he repled.

"When was she changed?"

"Only about seventy years ago, not that long at all."

Kurt snorted, "Yeah, practically a child."

"Well by my standers she would be."

"True." A slight pause, then: "Blaine, do you think you would be able to convince either her or the king to give my people their freedom back?"

The vampire looked at him in shock, "I think you overestimate my power, Kurt. I can't control what the Royal Coven does or doesn't do."

"But you said that the Dalton Coven conviced them to enslave us in the first palce--"

"Along with the other families," Blaine reminded him, "something heard of only that one time all throughout our histories. Besides that, there's no way I would be able to convince the leaders of the other covens to help me. I'm not the most popular count there's ever been."

"Aren't you friends with any of the other counts?"

Blaine studied Kurt's face for a few moments before opening his arms wide. "Come here, Kurt."

Kurt glaced at him and then leanded against Blaine's chest. The vampire reclined along the couch so that Kurt's body was over his own. Blaine lightly kissed him on top of the head and tightened his grip in a brief hug.

"I suppose I'm on good enough terms with the leaders of the Addams and Belleville Covens, but that's it. The count of the Haverbrook Coven and I have never really spoken all that much and the count of the Carmel Coven is just plain obnoxious towards anyone he views as lower then himself, and trust me when I say that's a lot of people."

"What about the one from McKinely?"

"She's...strange."

"Strange how?"

"Sometimes she seems on good terms with you, but then just as quickly becomes your worst enemy. She's very unpredictable, but I have a feeling we wouldn't get an ally out of her all the same."

"Hmm."

They were queit throughout the rest of the documentary until Kurt broke the silence again.

"Blaine?"

"Yes, Kurt?"

"I'm not an idiot. What I mean is I haven't...deluded myself into thinking that any of my family or friends are still alive or, if they are, that they managed to escape the slavers. I guess what I'm trying get at is that I wasn't trying to talk you into helping free my people just for them."

"What brought this on exactly?"

"Nothing. I just thought I should tell you. I wanted to make sure you knew."

"They might be alive though. You never know."

"Maybe, but what good does that do me?"

"None I guess. However, I could try to track them down for you."

The entire upper half of Kurt's body twisted around as he stared into the vampire's eyes, trying to find an ulterior motive in them. "You would?"

Blaine nodded, "Of course I would. I'm willing to give you anything you want."

Kurt blinked three times in rapid succession. "Won't people be, I don't know, suspicious if you did that?"

"My title does allow me some prvileges. Even if they were, they couldn't question me about it."

Kurt's eyes unfocused as he took this information in, then after several minutes, he shook his head very slowly. "No. That still wouldn't do any good. If they were...owned by someone, then there would be no way to free them anyway. Would there?"

"It would depend on the owner," Blaine replied slowly.

"They might not remember their names anyway."

"No, but their name is not their pyhiscal apperience, now is it? If you could give me an acurte discription of them I would simply bring you with me to identify them once we had a lead."

"And you would really do this for me?"

Blaine nodded, "Yes."

There was a moment where all that could be heard was their breathing and the ticking of an old grandfather clock out in the hallway.

"Think it over. I'm not going to close the offer at any time, and who knows, perhaps they'll be at the celebration."

There was a flash of something in Kurt's eyes and Blaine recognized it as hope, and possibly, determination.

The human said nothing as he snuggled into Blaine's arms again and returned his attention to the TV.