“You forget, Simeon is an original, and Napoleon, the son of an original. The council deemed that ten years seemed appropriate because of their lineage.”

“Okay. I’m sorry, but that sucks ass in such a big way.”

“Not as much as it did for the two daywalkers they killed after they awoke.”

“What?”

“The news about what had happened eventually spread throughout our world. Vampires in every coven began testing their mettle against the sun. They mistakenly thought that if they, too, could withstand sunlight, they’d be revered amongst our kind. Putting it mildly, they were fools.

“Shortly after Simeon and Napoleon awoke from their sentence, Hector, another of the originals, contacted them and told them that two members of his flock were daywalkers as well. Simeon and Napoleon wasted no time getting to Barcelona, and they started their slice and dice routine again. When the results were the same as they’d been with me, Simeon and Napoleon took it to the next and final level. With only one organ remaining that they’d never tasted, they snipped off a small piece of those poor men’s hearts and gave it a go.”

“Oh, that’s gross.”

“Yes, and since our hearts are the only organ that can’t regenerate, the men died. Their deaths weren’t in vain, though, because Hector ran back to the council and told them what Simeon and Napoleon had done.”

“But why would Hector have done that? He was part of it.”

“Hector’s always been rather wishy-washy in his alliances. He tends to side with whoever can slather his bread with more butter, but he’d been clueless about Simeon’s and Napoleon's intentions. He thought they had learned their lesson after what they’d done to me, but he was wrong. Knowing he’d led his own men to the slaughter didn’t sit well, so after Hector buried them, he told the council everything, and it opened their eyes.

“Before those two men came forward, they thought I was an anomaly. Obviously, that wasn’t the case, and obviously, the council now had a problem. If there were indeed more daywalkers, what would stop them from avenging the deaths of those two men? By then, Max had already confirmed to the council what he had observed. I’d always been a bit stronger and quicker than the rest, and if that was the same for other daywalkers, the common vampires wouldn’t stand a chance against us. We could invade their homes in the brightness of day, leaving those inside no chance for escape, and any left alive would then answer to us.”

“It sounds like they put themselves between a rock and a hard place.”