Vampires Among Us [Vampires Among Us 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

see.
    Felippe immediately cut in. “What are you proposing? That we force our elderly underground and forget about them?”
    Charles was ready to bodily remove Felippe out of the room, and was somewhat surprised that Erica beat him to respond to this ill-mannered, hissing vampire. As he watched her address Felippe, Charles stood back and grinned. He could only imagine what Kevin would be doing if he was here. The girl has some guts, he mused. She’s a human, and not even flinching over standing up to a vampire!
    “Not at all,” Erica replied, as calmly as she could to Felippe. “You have chosen to reside in a country where freedom abounds. And from what I can see, you have chosen to keep those same freedoms within your own society. This is just a choice for your elderly. No one is suggesting that you force them into anything.” She stopped for just a minute to make eye contact with each councilman. “You have done a great job of setting up schools for your children, but no one forces them to attend those schools. Your children are your future, and you seem to take very good care of them. Why not extend the same services to your elderly who have already paid their dues to your society? I for one believe if you put some of your elderly together, the loneliness and depression will decrease dramatically and their quality of life will improve. An added benefit would be that it would put them much closer to your medical facility, should the need arise,” she finished.
    Charles was relieved to see Felippe didn’t have a comeback for Erica. For the moment, he seemed speechless. That thought alone made Charles want to chuckle heartily, but he took that time to start going over the diagram on the wall, explaining everything in detail.
    After the presentation, a few council members had questions. Charles made sure he spoke up quickly to answer them. He felt Erica had done enough. He could only imagine the look on Atkins’s face when she jumped up to respond to Felippe’s hissing argument. Charles found himself holding back from glancing over to see Atkins’s face now, not trusting himself to keep a straight face if he did.
    Raphael Livingstone now broke into his thoughts with another question. “Charles, I think this idea has some very good merits. Could you please explain in detail the paragraph on page thirty-nine that suggests the school age children visit the elderly facility at least once a week for history lessons?”
    Erica found herself speaking up before Charles had a chance to collect his thoughts. “Charles, if I may?” she inquired, and waited until he nodded his head to continue. “Mr. Livingstone, isn’t it?” she asked, as she turned her attention to the individual who had just made an inquiry. When the man nodded, she continued. “By having groups come to visit the elderly on a regular basis, it will help with socialization. We have not only included the school children to visit, but other groups you have set up within your society. Charles suggested getting the elderly more involved with the teaching of the children, giving the elderly something worthwhile to do.”
    Felippe scoffed at this idea immediately, and since he was sitting across from Erica, now leaned over the table and was immediately directly in front of her face, so close she could have counted his eyelashes. Sneering at her, he argued, “The children have more important things to do than go visit a retirement center once a week. You would be taking away valuable time from other studies, just to appease the old folks?”
    Mr. Atkins suddenly stood up and purposely squeezed his body between the hissing Felippe and Erica’s face. “You are welcome to your opinion, Felippe, and we keep these meetings open to speak your mind. However, you will not invade this woman’s personal space again!” Mr. Atkins growled in a low, menacing voice, and then continued, “And God help you when you reach ‘old folk’ status!”
    Although Erica felt her nerves would snap at any given second, she also felt it was her responsibility to respond to Felippe’s comment. “I happen to think your elderly can teach our children so much more than they will ever retain from reading a book,” she stated calmly, although where she was drawing this from, she had no idea. She glanced quickly over to Charles before continuing. This hissing vampire had her fired up, maybe she was going on nothing but pent-up frustrations, but she was determined not to