Vampire Rule?

I did a reading back in January. A dismal night as I remember. Afterwards, I started chatting with one of the audience. Without having read the book, she told me she felt that in the zot hierarchy, vampires are at the top.

Yeah—they wish. Vampires don't rule in most U.S. cities. But Seattle’s a special case. Kurt is one of the city’s founders, which allowed him to do two things: persuade his human timber baron partners to turn a more or less blind eye to zot labor, and take complete control over the flow of zot immigration to the new city. That Seattle is one of the few places where zots can live in relative peace (with emphasis on the word relative) is Kurt’s doing. It’s the debt all zots in the city owe him. And Kurt is not shy about collecting his due.

So that’s why vampires are on top in Seattle. How Kurt managed to do what he did is a book in itself. But the result was give him an iron grip over Seattle’s zot population. You wanna live here? Gotta talk to Kurt first. Of course, getting Kurt's permission is not quite as literal as it used to be, what with the public university and all. After all, it's in Kurt's best interest that the school attract in and out-of-state zots to Seattle because they spend money. And Kurt's got lots of business interests in the city besides his Last Chance nightclub and Boeing. Restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, you name it. But it's understood by all the university's zot students that they will leave after graduation. No exceptions. You want to stay in Seattle after graduating? Gotta talk to Kurt first...

Oh--you're wondering why a 600-odd year old vampire would have a major stake in an aircraft manufacturer? Well, Kurt is a Renaissance man...