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“The story goes that an old god took over the pack, or was fighting the wolves’ Alpha for it and about to take it over. Kirsten made Cora hers, so the old god couldn’t have her friend. Her powers were new, at the time. Unknown, untested, uncontrolled. She didn’t know what she did. Somehow, Cora is her wolf. I’ve smelled the connection, but I don’t understand it.”
“Cora is Alpha over tens of thousands of wolves. Does this mean they are truly Kirsten’s wolves?”
“I believe it might, but Cora is the Alpha, and Kirsten acts as the Alpha’s mate, rather than the Alpha. I don’t believe anyone knows for certain who is in charge between them.” He tilted his head. “I invite you to share the bounty of my lion when we rise tomorrow evening.”
He made the offer with formal wording, so I responded in kind. “I would be honored to bond with you in whatever traditional manner you offer.”
“I wouldn’t have made the offer if I thought you wanted to drink his fear.”
“Good.”
“Marco’s blood binding allows some of his coterie to share in his ability to feed from sex. I did not gain his abilities outright, but I notice a slight jump in power when I have sex with a powerful being.”
“I haven’t had sex with anyone powerful since I arrived and gave our Master my oaths.”
“You need to test it, to see if you’re affected. You are friends with him of old, so you know how it works, yes?”
I nodded. I’d been with him as he’d figured it out. I had, in fact, helped him figure it out. “I know the basics, but he likely has powers I don’t know of, since we’ve been kept apart for most of the last seven centuries.”
“My suite is directly across the hall from Marco’s. What time did you wake today?”
My suite was beside Marco’s. Only his closest people had access to his level. Venom was more than a mere guard.
Telling Venom when I woke would, under normal circumstances, give him an idea of how powerful I am. It isn’t an exact science, but in general, the earlier you rise, the stronger you are. “I rose between three and four today, but I expect I’ll rise hours earlier tomorrow.”
“Leesa?” With that one word, he let me know he understood my power is based in part on who I’ve recently fed from, and how deeply I’ve fed.
“Yes.”
“I’ll likely awaken within fifteen minutes of three o’clock. Whoever rises first, text the other. When the second wakes, a return text will be in order.”
We exchanged phone numbers, and I took my leave.
Leesa was in one of the cages in my room when I arrived. I could imprison up to three vampires at once in my suite. My old master had given me the capacity to hold thirteen — nine along the walls, and another four under my bed. The detainees under my bed could only lie down, while the ones on the wall could lie or sit. With a twelve-foot ceiling, stacked three high, each cage could be four feet tall, and long enough to allow the captive inside to stretch out and lie down.
The four under my bed had only been two feet tall, stacked two high. It’s really easy to feed from someone’s fear when they can’t sit up and can barely roll over.
But the vampires in the cages of my former suite hadn’t all been killed. Some had been put into my room for a day, a week, or a month. My old Master had put collars on them, to show how much I could feed from them. A black collar meant I could drink them down until they were gone. Red meant he wanted them tortured. White meant I should feed them down to twenty percent of their life force, but torture only came into play if they didn’t fear me enough to give me a good feeding.
I’d told Marco I didn’t want my suite to be the prison room. When we eventually moved into the coterie house in Chattanooga, the prison room would be beside my suite, not in it. For now, the prison room was on the level below us, directly under my suite, so I could feed through the floor.
But he’d gifted Leesa to me, so she was in here.
I stood and looked at her, and nearly jumped out of my skin when a man spoke from the loveseat on the other side of my bed. “She fed when she rose, shortly before the meeting, and yet she’s so weak, I’m not certain she’ll rise tomorrow night.”
I immediately recognized the slayer Ryan from Marco’s memories, and wondered how he’d gotten in. I could hear his heartbeat now, and I could smell him, when neither had caught my attention before he spoke. Had Marco let him in? Or had the slayer managed to get here by himself. I didn’t ask, but I assumed the latter.
“Have you come to kill me for this, slayer?”
“No. The monsters who slay other monsters help me with my job.”
“And if I drank down a human’s fear until they were dead?”
“Depends upon the human, and your reasons.”
Some slayers kill you if you take out a human, no matter the reason, while others had a sense of fairness and allowed us to kill evil humans who deserved death. I’d heard mixed rumors about this one. I walked to my seating area and chose a chair directly across from him.
He was focused on my lips, which meant I couldn’t catch his gaze. There was no fear though. Nothing for me to feed on.
