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"The two human girls? Bring them to me. Now."
"Yes, my master," the voice replied. "You and you. Go get the girl from the apartment. You and you, bring the one from the office."
"What's happening?" someone asked.
"Better you don't know, dude," Derek said, moving for the door.
Leo closed his fangs gently, slowly, on a blood-servant's throat. And drank.
The pain was bearable but the rage was still hot within him. He had drunk from Bethany and from ten humans, taking a little over a pint from each. He had ingested over a gallon of blood, and he could have taken more, but he had an enemy to find before dawn. El Mago. The mage would not be allowed to reside in his city if he had to cut a swath through the populace to find him.
In the private restroom of the office, Leo washed his face and brushed his teeth, his fangs, and
the hinge structure that operated them. He combed his black hair and tied it into a queue, then took a moment to inspect his abdomen and torso. They should have displayed dreadful wounds, but they were unmarked. He dressed in the clean clothes that had been brought from his clan home on the west side of the river, but this time he strapped a small weapon to his right leg. The Smith & Wesson .380 semiautomatic pistol was loaded with silver/lead rounds. He belted his dueling swords around his waist and checked himself in the brass-backed mirror. Human customers in the bar hated it, but for Mithrans it was the only way to see a reflection. His flesh picked up the golden tones from the brass, looking far more human than his pale skin in the bright lights. Satisfied, Leo rifled through the zippered bag holding his clothes and pocketed a cell phone. Some wise person had placed a folded sheet of paper between the clamshell halves with instructions on how to use it. Fortified, Leo stepped from the restroom and walked across the room through the lines of his humans to the girls.
The one who had been tied to the chair was stretched out on a chaise, her head in the lap of the other one. The victim was named Audrey Salick, and she looked vaguely Asian. Her sister, the blond temptress who had shared Leo's bed earlier in the night, was named Margaret Coin. The same mother. Very different fathers.
"Audrey," Leo said softly, his voice a low purr as he wielded his mesmerism. "You have been healed. The memories of your abuse muted. Are you well?"
Audrey lifted her head off her sister's thigh and blinked blearily around the room. "I'm fine, I think." She focused on the Mithran behind Leo who had healed her and pointed a finger. "I know you. You're Estavan." Her brows came down in a scowl. "Hey! Did you . . . ? Did we--"
Estavan moved to the back of the couch and took her hand. "All is well, mi hermosa ave." My beautiful bird. Leo's lips lifted at the endearment. Estavan loved women and he was already half in love with this new one. "All is well," Estavan finished. He lifted her hand and bowed over it to kiss her fingers. The woman sighed. "She is well, my sire. And she knew nothing about tonight's ambush."
Leo set his eyes on Margaret. "But this one. She knew much," he said.
Margaret pressed her body into the couch, her blond hair coiling about her. Her blue eyes filled with tears. "He had my sister. I didn't have a choice."
"We all have choices, my dear. Estavan, take your new blood-servant."
"No!" Margaret screamed, even as Estavan leaned across the couch and lifted Audrey into his arms. He whisked her through the door, into the bar. "No," Margaret sobbed, one arm out as if to drag her sister back. "I was supposed to be saving her."
"In return for . . . ?" Leo asked.
"A week of . . ." She drew in a sobbing breath and her mouth pulled down in shame. "Servitude."
"A week in a Mithran's bed," Leo clarified. "A vampire who called himself El Mago."
Margaret nodded, tears reddening her pale skin.
"Then you shall have five weeks in mine, as payment for the trouble you have caused. For now, we will start in small sips. Give me your wrist. And this time you will withhold nothing, not even the trifling dark place in your soul that hid the knowledge of my enemy from me. The trivial dark spot that I should have forced my way into when you were compliant."
"No. No, no, no, no."
"She's wearing an engagement ring, boss."
Leo turned slowly and looked at his primo. His voice took an edge. "So she is. Had she come to me and told her story, I would have saved her sister and set them both free. I have been magnanimous to all human cattle in my city. I have made it clear that they may come to me at any time. She did not. She chose to fear an enemy, to become one herself. You would have me punish her according to a law older than my own?" According to the Vampira Carta, the written laws that all Mithrans adhered to, he could have taken her life for such an infraction.
"No." George shook his head. "I'm not--"
"This is about your sister and the shame she was dealt. I understand. And for this reason alone, I will not banish you, nor strip you of power. But for now, leave me." Leo smelled Alfonse in the room. "Alfonse, take my primo home. See that he stays there. The rest of you, wait in the main room. Drink. Enjoy yourselves. I'll be an hour."
Leo left the room, licking his new paramour's blood from his lips and taking with him all she knew. Margaret Coin would make a lovely addition to his collection of blood-servants. She was willing, no matter that her earlier interest was reliant upon fear for her sister. Now she had tasted his blood and she was his. He would recompense her betrothed for the loss of his future wife. George would disapprove, but George often disapproved.
Leo stepped silently into the main room of Royal Mojo and said, "My enemy is at the Hotel Monteleone, in the Ernest Hemingway suite. He has magic, spells of confusion and obfuscation and false health. He has silver and poison. I will compel no one to fight at my side, nor will I condemn any who walk away. But I ask for aid and fighters who might join me."
Katie made a soft sound with her lips, Pfttt. "I am yours to call. You need no one else."
"You are my heir. This is not your fight."
