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He could force humans and most shapeshifters to think they were willingly giving, and that gave him a lot, but nothing compared to true loyalty formed over time. The purity of the connection brought in pure life force.
When he’d finished drinking, he sat with the cheetah relaxed on him, holding the other man until he was ready to pull away. The chef had put orange juice and some pretzels on the table, and Gavin waited for the man in his lap to drink half the orange juice before telepathing him.Thank you for the gift of your life force.
I’m pleased to be of service. Thank you for asking the chef to make my favorite. I can smell the meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Go to Lauren, Master. I’m good.
As he approached the small eating area, Lauren asked him, “Do battles often go like this? Over and done with in less than a day?”
“Depends on the kind of encounter. In this case, with a frontal assault, they’re frequently over quickly, yes. They hoped to take me out while down for the day, but had a plan B in place. What better way to draw someone out than trying to kill them? If they’d merely called me up and said, ‘Hey, we’re at the amusement park waiting for you to come fight us,’ I might’ve waited an extra day before showing up. They didn’t realize I’d made plans for how to deal with an invading army. Medved was powerful, but young and inexperienced.”
“And he paid for that inexperience with his life,” Ambrose said.
“Did mom make you appear stronger or weaker?” Lauren asked.
Gavin had been considering that very question. “Could go either way, but I’m leaning towards stronger. There’s no doubt I can take strong vampires out, so it isn’t like I needed to prove that to anyone. This would be the first time in most people’s memory I’d have done so when I owned territory, but I’ve done so for Zander plenty of times, so I don’t think anyone doubts my power. With that already a given, the fact I have such a powerful warrior on my side can only make others think twice about further challenges.”
“Are you back to one hundred percent?”
“Close enough it doesn’t matter, why?”
“Are we certain there isn’t a Plan C?”
“It’s impossible to be certain, but I don’t sense an invading army within the borders of the twenty-one counties in my corner of the state.”
“And just over the state line?” Ambrose asked.
“It’s a problem,” Gavin acknowledged. “I’ll get a heads up from the surrounding Master Vampires in Missouri if someone tries to use them as a staging area. Oklahoma, too. I might get one if they are in Kansas, though I’m not counting on it. Arkansas, however, is damned close, and the Master of the counties just over the state line has reason to want me gone.”
“You think?” Ambrose asked with a smirk.
Gavin held in a sigh, wishing Ambrose hadn’t said anything. Gavin didn’t want to have to explain to Lauren what he’d done, centuries earlier. It would be easier to offer the information without her having to ask, though, so the instant Ambrose asked the question, Gavin met Lauren’s gaze and told her, “I once tortured the current master of the northeastern corner of Arkansas. I forced information from her that allowed me to find her Master at the time and kill him. Her new Master then forced her into slave-vampire status for a century, her life lived in a jail cell where she had to pay for blood with sexual favors — the jail cell necessary so she could gain no knowledge that could harm anyone in the coterie. He sold her to another vampire twenty years in, who was beyond cruel for the eighty years remaining of her sentence.”
“The first twenty years would’ve been under Abbott with another name?”
Lauren didn’t miss much of anything. Gavin nodded in answer and tried to explain. “She’d betrayed her former master, so she couldn’t be trusted. A visiting vampire was allowed the sexual use of her, and he made an impressive offer to purchase the remainder of her century of the slave-term Abbott had decreed for her.”
“Why not just kill her?” Lauren asked. “Aren’t most untrustworthy vampires killed when you take over a territory?”
Lauren always seemed to hone in on the questions Gavin didn’t want to answer.
“It took two weeks for me to break her. I can usually break a vampire of that age and strength in hours. Based on my time with her, I suggested to my Master that she’d work well in the brothel we had at the time, aimed at other vampires and shapeshifters.”
“She’s gorgeous,” Ambrose said. “With an attitude men like to fuck right out of a woman.”
Well, that put it rather succinctly. Gavin hadn’t intended to explain it to quitethatextent.
“How can she be so close to you without trying to kill you herself?” Lauren asked.
“I’m still much stronger than her. This is her second territory, and she’s over a corner of the state, but with no cities considered even mid-sized. She’s smart enough to know she’s still no match for me, but I wouldn’t put it past her to allow others to use her territory as a staging ground. Northeastern Arkansas has more commerce than you’d expect, because it’s the distribution hub for a number of large corporations, but it’s still mostly just fly-over country — practice territory for new Master Vampires.”
“Why did you choose Branson, Missouri? You could hold a larger territory. I know you could.”
Gavin nodded. This was another question he’d have rather not answered, but he wasn’t going to lie to her. “Three reasons. First, I didn’t want to hold a state right off the bat. I’m strong enough, yes, but there’s more to it than strength. I need to form a formidable coterie, with strong vampires under me I trust to hold the cities within my state. Which brings me to the second reason, which is that it was imperative I have a good relationship with the Master I’d be under — in this case, the Master of Missouri.”
He leaned back and looked at her a few seconds while he found the best way to word his last reason. “I was also looking for a city with a large theater presence, so I could hopefully convince you to move into my city.”
“And Nick?”
“Nick would not have been my choice, but he was already here when I negotiated to take over. Since fate or destiny or chance orwhateverconspired to bring him here, I didn’t fight it.”
