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“I’ve got it covered,” she said.
“Stop talking to them,” Deimos yelled.
“She’s supposed to be my Bride and one of our bodyguards. The fact that she betrayed us to you and helped make all this shit happen is important to me.”
He seemed to think about that for a second, then said, “That I understand, but could you refrain from using vulgar language?”
“Who are you, my dad?
“Are you trying to anger me, Anita?”
“You kidnapped me, didn’t you think that would upset me?”
“You will be the wife of a god, why would that upset you?”
I stared at him and realized he meant it. I looked at Rodina and Rodrigo as the saner options in the room. Rodrigo dabbed at the blood on his mouth with the back of his hand. Rodina said, “Perhaps, my lord, you can tell Anita how you can free her of theardeurand replace it with so many better things.”
“Ah, yes, I can show you a new way to feed, Anita. One that does not whore you out for power.”
“That’s the second time you’ve used the word ‘whore’ in reference to me or Jean-Claude. Whores take money for sex, we don’t.”
“Jean-Claude is a whore for power, he always has been.”
“You talk like you know him, but I know he doesn’t know you.”
“Um, that may be my fault,” Rodrigo said.
“Brother, what did you do?”
“He told me the truth: that your master is an incubus and he has shared his curse with you, turning you into a succubus, but I have cured you of the taint of it. As my wife, I will show you more honorable food to feast upon.”
I really wanted to argue with him, but technically everything he said was true, except for the whole being-his-wife thing. That was so not happening. I still wasn’t afraid, or as afraid as I should have been. “There’s nothing dishonorable about sex,” I said.
“You already feed on anger, Anita, and that is your talent, not the false king’s.”
I frowned at Rodina. “Tattletale.”
She shrugged. “I told you I wanted a ruler that would let me be evil, and you were never going to be that for me. He’s already let me out of the moral cage you had me trapped in, Anita.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Our new king feeds on fear and pain,” she said.
“He let you torture someone,” I said.
She just smiled.
What I wanted to say wasI should have killed you, but that seemed impolitic when I was still chained up with no vampire marks to help me contact anyone for help. “So, Deimos, you’re a night hag feeding on fear.”
“No, they feed only on fear. I feed on rage as you do, and sorrow. Oh, the feast when a village is burning around the people running and screaming. Holding their children so tight. Their despair perfuming the air. The pain as they burn alive. It is all food for us.”
“Are you saying that you burn entire towns down just so you can feed on the pain and sorrow of the people that live there?” I asked.
“I did, but Rodrigo convinced me that to take over Jean-Claude’s lands would require a softer hand upon the throne.”
“Good for Rodrigo,” I said; the sarcasm was lost on Deimos.
“I will teach you how to feed as I do, Anita.”
