AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded. I’d tried writing it out longhand, tried typing it in an email, tried telling the empty air while I had my phone set to record a video of the ceiling, but I knew it would pick up the audio. The pain protocols had activated before I could even get started, every time.
He sighed and gave the required order. “I command you as your Master to tell me the most important parts of what you know of the so-called skinner ring.”
The dissonance started in my head when he said skinner, and it turned to pain when I opened my mouth to speak. I managed to get out, “Vampire wear skin. Walk sun. Eat…”
Blood poured from my nose, eyes, ears, and mouth, and I sensed the thorny vine wrapped around my brainstem tightening more and more and more. Marco’s energy bathed me and healed me, but not as fast as the protocol could create damage. I leaned forward and grasped his ankle, and suddenly I felt not only Marco’s power, but also that of the tens of thousands of wolves oathed to Cora along with the thousands of vampires oathed to Marco. Wolf, Lust, Fear. The energies swirled inside me, and it was the power of three multiplied.
“They’re making a skin so vampires can walk in the day and eat food,” I said, clear as day, and the complex maze in my head snapped. It hurt like fuck and should’ve killed me, but it didn’t. Even with the huge vortex of power swirling inside me, it was going to take blood and time to heal, but I was alive. The blood flowing from all my cranial orifices slowed a little, but it was hard to take enough of a breath to form speech. “Wolves can be tigers or bears, and…” It could be so much worse, but I had to get enough air in to tell them. I’d already stopped my heart, and I managed to get my blood pressure low enough to slow the blood flow even more. “Imagine a lion shifter, with the focus and strategy of a big cat, wearing a skin that gives him the size and deadliness of a giant honey badger.”
“Anything else?” Marco asked.
“I have no specifics. I picked up on the big details. It was why they didn’t want to sell me to you, but you offered so much money, they found a way to send me away in perceived safety.”
The door opened and Andreas stepped in. Ten seconds later, he was behind me, lifting me to him, and I found myself cradled to him, my face in the fold of his neck, but I didn’t drink until Venom told me, “Drink in the bounty of that which is mine, dear Etta. Fear and blood. Take what you need. I’m about to let my boy know what’s in store for him in a few hours.”
I don’t know what Venom telepathed his lion, but the fear response was immediate, and I drank in Andreas’s fear and blood until I was sated, and even then, I had to order the young lion to put me down.
I stood in front of Ryan, taking in the temperature of his reaction, but he stood and drew me into his arms, apparently uncaring of the fact I was all bloody. “I want to order you to never risk your life again, but I have a feeling this isn’t something you’re in the habit of doing, and I believe you trusted Marco to keep you alive, even though you knew he’d have to hurt you to…” He squeezed me so tightly, I’d have been in trouble if I was human. “Fuck, Etta. I get why it was important, but fuck.”
Andreas walked out of the room, and I knew without asking that Venom had taken his memory of what was said and then sent him away.
I gently pulled myself from Ryan’s arms so I could pull enough oxygen into my lungs to speak. “I’m okay, and now we’re both bloody.”
“Not the first time, probably won’t be the last,” he said with a smile, and then he looked past me to Marco. “I can’t remember ever feeling so much power in a room, and I’ve been around some big workings. You’ve been holding out.”
“No, he hasn’t,” I said, “but I don’t know if it’s my place to explain it.”
“It is not,” Marco said.
“No, it isn’t, but it’s certainly mine,” Cora said, “since I was one-third of that.”
I sensed the instant Ryan understood. “Cora and Marco are bound, and Etta and Marco are bound. It was the power of three, which means the power was cubed, but it’s more than that since it was both life energy and death energy.”
“If you will keep this from the other Slayers, the fact we invoked the power of three in such a way, as well as what Etta told us, I will give you a big thing I will keep from the Concilio,” Marco told Ryan.
“That’s two big things. If the Concilio doesn’t already know, then the fact Ruth, Pat, and Gideon are on the council would be my pick for one of those things.”
“I agree this is two things, but I’m sorry to say the Concilio is already aware of their status.”
“Then I will pick my two big things at a later date, and I’ll let you know now, my request might be for you to give Etta permission not to tell you or the Concilio when I call in my chips.”
“If she can assure me that not knowing won’t put me or our people at risk, I’ll allow it.”
It struck me that Ryan didn’t seem terribly surprised at the news I’d shared about the skins. Had he already known? No. He’d have told the group rather than put me at risk. This was just his wall, where he shows nothing. The ultimate poker face. Also, I hadn’t seen him while I was sharing the information, so he’d had time to erect that wall.
The thing is, every vampire wants to walk in the sun and eat food. We all miss it. It helps that we can see video of things that happen in daylight now, and we can put a flat-screen monitor on the wall to show us the sunrise aboveground from where we are, which lets us pretend it’s a window.
But to actually step outside and see it in person? And even more, to watch the sun rise above the horizon and not be kissed by death? To not be dragged under with the birth of the sun? To feel the rays on our skin?
And oh, if I could taste fresh venison again, and the flavorful sauces of my human life. Wine, honey, and a variety of herbs and vegetables. Modern-day spaghetti sauces are a pale reminder of the splendor of what our cooks created a thousand years ago.
Though, I must admit, modern-day breads seem to be an improvement upon what was available when I was a human. I’ve tasted them and spit them out, in the hopes I could get some enjoyment without making myself sick, but my taste buds no longer appreciate food that hasn’t been digested and moved into the bloodstream of a human.
But with one of the skins? I could eat food again.
“Okay,” Venom said. “So there’s a legit, non-evil reason for the skins, but why are they going after the homeless? Why not skin those intended for the auction block?”
“And why are they only using human skins?” Cora asked. “If you used a shapeshifter’s skin, you could pay them a handsome sum for the pain of skinning them, and they could change and heal afterward. Not that I’d do it for any amount of money, but there are plenty who’d absolutely sign away their skin for a substantial payout.”
