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After much discussion, it turns out he was pissed I went without telling him what we were doing, but I’d pointed out he’d have just followed us down, if he knew what was up. Personally, I think he was upset he hadn’t known there was a problem, but I knew he was never going to admit to that.
Ryan almost always told me where he was headed when he went out of town for a job, but he hadn’t invited me to come help. I wasn’t sure I wanted to, nor would Marco be likely to allow me because it would create a shitstorm of political problems if the vampire power structure found out, but still, I’d have liked to be invited.
Of course, I didn’t invite him to help me punish the naughty vampires and shapeshifters Marco provided for my entertainment, either. A few times a month, I punished a member of the flock who let their grades fall below acceptable standards. This was most often a simple belting or whipping, but a sweet little human female was particularly afraid of needles, and I’d pierced her clit hood three times in a ladder, from bottom to top, healed the holes, and done it again — and told her it would be five holes the following weekend if she made anything less than a ninety on homework, labs, quiz, or test in the interim. I’d also locked a male deer shifter into a cock cage until he brought his grades up, because belting him was counterproductive.
Marco had let Ryan watch me punish a vampire we’d thought had gained enough control to be given his freedom. He’d injured and nearly killed a human, and I’d sucked him down as far as I could without removing Marco’s oaths, given him enough power back he could stay alive for a month in a punishment box, and then calmly secured and locked his limbs to the base of the box before I sealed the lid and plugged it in. When the young vampire came out, he’d be locked in a cell when unsupervised another three years before being given a chance at his freedom again.
Ryan had approved of the punishment, but he’d insisted the vampire who’d signed off on allowing the new vampire his freedom to also be punished. Marco had already done so, privately, and he told Ryan as much, but wouldn’t tell him what had been done to him. I didn’t know, either, but I figured Marco had probably fucked his ass and drank his lust down. Ryan had believed Marco, however, and so far had not killed the other vampire.
Overall, Ryan and I were in a good place personally, but things were sometimes shaky professionally.
I still hadn’t bitten him, and I was determined he needed to bring it up.
I felt as if he was about to, several times, usually while we were having sex, but so far, he had not.
Was he waiting for a particular milestone? I wasn’t sure, and it bugged me, but I didn’t mention it. He was going to have to ask me to do it.
We spent a lot of time together, but were rarely around each other during the day, when I was dead to the world. He occasionally stayed with me when I took my repose at TBC, but he never slept with me at the coterie house.
He’d shown me a few of his in-town residences, but none of them were his home. He had a place near TBC, and another on the side of Lookout Mountain, but it wasn’t practical for me to bed down at either place, so I never did. I handle too much during the day, once I’m awake but before the sun goes down, and it works best for me to be at TBC or the coterie house.
He let me help him build a circle inside his underground home on Lookout Mountain. Utilizing both magical and electronic means, we could be certain anything said inside the circle wasn’t overheard. We came to an agreement that any conversations we had in that circle, stayed in that circle. I didn’t share them with Marco, and he didn’t share them with any Slayer — Ruth or Blade included. Mostly, we told each other personal shit inside the circle, though I knew we’d build up to more, eventually.
Our jobs kept us busy, but we spent several evenings a week together, on average. He took me back to the axe throwing place and we had a blast. He bought us rollerblades and let me get familiar with downtown Chattanooga in a way I don’t think I would’ve any other way. The college district, the tourist areas, the arts districts, and the parts of town sane people don’t go after dark.
And then, finally, Marco arranged to be in town so he could deal with the things I usually oversee, and I had five whole days to travel to Slayertown and finally spend time with Ryan in his home.
Marco insisted we take his plane, flown by his pilot, and I knew this was my old friend making sure I was safe.
Pat and Ruth were waiting for us at the landing strip. We made a quick trip into town for food, and then they drove us away from the ocean, through a winding subdivision, and then down a road with larger yards and larger homes. The farther we went, the larger the homes and the more space between them, until there were no homes, only forest. Finally, we circled partway around a cul-de-sac, and Pat pulled into a driveway. We waited for a tall gate in a substantial wall to open, drove through it, waited until it closed behind us, and then continued on the driveway, which wound through dense woods.
Eventually, we came to the largest home I’d seen yet in Slayertown. Still in the New England style, but huge, and with the garage wrapping around a little, which I assumed gave more square footage to the living space, or perhaps it made the garage bigger.
“I assume that huge wall goes all the way around your property?”
Ryan nodded. “There’s an obfuscation spell, so planes and helicopters only see forest from above. This road isn’t on any map, either. None of the houses you saw once we turned onto the road are on Zillow or anywhere else online. No road, no taxes, no official mail service. My mailing address is an apartment complex a block from the ocean, but our local post office gives it to…” He blew out a breath. “One of my analyst’s assistants deals with my mail. He scans the things I need to see and uploads them to a server we control, and he handles everything else so I don’t have to deal with it at all.”
“This road is how we keep our active Slayers safe while they have some downtime,” Ruth said. “And while you’re here, you’ll be safe as well.”
“The other faction of Slayers can’t get here?” I asked.
“Some know where it is,” Ryan said, “but they won’t make the attempt. In the current climate, doing so would be tantamount to suicide. My parents shared enough of my DNA, the spells might have let them in, but no one else alive does. And, after I killed my parents, the other slayers in their sect won’t dare come to my home.”
“Exactly right,” Ruth said, and she turned to meet my gaze. “Also, the city as a whole has upped our game since you were last here. I can’t talk about what we’ve done, but they won’t cross the county line without us knowing, even if they come in via the beach.”
“Good to know.”
“We’re just going to drop the two of you off,” Ruth said, “and we’ll be on our way. What Ryan might not tell you is that the wall surrounding his estate is a circle, not a square, and it’s an unbroken copper one when the gate is closed. Unless you’re telepathically tuned into someone, whatever the two of you get up to while inside isn’t likely to leak out so the inhabitants of our fair town sense it.”
“I would’ve told her,” Ryan said. “I hadn’t thought to, though, so it’s probably good you did.”
“Of course it is, dear,” Ruth told him, and I thought of the Baba Yaga, for some reason. Not the ogre who eats kids version of her, but the mother-goddess version. It wasn’t that I thought for an instant Ruth was the embodiment of the Baba Yaga — no, my thoughts went more towards what might happen if Ruth and Kirsten teamed up together. Honestly, it was a good thing neither wanted to rule the world. Kirsten did actually rule an entire realm, just not this one, but my thoughts were wondering. It felt good to have that luxury, but I should really wait until Ryan and I were alone to indulge.
We all said our goodbyes, and once Pat and Ruth were out of sight, Ryan pulled up a video feed on his phone and watched them drive through the gate, and didn’t stop watching until it closed firmly behind them.
At first, it seemed he was making sure they left, but upon reflection, I understood he was making sure nothing snuck in while the gate was open.
“Birds can fly in, right?” I asked. “Drones probably can, too. I know you said there’s an obfuscation spell so no one can see the house from above, but if they know the coordinates, they could still parachute in, right?”
