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I’d need to research the movies in theaters now, to see which was most likely to bring out the kind of visceral fear I was looking for. I needed a topic that hit home with the viewers. A movie about a child being kidnapped scared parents more than a movie about a slasher in a hockey mask scared teens.
The amusement park would be a nice treat once it reopened. Sometimes, it’s fun to eat someone’s fear so they no longer have it. Their friends are counting on playing to their fears and coercing them into riding the big scary roller-coaster, and then wonder at the fact their friend doesn’t seem scared.
Most often, however, it’s fun to make the human even more afraid, until they’re frozen in line, unable to get onto the ride, their terror rolling off them in waves that I can drink in until my eyes glow with power.
Still, both options were artificial fear. I could feed from this kind of fear, but nothing would power me up like true fear.
Chapter 7
Ryan
Marco had spoken to Etta with telepathy, and she’d mostly liked what she heard, but not completely. Or that was my assumption — my powers told me Marco had used telepathy, but I couldn’t follow the connection. I assumed it was Etta because of her reaction.
I should have sensed Etta answering Marco, but I did not. Did this mean she could block me from sensing her? She was supposedly only a few decades older than Marco, so it was unlikely, but not impossible.
Etta was strong enough to be Master, but she’d have to rule by fear if she chose to take power. That worked in Europe, but I wasn’t certain she’d pull it off over here. Americans don’t deal well with the idea of a feudal system, and that included the younger vampires originally born here. Marco was stronger than Etta only because he could pull on the power of every vampire who’d blood oathed to him, or who’d blood oathed to those under him.
He was moving from a territory of fifty-five million humans to a territory of forty million humans, but the number of Strigorii vampires were about the same.
Four Masters would be taking over the territories he’d held up north – there would be a Master of New York State, a Master of New Jersey, a Master of Pennsylvania, and a single Master over Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Marco had done well in negotiating his move. Two of the vampires in his coterie who were due to become Masters in their own right had stayed. Neither took over a state, but they held cities.
I worried about him cementing this new powerbase, though. Unless I was wrong, Etta would be running Chattanooga for a while, because Marco would need to travel his new territory and personally blood oath the most powerful vampires in each city. The transfer of power from Kendra to him would be fine for most, but the strongest would have to be reinforced.
If neither Marco nor Etta held territory, I was almost certain Etta would be stronger. But since her powers didn’t lend themselves to political power in this country, Marco was exponentially stronger than her.
I didn’t think she wanted power, though. Logically, she’d have stayed in Europe if she did, but I wasn’t coming at this from logic. My instincts told me she was afraid of having too much power.
The vampire who used fear as a weapon, afraid of power? It seemed crazy, and yet, that was the feeling I got from her.
I sat quietly as the meeting broke up and everyone said their goodbyes.
The door closed, and Marco looked at his second. “Do we have a problem, Etta?”
Power filled the room, and Etta went to her knees and stared at his feet.
“I come from a Master who demanded formality, Marco.”
The power dissipated, and the fear around Etta with it. Had she absorbed her own fear back into herself?
Marco sighed, stood, took three steps to close the distance between them, and opened his arms to her. Etta stood and went into them, and he held her.
“You were my mentor, and now I’m your Master.”
She chuckled. “Better you than me.”
His turn to laugh, but it was sad. “I know, dear Etta.”
“Thank you for finding a name that allowed me to keep the shortened form I’m used to.”
“It’s only possible because you come from Europe, and because your former Masters kept you to the shadows.”
“People fear that which they don’t understand. He made certain my mere presence struck fear into vampires, shifters, and humans.” She glanced at me, and turned her face so I saw the back of her head. “You’re certain you want me to be a public face?”
“I trust your control.”
He sat her back in her chair and took a seat with us, rather than going back behind his desk.
“Ryan, I need you to outline your rules to Etta. I’ve given permission for her to feed fear from movie theaters and the amusement park.”
