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“Caligula used you to increase fear?”
I just looked at him. Marco knew the answer.
“I was actually thinking we should invite Cecily and then double-team her. Me eating lust, you eating fear. Abbott built a nice dungeon for us to play in.”
I grinned. Marco didn’t get to be Master Vampire of so many by playing nice with potential enemies. “Let me know when, Master.”
“We’re alone, Etta.”
“And you are the Master. Don’t expect me not to acknowledge it after that kind of statement. I value your friendship, but I also value the safety and autonomy you’re offering me. I’ll do just about anything to help you stay in power, and you know it.”
“I do. Never have I had a Secundo I trusted more.”
He opened his arms, and I went into them. We’re friends now. Nothing sexual. And yet, his power is all about lust, so it’s impossible not to feel it a little when he holds you.
“We’ll get you some people to keep in cages soon. Everyone’s on their best behavior right now, but it won’t last.”
“I’m good. Venom has offered to share Andreas with me again tomorrow when we rise.”
“The local bikers have a rattlesnake in their ranks, but Kendra’s notes warn us against trying to force them to send their people to be food. She says they allow their working girls to feed us if we pay for their time, and bargains can be made, but only when the whore consents.”
I shook my head. “I use snakes to scare people, Marco. They aren’t my animal. It’s just a rumor.” And Abbott hadn’t required tribute from anyone, which made it hard for Marco to do so. He was going to require it of the prey animals we were protecting, the deer enclaves, for sure, but probably not anyone else.
“I could order you to tell me which animal is yours.”
“Or you could ask. The truth is, I’m no closer to one than another. I get different things from birds than I do mammals, for instance, and something else from reptiles. I do better with a varied diet than I do from focusing on a single species.”
We’d been so young when we’d bonded to each other, and I marveled that I still felt so close to him. Others I’d known before and after him were like strangers to me now.
“I have an appointment with the Ringgold Alpha in an hour,” I told him. “I should change clothes and get to TBC.”
“Since you haven’t bothered to learn how to drive, I’ve assigned you an eagle to be both guard and driver, beginning Wednesday, after you seduce Evan. A young vampire will drive you until then.”
I started to ask for the eagle’s file, but Marco answered before I asked. “Patience will get you his file when she sends Evan’s.”
Chapter 9
Etta
It’d been weeks since I’d gone to the various hospitals in and around New York to revive the comatose kids Leesa had come so close to killing. I’d gone in wearing the garb and fake ID tag of a registered nurse, and had mindfucked everyone who looked my way, so they thought they recognized me. I’d altered my vibrations so the cameras saw me but couldn’t focus, and had thought that would be enough.
It had been, while I was there.
However, after we left New York, it seems a detective decided to go in and look at the camera feeds of the hallways outside the various kids who’d awakened, because he thought it a huge coincidence they all either awakened on the same night, or died — because I hadn’t been able to save one of them, so I’d gone ahead and ended his life, since he was just going to keep fading away until he was gone.
Unfortunately for me, it was the Concilio who was notified of the rumors that an angel had visited the kids and brought them back, because what else were the humans to think of the human-shaped female wearing blue, blurred so it appeared you were seeing her aura like a great big halo of light around her.
Fortunately for me, Apollonius handled it, rather than one of those I was forced to oath to after Griffin was killed.
Fifteen minutes before Patrick, the Alpha of the Ringgold Pack, was due in my office, the old god appeared standing before my desk, telling me of all the trouble I’d caused.
But I was in no mood for it, so I told him, “Talk to the slayer. I was working with him, trying to right some horrible wrongs.” This wasn’t me throwing Ryan under the bus, because the Concilio has no authority over slayers.
However, I nearly came out of my skin when Ryan spoke up, sitting in my visitor chair as if he’d been there all along. “She was working under my authority. Any blowback should be addressed to the Slayer’s Council.”
Apollonius turned to Ryan with a sigh. “I’ve dealt with it. Seven people were aware, and they’ve all forgotten what they saw. Your people got rid of the video feed but not the backup of it. I’ll talk to Ruth about further educating whatever hacker was assigned the task.”
Apollonius disappeared, and Ryan just sat in my visitor chair, looking at me, but didn’t say anything.
