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I could scent Collosa’s feelings on the matter, but he kept his mouth shut. I looked to Eunice, and he gave a small, one-shouldered shrug. “We need you to stay in power. You’re Kelsey’s master, and we’re responsible for seeing to her safety. If letting them take a few days to die will help cement your power, so be it.”
I looked to Collosa, who said, “You’re going to do whatever you think best. I’m just the hired help.”
“The decision is mine, but I want input from everyone on the team. Venom and Etta are my second and third for a reason, and Eunice has let me know his feelings. Yours is the only opinion I’m not fully aware of.”
“Did they agree with the plan, or were they conscripted to it? Legally, it doesn’t matter because they were part of the plot, but morally? Maybe they didn’t think it was a good idea, but their opinion didn’t matter?” He shrugged. “Either way, I’m not comfortable with it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t the right course of action.”
He looked to Eunice and back to me. “Also, as my cohort pointed out, the best choice is the one that cements you as Master, and that’s supposed to be for political reasons, and it is, but mostly? You have to know how much we love Kelsey, so whatever has the best odds of keeping her safe, we have to at least consider. Whatever you decide, I’ll back your play. We’re here to keep you and your people safe, to stop whatever plots against you may have been in the works, and to help you cement your power base.”
We spent three more hours torturing the vampires and decimating the shapeshifters, and then we moved everyone out to the common room, so every vampire in the coterie could see what was left of the vampires — naked and weak with whip marks, cane lines, burns, and other remnants of torture showing stark on pale skin. They each fearfully, pathetically crawled into the boxes because I had their willpower on unseen marionette strings, and they went where I wanted them to.
The boxes are steel and titanium, with titanium clasps that go over the throat, wrists, and ankles to keep the penitent from moving. Straps also hold the upper arms, ribcage, and hips in place. Once inside, there would be complete darkness, an inability to roll over or even scratch an itch, and no food or water. Not only that, they’d be cut off from any outside power or magic. Whatever flame inside them kept them alive was all they’d have. If it went out, they’d never rise again. We’d weakened all of them to the point, there were no guarantees any of them would last the year, and everyone present understood the ordeal these vampires faced — a year and a day in a box, and then decades of slavery if they survived. Most would likely serve the entire ninety-nine years, but there was a possibility of early release if they could find a way to prove themselves to me. I didn’t foresee any of these vampires doing so, however.
When the Concilio takes someone on, the term is almost always for one hundred years, though there are exceptions that can make it longer. Because of the way Cecily and her people had turned on me, planning my death, I could keep them three times longer if I chose, and at the end of that time, I could kill them rather than releasing them if I could show they still intended my death at the first chance they got. But I’d get to explain my options and intentions later. For now, we were giving an in-your-face demonstration of why it’s a bad idea to make an enemy of me.
The shapeshifters were also nude and looked worse than horrible. One was burnt all over because Etta had deemed it was the best way to torture him. She hadn’t just burned his dick and balls, she’d fucking cooked them all the way through. His nipples were gone, deep holes burned into the spots they used to be. She’d held his hands on a red-hot stovetop burner for a slow count of twelve, and they had the spiral pattern burned and charred into them. The other shapeshifter had been whipped and pummeled until he was more bruised than not, and most of the skin had been torn from his back and ass. I double-checked the block I’d put into their heads, taking away their ability to change, and then I turned my back on them and focused on the vampires, who didn’t look much better. Once all seven were in their respective boxes and locked in, I walked down the row and hooked each up to the battery affixed to the top. Once at the coterie house, they’d be plugged into a battery bank so even if the power went out, their boxes would continue to keep them blocked from my power.
And because I was feeling especially cruel, I ordered the two shapeshifters to close, lock, and then engage the power the boxes their Masters had crawled into. They struggled to do so, and the second the boxes were turned on, the shapeshifters fell to the floor in agony at the total loss of connection.
“Do you see any pity on my face?” I asked our audience of vampires and shapeshifters, with a few humans in the mix. “They meant to kill me. I’m giving the vampires a chance to live, but they will be punished, and losing their blood-oathed-servants is part of it. If you want to protect your people, don’t plot my demise.”
I’d have called them shapeshifter companions if Cora had been here, but for this audience, it was safe to call them what they’d originally been — servants, created to be a vampire’s daytime eyes and years, to do the vampire’s bidding. If Cora allowed me to bind her to me someday, she’d be my companion and not my servant, but that didn’t change the fact I’d use the old servant protocols to make sure she lived until I died. Or until I was put into a box.
We sent the truck with the boxes of vampires off. It was being driven by shapeshifters on my security team, and they were to drive straight through. It’s a seven or eight hour drive, so we’d beat them back in the ’copter, but that was fine.
The new Master Vampire I’d be installing had followed the truck with the boxes into town, but he’d waited until we were ready for him and his top three before actually arriving. I introduced him and his people to the coterie — vampires, companions, security, and flock. We handled the oaths for the top people, and then I watched the new Master oath a third of the coterie before it was time for us to leave, if we were going to make it home before sunrise.
“I leave you all in good hands,” I told the assembled group. “As I said, the boxes will be opened in one year and one day. If they’re alive when we open the box, and if they’ve retained their sanity, they’ll be slaves for ninety-nine years unless they can do something to prove to me they deserve my trust. At the end of their term, if they haven’t proven their worth and their fidelity, I’ll either kill them or see if another Master is interested in taking them on. If one is, we’ll negotiate. If not, I’ll put them on the auction block as a slave for the remainder of the three centuries I can own them. Everything they owned is now mine.” I looked to the side, at the two shapeshifters we’d tortured. Both were lying at the edge of the stage, their breathing strained and shallow, their heartbeats too fast. “I’ve chosen not to accept the shifters who were blood bound, so they will fade and die over the next couple of days, though one might last as long as a week. Whether one of you kills them quickly and puts them out of their misery, or whether you all watch them die a slow death, I care not.
“The former Secundo will have an opportunity to work in my coterie when he comes out of the box. He was not part of the plot, but he secretly knew of it and didn’t report it. A bad decision, certainly, made worse because he was trying to find a way to profit from the information. If he’s alive and sane when he comes out of the box, he’ll begin at the bottom, with the lowliest of jobs, and won’t be in management at one of my businesses or territories again for at least a dozen decades.”
Etta stepped up and told the group, “Marco is capable of mercy. Me? Not so much. If you know of a plot to overthrow someone in the hierarchy over you, then the situation immediately becomes one where you’re either for us or against us. If you don’t tell us, that means you’re against us. If you aren’t comfortable telling Marco directly, you can speak to me, Venom, or Marco’s assistant, Patience.”
* * * *
Cora
Marco had called me while their bodyguards were napping, before their prisoners had risen, and he’d asked if I could please come to the coterie house to help oversee the installation of the punishment boxes into the dungeon, since they’d arrive after he was down for the day. He’d also hoped I could be there when he arrived, so we could see each other before the dawn took him.
I opted to wait outside, rather than inside, and I could hear the helicopter from miles away. I could feel Marco, though, and I’d known they were close even before I could hear the rotors.
The helicopter put them down on the golf course about a hundred yards from the mansion, and the group walked to us. I exchanged pleasantries with Eunice and Collosa, watched them drive away, and then turned to the three vampires.
“Any issues? Fuck, ya’ll are powered up.”
“I expect at least half the vampires will be dead when we open the boxes,” Marco told me.
“I don’t trust Cecily to walk free ever again,” Etta said. “I drained her as much as I could so I can honestly say she has a chance to survive, but I don’t expect she will. She might — it’s possible her anger will give her fuel to live, but it’s also possible it’ll burn her the rest of the way out.”
“Wolves just fight it out and kill each other, but I understand why you do the boxes.” I looked at Etta and back to Marco. “I agree she shouldn’t live, though.”
He shrugged. “She’ll respect me, if she survives.”
“We made a statement,” Venom said. “Etta worked one of the shifters over, and I don’t think any who saw the results of her work, or any who hear the description, will dare do something to offend her for many years to come.”
I met Marco’s gaze, and his face was an emotionless wall as he told me, “It was bad, but it should be damned effective.” He looked to his companions and then back to me with a smile. “I’m blessed to have these two as my second and third.”
I met Etta’s gaze. “Whatever it takes so ya’ll come home and stay safe. No judgment from me. Our world is brutal because it has to be. Thank you for doing what had to be done.”
