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He narrowed his eyes at me, but only said, “Coffee is of the earth, so it isn’t the worst thing you can consume, but I’m not certain the sugar and milk fall into the same category.”
“And if I told you I think it’s the sugar and milk I want, and the coffee is the delivery system for them? I’d be more than happy to drink a half-gallon of sweetened milk right now, but I agree that doing so probably isn’t wise at this time.”
“I’ll put my blood in,” Cora said. “Maybe if you smell like me, my wolf will be appeased a little.”
“Thank you.”
She shook her head. “I think you need to refuse to put the damned thing on next time, even if it means a conflict. He isn’t going to kill you for refusing.”
“He might, but I believe you’re right about seeing how far I can go with a refusal.”
Chapter 13
Marco
I checked in on Etta when she didn’t come out of the bathroom, and discovered she was giving herself a series of enemas.
While I understood why she’d made the choice, and could see multiple reasons for doing so, I quickly decided against it. Nothing has been in my ass in centuries, and while I knew I was going to have some discomfort when I had to shit out what I’d eaten, there was no way I was injecting water in to make it happen sooner.
The following day, when I finally got rid of my gluttonous meal, I figured Etta had made the wiser decision, but it was too late to change my mind at that point.
However, long term, Etta went back to the way she’d been before, while I craved human foods that were liquid — coffee, tea, milk, fruit juices, and even chicken broth and beef broth. Nothing with any substance, but liquids quenched a hunger outside of my normal vampire hungers.
Because of this, Etta and I decided to tell Nathan and Mordecai the entire story, though we asked them to only tell people outside of our group that there were at least three working prototypes, and that the most powerful Concilio vampires were forcing less powerful vampires to put them on and spend four to eight hours wearing them, and that this included watching the sun rise and staying awake for a day.
Etta was convinced she was different, that the experience had somehow altered her, but I couldn’t sense it. Cora and Ryan both confirmed that she was still a tiny bit different a week later.
I was a lot different, however, and I didn’t think the change was for the better. It was harder to fly, and it took more concentration to vibrate at a frequency cameras couldn’t see.
But hours after we’d removed the skin, we didn’t know any of this yet, and I needed to go out and about and be seen around the palace. Etta called the concierge to request a leopard shifter be sent to us, and she found his greatest fear and managed to get an excellent feed. While she fucked him and fed from him, I downed a whole lot of lust energy.
Later, I drank from Cora, and Ranger put blood in a glass for Venom.
And then the six of us headed out to socialize.
* * * *
Cora
I put Marco in the center, with Etta and Venom to his left and right, since they were officially here as a threesome. I situated Furio and Ranger to their right and left, and I took the center behind them. Marco would’ve preferred Furio take that spot, but I was in charge of security and he knew better than to override me around others.
Vampires can be especially cruel when they play together as a group, and prisoners from the dungeon had been brought to one of the atriums and strung up all around the huge space. Some dangled from the ceiling like artwork, some were bent over bars so all their holes were available, others hung by their wrists, a few swung by their widespread ankles, and dozens were bound to the walls in the permanently affixed shackles.
Our three vampires played with at least a half-dozen of the bound prisoners, and by the time we returned to our suite shortly before dawn, Etta and Marco both seemed closer to normal. Etta had fed from all of the terror and pain and fear of the prisoners and others the vampires had played with, while Marco had drank in everyone’s lust.
They still weren’t right, but they weren’t as wrong.
Lazlo played with them a while, but Alaric avoided them. It made sense that Lazlo was in on it, since we knew he and Alaric had been present when Lauren had been taken. I still wasn’t sure what was up with that abduction — had it been about taking in shapeshifter slaves, or about obtaining the humans with them? Or possibly both. Xaephan had made them abandon their haul, though. Or, at least the ones not already spoken for.
But we’d learned everything from Xaephan we were going to learn without entering another bargain, and I wasn’t going to start making deals with demons. Kirsten had made a few and had managed to survive the experience, but barely, and only because she had Mordecai watching her back so closely. He’d help me if he realized I was in trouble, but I wasn’t sure he’d stay on top of the situation with me in the same ways he had Kirsten.
Chapter 14
Marco
The following day, I requested an audience with Bain, just the two of us, and he invited me into his private quarters.
Cora didn’t want me wandering the Concilio palace without a guard, but she was officially my food, so there was no way I could take her with me. Venom walked me most of the way, but it wouldn’t have been politic to show up at Bain’s door with him, so he merely stayed close in case I needed assistance.
