“I could tell the higher authority to lock you up for life,” I said tauntingly. “I’ll request that you be put in a straitjacket so you won’t hurt yourself. No window. Just four padded walls. How old are you in human years? Nineteen? Twenty? The average life expectancy is pretty long these days. Maybe I’ll come back in forty years and see if you remember anything that might help. Or… you could tell me now.” I moved my hands as if they were weights on a scale. “Forty years… or now. Forty years… or now.”
“As I said, you have to release the bound energy.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He shook his head.
Christian slapped him in the face and then gripped his jaw. “Tell her what you mean, you little shitebag. How does she release the energy? What does she do?”
His eyes glazed over as he fell under Christian’s spell. “Our energy is one, and it’s amplified. Once restored, it will destroy the parasite.”
Christian kept grilling him, but Sparrow replied in riddles. Maybe we weren’t asking the right questions.
I looked to Viktor. “I need to drink his blood.”
Viktor nodded. “Do what you must.”
Upon hearing that, Sparrow jerked back, stretching the rope on his harness. As I entered the cage, Christian got behind Sparrow and held him still.
“Shhh,” Christian whispered, gripping Sparrow’s head and turning it to the side. Darkness spun in his eyes as he watched my fangs punch out. We were like two predators sharing our prey.
I still had a lot to learn about reading blood, but there might be something that he couldn’t articulate. Or wouldn’t. My fangs pierced his taut neck, and he made strange noises as I sucked down his blood. Some of it sprayed into my mouth, but I didn’t need that much, so I quickly licked the bite and sealed it.
I slowly headed toward the door, letting the aftertaste settle on my tongue. Christian had taught me to differentiate blood types. His was easy to learn since O positive was common. But Sparrow’s was something different, something sweeter than the rest even though I didn’t like human blood.
“Are you AB negative?” I asked.
“What?”
I spun on my heel. “Your blood type. I guess an immortal wouldn’t know his own blood type, but I do.”
Christian licked his lips. Before I could say anything, he swiped a drop off Sparrow’s neck and sucked on his finger. I’d never seen that look of hunger before. His fangs punched out, and his grip around Sparrow’s head tightened. “AB negative is a delicacy,” he said, smelling Sparrow’s neck. “Did you know that Vampires often chose that blood type when selecting bloodslaves?” Christian drew in another deep breath like a person smelling a bouquet of roses.
Sparrow fought in vain to free himself, but he was helpless against the Vampire.
“I bet we could keep him in this cage for a long time,” I said, still listening to the whispers in the blood as it began to move through me.
Viktor paced, hands clasped behind his back as he allowed us to do whatever we needed to get information.
“What’s happening?” Gem asked from behind me.
I wasn’t certain who else shuffled in with her, but no one said anything else when Viktor snapped his fingers.
Christian swiped his finger up Sparrow’s neck, capturing more blood. He slowly licked it off his finger as if sampling the finest chocolate or a decadent syrup. “Aye. Human or not, it shouldn’t be hard to keep him alive. Shepherd can put in a feeding tube.” Christian glanced over at Viktor. “I’m having second thoughts about turning him in. I think he’s better off with us. The higher authority doesn’t want to deal with humans anyhow. Seeing Sparrow on the gallows would be grand, but I hate to see a good drink go to waste.”
I let the game play out because one thing I could taste in Sparrow’s blood was fear. And it wasn’t the fear of dying—he feared being powerless. I knew from experience the worst imaginable thing you could be in the Breed world was a slave, unable to escape, your blood or energy forcibly taken day after day until you felt no better than a dairy cow.
Sparrow’s eyes were wide, and he suddenly quit struggling. “I’ll tell you everything you need to know. Give me your word you’ll hand me over to the authorities.”
Christian circled him and leaned against the bars. He tilted his head at Viktor.
“You have our word,” Viktor assured him. “Tell Raven what she needs to remove the curse and we will not keep you here. If you play more games, my Vampires are thirsty. And after today’s bloodbath, I am feeling very generous about my rewards.”
With his hands still bound behind his back, Sparrow straightened up and attempted to shake his mangled hair out of his face. “You need the jewelry from the party. I used my gift to lock their energy inside of it. You’ll have to… break the shell without damaging their energy. I can’t explain it. It’s impossible. Once the bound energy is released, it returns to the owner. It’s enough to kill the parasite.”
“How exactly does it return to them?”
He gave me a look of derision. “They put the items back on. After twenty-four hours, the hourglass on their hand will disappear, and everything will return as it was.”
