Liam stalked away.
“That was mean,” Joseph remarked from the doorway.
“I don’t care,” I snapped.
Daniel stepped into my way when I would have walked past, his hazel eyes holding mine, calm in their depths.
“For my first feeding, my sire bade me drain my ten-year-old sister. It was punishment for leading a raid on her lands,” Daniel said without preamble.
I blinked at him, horrified and lost for words.
“She then slaughtered the rest of my family and had me lick the blood from her body,” he continued.
A dull horror moved through me at the picture he painted.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, my voice hushed.
“Your first feeding could have been worse,” he stated plainly.
He was right, the words shaking me out of the pity partyI’d been falling into. Things could have been much worse.
What Thomas had done wasn’t right. Subsuming my will in favor of his—forcing me to commit an act that I was by no means ready for, was wrong on so many levels—but the world wasn’t over. I was still me. I still had control. I wasn’t a ravening monster roaming the streets.
“I’m sorry for what was done to you,” I said in a quiet voice. I meant it, too. Daniel might not like me, nor I him, but no person should have to go through that. It spoke of an almost unfathomable level of cruelty.
“It happened a long time ago,” he said.
“That doesn’t make it any less painful,” I said.
He tilted his head slightly and gave a small nod.“You are right in that.”
“If you two are done communing over your crappy histories, maybe I can show you something, Aileen,” Joseph said caustically.
Daniel didn’t react, obviously used to the other man’s abrupt manner.
Joseph didn’t wait for my response, going back into his office. I trailed after him as he headed for his desk. He flipped his laptop open and hit a few keys, bringing up a video.
“Watch this,” he said, before stepping back.
I moved closer as the video started. The content gave me pause. There was a man in a cage, his back to the camera. I glanced at Joseph, wondering what he hopedI’d get out of this. So far, I just had serious concerns about whether he’d gone mad scientist on us and kidnapped some poor sap off the street to conduct experiments on.
The man threw himself at the bars of his cage, snarling like a wild animal, appearing out of his mind with rage.
The camera caught a glimpse of his face. Flesh fell off it in ribbons, like he’d raked his fingernails down it, exposing the tendons and muscles underneath the surface. The whites of his eyes had morphed to red and the iris was a coppery color, probably from burst blood vessels.
His expression was bestial, his eyes empty and glazed, no sign of sanity present. He opened his mouth and roared. This was a vampire, his fangs oversized as he bit at the air.
“What is this?” I asked, slightly horrified.
Joseph stuck one hand in his pocket and leaned a hip against the desk next to me, his tiger eyes watching me with a sick fascination. Neither Daniel or I could turn from the screen and the enraged vampire on it, too consumed with the horror of it.
“Devolution isn’t a pretty process. Your body begins to rot as the toxicity of your blood climbs. It starts in your extremities as your body falls apart around you. The last to go is the brain. Once the devolution reaches the brain, there is no saving you,” he said, his voice that of a teacher lecturing a student who wasn’t particularly bright.
He cocked his head, a sardonic expression on his face.“Just thought you should see what you were up against before you judged Thomas or Liam too harshly.”
I forced myself not to react, not to shoot straight to denial. It was different hearing what you could become and then seeing it. One was theoretical, real but in a very removed sort of way. Seeing the facts for myself, watching a vampire throw himself mindlessly against silver bars with no care for the pain he might be experiencing was different.
“Is this common knowledge?” I asked.
