Eddie looked at me, in my eyes.There was something in his amber gaze—some yearning, some longing, and a deep hunger he seemed to have trouble keeping in check.He held his stomach and turned away from my gaze.
“Look, I don’t want to talk about this,” he said.“You know why that wouldn’t work.”
“I know what you guys have said.None of you can bite me.It’ll imprint on me—make me one of your Vassals, right?”
“Essentially,” he said.“We’d start getting territorial.There’s no sharing with Vassals.It’s an ecosystem thing, Stacey.We have transmissible proteins that gear and prepare the Vassal’s blood for our particular digestive needs.It can… go really wrong, when Vampires share Vassals.”
“So how do I get the proteins?”
“I bite you.Or Vic bites you.Or Brother Al.Or one of the other vampires on this ship.”
“So what if you don’t bite me,” I asked.“Could you still drink the blood?”
Eddie did not look at me.
“Stacey, you can’t tease me like this.Please.Just leave me alone and let me concentrate.I’ll probably have a little more energy by the time we reach shore.”
“I’m not teasing you,” I said.
“It’s just a bad idea, Stace,” Eddie said.“You’re… you mean too much to me.Can you imagine what it would be like if me or Vic offered to cut off part of our side and sautee it up in a sandwich when you’re hungry?”
“That’s different,” I said.
“It’s not that different,” Eddie said.“Look, there’s a lot of romantic nonsense with vampire lovers about the Embrace, about being a Vassal.The truth is.It’s a barbaric practice.It’s like keeping a sheep or a pig.”
“What about your ex-girlfriend?”I asked.
“I made a mistake,” Eddie said.His face looked pained.“Please.Don’t bring that up.”
“I won’t be a Vassal.I’ll just be offering what I have.It might be our only option,” I said.
Eddie did not look at me but continued clutching his gut and staring at his feet.
“Talk it over with the other two,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
I nodded and left him alone.
“Aleister,”I said.I motioned to a far corner of the room.Brother Al nodded, following, leaving Vic to his muttering and tapping and adjusting.
“You required assistance, Stacey?”he asked.
“Any luck?”
“None.Vic’s on his last legs.I’ve never seen him this… out of sorts.They really took it out of one another.”
“I have an idea,” I said.I bit my lip.“What if… what if we collected some blood.”
He stared at me.
“I’m being serious,” I said.“Do you think that would help?”
A flicker over his face.
“You want to allow Vic or Eddie to… bite you?”
He looked upset.I couldn’t blame him.He and I had been locked up in a cell together, and both had a thing for one another.I wasn’t sure what either of us wanted—I already had two boyfriends—but our relationship was complicated, and this sure didn’t look like it was helping by the looks of things.He looked crestfallen.
“I know that causes issues,” I said.“I don’t want to cause any further issues between anyone.But Vic and Eddie both need to be fighting fit before we hit the shore.If that means we have to cut open one of my veins and share some in a cup with both of them…”
