“It isn’t like anything’s going to happen to my dad. The odds I’ll one day be Dragon Queen are pretty much zero, and to be honest, I’m pretty relieved about that.”
After they ate, they made their way to the venue, and Emmy was happy to see vendor tables set up. They were still early, so the two strolled past booths selling beadwork, fireweed honey, and small-batch skincare. Emmy bought a copper snake ear wrap from an older gentleman, and some unscented lotion from a sweet and knowledgeable young bear shifter — one who landed more on the teddy-bear end of the spectrum than raging crack-bear, but she had a feeling it would be a bad idea to piss her off.
Chapter 14
When they reached the main field, Emmy scanned for their group and found Rhea and Toby waving from a blanket. She dropped down beside them while Delaney stayed upright and twenty feet away, arms crossed, eyes always scanning.
The opening band played familiar cover songs, and Emmy stretched out on the blanket, enjoying the breeze and the music, but when she saw someone with reindeer chili cheese fries, her nose picked up the scent, and her stomach rumbled. No matter she’d eaten less than an hour before.
“Anyone want to split one of those huge buckets of fries with the reindeer chili and cheese on them? Also, I can’t decide between hot chocolate or one of the craft beers.”
Lana had arrived, and she said, “I want halibut tacos and beer, but I’ll walk to food row with you.”
Her phone dinged, and she looked at it to see a text from Felix. “I’m getting a falafel wrap and a smoothie. You want something?”
Something dinged in her head at the falafel, and she responded, “Did you check the coterie app? Are these vendors listed?”
The app listed around eighty restaurants, and what the flock could eat on their menus. Other shifters couldchangeif they ate garlic, or too much onion, but Emmy had to get someone to take her to the Atrium tochange, so it wasn’t as easy for her — and if a vampire complained about there being a taste of garlic or onions in their blood, they paid a fine to the vampire of one week of their pay, plus they had to hold a soapy enema for an hour while having their mouth washed out with soap for ten minutes, and they weren’t allowed to rinse until after they’d evacuated the enema.
Thirty seconds later he responded, “Crap. Thanks for reminding me. Looks like I have to decide between eating what I want and then changing on the way home, or getting a salad with tofu, hold the onions.”
She texted back to tell him what she was headed up to get, and that the app said she could eat half the bucket, so she was looking for someone to split it with.
In the end, their group ended up with various fish tacos, a Korean BBQ bowl, a few salads with various tofu flavors, reindeer sausage on buns, a huge smoked turkey leg, and Emmy’s fries with cheese and reindeer chili.
And while Emmy had a wonderful craft beer with her meal, she went back later to get hot chocolate along with a salted caramel brownie.
And all the while, Delaney stood nearby, watching the crowd around them.
Felix and Rhea rode back with her, Delaney driving, and their phones all chirped about ten minutes before arriving home.
Both she and Felix groaned when they looked, which meant the assignments had all gone out at the same time.
Felix’s vampire had a huge, Pringles-can sized cock, so she understood the groan. Rhea was in good shape, her vampire was even younger than Alistair, but he was nice while he fucked you and fed from you.
And Emmy had Alistair, who wasn’t the worst, but he sure as fuck wanted to be the most important.
He was young, around two hundred and fifty years old, based on gossip, and since he was in the bottom third of the vampire hierarchy, he tried to make himself feel all-powerful to the flock members assigned to him.
But he couldn’t keep her longer than an hour, and she’d orgasm at the end, even if the first part was annoying as fuck.
She reported to a feeding room with a simple bondage table rather than a feeding station, and Alistair stood waiting, his clothing crisp and his posture arrogant as hell. He didn’t speak when she entered, just tilted his head and waited.
Emmy undressed, slowly and gracefully. Her skin prickled in the chill of the underground chamber when the hoodie came off, the cool air nothing compared to the colder gaze watching her every move. T-shirt, boots, pants. She folded them neatly and placed them on the low bench, lubed her asshole, then dropped to her knees on the stone floor before he had a chance to order her to. She spread her knees wide, lowered her head, and folded her hands behind her back.
Naked and still, her nipples tight, cunt already warming under his attention, she said what he always demanded she tell him to start the session. “This humble daywalker offers her blood to consume and body to use however the superior nightwalker wishes, within the bounds of the sacred covenant.”
It was stupid, basically saying she acknowledged his power over her within the boundaries of the damned contract, but he was in his right to require obeisance and submission from her, so she kneeled and said what he required.
“Why are you looking at the floor?”
She resisted the urge to sigh, and looked up so her gaze landed where his cock would be under his pants.
“You are given the privilege of undressing me.”
She rose to her feet gracefully — because if she merely stood, he’d make her kneel and do it again — and when he held out his arms, she undressed him with slow reverence, as if he was some ancient king, or a god returning from battle. She hung his clothes with care, folded each itemsymmetrically, draped his belt just so, because if she didn’t, he’d make her do it again and again until the job was to his specification.
Once, she’d screwed it up over and over in an attempt to use up his entire hour, but he’d stopped her with ten minutes left and still fed and fucked her — and he’d given the venom that didn’t allow her to orgasm. She’d been crazy with lust for nearly two hours after, so she figured that wasn’t worth the small bit of enjoyment she got from it.
