“Unless someone asks for pain, since he doesn’t usually hurt people beyond his venom,” Rhea said, plating the last of her fish. “He’s just cold. Efficient. Not interested in talking to his food.”
Emmy gave a humorless smile. “Yeah. I noticed. How often do we end up on Zander’s rotation?”
Rhea sat at the island with her fish and what looked like a glass of wine. “He only takes the masochists on his rotation. If you end up assigned to him, it’s because you asked for it. Mostly, if you haven’t asked for pain, you don’t get it. A few might hurt you when they’re in a mood, but mostly, Spence and Fawn do a good job of assigning the right flock members to the right vampires.”
“Noted.” She stirred the mushrooms, checked her steaks, and decided everything was done enough. She put the four steaks on a huge plate and topped them with the buttery mushrooms.
She preferred to hand pain out rather than experience it. She didn’t mind some kinds of pain — she was a big fan of rough anal sex.
But no way in hell was she going to agree to be hurt by vampires. Sure, the salary was a lot more, but no.
So why did the thoughts of Zander with a flogger seem not-so-bad?
She shook her head. “Does Spence handle the intake stuff for everyone?”
“Zander did mine,” Rhea said.
“Kendra handled mine,” Toby said. “She supervises Eric feeding from me when he needs a calming meal. He’s prettydecent for a new vampire, but no way am I agreeing to feed the new ones in the cages.”
“I wasn’t given that option. What’s the deal with feeding them?”
“Dragon blood is probably too strong for them,” Rhea said. “Mostly, they’re given prey blood that’s been donated ahead of time. Once they start gaining control, they sometimes get predator blood as like, some kind of reward.”
“Yeah. I drain blood into a glass just outside their cells,” Toby said, “and then someone hands the glass to them. Eric is pretty controlled, but it’s still scary, knowing he sometimes isn’t.”
“I knew Zander when he was still Abbott,” she said. “Major stick up his ass. Always in suits. I adored him as a child, but I hear he’s different now.”
Rhea shrugged. “I didn’t know him then, so I can’t speak to how he’s changed, but he mostly wears trendy outdoors stuff. He’s a stickler for the rules, but when everything’s going as it should, he’s pretty chill.”
“He’s kind of like a chameleon at Mordnik,” Toby said. “One night he’s a Roman aristocrat, another night a Viking, and then the Mad Hatter the next week. You get the character and not him.”
Emmy sat back and stared at him. “I think I need more explanation.”
Chapter 3
“Oh, there are these theme nights,” Rhea said. “Daywalkers and vampire staff on stage acting out some play or opera, or faerie tale, with flock and guest vampires set up in the audience to follow along, and they’re dressed in the same kind of clothes. There’s a themed feeding frenzy every night, and then every other week there’s a themed ball, and those are the ones where he’s like, the reigning whatever. The whole three months are about excess for the super-rich and super-powerful vampires.”
“You get coded,” Toby said. “There are three levels, and most every level three gets accepted, and a lot of level twos. Threes have no limits, twos have a limited number of things that can be used on them. Neither have safewords. Level ones are only a feed-and-fuck, and there aren’t a lot of them let in most years.”
“Everyone has to take part in the daily feeding frenzies. No days off, so a lot of us have tochangepretty often to keep our stamina up,” Rhea said. “Rumor has it you’re on the schedule every day for the next two weeks.”
Emmy shrugged. “I’m strong enough to handle daily feedings without needing tochange. I may switch that to every other day after classes start. I’ll have to see how things go.”
She made a whole lot more money feeding daily,andit gave her daily sex. If she got tired of it, she’d back off, but only after she had a decent cushion in her bank account.
“There are temporary tattoos that show your level,” Rhea said. “Collars aren’t practical because your neck has to be available, and armbands don’t always show under costumes.”
“I’m allowed to be level one for the feeding frenzies,” Toby said, “but I have to be level three for the balls. Zander makes it so I can’t remember what happens at them, though — at my request.”
“I asked him to make me forget something once,” Rhea said. “An event here where I offered myself at a higher level and then regretted it. At Mordnik, if your hair can be pulled out of the way, the mark goes on your forehead so you can’t cry it off. If you have bangs that can’t be easily moved out of the way, it goes on your cheek. I have these wispy bangs, but I cut them off so the mark can go on my forehead. I mean, Ichangeonce or twice a week up there, may as well simplify things so it can go on my forehead.”
Emmy shook her head, unsure of what to think of this new information. Had he had crazynights like that as Abbott? It was highly possible. No way would her parents have let her or her siblings know about that kind of thing. They were pretty good at snooping and finding out secrets, though, and nothing like that had ever hit their radar.
Toby chuckled. “On a lighter note, Zander pulled strings and we’ll have a private showing of the latest superhero flick tonight. There’s a theater in the underground, and the movie starts at nine. Lots of salty popcorn with real butter.”
“Yes,” Rhea said. “I’ll come get you and walk you down with us. You’re sharing a bathroom with Felix.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s … unusual. Hares don’t join flocks, right? He reeks of fear, and I guess that’s part of what the vampires enjoy about him, but he’ll fight back if you corner him, so don’t mistake him for a rabbit. He’s smart, speaks several languages — don’t underestimate him.”
Rabbits stay mostly in Faerie, but she didn’t actually know anything about hares. She’d never met one, as far as she could remember. The scent in the bathroom made sense now, and she made a mental note to research hares.
