Her friends were taking care of her, though - unless, of course, they intended to take a cut of the increase. After all, good whores, like good soldiers, tended to look out for themselves.
Abruptly, Zypher stepped into the woman who was doing the talking, clearly prepared to use his physical assets to conserve financial ones. As the vampire trailed a fingertip along the girl's collarbone, she appeared to fall into a trance.
It was not mind games on Zypher's part. Females of both races couldn't help themselves around him.
The vampire dipped toward her ear and spoke softly. Then he licked up her throat. Behind him, Throe was as he always was, silent, watchful, patient. Waiting his turn.
Ever the gentlemale.
"Okay," the woman said breathlessly. "Just fifty more - "
At that moment, the door opened wide.
Xcor and his soldiers put hands into their coats, finding their weapons, prepared to kill. But it was just the prostitute who was late.
"Hey, girl, heeeeeeeeeey," she said to her friends.
Standing in the doorway with a floppy jacket pulled over her whore clothes, and the bad sense of balance of a drunk, she was obviously on something, her face suffused with the blissed-out expression of the newly drugged.
Good. She'd be easier to deal with.
Zypher clapped his hands. "Shall we get down to business. "
A giggle came from the one next to him. "I love your accent. "
"Then you can have me. "
"Wait, me, too!" A giggle from someone else. "I love it, too!"
"You're going to take care of my fellow soldier - my friend. Who is going to pay you all now. "
Throe stepped forward with the cash, and as he doled it out into waiting palms, the whores seemed more focused on the two males as opposed to the money.
A professional role reversal that Xcor was willing to bet didn't happen very often.
And then the pairing off occurred, with Throe and Zypher drawing their prey into separate corners, whilst he was left with the whore who was fuzzy.
"So are we going to do this?" she said with a practiced smile. Indeed, the fact that her eyes were softened by drugs made the expression almost real.
"Come to me. "
He held his hand out of the darkness.
"Oh, I like it. " She sidled over, exaggerating the shift of her hips. "You sound like. . . I don't know what. "
When she put her palm against his, he pulled her to him - except then she jerked back.
"Oh - er. . . um. . . okay. "
Turning her face to the side, she rubbed her nose, and then pinched it as if she couldn't stand the smell of him. Logical. It took more than a rinse with water to get lesser blood off someone. Naturally, Throe and Zypher had taken a moment to flash home and get cleaned up. He, however, had stayed to fight.
Dandies. Both of them. On the other hand, their women were not already looking for an escape.
"It's okay, though," she said with resignation. "But no kissing. "
"I was unaware I had suggested such a thing. "
"Just so we're clear. "