“So this has happened where a girl wasn’t mesmerized instantly and you’ve taken time to break her down?”
“Not me. I’ve never had a problem before. A girl Sam once brought here for himself wasn’t but it was just temporary. She was out of her head on coke and was still totally willing to do whatever he wanted, fangs and all. Kept going on about how cool it was to fuck a real vampire,” he shook his head in remembrance, “The next day she was fine and he had no problem programming her to forget. Some drugs block receptors, temporarily, but it takes a lot of them. One of my early mentors had trouble breaking a girl down but it turned out she had a massive brain tumour.”
Kyla winced.
“What happened?”
He shook his head, “You don’t wanna know. Anyway, I knew when I tasted you that there weren’t any drugs and I’m pretty sure you’re 100% healthy. Diagnostics are one of my strengths and I can usually smell drug use but I can always taste it. I sense a lot of health problems or issues in humans; high cholesterol, diabetes, HIV Aids, cancer, gum disease, ovulation, etcetera. Very few conditions would actually block my powers of persuasion and I’m pretty sure I can sense all of those conditions.”
She felt a bit more at ease about her own health, “If I hadn’t hit Joe and gotten away, would you have talked to him like you’ve done with Sam?”
“No. And from now on, besides me a lone vampire will never be alone with you. Ever. Not even Sam. If you find yourself alone with any vampire for any reason, any reason whatsoever, it’s a problem, and against my wishes. Remember that. When I had you restrained I had them deal with you together. Because of your blood I can’t trust that anyone will have the self-control. There’s strength in numbers.”
“What if two decide to conspire?”
“That’s something we’re at risk of.” His jaw was firm, “But so far I’m comfortable enough with Sam. He was very loyal to my grandfather. Sam has been with me since I was transformed, he was one of the first vampires I dealt with and I have intuition about these things. My gut instinct hasn’t let me down yet. I’m minimizing your direct contact with Joe but can’t let him think I’m hiding anything or worried about anything. I’m keeping him close so I can keep an eye on him, watch to see what he does about his suspicions. Make sense?”
She nodded.
“Anyway, you can see that with someone entranced, they’re not all that different but you have to work on your reactions. There will be dozens of vampires here, Kyla.”
She chewed her cheek.
“We need things to go flawlessly when I bring you out. I’ll have you out during a banquet and it’ll be a masquerade ball. That’ll help as you can wear a mask and it’ll help shade your reactions.”
“Okay.”
“But things can get a bit raunchy at these parties. It might seem like a bit of a freak circus. Some vamps will have human dates. It’s not unusual to feed at these things after the liquor has been flowing a while and things can get raunchy. You can’t react if you see a vampire feeding or doing something sexual.”
“You won’t do anything raunchy in public with me, right? You won’t tell me to take my dress off or something fucked up like that?”
“Of course not. There’s no way I want anyone looking at your body. But others might not be on their best behaviour. The world I live in is very much about satisfying urges, baby; that’s what vamps see humans existing for. You can’t show a reaction. Nothing above small talk if someone addresses you and no reactions. No matter what.”
Her throat felt bone dry. He rubbed her shoulders.
“And I own you. You have to remember that when I say something to you in front of another vampire that you have to oblige instantly. That’s how entrancing works. It’s late. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Own me? That was something that would’ve bothered her, even enraged her, a few days ago but now? Now it sounded kind of hot. Who am I?
Kyla got up to use the washroom and get ready for bed. Tristan was already asleep by the time she climbed back in. Yeah, it had been quite a day and she could see how beat he was.
She thought about Julia, likely being Sam’s warm blow-up doll right now. Soon she’d just be discarded back into her own life and be none the wiser. It was crazy. How many women had to endure that on a regular basis? How many vampires were out there in the shadows waiting to grab unsuspecting females? And were there other females out there who had fallen for their vampire out of some weird chemical reaction? How many had thought those feelings were real but only because they’d been starved for affection their whole life?