Bad Mouth(29)

She gasped. “No! Not in a million years.”

“He didn’t like vampires? I know he didn’t like me, but that was a territorial thing. In general, though, he didn’t like us?”

Graham had spouted lovey-dovey vampire sentiment since meeting the Ancients a few days ago. Before then, she would have ruled it out. Now, she wasn’t so sure. “I think he did, but not enough to transform, especially through illegal means. He knows too well what happens to illegal transformations, and he had no application submitted.”

“All right. Then we assume he was taken by force.”

“I don’t know which is worse.”

He slid his hand lazily up and down her arm. “I can’t believe you thought I’d harm the man. Do you think so little of me?”

“I didn’t know what to think. He doesn’t have enemies that I know of, except for you sort of.” When she looked up at him, his eyes had dimmed, his face still and solemn. Did how she saw him matter that much to him? “I guess I doubted you had anything to do with this, but I had to know.”

“I know you have a thing against vampires. It’s why you wrote that legislation, isn’t it?”

She stiffened. “L-legislation?”

“Yes, I know about that. What I can’t figure out is why you hate us so much that you’d try to destroy my entire race.”

“It’s not meant to destroy a race. It’s only to protect mine.”

“To protect humans from their own choices? No one is forced into transformation, not even the illegal ones.”

“The humans are slaves. You can’t deny that. I’ve seen it myself.” Maybe he was too old and entrenched in his society to see the suffering the subjugates went through before they transformed. Then again, he had so much against humans, he probably didn’t care in the least.

“Their service isn’t slavery, Val. There’s a purpose for it. They have to follow our laws. They must learn their roles, or they won’t survive. Our society isn’t a democracy. It’s led by royalty, those with a direct bloodline to the original race. If they can’t learn our customs and our governing system, they face execution. We won’t accept someone only to have them end up with that fate.”

Put that way, it sounded reasonable, but many subjugates waited years for the transformation. Some never got there, dying in their old age before it ever happened for them. Seemed like slavery to her. “How do you explain the ones who wait their entire lives and aren’t transformed?”

“They have the right to decline transformation at any time. No one is locked in after their application is approved. Some choose to wait but never understand our culture. If they can’t fit in, they’re never scheduled. But always, they’re counseled on their shortcomings and offered a way out.”

She shifted against him. Now that he’d pointed it out, she realized the application wasn’t like a contract. But it had seemed illogical that anyone would wait for something that wouldn’t happen. “How did I never see this?”

“Maybe you didn’t want to see. Did you ever ask anyone? It’s not exactly something we keep secret from humans.”

She had never asked, only assumed. Now that Kade explained the subjugation, it made a lot of sense.

“Val, my experiences aside, most vampires love their subjugates. These are people who, barring a failure to adjust, will be our companions for centuries, the ones who stave away our loneliness. Can you imagine living so long only to watch everyone around you die? We want nothing more than for the subjugates to succeed, to be the vampires we’d spend our endless lifetime with.”

She thought of Selene, how worried she’d been over her subjugate’s fate. She thought of Ptolomy’s affectionate, though inappropriate, handling of his nymph. His servant seemed to adore him despite his womanizing ways. The woman wouldn’t have reacted that way if he’d mistreated her during her service. She thought of everything she’d seen and condemned throughout her time with the VLO, this time seeing through a lens shaped by Kade’s knowledge.

Val shook her head. “I’ve been a narrow-minded xenophobe.”

“You just had a bad experience. You know now, and you can ask about it all you want. I don’t mind, though I’m not the best person to learn from. You should talk to Ezra. He treats his subjugates like royalty, too much so. He’s going to piss off the Ancients one of these days. Hell, some of them die because of it. That’s what happens if you don’t train them right. He’s let more Legion get executed than anyone.”

She shot him a shocked glance. “Ezra?”

“Yes. He holds the record, but he loves them too much to deny them. I told you it’s deadly to schedule them too soon. Waiting for the right time is more for their benefit than ours. And you have to train them properly following the transformation, when they’re still susceptible to derangement. That’s a huge responsibility for an adjuvant, partly why we’re held in such high regard in our culture. Even Legion adjuvants are treated more like Dominorum. The general public has no problem training subjugates, but they want no part of the adjuvant’s job after transformation.”

“I can’t believe there’s so much I didn’t know.”

“You came into this with an agenda. Sometimes that makes you overlook what’s in front of you.” He tapped her nose, a smile tugging at his mouth. Lord, she didn’t want to melt like she did with him, but she was helpless. He’d done so much to absolve her. It felt too good, but she had to let herself pay the price for being insular. And that impetuous legislation. It wasn’t a solution. Hell, now she wasn’t sure there was a problem to be solved. She’d been incredibly off the mark but didn’t know how to stop the law she’d pushed for.

“We should get up.”

He groaned. “It’s daylight, damn you.”

“Sorry about that. I was too worried to wait.” She couldn’t stop herself from stroking his stubble-roughened cheek. “But you have some calls to make.”

He did as she asked, but grumbled the whole time. While he made his calls in his bedroom, she ducked into the restroom. Cold water on her face made her feel better and a bit more presentable. Her eyes were a little bloodshot. The lack of sleep was going to kill her, but she had another late night ahead of her. She couldn’t rest until she knew whether Graham was dead or alive.





Chapter Twenty-one


When Kade emerged from the bedroom, he had changed into his ever-present faded jeans and a fitted, plain black T-shirt. His dark hair glistened and a few small droplets of water glided from the tips onto his neck. How she wanted to lick that path. He’d shaved, too, his angular face smooth, the shadow of hair absent. It would feel silky against her lips.

He approached where she stood at the balcony window. After he flashed a devastating smile, took her hand and led her to one of the sofas. His thigh rested against hers as he relaxed into his seat. She didn’t know how she’d survive the night the way he was taking care of her.

Thanks to him, she could see how she’d misjudged the Immortalis. Thanks to him, she was close to ending the serial bloodings. And thanks to him, she had an entire team to help her find Graham. A jag of melancholy hit when she realized she didn’t have much time before her work with him would end. Where would that leave their implausible relationship?

“The boys are on their way. Guns is swinging by Graham’s apartment as we speak. Luc was at his office, but he logged in remotely to Graham’s computer so he can tell us what he found when he gets here. He’s got one of his staff to work on the phone records. We should hear back about that soon. Ezra has his subjugates checking airlines, trains, buses, rickshaws…”

She didn’t think anything could possibly make her laugh right then, but he did. She kept her eyes on the budding nightfall in front of her. “You don’t like Graham. Why are you doing all of this?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” he murmured at her ear. She turned her head. Oh, that was a bad idea. He was right there, his breath on her lips. Her pulse rocketed to know she’d kicked his heart into gear again. He dipped closer. Another millimeter and his lips would be on hers yet she couldn’t pull away. A knock at the door slammed her nerves, and she flinched. Kade froze, but his face tightened, his brow drew down, and his eyes lit up.

“Don’t kill whoever it is, for crying out loud,” she said.

He stroked her cheek and grinned. “I’ll do my best.” He didn’t open the door all the way so she couldn’t see who’d arrived, but it couldn’t have been his team or he would’ve let them in already. She gave up and focused on the balcony.

She’d nearly kissed him again, and she still wanted to.

He wasn’t the monster she’d taken him for, and he was more gallant than she’d thought. She’d been wrong all this time about the vampires. None of that fixed the disparity between them. She would age while he stayed the same. He would feed off pretty young things, which was something she couldn’t handle. Even the thought of it made her fingers curl into the sofa like claws.