Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson #2)(72)

"I do," Naomi said slowly, straightening in her chair. Something shifted in her face and I saw yesterday's competent woman take control. "I can help you, but there's a price."

"What price?" I asked.

I somehow doubted that she wanted me to sing for her; she didn't have Uncle Mike's sense of humor. And as the thought occurred to me, I finally figured out that once Uncle Mike claimed me as his guest, the fae couldn't do anything bad to me without challenging him-which was why the big woman had sighed in disappointment when Uncle Mike told them I was his guest, even as he condemned me to sing in front of the whole lot.

I was so lost in thought, I almost missed Naomi's answer to my question.

"You have connections to the werewolves. I want you to ask the Alpha to intercede for us. If Stefan is dead, then so are we. Marsilia will scatter us among the menageries of the other vampires who will imprison us until we die."

"All the other vampires kill their..." I almost said food and I couldn't think of any more diplomatic way to put it so I just stopped speaking.

She shook her head. "Not on purpose, but most of them don't have Stefan's control. But we are Stefan's. That means that their mind tricks won't work as well on us-and those of us who are bound like Joey... When a bound one is made over by someone they're not bound to, odd things happen. I've heard people say that's why Stefan was never properly subservient to Marsilia, that he was bound by a different vampire. They won't want to keep us around long."

"So if Stefan is permanently dead..."

She smiled bleakly at me. "We all die."

"And you believe the werewolves could do something about this?"

She nodded. " Marsilia owes them blood price. This sorcerer is a vampire-which makes him Marsilia's business. When the two werewolves joined the hunt they became her responsibility. Since one was hurt and the other-" she shrugged expressively. "If your Alpha asks us as his price, she'll give us to him."

"What about worries over your silence?" I asked.

"If we belong to the werewolves, our silence becomes their problem."

"I'll speak to the werewolves," I promised. "But I don't have much influence." Especially if Adam and Samuel were dead, too. The thought made it hard to breathe, so I shoved it away. "Tell me about the vampires and how the seethe operates."

Naomi gathered herself together visibly, and when she spoke she sounded like the professor she had apparently once been.

"I'll start from the general and then go to the specific, shall I? You understand that generalities do not account for variations-just because most vampires follow this pattern, doesn't mean that they all do."

"All right," I told her, wishing I had a notebook so I could take notes.

"A vampire likes to keep a food supply at hand, so they live with a small group of humans, usually anywhere from three to seven. Three are enough to provide food for a month before they die, seven is enough for six months-because if the vampires feed lightly on each, their prey lasts longer."

"There aren't forty people disappearing from the Tri-Cities every month," I protested. "And I know that Marsilia has more than ten vampires."

Naomi smiled grimly. "They don't hunt in their own territory. Stefan found me in Chicago teaching at Northwestern. Rachel's from Seattle. I think the only one of us Stefan found in the Tri-Cities was Daniel, and he was hitchhiking down from Canada."

For some reason, her speaking of Daniel made me glance over by the sink, but sometime while we'd been talking, the young man must have left. When I thought about it, I realized that I hadn't heard him for a while. It bothered me that I hadn't heard him leave.

"So the vampires have to continually replenish their menageries?"

"Most of them." Naomi nodded. "Stefan, as you know, does things differently. There are fourteen of us who live here, and maybe a dozen more who visit occasionally. Stefan doesn't usually kill his prey."

"Tommy," said Rachel in a small voice.

Naomi waved her hand dismissively. "Tommy was ill anyway." She looked at me. "When the fae came out, Stefan began to be concerned about the same things that caused the fae to reveal themselves. He told the seethe-and the ruling council of vampires-that they could no longer live as they were and expect to survive. He had already been maintaining a large menagerie because he didn't kill his people-he has a reputation for being softhearted. I'm told Marsilia thinks his concern for us is 'cute. " She gave me an ironic look.

"He began to experiment. To look for ways the vampire could benefit the human race. He found me dying of leukemia and offered me a chance at life."

I did some adding in my head and frowned at her. "Rachel said you were a professor and he found you about the time the fae came out. How old were you?"

She smiled. "Forty-one." That would mean she was in her sixties now-she didn't look it. She didn't look much older than I did. "Stefan already knew that longevity was something he could offer: one of his bound children had belonged to him for over a century before another vampire killed her."

"How does feeding a vampire make you live longer?" I asked.

"It's the exchange of blood," said Rachel. She put a finger against her lips and licked it suggestively. "He takes and then gives a little back. Since I started feeding, I've been able to see in the dark-I can even bend a tire iron." She glanced at me from under her lashes to see how I took her revelation.