He realized he wouldn’t get any answers to the questions slamming around in his mind until he spoke to the one person who would have the answers.
Aodh placed the ring in his pocket, then followed his brother's steps to the landing.Aodh opened the sliding glass door enough to get through and closed it behind him.He wasted no time jumping into the evening air, letting his dragon appear, and carrying him across the territory to his suites.
Kai had some explaining to do.
Chapter Eight
An abundance of metalscraping against fine China provided harmony and rhythm accompanied by the uproarious chatter of the thirty-plus people around the table.Most devoured the meal rapaciously, filling their gullets with the servants' food: roasted pig, sauteed vegetables, buttered knife-cut pasta, and more.In contrast, nine in attendance ate only the vegetables and warm bowls of fresh pig’s blood soup, including himself.
Amaros cut his meal into one small, precise bite at a time, slowly consuming the delectable fare.Not because he had to, but because tonight, eating felt tiresome.As did the constant noise within the house.Evening was always lively, especially dinner among his people and their prime.The truth of that fact did not stop him from wanting to yell, ‘Shut the fuck up,’ to them all.
However, it was not their fault that the world felt too loud for him.He blamed his poor attitude on his lack of sleep.The day usually brought solace and quiet; everyone in the house was asleep except the day-shift servants and guards.Yet, even as he lay in his bed, heavy brocade curtains drawn, it seemed that the insects, rodents, and the few birds who had managed to survive flying within the tainted air after the human’s global nuclear war were on a new level of chattiness this day.It seemed as if every fucking one of them was swarming around his house and squawking like they had when the half-dead humans roamed the Earth.
During that time, those damn vultures and ravens, because no beautiful and majestic fowl had survived, the ebony scavengers found sport in diving and picking off the rotting flesh of humans even as they struggled through their last painful breaths.
His kind did love beautiful things, which was why they built their home in the southern area of what had once been central Canada.When the world had become a wasteland, everything on fire, flooded, or iced over where it should not have been, all breathtaking sites had ended, and only over the last twenty years had life begun a rebirth on the land.
Hell, during the time following the Great Catastrophes, when ten percent of the human population had hidden beneath the ground and left the rest to die trying to fend for themselves, he couldn’t blame the ugly winged beasts for gorging themselves on the walking dead, because his kind, and some wolves, had feasted, too—detrimental to all of them in different ways.It was how his coven had gained their extensive body of servants and their prime.
But today, he did not want to hear their chirping or their many whispered thoughts that filled the soft winds and tortured his mind.Peace.He wanted fucking peace of mind.
He sighed as he reached for his goblet of wine and washed down his last spoonful of the thick soup.It had started to congeal in his bowl because he’d taken too long to eat it.His actions drew glances from his coven members closest to him.And Marceline, his Vice.
What concerns you, Amaros?
It had been Marceline’s question in his head for the one hundredth time today.When he’d turned down her invitation to take the morning rest in his bed, ordering her to find a prime to provide her company, she’d been startled, not because they always had slept together or had sex, they didn’t.But, over the years following the catastrophes, since all the vampires had united to become one coven, like in the old days, Marceline had grown to know him.She knew when his darker side demanded more than the prime could give him.
Yes, because of the primes' connection to a vampire by the smallest drop of serum given to them at the time of their claiming, the fragile humans would heal slowly, but they would heal.Only another vampire could genuinely withstand the level of nefarious desires of another vamp.If they changed any of the prime, rougher sex could happen, but it was impossible since none of them held the genetic makeup that matched a vampire, so the attempt to change them would kill them.
The thought of change guided his mind to the last council meeting, where, once again, the marked human sacrifice, as his kind liked to call it, wasn’t meant for them.As a Leader, Amaros desired to grow his territory.Not the space, it was sufficient enough, but the members within.
Frustrated by the thought, he bit into his lip, piercing his flesh and causing a trickle of blood to run down his chin.
More than a few prime heads snapped in his direction and zeroed in on the droplet.However, the needy ‘familiars’ knew better than to act on their covetous yearnings.The primes craved vampire blood, as much as they could consume, in hopes of becoming one of them.Never.
Swiping one of his thumbs over his chin, he collected the rivulet and brought it to his mouth.
