Page 39 of Flock This

It was a bar so unbearably high that I knew I had no fucking chance.

Still, even with the words not sounding so nice, her tone wasn’t nearly as cutting as the man’s.

“What do you mean?”

She lifted one of her perfectly manicured eyebrows—no, wait, I’d bet they grew that flawlessly all on their own. “You saw his collar, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but let’s pretend I’m an idiot and have no idea what it means.”

The woman tilted her head, the collar making her look like some pampered Lhasa Apso. “I knew you were new to here, but just how new are you?”

“Pretty damn new,” I offered, keeping it vague. “And I only just found Kelvin again last night, so I don’t know anything.”

She let out a soft sigh as though I were trouble, but trouble she felt responsible for. “Kelvin is known for doing things his own way, which includes apparently not properly educating his thrall. Wait here.” She rose, so graceful I would have sworn she glided on ice rather than walked. I watched her, enthralled, as she went to a back wall with a bookcase and pulled one book off. She returned and opened it on the table before me, then tapped her finger on the page. “I’m going to assume you know nothing.”

“That’s a safe assumption.”

“The color of collars are associated with the status of the vampire, and thus the thrall, since we take our rank from our master.”

“How do they determine status?”

She frowned, her expression the same one I made when I realized someone was an idiot but didn’t want to say it. Well, not exactly the same, since hers managed to look both disappointed and extremely pretty. “It’s done by family first, then shaded by placement within the family.” She pointed at her collar, a deep purple. “This color is for the Henderson family, seen as the second most powerful, after only the Garrison line. The darker the hue, the higher up in that family the vampire is. My master is Shayna Henderson, the current head.”

“So blue is…”

“The Plessius family. They rival the Hendersons but have had a bit of bad luck lately.” She tapped the book again, then ran her finger down the image on the page that looked like a family tree. On it were other colors and the corresponding families.

However, I didn’t see one color in particular. “Where’s the red?”

“There isn’t red. Kelvin picked it because he is an unwanted. He was turned without a vampire family to claim him.”

I’d known that, had known his position as an intermediary had come about due to his lack of family. Still, hearing it from her, especially with the distaste in her voice made me recognize how much I shared with Kelvin.

Neither of us had a real place in the world.

Except where I’d tried to just survive a world not meant for me, he’d clawed his way up in it, determined to make his own place. It seemed like a lot of work for little reward, but I couldn’t deny understanding some of that desire.

“So why do people act like they don’t want to upset me since I got this collar? If red has no family, then why haven’t I seen others wearing it?”

The woman fidgeted, the first real sign of unease I’d seen from her. I’d almost say it was fear, which made no sense based on what I’d heard from her so far. Finally, she answered, her voice soft and careful. “Normally, those without a family don’t come to places like these, assuming they survive at all. There are five main families that use colors, and those born who are not taken into any of those families are the unwanted. They rarely live long enough to worry about things like status and thralls. Kelvin is an anomaly in that way. He claimed red as his own color, uses it despite having no right to it.”

“And the other families just let him?”

“Kelvin isn’t the sort of vampire anyone wants as an enemy.” The careful way she responded told me far more than her words did, and boy could I understand. I didn’t want Kelvin as my enemy, either. “However, vampire society has run on these families since the beginning, so some are less able to ignore Kelvin and his antics. While no one would touch you on their own, I wouldn’t expect a warm welcome.”

“I don’t know what I’d do if I got a warm welcome anywhere,” I admitted. “But thanks for explaining.”

The woman nodded, leaving the book there and open. “My name is Mary Anne Louise.”

“Ash.” I paused, then asked, “I’m surprised you’re here. Don’t you live with your master?”

“My master has thralls in many headquarters, and she travels often.”

“She doesn’t take you with her?”

“She has others elsewhere.” Mary’s words held a coldness to them, reminding me of a wife who knew her husband had a mistress and pretended it didn’t bother her. “Most vampires have multiple thralls, after all. So I will remain here for when she returns. I sleep in her quarters, but it gets too quiet there all alone, so I come here.”

I tried to picture such a life, one where I was trapped in such opulence but entirely alone. It made my chest hurt, not just the idea of being at the whim of another, but the thought of sitting there and having to simply wait. Wasting my years as nothing but one of many options for another person. “That doesn’t bother you?” I asked before I could help myself.

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