Page 31 of Rock Bottom
“Safe house, not in Chattanooga. I’m not privy to more than that.”
“Mikey?”
“He’s in another part of this house, and he’s otherwise occupied at the moment.”
Silver’s eyes searched mine, steady and unblinking. “Have you ever messed with my mind?”
“I have not. I’m aware others have implanted three specific suggestions, but I’ve been assured that’s it. Most humans don’t have any shielding around their brain at all. You do. Even if I’d wanted to, I wouldn’t have trusted myself to get past your shields without you noticing — but I didn’t want to do something I knew you would see as an invasion of privacy.”
He gave a tiny nod, one I’m pretty sure he didn’t realize his body gave, and asked, “Do you want to drink my blood?”
I walked to the seating area and motioned for Silver to sit down. I should’ve invited him farther into the room from the beginning, rather than waiting for him to come in. “Please, sit. My manners are atrocious. This room should have bottled water, and perhaps some other drinks.” I stepped to the dresser, assuming there would be a mini-fridge, and I wasn’t disappointed.
“No, I’m good. Please come sit so we can talk. Marco told me it was up to you to tell me about your human life. You never have before, will you now?”
I put a bottled water on the table beside him, on a coaster, and then sat to face him, rather than sitting beside him. I didn’t want to make him nervous, and I wasn’t positive he was ready for physical contact with a vampire yet.
“I was born in another time, when sons and daughters could be sold into a…” I sighed. “Think of it as an apprenticeship? For most apprenticeships, parents had to pay to get their children into the program, but a few professions paid for young children to train and bring up in the lifestyle. The opera is one of the latter. My parents weren’t rich, and I had a lovely, angelic voice, so they hoped I could have a successful life as an opera singer. Rich and famous. Who doesn’t want that for their children?”
“So they sold you to, what, like an agent?”
I shook my head. “The opera company bought me from them, and it was a premier house. I’m sorry I had to tell you I sang at small houses, but there was no way to tell you this happened two hundred and fifty years ago.” I took a breath. Vampires don’t need to breathe, but we need air to speak. “Do you know what they used to do to young boys in the opera?”
He thought a few seconds and his face registered shock. “No! But, you have your balls!”
“I do. There were two ways to ensure a young boy’s voice never changed. Everyone knows about castration, but the more common procedure was to destroy everything inside the sack. More boys survived the procedure that way, in an age without antibiotics. In my case, they used a roller.”
I paused, focusing on the way the lamplight glowed on his hair, a steady detail to anchor me. Even centuries later, I had to stick to the facts and just get through the telling of the story. “Not a traditional rolling pin like bakers use, as that would’ve been too wide, but a narrow version of one. Technically, it makes methladiaerather thancastrati, but we were all referred to as the latter — those of us altered before puberty to preserve the high-pitched voices of our youth.”
“Fuck, Julian. Rolling them to…” He shuddered in horror. “That’s worse than…fuck.”
He wasn’t wrong. A quick slice of a sharp knife versus weeks of having them rolled flat every three or four days — at the time I’d have preferred the knife. However, since the magic of vampirism eventually restored what’d been flattened and crushed, destroyed, I’m ultimately thankful the opera company that bought me made that choice.
“It was a long time ago, and I didn’t have a terrible life. I was famous, certainly, and while not rich, I lived as a rich man in many ways — the finest clothing, exquisite food, the adoration of the public. I was owned, but I was a valuable asset, and was treated as such by most of the staff. Also, my dick still worked, with the added benefit of my not being able to get women pregnant, which made me an even more valuable commodity. Rich society ladies paid handsomely for an evening in my bed, most often after a performance, of course, but some of them asked for me quite frequently. As long as I kept them happy, I ate whatever I desired.”
Silver shook his head again. “So, they whored you out?”
His voice held such a quiet fury on my behalf, it startled something loose in me — a gratitude I hadn’t expected to feel after so many decades.
“You have fameandriches,” I said after a moment. “And you’re fortunate you live in a time when you own yourself.”
He sat back, considering my words. “Not all musicians do. I mean, a lot of them are basically owned by a recording company. Technically, I guess you could say Will owns my career, kind of, but he asks us for input and talks to us. Still, even the people who are outright owned…” He shrugged. “I was going to say they don’t have to do sex on demand, but there are rumors, so maybe they do. I had two really important people offer me big chances if I’d offer myself up sexually, and I turned them both down.”
“I’m so happy you had that option. I was handed over as a child. I grew up as what you’d think of as a ward of the opera. They educated me because I’d be socializing with society people, but mostly, they worked on the strength and tone of my voice.”
He nodded. “Did you get to stay in touch with your family?”
“I never saw my family again. They lived outside the city in a small village. Someone came through and posted a flyer for auditions. My voice was well known in our village, so the talent scout, I suppose you’d call him now, came to our home to hear me sing and then explain the price he would pay my parents for me. I do not know the amount they were paid, but he left with me, and I never returned.”
“Did you want to go with the scout?”
“I did. What child doesn’t want to become famous? To live in a city as a rich man? I had no idea I’d never see my family again, nor was I aware I would give up my balls, normal puberty, the ability to father children.” He sighed. “I hold no ill will to my father for his decision. My mother was against it, but it was his choice, not hers. And, as I said, I had a mostly good life while I was human.”
“Marco explained that someone who came to see you at the opera was fascinated by you. I assume she paid for you, for the night?”
“Many times, and I had no idea she was a vampire until the night she bit me and turned me. She’d fed from me before, of course, but she simply made me forget. On the final night, when she took me away for that final bite and stole my humanity — I never saw the humans at the opera house again.”
I could scent Silver’s pain and sympathy, but that wasn’t what I wanted from him.
