Page 29 of The Serpent's Bride
He patted the bed next to him. “Sit. Let’s talk. You seem…interesting. And I don’t remember the last night I didn’t spend either ass up or ass down.” He flopped back on the bed, eyes shut. He looked exhausted. “Oh. And call me Aza.”
She sat down next to him, sipping her drink still. It was good. She really hoped it wasn’t laced with something she couldn’t detect. “Do you have a choice?”
“Nope. Same as you. I’m under a contract someone else signed.”
That detail was new to her. She frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She wasn’t lying. Nobody needed to have their body pimped out because of somebody else’s decisions.
“Eh. I’m good at what I do. And most nights I enjoy it. But I’m just so fucking sick of her games. Oh, and that line about ‘customs’?”
“Total bullshit?” She smirked.
“Total bullshit.” He stretched like a cat before rolling onto his stomach. Through the thin fabric of his shirt, she could see that his back was an array of criss-crossing scars put there by hand. Lana’s hand, no doubt. Or maybe one of her more frequent clients. “She just wants to mess with Raziel.”
“I heard the family was close.”
“Oh, they’re close all right. Nobody from the outside caneverfuck with Momma Volencia’s children. They wouldneversuffer an attack from outside the family. But internal drama? Messing with the other siblings’ toys? Fair fucking game.”
“Huh.” Nadi paused. “Do you want a drink?”
“I wouldlovesomeone to make me a drink.”
Standing, she headed over to the bar by the wall. “You seem like a gin guy.”
“Smart girl.”
She mixed the gin and the vermouth, put in a couple of olives, and brought it back to him. “A dirty gin guy.”
He took the glass with that fiendish grin of his and sipped it. “Ah, fuck, and you mixgooddrinks. Yeah, I’m sad Raziel’s going to kill you.”
“What do you mean?” Now she wanted to see how much Aza would tell her.
Aza stared at her and his expression went thin. “You don’t know.”
“I suspect. But I want to see what you’ll tell me.”
He sighed, his expression one of pity. “Do you really wanna know?”
Nodding silently, she waited for him to continue.
“Here’s…the thing about vampires. We’re…a picky bunch.” He grimaced. “At least about who we let into our little club. Lana only turned me because she wanted to make sure the ‘company car’ didn’t need to be brought out for so many repairs. We don’t just…blindly get married and turn somebody. This so-called marriage tradition you’re stuck in is—well, it’s based on an old tradition, from—from likethe before times.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Before the metropolis?”
“Yeah. When vampires and humans were just starting to work together. Before civilization beat back those ugly fucks down into the Wild.”
She tried not to take that personally.
Aza shrugged and kept talking. “It’s based on some stupid story. The first of our kind went to a human village and said to the town elder, ‘Give me your daughter as my bride as a sign of your devotion and I’ll keep you safe.’ Well, the elder did. And the vampire…”
“Killed her.”
“Drank her dry, like a bottle of shit champagne.” He took a deep swig from his glass. “Took her to his ancestral lair. They were wedded in blood, whatever, highfalutin bullshit. The vampire kept his word, and that was the start of the partnership between our people. So…”
“I’ve been offered up as sacrifice. I’ll be carted off to the Nostrom family home and popped like a bottle of shit champagne.” Nadi shut her eyes. She had to play this off like this was new information. Walking to the edge of the bed, she sat down. Hanging her head, she let out a breath. “My father knew.”
“I can guarantee it.”
“I guess you and I have that in common, then.”
