Page 6 of The Vampire Kingpin
Spider
Lark’s eyes widened. She pushed at the arm I had clamped over her throat. “Owns me?”
I eased up on the pressure, and she gulped in a breath. “For the next month,” I confirmed in a stony voice.
The deal with Grimclaw had been for three nights, but that was before Lark had stolen my favorite dagger, the one forged for me personally. When I’d chased her down, I’d still planned to use her, then send her back to her cousin…minus a finger.
Yeah, she was fetish-sexy in the short black dress and Mary Janes, her shiny dark hair in braids framing a fairy-like face and long-lidded, witchy green eyes. It would be a crying shame to mar that beauty. But nobody stole from me and got away with it.
Then she tried to carve a piece out of me, and damn if everything masculine in me didn’t sit up and take notice.
Sexy and spunky? Sign me up.
“For a month?” A mixture of shock and defiance battled on her face. “You must be joking.”
“No joke.” I sat up, still straddling her, and retrieved her switchblade. When it was safely in my back pocket, I fingered her oversized white collar. I recognized her costume now, but the buttoned-up dress and short skirt had a naughty schoolgirl feel that had my dick hard as baseball bat. “I don’t joke about things like this. And I could use a new thrall.”
Actually, I hadn’t kept a thrall in years. But for Lark, I’d make an exception.
Her pointed chin raised a notch. “I’m nobody’s thrall. I know my rights—you need my consent.”
I eyed her. Was she really that naïve? But no, her tense shoulders told me this was a last-ditch effort to save herself.
“You must be confusing me with a syndicate primus. Down here, I’m the law. If I say you’re my thrall, then you are.”
The vampire syndicates had inked treaties with the humans to keep the peace and secure a steady supply of thralls for the blood and sex we all crave. The syndicates were big enough and visible enough that they’d had no choice but to negotiate with the humans.
The Underworld, however, was a whole different beast. The vampires down here were outcasts who didn’t fit into the syndicates’ strict pecking order.
Lark’s thick black lashes fluttered. For the first time, I saw fear, quickly concealed.
“But I’m not a human,” she said, like that made a difference.
“I know.” I brushed bits of gravel from her cheek. “You’re a dhampir, and you steal for your cousin Grimclaw. And I can drink from you same as a human thrall.”
Actually, a dhampir’s blood was superior, the magic in their veins making it more potent. I leaned closer. “And I can fuck you,” I added, slowly and deliberately, “same as a human thrall. You stole from me, woman. Now you have to accept the consequences.”
“But I don’t—I’m not a thrall.”
“So I’ll be your first.” I ran my finger down a shiny braid. “I’ll take good care of you. You won’t have to risk your life like you do working for your cousin.”
Who obviously hadn’t informed her of the deal he’d made with me. The man was even more of an SOB than I’d realized.
“But what I do for Grim is my choice,” she said. “Maybe I’d rather risk my life than be your toy.”
She lobbed that last word at me like it would bother me. Instead, it made my dick twitch. Lark as my toy? The word tugged at something primal in me, the part that liked the idea of owning her.
“You should’ve thought of that before you broke into my lair and helped yourself to my favorite dagger. Now your ass is mine.”
She looked a little sick. “I’ll give it back then, and we’ll call it even. Alright?”
I gave her braid a hard tug. “No.”
“Then I’ll steal for you, okay? There must be something you want, and I can get just about anything if you give me time.” When I shook my head, she said, “Please. I mean it. I’m good. I was trained by the best there is.”
“Trained by who?”
A flare of pain crossed her face. “You wouldn’t know their names. They were that good.”
