Page 28 of Our Sins in Shadows (Coven of Sin 2)

“You’re not dressing me for that fucked demonstration. I’m not going and I’ll take down anyone who tries to make me. If this is a setup, Lavinia, you’ll be sorry.”

If the girl was at all offended or threatened by my aggression, she didn’t let it show. An amused smirk flitted across her face, which only made my blood boil all the hotter.

“Calm down. I’m not betraying you. I need to pretend that I’m on their side to not rouse suspicion. And as for the dress...” Her gaze slithered down the length of my body and her smirk dissolved as her nose wrinkled in disgust. “You may be an enemy of the Boston vampires, but you’re still royalty, and you’re a representative of the Cape Cod Coven. I can’t allow you to leave this room looking like some kind of prison harlot.”

She had a point there. I released her collar and slumped back on my heels. No matter how degrading the dress might be, it had to provide more coverage than this blanket.

Not even a minute later, a knock on the door echoed through the room.

I blinked, and Lavinia was already greeting the person in the hall, having moved so fast that I hadn’t seen her go from the bed to the door. She ushered a man and woman inside. One held a tray with two blood bags neatly arranged in the center, and the other held a large white box.

Humans.

A frown split my lips as I took in their blank expressions. “Are you here of your own free will?”

Lavinia flung me another one of her exasperated looks. “Surely even you can tell a mesmerized human from a lucid one? They won’t answer you. They’re under a permanent mesmer spell.”

My jaw fell open. “Is that what a thrall is? Someone under a permanent mesmer spell?”

“How do you not know this? You have four mates. Surely one of them could manage to pull his prick from between your thighs long enough to teach you how to be a vampire.”

“I’m sorry, being kidnapped kind of has a way of cutting into my vampire princess lessons,” I said dryly.

The girl made an aggravated sound. “Thralls are essentially livestock, kept around for their blood and maybe minor chores. So no, they are not here of their own volition.”

“The lady on the intercom offered you a minor. Do they actually keep kids as blood thralls?”

The child vampire didn’t give a verbal answer, but the way her eyes darkened was answer enough.

“That’s disgusting.”

“It is. It’s one of the many reasons the BC refuses to join the Elders. In recent years, it’s become illegal for covens under the Elders’ jurisdiction to keep thralls. The only mortal blood whores they’re allowed to keep are those willing, protected by contract, and must be offered a decent wage for their loyalty and discretion.”

“How did that law come about? I thought the Elders loved old traditions, and mortal rights don’t seem like something my father would have cared two shits about.”

“They do, and he didn’t.” Lavinia’s lips twitched, the ghost of a smile lurking at the corner of her mouth. “Prince Sterling proposed the law. I’m not sure how he managed to convince the old king to make such a progressive alteration to the law, but he did.”

I didn’t want to think about all the horrible things Sterling might have had to do for my father to get him to allow such a drastic change to the vampire way of life, a law that might’ve been spurned with a lot of pushback. Sterling’s selfless act had probably saved countless human lives.

“Leave the tray on the side table and the dress on the bed and come stand in front of me,” Lavinia instructed the thralls.

I watched with interest as the man and woman moved to follow the vampire’s instructions with somewhat mechanical movements.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to override the spell influencing them with one of my own. Now be quiet so I can focus. I’m not accustomed to doing two at once.”

The vampire honed her gaze on both thralls. The man and woman stared back, unblinking and unflinching. For the longest time, all three of them just kind of stared at one another in silence. Slowly, the dim glint in their eyes went from blank to totally dead, as if Lavinia had smothered whatever spell had been animating them.

The expression on the mesmerized humans’ faces drew a shiver down my spine. It made me sick to my stomach knowing how vampires could so easily control humans. Which made Dagon and his magic a terrifying prospect, to think he possessed that exact ability over vampires, who were far more powerful weapons to wield than humans.

Lavinia exhaled as if she’d been holding her breath. “There we go,” she muttered. “Whoever mesmerized these ones knew what they were doing. Now watch to see my technique. You might be able to do this yourself one day.”

I observed Lavinia as she turned her attention back to the man and woman. Whatever “technique” she was using, I couldn’t tell. To me, it just looked like a staring contest.

“I want you to find every thrall on duty and have them go to their rooms,” she instructed in a cool and steady voice as if she was speaking to children. “No one is to leave. If they question you, tell them the command is coming from Erik himself. And if Erik questions who gave you this command, you are not to remember. Understand?”

They both gave sluggish nods. “We understand,” they said in unison, their voices far off and distant.

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