Page 121 of Madness Behind the Mask
“Fifty percent,” she grumbles.
I laugh. “Kid, you think I don’t know how much a pimp makes? I’m not from the fucking Shadow Domain. Eighty and you’ll attend my parties at least once a month.”
She chews on her lip, fear still so strong in her eyes even though she’s trying to hide it. She ran through the basementwhen I released her from her cage and told her to run. She saw the whores getting passed around in the orgygoing ondown there, how they were slapped and beaten without a care to their health. Multiple men in their holes. Constantlygoingaround. Some clearly dead yet still being used.
She hesitates, then her eyes shift over to the bodies hanging over the tub.
“Fuck you,” she says.
I grin, and slam the hook into her calf. She screams as I haul her up to the ceiling. She thrashes, trying to get free, trying to bend up at the waist to get her leg off the hook. But I’m tying off the other end of the pulley, andnowI’m on her, slitting her throat withthe knife I left on the sink.
She gurgles, her eyes widening, her hands clasping over her neck, as if she can stop the blood pumping out of her severed arteries. She hangs limp a few seconds later, and I look at the level of the bath. It’s abitlow, but that was a damn good finish, and I’m certain the other two in thecellwon’t be as nearly as fun to chase. The whole time I was dragging people out, they sat, cowering in the back, unmoving as they clung to each other.Besides,there’s only abouta gallonin abody. Two more won’t really make much of a difference.
Stripping off my shirt, I drop it to the gray stone floor, thenremove my pants and the rest of my clothes. I step intothe bathwith one footjust as the door bangs open.I sigh.“Vlad.”
He answers by barreling into me, grabbing hold of my throat as he tackles me out of the bath. Blood splatters across the bathroom, and I try to calculate how much I’ve just lost from his little play. I really don’t want to have to bring up one of those sniveling boys. My back hits the wall as he presses into me, his fangs bared in my face.
“They killed my sister,” he growls, “and you’re having a celebratory bath!”
“The bath isn’t for her. It’s for Sau finally demanding blood.”
“Through the death of my sister!” Hejerks me forward only to slamme against the wall.
“Through the death of my son. Destiny just refused to let him die on his own. Jumped on the pyre with him and all that.”
“She loved him.”
“A foolish thing, aye.”
His eyes flash red as he goes to rip my face off with his teeth. I headbutt him, breaking his nose, then grab his hair and yank his head to the side. My teeth slip into his neck. His fingers squeeze around mine, hoping if I can’t drink, I can’t drain him dry. A quick action that makes me respect him even more.
But I don’t need to feed off him to kill him. I ripped open his artery, and as I lift my head, his blood squirts outacross the room.
His eyes widen as his fingers tighten around my neck even more,compressing my arteries, refusing to let air get to my brain. But Vlad’s strength is failing fast, and he drops to his knees, his hand falling from my throat.
I squat down over him, lifting my wrist to my fangs. Biting deep, knowing he needs a lot to heal from that wound,especially since he isn’t one of my sired and myblood won’t heal him as miraculously, I let two great big rivers flow into his goldfishing mouth. He refuses to drink for a moment. Then instinct kicks in, and his lips fasten around my flesh.
“The next time you attack me, Vlad,be smarter about it. Bring a gun or something.”
As soon as the inside of his neck starts to knit back together, the flesh still ripped open wide, I yank him off me. I’m not stupid enough to let him drink to full health, especially given it will drain me.
“You said...there would be peace...with a marriage.” He scoots back, using the bath to lean against as he sits up.
I stay crouched near the wall, my dick between my legs, the air cold on my balls. “And there will be. In time. A pity your sister won’t see it, but…” I pause, holding his gaze. “You will. And with Colton gone, I can name you as my heir.”
“Did you set her up to die?” Vlad asks, and my eyes soften. As much as Idonot care for my own actual son, the vampire in front of me has earned my respect a dozen times over.
“I’d never hurt anyone you cared about.”
He stares at me, the silence pulling tight between us. The honesty I’ve never spoken before. Then I shrug and stand. “Then again, I promised Sau I wouldn’t hurt any of her family either and well…” I flash a grin, then lick his blood off my lips.
His eyes harden, but he doesn’t attack me for playing with him. Whether or not I set Destiny up to die along with mysondoesn’t matter. Vlad isn’t strong enough to kill me. Nor is he sneaky enough for a paranoid fucker like me.
“Now, get out so I can enjoy my bath.”
I step past him, daring him to try to attack me now that I’m so close, but he doesn’t. Perhaps he took my advice to heart about being smarter the next time he tried. Steppinginto the bath, I settle into the lukewarm blood that still drips from the corpses above me.
He rises to his feet, then leaves. The door slams behind him, and I smile at his need to get in one last word. It’s so unlike him. He must be really hurting overherdeath.
