Page 49 of Silent Stalker
“Would this make my mother blood bound to him?”
Worse, I wondered if I had, for a time, been bound to my father.
“No. It takes more than just drinking the same vampire’s blood to become blood bound. Or, let me correct myself—in the way you are thinking. Let’s take your mother as an example. While your father may have been slipping her blood, it is probable she held certain resentments about her marriage to him. This would interfere with their ability to bond. You started out quite possessive of your dessert, which made you more likely to become bonded with me. There needs to be mutual interest for a bond to properly form. That plus a direct application of teeth. I am guessing your father has not been nipping your mother—and that your mother had not started biting until she came into my maker’s care.”
I let out a relieved sigh, located a ladle, and serving everyone some soup before taking a seat at the island. “Have you gotten any news about her?”
“She is relieved you’re alive and well, upset that your father robbed her of dressing you in a pretty gown, and is otherwise hunting my maker with disturbing enthusiasm. I took the liberty of promising that she could witness you dressed in a pretty gown, as vampires love ceremonies more than we probably should. If you think human marriage ceremonies are lavish, Mrs. Lowrance, the parties vampires host redefine what it means to be extravagant. We cannot escape the ceremony.”
“Wait, I get the vampire and the fancy wedding?”
“You get both,” Emerick confirmed. “And vampires tend to hold vow renewals every hundred years, though the scale varies on the length of the marriage. Five hundred years has quite the ceremony, as it is relatively uncommon for pairings to survive for so long. Life is rarely kind, and while we can live a long time, most of us simply don’t. Annora and Gerry have been together for over four hundred years now. Next year, I will begin planning their ceremony along with the rest of the brood. We will begin our counting with our official ceremony, and our documented marriage will serve as our engagement period in the eyes of most vampires. No sane vampire will judge me for claiming you before someone else might steal you away. My age helps with that.”
“They’re just grateful your ancient, grouchy ass might be less grouchy because you have a partner?” I guessed.
“Indeed.”
I turned my attention to Ford. “Is there anything else you’re going to tell me that I’m not going to like?”
“I’m sure there is,” he replied.
“Hit me with the worst of the lot.”
“There is the possibility that these vampires were trying to start a mass hunt to eliminate the competition—by releasing vampires in a state of bloodlust, they might trigger our genocide, allowing them to have us all killed off, jailed, or worse. It’s a possibility we can’t afford to ignore. How better to start a vampire hunt than releasing a bunch of crazed, starved vampires capable of drinking half the city dry before recovering their sanity?”
The possibility chilled me. “Is that something a vampire might do?”
Emerick checked his chicken, adjusted the timer, and sat next to me, poking at his bowl of soup rather than eating it. “It’s been done before. I’m sure it will be done again. It wasn’t done through lusting vampires, but in other ways. They just launched attacks on villages and towns near where the rival brood lived. Neither method has honor, but I can’t deny the possibility.”
“Is that something my father might do?”
“No,” Gerry, Ford, and Emerick chorused.
I stilled, raising a brow at the immediacy of their response. “Why not?”
“Your father is a man wishing to build his empire, not destroy it—and he has chosen New York as the home of his empire. It’s that simple. The last thing he wants is for someone else to tear it down around his ears,” Emerick explained. “While I have no doubt he wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate the competition, his efforts fall apart if there are no vampires for him to manipulate and absorb into his brood. And the more I think on how he might benefit from his currently established leasing rules, the more I realize he’s truly playing a long game, one where he ensnares other vampires and takes over broods in ruthless financial victories. But what I don’t know is if he’ll ultimately be a benefit to us or a threat. On the surface, he appears to be a threat. But then I remember one important thing.”
“What thing?” I asked.
“Someone with as much compassion, intellect, and drive does not happen by accident. Your father knew precisely what he was doing when he cultivated you—and he used himself as the example for you not to follow. But to what purpose? Why? I promise you this much, Pepper. I intend to find out.”
