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“It’s so we’ll belong to him. Bound to him. Brooke bought us from the Concilio, but she told us before she signed the dotted line that we’d be bound to a now-extinct snake, and he’d be handling most of our training. She didn’t have to get our agreement, but she did.”

He sounded tired when he told her, his eyes closed, his body stinking of pain and exhaustion.

“Have you been able to eat?”

“I’ve kept broth down a few times, but I usually throw it back up.”

“Your IV solution has calories, but it’s carbs. You need protein and fat.”

“Just the thought of eating solid food makes me want to puke again. Please stop talking about food.”

“Okay. Close your eyes and relax.”

Another cat shifter crawled into the other side of the bed, and Genie focused on the conversation happening in the procedure room. They needed to take the bracelets Elijah was wearing off before they could put on a set designed to work together. Dev assured the bear shifter he had enough control to keep Elijah fromchangingwhile they made the swap.

“Thanks for helping save him,” Ezra told Genie. “I think he might have died if you hadn’t known what to do.”

“This infirmary seems nearly as well-stocked as a rural emergency room. Better, since they had antivenom on thepremises. Without the right drugs, there might not have been anything I could’ve done.”

Brooke suddenly appeared at the bottom of the bed, and Genie’s owl wanted to panic, but Genie took a slow breath and pushed her frightened bird down.

“I value the humans and the shapeshifters under my care,” Brooke told her. “I second Ezra’s thanks. I could sense Elijah leaving us. I’ve learned in the past, there’s nothing my bite can do to save someone Dev’s snake has bitten. My vampire venom can often save someone having a heart attack or occasionally an allergic reaction. I’m thankful you understood what was happening and knew what to do.”

Rather than ask why Dev had bitten someone when any Master Vampire should be able to take hold of her people’s willpower and control them, she decided to pose a more strategic question. “You have antivenom for Dev’s snake well stocked. This tells me it isn’t the first time he’s bitten people in your household. I’m surprised you allow a snake with so little control to roam freely. I was under the impression he was safe to be around. You should’ve told the bikers he could lose control and bite me without warning.”

Dev spoke from the procedure room. “My snake is under complete control. With one exception since I matured, every person I’ve bitten has been at Brooke’s order, and the one exception was only done because the person asked me to bite her and convinced me it was the best strategic plan.”

“I am not a normal vampire,” Brooke told her. “I’m alive because someone saw that I was a fighter and wanted to survive, and he gave me a safe place to live while I figured out how a powerful being in a child’s body goes about living a long life. Part of how I do that is by taking in others who don’t fit the normal mold, but who want to live. Mostly, I handle the powerful vampires I accept into my coterie, but Dev is responsible for alarge portion of training and containing the weaker vampires, andallof the shapeshifters, most of whom are dangerous until taught control. Once he bites someone, they become his as well as mine. It’s a binding, and it allows him more control over them. Not quite a leash on their psyche, but something close.”

She considered Genie a few seconds. “I can control them when I’m awake, but they’d likely need to be locked up while I’m down for the day. If Dev binds them to him, they can have some freedom while the sun reigns. Most shapeshifters need to run in the sun. Not owls, of course, but cats, certainly.

“The pumas had an unusual start to life,” Remy said. “Brooke wants to give them a shot at a normal life, but as you saw the other day, they need oversight.”

Genie took a second to remember that puma is another word for mountain lion. Just as a polecat and a skunk are the same animal, and a buzzard and vulture are the same thing, cougars are also called mountain lions, pumas, catamounts, panthers, and even painters.

“Our mum went to cat form when she was three months pregnant, and stayed that way,” Ezra told her. “We were born in cat form. We ended up in the care of the Concilio when we appeared to be perhaps three or four years old in human form, but only a few months old in cat form, so they figured we were likely only two or three months old. Backtracking to when our mum figured out she was pregnant and when she’d have given birth with the last two-thirds of her pregnancy as a cat, it was later verified. We had no language skills at all, when found.”

“It’s been twenty-five years since the Concilio took them in,” Brooke said. “They’ve been in the Concilio’s stable since they were fifteen, but I convinced a few of those I have influence with to put them on the auction block so I could have a chance to help them. They will either figure out how to live as free people, or a way to be fulfilled within the coterie while being owned by me, orI will put them back on the auction block and they will be slaves to another vampire, which is what the Concilio raised them to be.”

The Concilio’s stable. Genie was pretty sure that mean they’d been sex slaves, rented for the night or weekend, or leased for longer terms.

“We went on the auction block as sex slaves,” Ezra said. “Brooke was allowed two hours with us the day before the auction. At the time, we’d never thought becoming a freeperson was an option, so we told her we’d like the chance. She outbid everyone else, and now she owns us. Problem is, my brother isn’t so sure we’re up to the challenge, and now I’m worrying, too. Slaves get punished for disobeying orders. Freepersons are expected to know what to do without being given orders. We’ve never had to do that before.”

Brooke settled her hand on Ezra’s foot. “You won’t be expected to do so all at once. I’ve had some experience teaching people how to move from slave to freeperson. Not everyone is happy with the transition. My biggest concern is what we do if one of you is and the other is not, because I don’t believe you can be separated without causing a great deal of harm.”

Ezra nodded. “I love my brother, but he…” He shook his head, closed his eyes, and turned his face away from them.

Genie had her arm around him, and she made a point of relaxing it, as well as the rest of her body. Ezra had gone stiff, and he slowly relaxed after Genie did.

“It’s possible we’ll both always need a keeper,” he finally said. “And Brooke told us she could work with that — something between slave and freeperson. Even if I’m mostly okay without orders and Elijah isn’t, I think we can figure it out. Maybe. I just know it doesn’t work for me to try to be his keeper.”

“We’ll never ask you to be Elijah’s keeper.” Brooke said. She put power into her voice and said, “Sleep, my kitty cat.” The manin Genie’s arms dropped off to sleep, and Genie wished she could manage that particular trick with her patients at the hospital.

“Nothing you’ve learned here is your secret to tell, little owl,” Brooke told her.

Genie considered that a few seconds before responding, because it was important she stay loyal to the RTMC. “So long as it isn’t information the bikers need to keep someone safe, there won’t be a need for me to tell them.”

Brooke nodded. “Just make sure I’ll agree with your interpretation of the situation. I, too, want the bikers and their people to be safe.”