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Also clothes in their sizes were handed to any slave or indentured servant in the coterie the garment would fit. Except in the case of very small or very large slaves, clothes weren’t assigned to any one person.

So, buying them necessities like clothes wasn’t an option, even if she could’ve convinced Brooke and Dev to let her, because they’d have gone into the general slave-pool of clothes.

What about books? Could she convince Brooke to buy some book about math or science or engineering for Ezra, and perhaps a how-to art book for Elijah? Or maybe art supplies for him. She understood he’d been given some art supplies and a space to create, though he’d had to offer extra services to earn access to them, which she assumed meant more vampires to feed. Also, there was some legal stuff about him not owning anything he made from the coterie’s supplies.

Dev had been clear that she needed to run whatever she wanted to get them by him first, to make sure it was okay. He’d assured her that the rules should be different the following year, but had stressed how important it was to keep their status as slaves front and center, so they’d have incentive to pull their way out of it.

She could offer them an hour massage, maybe, though that wasn’t exactly her specialty.

That gave her an idea — what if she paid for them to have an experience? She could buy them time with a massage therapist, though an outsider couldn’t go to Dev’s house, so there’d be the logistics of taking them somewhere, so that was probably out.

Could she rent something they could have the use of for a short time? A bouncy house, or a trampoline?

And then she knew exactly what to give them. She made a phone call to Razor in Chattanooga to make sure he was up for it, and then called Brooke rather than Dev. Brooke okayed it, since she has an agreement with the RTMC, and Razor was a member in good standing.

“We never got around to setting up the telepathic link with Dev. Is this something you still want?” Brooke asked.

“Can you do it tomorrow night before everything gets started, please?”

“I can. My limo will come to pick the four of you up, and we can do it on the way.”

“Thank you.”

“Dev will tell you that most of the time, I prefer to be treated as a child around others, at least on the surface. The Christmas Carnival is especially true of that, once we arrive, but I don’t mind handling a few things in the limo on the way. You understand, I’ll be holding onto the willpower of your cats, tomorrow night, to make sure they don’t get into trouble. I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings about the fact I’ll be monitoring their thoughts all night, and that will include everything they see and hear.”

So she’d hear all of Genie’s conversations with the twins. Brooke could anytime, of course, but the assumption was she didn’t do so all the time, usually.

“Thank you for the reminder, Master Brooke.”

“I wish you didn’t feel the need to be formal with me. I hope we can get beyond that, and the fact you called me for this feels like progress.”

“I don’t suppose I can get some kind of guarantee from you that you’ll warn me before hurting me in the future? That we can have a conversation about it, first?”

“I don’t know a Master Vampire on the planet who would agree to that with a shapeshifter who hasn’t agreed to…” She sighed. “Okay, I know two who would, but I’m not one of them. Consequences and punishments are often given with an emphasis on the theater of it, the ritual and tradition. However, there are times it’s best to provide pain in the moment.”

“Kind of like reprimanding a dog as soon as it misbehaves?”

“That is your analogy, not mine.”

“But it’s accurate, yes?”

“I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night. You are good for my Dev. He needs someone with spunk in his life.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Elijahlovedworking with clay. He’d painted the night before, but tonight, he was shaving little pieces of clay off the block, trying to let the dinosaur out that he knew was hiding inside.

A vampire named Aldrich had fed from him in the early morning hours, injected the hard-on cocktail when he had, and then ordered him to go soft. When Elijah couldn’t, Aldrich had whipped him, and then iced Elijah’s cock until it was soft, because the vampire thought it disrespectful for the ‘young man’ to have an erection while being fucked. A handful of the Concilio vampires had felt the same way. It was twisted, because they demanded you be hard at all other times, but you were supposed to be focused on them, rather than your own pleasure, while they fucked you.

But he’d known he was working for the coterie to purchase the clay as well as the time needed to work with the clay by agreeing to an extra session with Aldrich. Brooke had also been clear that she owned all of Elijah’s artwork, but that was okay, too. He just liked making it, and he understood that slaves can’t own property.

He had eight hours to work on the clay, and then Genie would arrive. The four were to have a meal together and then sleep, though Ezra and Elijah would be in cages in the same room, rather than in the bed with Genie and Dev.

Ezra thought that if Elijah hadn’t gone after the raccoon, they might be close to being allowed in the bed to sleep, and Elijah was afraid his brother might be right.

Speaking of his brother — while Elijah worked with his clay, Ezra was supposed to peel potatoes for the cook, wash dishes, vacuum all the living areas, and do any other odd jobs the cook had for him. Honestly, Elijah would rather be vampire food and then whipped and fucked without a hard-on than have to do all of that, but Ezra was pleased to be able to contribute without having to use his body.

As far as Elijah was concerned, his brother was still using his body to benefit the coterie, just in a different way.