Page 83 of Absolution

“Sam is so hot,” Luca said sleepily.

Seiran snorted. “And the vampire baby is loopy.”

“I gave him some pain meds,” Jamie said.

“Not a baby,” Luca said. “I’m older than all of you.”

Seiran waved his hand like he was trying to clarify his thoughts. “Sam is the youngest of us. So it makes sense. Just because my powers showed up early doesn’t mean everyone’s does.”

“Didn’t start having to change until I was almost eighteen,” Kelly said.

“Mine really evolved in the past two years,” said Con. “Sam is barely nineteen.”

“Right ‘cause the rest of you are all geezers,” I remarked. Early twenties was not old.

“No, but none of us had a null suppressing our first years of power.”

“Seiran was with Matthew when he was a kid,” I reminded them.

“My powers hadn’t manifested yet,” Seiran said.

“Okay, so I’m a fire elemental as well as a siphon? Is that a thing?”

“Apparently. I’ll have to talk to the Dominion. See if we can get you a one-on-one fire witch to help train you.” He looked back at the fire ravaged structure. Not much remained of the arboretum. “Just so you don’t burn the house down.”

“I didn’t mean to burn the place down. I was trying to save the world.”

“Now who has the white knight syndrome?” Con asked.

I glared at him. “Whose side are you on?”

He kissed me. “Whatever side keeps us breathing.”

I sighed into his lips while I listened to Luca’s steady heartbeat. Okay. I could be on board with that.

Chapter 25

The broken vampire bonds were a mess. My fault, I guess. Since I’d refused to take them from Tresler. Some vampires died, destroyed by the police, too broken to take themselves to ground to heal. Others were bondeden masseto the few strong vampires, who had not bonded to Tresler, that were left. This included Mike and Max.

Which was how I ended up standing in a brand-new tailored suit in Max’s office with twelve other vampires, all of which I’d never met. Apparently Max was now doing the bonding thing. He’d cited some bullshit about his government contracts when I’d made a comment about it.

He seemed unaffected by the incident. Whatever wound he had received from our bond, was long gone only a few days later. He’d given Luca a week to rest, and me along with him, though he set goals to be completed before I’d arrive in his office, like getting the suit. Fucking suit felt like a million ants crawling on my skin. And how did people breathe in this shit?

All the vampires were dressed up, like little dolls, all watching Max with devoted eyes. It annoyed me. If he was looking for a zombie ass-kisser from me, he’d picked the wrong vampire to save.

The edge of Max’s lips curved up in a tiny smile and I felt his gaze on me. I met it with defiance, daring him to challenge me. Could he hear my thoughts? Maybe, and so what? Fuck him. I didn’t have a daddy kink. It was Seiran who’d begged him to save me.

“Everyone has their assigned mentor,” Max said as he walked around the desk to stand before the group. We had already gone through a long list of expectations, guidelines, and issued equipment. I’d never had such a stuffy job before. “I expect great things of all of you. Treat your mentors well or my use for you will find an abrupt end.”

Well wasn’t that friendly.

Luca got up out of the chair beside the desk. He looked good in the light gray Armani suit that hugged his frame. He’d lost a little bit of weight while healing, but I knew the wound to be nothing more than a slightly raised pink scar. Not the first bullet, he told me, but I really hoped it was the last. Seiran promised to feed him up and had been cooking up a storm. At least it kept his mind occupied.

Luca crossed the room to my side as the crowd began to disperse to their assigned areas. I was apparently going to be Luca’s assistant, which might have sounded fun for about two seconds before I realized it was a lot of phone calls and scheduling in order to free up his time for phone calls and scheduling for Max. Add to that a regular fight schedule, two shifts a week at the bar, and required Dominion training on the weekends, and my days were about to get really long.

“Did you get your reading done?” Luca asked as he waved goodbye to his father and directed me into the elevator.

I sighed. “Con read to me while I played video games. Does that count?”