Page 27 of Bonded By Blood (Sweetblood #1)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
P avlos set his phone down and glided to the two-way mirror on the far side of the small room. One of his most capable lieutenants was preparing for an important pickup. He was to report back as soon as he made the capture, hopefully in the next few days.
He watched through the glass as two Darkblood doctors, outfitted with personal oxygen masks, strapped a struggling woman to a laboratory table. Too bad she couldn’t be sedated for the tests, as he’d like to be in the room and personally oversee the whole procedure. But he just couldn’t tolerate a screaming human unless he had his teeth embedded in soft flesh, and then it would be sweet music when the sound vibrated against his lips. Without the vein, it was fingernails on a chalkboard.
Considering her dyed hair and the faint wrinkles around her eyes, he guessed her age to be around forty-five. Rather remarkable she’d lived this long, he thought, as her legs went into the stirrups. Sweetblood was compelling to all vampires, not just Darkbloods. Even neophytes made mistakes.
With a ring-laden hand, he wiped the corner of his mouth as he watched the action unfold. It had been at least three weeks since he’d drunk off the hoof from a sweetblood, and he was so damned thirsty. The weak energies in the Pacific Northwest population weren’t helping, either. Why the hell did any vampire choose to live up here?
Although he couldn’t wait to get back home, he had been dreaming of this day forever. The day all vampires would look back on and recognize as a defining moment in their history. A history that he’d shaped and created. Would he have a day named in his honor? A statue erected? Euphoria lifted him off his feet, and he ghosted closer to the viewing window.
Soon everyone would see him as the reformer he was, bringing glory back to their kind, elevating them to the top of the food chain again, where they rightly belonged. All those doubters, those weak Council followers, would bow down before him.
He wiped his moist hands on the folds of his black robe. Yes. Those who’d laughed him off as a feeble, ineffectual youthling would be forced to admit he was right. That their kind did become stronger on a diet consisting strictly of human blood.
A heady scent poured off his skin, and he inhaled. It was the scent of a leader.
If things went as planned, in less than a year, when the first batch of sweetbloods was born, the lucky souls who chose to follow him would be granted unlimited Sweet. How much blood could they take from a human infant without killing it? They’d soon find out. If things progressed well up here, the other labs around the country were set to become operational shortly, and then they’d have a plethora of test subjects. Many of his kind had never even tasted Sweet before and when they did, he had no doubt he’d have throngs of eager followers. No, he wasn’t about to let the momentous events of the next few days pass without witnessing every last detail himself.
He tilted his head as the woman screamed, but he didn’t hear a thing. Thank God for soundproof glass. Maybe she wouldn’t pass the tests. Sweet from a vial didn’t compare to the energies one could get straight from the source. Forty-five was a bit old to bear children, so it was a definite possibility she’d fail to qualify for their little project. If so, he’d have her brought around to his quarters for disposal.
One of the doctors, holding a metal instrument, stepped between her spread legs. The woman twisted, tried to buck her hips up from the gurney. Was that glitter polish on her toenails? With narrowed eyes, the Overlord noticed her manicured fingernails, too. She was a woman who took care of herself.
He pressed the intercom button. “Remove the sheet.” The woman’s head cranked around in the direction of the speaker, and someone whipped off the hospital-blue cloth.
As the Overlord eyeballed her heavy breasts, curvy hips, and shapely calves, his erection tented the fabric of his robe. On second thought, maybe he’d have a little fun first. Licking his lips, he watched as the testing began.