Page 13 of Bottoms Up (Mythic Beast #4)

A few weeks later

Silver

I had no idea why Kirsten told me I needed a supernatural attorney and gave me the contact info of who to hire, but I found myself walking into a meeting in an underground office of The Billiard Club with a gorgeous vampire wearing a skintight business suit with sky-high heels by my side.

“Thanks for agreeing to meet me here,” Marco said. “It’s important we do this away from Julian. You’ll be able to talk to him about it later, but for a number of reasons, he can’t be included in these initial legal discussions.”

We were just across the interstate from the mall, so the drive hadn’t been a big deal. The secrecy, though — the off-site location, the absence of the person most affected — that signaled a problem.

I wanted to skip the small talk and get to the part where someone told me what the hell was going on.

“You’ve done a good job of building a shield,” Marco told me, “but it goes away at night when you sleep, which means I’ve looked through your memories of the week you spent with your brother, and I know you understand a little more about the legal matters involving slaves.”

I kept my voice even. “Okay.”

It wouldn’t do any good for me to get pissed. Kirsten says if you can’t keep them out, they can come in. I would talk to Sophia about how to keep my shields up at night, but for now, he’d been through those memories and there was no way to undo that.

“I have a proposition for you. A way to possibly fast-track things.” Marco looked at my attorney and back to me.

“While I could send Julian for testing and free him now, I’ve been reticent to do that because…

” He sighed. “Think of a teenager, being slowly given more and more freedoms, preparing them for adulthood. This way, they make small mistakes rather than huge ones, and they’re given more and more responsibilities as they show the ability to handle them. ”

“Julian’s never had freedom, and you’re worried he’ll make great big mistakes.”

A tiny nod. “I can send him for a test that will allow him around humans without supervision, but won’t give him his freedom.

He’ll pass it with ease and, if you’re amenable, I’d like you to negotiate a TPE contract with him — full control of his finances and time management along with every other aspect of his life.

He’ll be my employee with you overseeing him.

If things go well for, say, nine months, we’ll look at sending him for the tests that will allow me to sign over my control of him, so Julian is his own man. ”

The attorney spoke for the first time. “As a free vampire, being under a human’s control — especially a total power exchange — will create unwanted complications.”

Marco inclined his head. “Their contract will be written to dissolve once he’s a free vampire.” He looked back to me. “I’ll feel better if Julian still talks to you before he does anything big once he’s free, but he’ll have to be entirely his own man.”

“Benji thinks Julian won’t be as low in the hierarchy as he thinks, once he’s completely free.”

He tilted his head sideways a tiny bit. “Your Benjamin is a smart man.”

I turned to the attorney. “Anything I should know about taking on the responsibility of a vampire owned by someone else?”

“Will Julian obey you?”

“I won’t know until I talk to him. If he signs a document saying he will, then yes, he’ll honor it. I just don’t know if he’ll want to sign it.” I looked at Marco. “He’ll have no choice if you order him to, but it feels as if this should be his decision.”

Marco nodded. “I’ll order him to decide how badly he wishes to be free, but I won’t tell him whether to sign it or not.”

“And if he fucks up, will you hold Silver responsible?” the attorney asked Marco.

Marco met my gaze a few seconds. “If I see the situation isn’t working, I’ll stop the trial before it spirals. If there’s a major failure, the responsibility will lie on my shoulders, for not seeing it and applying the brakes.”

“That being said,” the attorney told me, “my advice is to do whatever feels right. If you’re willing to take on this responsibility and wish to do so, there’s no legal reason not to. Understand, though, the weight of the task you’re being given.”

“He does,” Marco said. “Silver’s been a slave in a TPE situation.

He’s aware exactly of what’s involved in a total power exchange, possibly more than if he’d been the Master in such a relationship.

” He met my gaze. “I’ll send a sample contract.

I know you’ll want to reword it, but I need all elements in Part A included in your final contract with Julian.

The elements in Part B are recommended, but optional based on your preferences. ”

I nodded. “If I have any issues with Part A items, we’ll talk.”

“It would work best to let her read those items now, while I’m present,” the attorney said.

Marco lifted his phone, worked on it about thirty seconds, and data flashed onto a wall-mounted screen, off to our side.

It said I’d open joint checking and savings accounts with Julian and track everything that went in or out.

I’d set pre-authorized permissions for certain purchases, contractually set, but he’d need my approval for anything above or beyond.

I’d have access to the list he keeps for his work projects, so if I saw him wasting time, I could check whether he was behind or ahead.

There was more, a helluva lot more, and I agreed with all of it.

Until I got to the final bullet point.

That one said the way he’d agree to the contract was by letting me finish the scene we’d started once before. The one where I’d rolled his balls flat to see if recreating the trauma he’d experienced as a child might help him get past it.

But I’d stopped after only a few light passes of the roller, before I’d put much weight behind it, because his tears hadn’t been healthy, they’d been wrong .

Hopeless . He’d broken down like an eight-year-old who’s just watched his family brutally slaughtered.

I know what catharsis is, and this had been the opposite.

He hadn’t just sobbed, he’d splintered so completely, I worried whatever magic animated him might vanish.

I’d stopped the scene and held him, and telepathed Marco to please send someone in to feed him.

I sat back, the weight of the memory pressing into my chest, and considered why Marco might want us to finish the scene.

The room was silent. I wasn’t sure how long I sat like that before I finally said, “Benji advised me, strongly, not to give Julian money. I’m going to follow his advice, at least for now, but will Julian make enough to pay for a therapist?

Someone who understands supernaturals? Because I won’t repeat that scene unless he has someone trustworthy besides me to talk to — before and after.

Someone good .” And I made a mental note to talk to Kirsten about who she recommended.

Marco sat back in his chair. “Vampires mostly laugh at therapy, but in this case, I believe the man Kirsten sent many of her patients to when she closed her practice can help Julian confront the life his parents sold him into. I’ll tell him my employees get a dozen sessions a year with Dr. Woods, which is true.

The vampires rarely take advantage of it, but many in my flock do.

I’d suggest making mandatory appointments with Woods a condition of your contract. ”

I nodded, and then tackled the why , because I needed to understand. “You want there to be a cost for the chance at freedom?”

Marco tilted his head. “A bonus, but my purpose is in making sure Julian steps into his freedom with strength, purpose, and self-confidence. The customary testing process he’ll undergo for the Senatus is designed to give this to him, proving to those being tested as well as those overseeing the process that control is absolute.

Julian has been a slave so long, I’m afraid he needs more — a crucible he survives as proof he can do this. ”

Something in the way he seemed about to say something and then didn’t, made me say, “There’s more.”

A single lifted brow. “A change in management. I require the procedure and you perform it. Completion denotes the change. A door you and Julian have walked through.” He steepled his hands, considering, and then lowered them.

“It will be a trial for both of you, but also a reminder the two of you are in this together. You are taking on this role because you love him, and you want him to grow into being his own man. You’ll have to be a cruel bitch, the parent figure, and I’m sorry for it, but you’re the only one I trust to do it without breaking him. ”

His words hit like a sledgehammer. My turn to sit back in my chair. “I’ll have to take him down to practically nothing to start. Not the same as breaking someone in, but he’ll need to feel what zero permissions looks like, so I can add to them, build them up.”

Marco smiled. “And this is why you’re the perfect person to oversee Julian. You’ll do fine, young Silver.”

I looked the sample contract over again, considering details.

The only item not listed yet was the therapist. Drake Security had sent Micca to Dr. Woods after she was turned into a bear shifter, so he clearly knows about supernaturals. I met Marco’s gaze. “Can you get him in to see Dr. Woods soon, or will it take months to get his first appointment?”

“I can get him in.”

“Okay, then.”

The attorney glanced at the screen. “You’re good with the list?”

“I am.” I met Marco’s gaze again. “As long as therapy is part of it.”

“One final note,” the attorney said. “To a long-lived vampire, nine months is the blink of an eye, the same as a week or two feels to a human. I don’t believe Marco fully grasps what he’s asking of you, and the fact your relationship with Julian may not survive once this term is over and the two of you try to go back to the life you led before.

Consider carefully before you fully commit.

Legally, there are no issues, which means my part is done. ”

Based on what Marco had said, disagreeing would never be an option for me.

No way in hell did I want someone else rolling Julian’s balls flat.

The whole process was going to be brutal, but at least I’d know what to say to him, how to help him.

We’d step into it with therapy beforehand this time, to get him into the proper mindset, and we’d get through it.

I lifted my phone, logged into the link she’d sent me earlier, clicked that the meeting was over, and did the math in my head to make sure the site figured it correctly.

Forty minutes was two-thirds of an hour, so the nearly sixty-four-hundred-dollar total seemed about right — a thousand dollars to talk to me on the phone for background and then show up at the meeting, plus eight thousand dollars an hour.

I’d entered my credit card information when I’d paid the initial fee, so I only had to accept the total and tell it to pay.

Her phone dinged, and she smiled. “It’s been a pleasure. Your payment includes up to thirty minutes of follow-up questions. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you need me again.”

She stood and walked out, and I told Marco, “Anything I need to know that you didn’t want to say around her?”

“I want to give Julian the best chance at succeeding. I believe you want the same, so she wasn’t necessary, and yet, I’m glad Kirsten insisted.

Humans shouldn’t walk into official supernatural negotiations without either completely understanding the rules, or without someone on their side who does.

Now that you know someone who can look out for your interests, you’ll be more likely to hire her again in the future. ”

“At first, I thought I’d want to talk to Julian about this alone, but I’ve changed my mind.

I think the two of us should tell him about it together, and then I should leave for at least a few days, maybe longer, so he has time away from me to think it through and decide.

Also, I’d like for him to see Dr. Woods during the time I’m away. ”

We’d be leaving soon to perform, and I wanted to be certain I told him the correct dates.

I thumbed my phone on, opened my calendar, and met his gaze.

“We leave for a music festival in five days, and I’ll be gone five days.

The odds of getting him an appointment less than ten days out probably aren’t great, though. ”

He shrugged. “I have an ongoing relationship with the good doctor, since about a dozen employees see him, as well as a few of the flock. I’ll get him in.

Might mean a member of the flock has an emergency that frees up a time slot, but one way or another, Julian will see him at least once, possibly twice, while you’re gone. ”