Page 51 of Caller of Crows

Mordyn grinned.

"You're ridiculous," Altair muttered.

"Maybe, but I got you an offer, didn't I?"

Altair picked up the piece of paper and scanned the information. The price Mordyn had managed to haggle out wasn't anything spectacular, and Altair wondered if the buyers would even pay the full amount.

Still, the coven could use the money.

"Fine," he agreed. "Set up a meeting for tonight."

"Sure. Anything else?"

"Nothing else," Altair said. "That will be all."

"Right." Mordyn turned to the door but didn't immediately leave.

Altair waited.

"I hear whispers," Mordyn said. "Several of our coven members have been wondering if they'll get to drink from the mortal we're keeping."

Altair's eyes narrowed as anger stirred in his chest. "Absolutely not." The mere thought of letting any other vampire taste Sven made Altair's hackles rise. The mortal washis.

Mordyn looked amused at Altair's reaction. "I figured."

"I won't tolerate anyone trying to get their fangs into him."

"Is that the example you tried to set with poor Gav?"

Altair's nose wrinkled as if the name was a bad smell. Gav was the vampire who'd tried to attack Sven in the hall,clearlydisregarding Altair's order that the mortal was not to be approached without permission, and while Altair didn't usually resort to violence against his own coven, he didn't regret punishing Gav for this particular crime.

"Gav deserved everything he got," Altair said, his tone hard. "And whoever else tries anything similar will be punished accordingly."

Mordyn inclined his head. "I'll let everyone know. Just try not to kill anyone, hm? We're already the smallest coven in the city."

Altair said nothing.

Mordyn shrugged "I'll leave you to your paperwork. I need to go meet with the new dancers, anyway."

"New dancers?" Altair inquired.

"Oh, yes." Mordyn grinned. "For the club. We got some fresh blood in too. You should come and have a taste. It would do you good."

"I don't recall hiring anyone new. Or giving you the funds to do so."

"True, but since I got you that offer," Mordyn pointed at the slip of paper he'd shown Altair earlier, "I knew we had some money coming in soon, so I did what had to be done."

"What had to be done," Altair echoed tonelessly. If Mordyn wasn't one of his oldest friends…

"You know we need more entertainment, now that Mikael started that OnlyFangs stream and brought in all those new customers."

"You really need to take better care of your fledgling." Altair pinched the bridge of his nose.

"He's not a fledgling anymore."

"Well, he acts like one. Get him in line."

"C'mon," Mordyn said. "It's a good stream. You should watch it sometime."