Page 75 of Caller of Crows

While Mordyn was talking, and Altair controlled the urge to strangle his friend, Sven grabbed one of the menus and started browsing it. "Wow," he said after a moment, catching Altair's attention. "I never knew there were so many different types of blood."

Altair turned to him. "The majority is synthetic."

"But not all of it?"

Mordyn grinned. "Depends on who's asking."

Altair gave his friend a sharp look before addressing Sven again. "We use trustworthy sources for the drinks that aren't synthetic."

"Locally farmed?" Sven asked with a sardonic expression.

Mordyn laughed. "You could say that. People volunteer to give their blood. Well, I don't know if you can really call it volunteering when they're getting paid."

"So it is ethical then?" Sven said, glancing back down at the list of names on the menu.

"If you want to call it that." Altair glanced at Mordyn. "Mordyn is the one who vets our dealers."

Sven frowned at the menu. "You don't really care if this is all obtained ethically, do you? You weren't that concerned when it was my blood you wanted to sell."

Altair met Sven's gaze evenly. "You're right," he agreed. He was what he was, and he had made his choices a very long time ago. "I'm not going to pretend I'm anything I'm not, but for the club, it's best if the menu holds up to inspection."

Sven seemed to consider that for a moment. Then he nodded.

"But seriously, please order something," Mordyn put in, "we only serve quality stuff here."

"I don't drink blood," Sven reminded him.

Mordyn leaned toward him as if he was about to share a secret. "You'd be surprised. Not only vampires drink blood here. There's some drinks we serve… the cocktails…" He reached over to Sven and trailed his finger down the menu in Sven's hand. "They contain only a little bit of blood. You wouldn'ttasteit on your mortal tongue, but the things these drinks coulddoto you…" He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Cut it," Altair said. "He's here for food, not to get high on pixie blood."

Mordyn shrugged. "Why not both?"

Sven looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I'd rather just have the food."

"If that's your desire." Mordyn jumped off his bar stool and slid around to the other side. "I'll get you something."

"I thought you were banned from the kitchens," Altair said.

"Vadis is busy cleaning up in the back. He'll never notice."

Mordyn disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Altair alone with Sven at last. Sven looked around the club, and Altair didn't miss the way the mortal's gaze lingered on the persistent blood stains on the wall. He'd have to get those painted over soon.

Sven frowned at him. "So what happened?" he asked. "Did you fight with another vampire coven? Because of me?"

"Not only because of you," Altair told him. "We've had a target painted on our back ever since I took over this coven."

"You killed your sire," Sven said, showing that he'd done his research.

"It would be an understatement to say that that sort of action is frowned upon among vampires," Altair admitted. "Quite a few vampires decided they didn't want to be associated with me after that."

"So why did you do it?"

Altair shook his head. "I didn't. No vampire can kill their sire."

"Then how…?"

"The crows did it for me."