Page 17

Chapter Seventeen

Master was not happy that my first feed was not on Strega blood, but ascribed my failure to fledgling desperation against a powerful Strega fighting harder than he expected.

“She’ll be back, or one like her. Then you will taste it.” He comforts me as if I am upset about my inability to take her. “Come. You’ll need to feed again soon.”

“Yes, Master.” I can already feel the hunger rising again.

“You will call me Master, but you will know my name.”

I don’t want to know it. Any more intimacy with this thing might break my heart.

He whispers it in my ear.

Manod.

The syllables mean nothing to me. If there was ever a legend about him, it has been lost. There’s a small relief in that. I am not subject to a deity. He is a common monster.

When he takes me out into the city, I squint and blink in the glare of the moon.

“Hunt.” He pushes me into the street, where blood still runs in the gutter.