Page 36 of Fear

“How old are you?”

I tried not to tense. “How old are you?”

“Don’t you know?”

“You were a minor power when you first showed up on a Slayer’s radar enough to make notes about you. It’s possible we have notes from earlier, but a name change didn’t get processed.” Not the complete truth, but the one most likely to get me information.

“Sometimes,” she said, “I’m certain you aren’t more than a century old, other times, it feels as if you’re three hundred or more.”

“I know you’re at least seven hundred. You feel...” I shrugged. “Somewhere between twelve hundred and twenty-five hundred. I can usually narrow it down better, but your power isn’t a constant.”

Other Slayers had noted this as well. A Slayer in Italy had theorized that her ability to feed from a human’s emotions gave her power swings. We knew this was the case with the vampires who feed on lust, so it wasn’t a stretch.

“Do you know how old Marco is?” she asked.

“I know the two of you were made by the same vampire, but I’m not certain which of you is older.”

“Would Blade talk to Augustus about another vampire? Would she tell him about other Slayers? Their jobs would seem to be in opposition — how does that work?”

“She treats her job as Slayer like a cop would treat an ongoing investigation to his or her family. Most of the time, she doesn’t talk to him about her job. She doesn’t take her work home. When her ties to him complicate her job, she has no choice but to include him, but they try to keep it to a minimum.”

“What are we doing? If it’s a quick roll in the hay you’re looking for, I can have my driver take us to TBC, since I’d rather not fuck the slayer in the coterie house.”

My heart sped and I knew she’d hear it, but I hadn’t known it was going to until it did. She’d hear if I slowed it back down, too. Better to leave it. “And if I want more?” I asked.

When she didn’t answer, I told her, “You can’t deny the kiss.”

She’d turned to look at the water, and she shifted back to meet my gaze once more. “I just had sex with someone else. Does that bother you?”

“No, but if it bothers you, we can shower together first.”

“I’m not used to being dominated.”

“Not entirely true. My guess is that you haven’t been dominated much since you joined with Marco, but it hasn’t been that long.”

Something about her expression gave me pause, and I asked, “You scared Griffin, didn’t you?”

She shrugged. “Griffin let me pick and choose, so long as I was doing a good job for him. My Concilio Masters...” Another shrug. She didn’t want to talk about it. “Have you ever had sex with a Strigorii?”

“No. Nor have I had sex with a predatory shapeshifter.”

“You’d chew a nice little deer up in no time.”

I shook my head. “Non-predatory shapeshifters see us as their guardians. They aren’t afraid of us.”

“You’re giving me more information than you’re supposed to.”

“Because there’s a question you want to ask, and I’m trying to let you know I’ll answer it if you ask.”

* * * *

Etta

He wasn’t reading my mind, and yet, he knew what I wanted to ask.

Was I certain he wasn’t reading my mind? No. Slayers stay mysterious on purpose.

“How do you know I want to ask something?”