Page 37 of Suck This

Better make it something she can’t spit in…

Constantine snorted, and I widened my eyes at him.

Had he heard me?

Constantine grinned, and I realized that yes, he sure as fuck could hear me.

Son. Of. A. Bitch. So, not a dream. He could talk, mind to mind, without opening his mouth at all.

I’d have to be careful about what I thought about while he was around.

“Chocolate milk,” I told the woman. “Thank you.”

The woman’s mouth pinched, but she nodded once and left without another word.

“I can’t hear all of your thoughts. You have a natural shield that I’d have to actually work at to penetrate. Your friend, Keisha, however. I could hear every single word she had to say and then some.”

I blinked.

“What’s a natural shield?” I found myself asking.

He held up his finger and started reaching for the phone even before it rang.

After a short, terse conversation, I bit my lip and watched as Constantine pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What?” I whispered.

He cleared his throat.

“Shields are complicated things,” he started saying, completely ignoring whatever had been said over the phone. “They can be built up over time if a person knows what they’re doing. I could teach Keisha how to shield, and after a time of practice, she would be able to shield her thoughts just like you do naturally. If I taught you how to shield, you would be impenetrable.”

“What else does my natural shield do?” I asked him.

“Most vampires won’t be able to mind control you. I could, but I wouldn’t,” he explained.

My brows went up.

“You could?”

He nodded. “Only Master Vampires can.”

“What makes a Master Vampire any more special than just your old regular Joe Vampires?”

He leaned back in his chair.

“Simply put? Time, power, and will,” he answered like he’d just given me the answer to all my questions.

I rolled my eyes.

“That’s so helpful,” I told him.

He winked. “That’s all you’re going to get until I feel like you’re worthy of more.”

Ouch.

But I couldn’t blame him.

His people were still getting slain, persecuted, and generally mistreated left and right. I wouldn’t tell me either had the situation been reversed.