Page 79 of Craving Her Vampire

“Why was I given to him? What happened to my parents?” I ask.

“I will have to start at the beginning.” He crosses his legs and steeples his hands. “You are aware of the reputation of coyotes, yes?”

“I am a coyote living in this world,” I sass, and his eye twitches.

“Right,” he smiles grimly. “We are considered the lowest form of shifter, besides a rabbit.” There is a random thud in another room he pays no attention to. He has other people working for him. “Growing up, your father and I had to live with prejudice. I got so sick of being undervalued. Our parents paid no attention, even though they saw how differently we were treated. I was much stronger than your dad. My specialty was scams,” he says with pride. “I could cheat anyone out of money.”

“What was his name?” I whisper. My skin crawls the more he speaks, but he is the only one who is willing to talk.

“Cooper.” He drops his head back. “He was too soft to be a coyote. He wanted to believe the world was kind, and he would shrug off the hate.”

“Sounds like a good quality,” I say, and his head pops up.

“I like your fire, but be careful,” he seethes. “Cooper met your mom and claimed to be in love. How can you fall in love at first sight? They thought love was the only important thing. The stupid bond pushed them together, and they didn’t fight it. He did everything with her and left me behind. I began to plan once they had you. I couldn’t believe they wanted to bring a coyote child into this judgmental world. Did they not see what they were perpetuating? I needed to make a change, something to even the scales.”

“My mom?” I lean forward. I know he’s a bad guy, but I’ve lived years without any knowledge of them.

He sighs as if I’m annoying him by wanting to know. “Iris. She was lovely. I didn’t understand her love for my brother; she was devoted immediately. They lived in a little bubble of ignorance of what our species could be. I wanted to take back our power.”

I’m afraid to ask. “How?”

“By testing their minds.” He smiles, crossing his arms as if the statement was a revelation. “And their blood.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

He huffs, leaning forward, holding his hand out. “What if coyotes were injected with other shifters’ blood?”

“Injected?”

“Think about a lion shifter. Is he powerful because he is a lion, or does his breeding suggest he will be powerful, and so it’s taken for granted that he is? Is the power in his blood?”

“Fuck,” I whisper, rolling my eyes.

“Coyotes are born knowing their breed is considered lower, so is that why we stay where we are supposed to be?”

“No. Coyotes have a reputation because we steal, lie, and are general assholes.”

“Does that mean there are no asshole lions?”

“Of course not; there are plenty of assholes,” I say through gritted teeth. “Can we get to the point? You are making no sense. Did you use your theory on Turner's sister?” I can see the poor girl's face in my mind.

“She was weak, too. Coyotes need to be strong to show the rest what we are made of.”

“What happened to her?” I ask. Turner must know, but I’m not asking for him. I need to know what I’m dealing with.

His smile seems off. “It’s difficult to keep shifters healthy, yet weak enough to not fight back,” he whispers. “It’s a delicate balance. She reacted badly to her transfusion.” Turner growls low but doesn’t say anything.

“What kind of transfusion? What did you put in the blood?”

“After you were born, I worked in a lab,” he says, picking at his pants casually. “I took some experimental drugs they supplied. What if I took the blood from a lion and injected it into a coyote? Or blood from a vampire? Would that change their power?”

“You have other kinds of shifters? Vampires?” His operation is larger than I thought.

“Yes. I was worried mixing the blood would cause the two species to bond, but fortunately, it didn’t.”

“Of course not. They are not mates, and you are using a needle to swap blood,” I say. “What did it do?” The bond is special. The bite is personal. Vampires have to pass their venom through the bite.

“The blood contains power. It takes time to build up power.”

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