Page 18 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood
“I’ll buy you some bullets that will take care of vampires and other supernaturals, and I’ll…”
He’d stopped her education at vampires. She needed to know more.
“Let’s back up a minute, to more things you can know now that you’re oathed. If vampires exist, what else do you think might be out there?”
“I mean, I know fairies exist, too, since I’m apparently descended from them. I guess werewolves probably exist?”
He nodded. “Regular bullets work best for the Fae, which aren’t exactly fairies. For vampires, werewolves, and the like, you’ll need bullets with a decent amount of silver in them. Pure silver bullets are too soft, but there are ways to get silver into them so they still work as expected. The easiest way is silver flechettes in a shotgun shell, but the monster hunters have perfected nine-millimeter silver ammo, too.”
“Monster hunters? People trying to kill you?”
Her concern was endearing, but he gave her the truth. “Most won’t come after my kind unless we’re a danger to humans. I don’t like that the Slayers exist, but I have to admit there’s a need for them. When the most powerful of us go bad, it’s practicallyimpossible for those under them in the hierarchy to take them out.”
“Are you allowed to tell me how to kill vampires?”
“Killing the Celrau involves a wooden stake made of oak. There are wooden bullets, and shotgun shells with oak balls instead of steel, but we aren’t going to bother with them. The Celrau haven’t been seen or scented in Chattanooga for quite some time. The local vampire hunter is quite terrifying, which is a good thing for the humans who live here.”
“And for your kind?”
“Beheading, or silver through the heart. For the strongest of us, both, and it’s best to remove the heart and destroy the brainstem, just to be sure.”
“How many kinds of vampire are there?”
“Three. Two kinds, mine included, can decide whether to be good or evil.” He could sense her anxiety rising, so he told her, “Here’s a truth. With the advent of smartphones, so nearly everyone carries a camera around at all times, along with the security cameras at nearly every business and a good percentage of homes, we no longer hunt as we used to. Most of us have people in-house, whom we pay to be our food. Shapeshifters, mostly, since they can replenish their stores and we can feed from them several times per week.”
She wanted to ask if we had sex with our food, but wasn’t sure how, so she said, “I know you can see the question. Please answer it.”
He suppressed his grin and answered the unasked question.
“Sex and feeding are inexplicably bound. You need to know another truth — vampires can’t catch diseases, nor can we pass them on so long as we’ve showered any microorganisms away.”
“And you can’t get me pregnant.”
“Correct.”
“What if I decide I want kids?”
She was assuming they were going to be an item for the rest of her life, which was his plan as well, so of course he’d considered this. “We’ll find a suitable father, genetically speaking, and you’ll be artificially inseminated. He won’t know of his child. It will be our child.”
“You’ll take his sperm without telling him.”
“I will.”
She shook her head. “That’s a discussion for another day, but I won’t do that to someone.”
“Then we’ll figure out a solution that works for your morals, but you won’t be fucking anyone besides me once we’re an item. If you want to get that out of your system, you need to act fast.”
She narrowed her eyes and gave a shake of her head anchored in fierce determination. “I told you I was waiting for you.” Before she could think it through, she blurted out, “You told me you’d show me your memories of that night. Do it now.”
Chapter 6
He shook his head. “Not in public. This will happen at your home or mine, or possibly in your psychiatrist’s office, so he can help you work through it without pause, right away.”
“My next appointment is at eleven in the morning, day after tomorrow.” She glanced at her watch. “Well, tomorrow now, I guess.”
“It’ll need to be a nighttime appointment unless the two of you can come to me. I rise around five hours before the sun sets in the evening, but I can’t come above ground until the sun is below the horizon. I’ll pay triple his normal fee if the two of you can come to me at the end of his day.”
Her thoughts told him she wasn’t going to let him pay her bills, but he didn’t argue the point since she didn’t say it aloud.
