Page 91 of Taste of Blood
“He calls himself R7.”
“What kind of name is that?”
When he doesn’t answer I give him a few more drops of blood. It’s not enough to heal; only to tease. “What kind of name is R7?”
“We all have them. That’s how he recruits us.”
“So you’re like soldiers?”
He nods.
“And how many of you are there?”
He lunges forward again, trying to get at the bag, but I jam the knife into his other shoulder and push him back against the wall. His head slumps as his body wracks with sobs.
“P-please.”
“Do that again and I’ll pour it on the floor.”
“No, please. I need it.”
“Answer the question and I’ll give you more blood.”
“I don’t know,” he wails “I swear.”
“Okay, how many have you seen?”
When he continues to cry, I pour a few more drops of blood on his lips. “You’ll get more when you answer the question.”
“Maybe a couple of dozen. Maybe more. We’re not all together.”
Another interesting tidbit. So he has more than one hideout. Which means he could have dozens, if not hundreds, of soldiers. This just keeps getting better.
“How long have you been with him?”
He stares at the bag expectedly, and I pour a couple of drops on his outstretched tongue then pull it away. “Answer the question.”
“About a year.”
“Where are you from?”
He starts whining again as his body shudders with need. “Please, more.”
“It’s a simple question. Where are you from?”
“P-please!”
“Answer the question.”
“Albany. I’m from Albany,” he murmurs, sagging against the chains, his one eye fluttering shut.
“See, that wasn’t so hard.”
So the Python has been recruiting soldiers for at least a year, and not all of them are from the city. Makes me wonder how far his reach stretches. I doubt I’m going to get much more from this one, since he doesn’t seem to know anything about the Python himself. I wonder if this R7 was in the warehouse. Maybe he was the one who escaped to the bar. It sounds like he’s the only one who knows the Python–or Thalium–personally. Which means we need to find R7, and the sooner, the better.
It looks like Vamp 1 has passed out again. I grab him by the hair and shake his head to wake him up. “One more question and you can have the bag.”
He opens his eye and stares at me groggily. “More blood.”
