Bound by Night(99)

Aylin shrugged. “I never knew her. My father doesn’t talk about her much.” Aylin lowered her voice, even though they were alone. “It was kind of a scandal. She was human when he took her from a railroad camp way back in the late s. She was intended to be food, but I guess he became obsessed with her. He turned her into a vampire, and the next time they had sex, he imprinted on her.” Idly, Nicole reached out and brushed a lock of blond hair away from the flawless porcelain skin of her face. “You must take after her. You look nothing like your father.”
She nodded. “He’s a second-generation vampire from a Comanche tribe. According to him, my great— great-grandfather was one of the chiefs the raven and crow fought over.”#p#分页标题#e#
Nicole barely restrained an eye roll at that. Not only was the legend ridiculous, but kars’s assertion that he was descended from said legend was beyond ludicrous and brimming with egotism.
“I think he’s full of shit,” Aylin said, and Nicole laughed. She liked this vampire.
Nicole added a teaspoon of the aspirin powder to the fertility concoction. “Your father’s name is odd.
What’s it mean?”
“Apparently, my mother couldn’t pronounce his Comanche name, karshawnewuti, so she shortened it.
He won’t let anyone call him anything else now.”
Sounded like kars had cared about Aylin’s mother in his own sick way.
Aylin craned her neck to peer at the mixture Nicole was stirring. “Is it almost done?”
“I think so.” She just hoped it worked. Her confidence with Riker had been solely for his benefit.
Inside, she was so nervous that her intestines were rattling.
If this failed, either kars would force her to stay until she made good on her promise, or he’d kill her.
She’d kept quiet to Hunter and Myne about kars threatening her life. And she was definitely not letting Riker in on that little gem.
Aylin fanned herself. “Can you feel it?”
“Feel what?”
“The moon.” An erotic undercurrent infused Aylin’s husky voice. “It’s almost time to feed.”
Nicole had tried not to think about it. When she’d first arrived with Hunter, Rasha had assured them that a suitable male would be available for her to feed from.
At the time, Nicole hadn’t let herself stress over the idea of feeding from a ShadowSpawn male who, no doubt, would be chosen from the vilest of the clan’s warriors. Now she was starting to stress.
The heat that had been building all day intensified under her skin, and her fangs tingled. Was that part of the moon need? Probably, since her stomach was growling, but she had no desire for food. What she did desire was Riker.
Idiot.
She watched Aylin pace and fidget, and finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. She snatched a sheet of paper from the random scattered piles lying around the room.
“Let me show you something.” She waved Aylin over. “It’s called origami.” Although she scarcely had time for this, she showed Aylin how to make a basic flower and a bird.
Aylin’s broad smile made the time-suck worth— while. Nicole got the impression that smiles were rare around here.
“They’re beautiful,” Aylin said. “Can I try?”
“Go for it.”
Aylin was a quick study. She folded out the bird without any help at all. As Aylin started on a flower, Nicole’s thoughts shifted back to Riker. Had he gone like he was supposed to? The ShadowSpawn bastards had better not have beaten him before they escorted him to Hunter. What they’d already done to him was horrific enough. Nicole had tried to hide her shock at the extent of his injuries, but inside, she’d been fuming.
Even now, just thinking about it, sweat beaded on her forehead, and she couldn’t stop her hand from shaking as she mixed and measured twenty equal doses of the liquid medicine into shot glasses.
Nicole wiped her brow and looked over at Aylin.
“Will you make sure these are given to the participating females? They should take it fifteen minutes before feeding and intercourse.” She sniffed one of the glasses’ contents and grimaced. “It’s going to taste horrible. And it’ll burn like hell. You guys really need a pill-filling machine.”
Aylin put the finishing touches on her paper flower.
It was perfect. Nicole had needed several tries to get that flower right when she first learned. “I’ll put in an order.”
Nicole blinked in surprise. “Seriously?”
“No.” One corner of Aylin’s full mouth tipped up in an impish smirk. “My father believes that if we can’t kill it, make it, or steal it, it isn’t worth having. And that includes a sense of humor.” She smirked. “Welcome to life in a clan that follows the way of the raven.”