decided to ask, and he sensed her anxiety rising as he posed the question, but he asked it anyway.
“I’m not sure I know the answer,” she told him. “I’m stronger than some of the younger vampires now. They had me kiss one of them, as a test.” She snuggled into him more, as if needing the assurance it was okay. He kept stroking her. Holding her. “If we’d had sex, I’d have had to be the Dominant one. He’s nearly two hundred years old. It still doesn’t put me into even the same ballpark as Etta or Marco, or even Venom, but it’s apparently a huge deal that I’m stronger than pretty much anyone under two hundred, and a few who are still in the two hundreds.”
“I can see that, but I don’t think any but the five or six strongest in Abbott’s old hierarchy could’ve monitored a handful of brains while doing the puzzle equivalent of hacking and then obtaining information from a highly secured computer.”
“Oh. Well, I’ve always been able to multitask. Even as a human. The gifts you have as a human are amplified when you become vampire.” She turned on the bed and spooned into Eunice, so she was facing Collosa. One hand went over the top of Eunice’s, on her belly, and the other stretched out to Collosa, to hold his hand. “I’ve known for five years that I can do mental things most vampires can’t do until they’re somewhere between five hundred and a thousand years old. Aaron knows to keep it under wraps, and I need to make sure ya’ll do, too. Other supernaturals see my overall power and assume I’m not a threat.”
“Who’s Venom?” Eunice asked, his mouth in her hair, close to her ear.
Collosa started to say they weren’t there yet, but it seemed they probably were. They’d finished moving through the operation, so it was time to move to what happened once she was with the vampires.
“At first, I thought he was gay. Turns out, he’s pansexual when it comes to sex, but prefers men for relationships. At least, that’s the case this century. He let me feed from his lion while he fucked him, which is why I smell of lusty lion, I suppose. I know he’s been assigned to me as another teacher, along with Etta, and yet, he feels like a friend.”
“Why is he named Venom?”
“He comes from a line of—” Her voice shut off, and she gave an irritated growl in the back of her throat. “His secrets. Not mine.”
“What did he teach you?” Collosa asked.
“Control. Managing power. I went up another level in power during the event, possibly a couple of levels. I’ve never healed anything so critical before, and that’s part of it, but finding the animal I resonate with likely had a big part in it. Also, drinking from The Dragon King might have. They assumed I’d lose some of the new power, once I worked through his blood, but I didn’t.”
“So will they want you to drink from him again, to see if that’s part of it?” Fabio asked from the sofa. He was stretched out, comfortable, with one arm behind his head.
“I believe Marco is negotiating with him for just that. Marco is pointing out that the more powerful I am, the more useful I am. More valuable. Based on a conversation I had with Etta, I’m not certain His Majesty is looking to carry me into battle terribly often, which is a huge relief. I’d really rather stay in the office in the future.” She took a breath. “The truth is, though, I’d go again if it kept Chance from having to go. He’d have died, but I survived.”
“If you hadn’t known it was about to blow, you’d have likely died,” Collosa told her. “There’s a good chance the explosion would’ve decimated your head, and you aren’t old enough to grow that back, even if the brainstem hadn’t been blown to shit, which it likely would’ve been.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to give you many specifics about what happened in the coterie house. I drank from a variety of shapeshifters, and I learned a great deal about my body, and what it takes to heal it. Growing back pieces of your spinal cord takes some brainpower, not just regular vampire power. They had to strip some of the burned skin off me and then rub—” The magic cut her off again, and she winced. “Suffice it to