Present Tense (Out of the Fire #3) - Candace Blevins Page 0,77
he knew there was no way he could do it without power exchange.
Would Kelsey agree to it? He didn’t know.
25
Kelsey rose three hours before the sun set, which meant she was up at two forty. It was a record for her.
Clearly, none of her housemates expected her to be up, because only Etta was in her suite when she rolled out of her hidey-hole.
“You’re up early.” Etta didn’t show surprise. Her sentence was merely an observation.
“Yes. The sun feels as if it’s draining me, and yet, I’m awake.”
“You’ll get used to it. We aren’t quite as strong when the sun is still up. I’m at about eighty-five percent, I think, but I recall being fifty or sixty percent when I was younger.”
“Sixty feels about right. Maybe sixty-five. More than half, but not by much.” She blew out a breath. “But I feel much stronger than I think I was in Australia, even with the sun sapping some of my power.”
“Yes. You’ll no longer be bottom of the food chain when you come to the coterie house. If I’m not mistaken, you’re going to be somewhere in the middle.”
She wanted to point out that he hadn’t knocked, but somehow, it was okay — in the same way it was okay for the vampires who’d been over her in Australia to ignore any rights she might have. It made sense, since Etta and Marco had assigned him as Dominant to her. She was under orders to see him as over her, so she did.
She was stronger now though. A lot stronger. But it didn’t matter.
“I’ve called for Collosa,” Etta said. “He’s at the Drake offices, but says he can get away. He’ll be here shortly.”
“He’s doing a physical inventory on ammo,” Eunice said. “Something that needs doing, but he can step away from.”
Kelsey crossed her arms. “Ya’ll are keeping Aaron and Nathan apprised of things, otherwise he’d be guarding someone.”
“That’s the deal.” Eunice told her. “Two months for you to get settled, and then we re-appraise the situation.”
Etta wore a beautiful, slinky red dress. Not formal, but not exactly everyday, either. It came to just below her knees, and it hugged her body to show just how thin she was. Etta smoothed it down the back of her thighs as she sat on the sofa, and spread her arms to the sides, resting on the back of the sofa. She crossed her legs, and looked regal. She had the power of a Master Vampire despite the fact she was Secundo.
“Eunice texted me while I was down, asking for a meeting with me when I rose,” Etta told her. “I’ve approved his request.”
When she didn’t continue, Kelsey looked to Eunice.
“I didn’t expect to like you,” Eunice told her. “But then you showed up in a motherfucking Prancing Pony shirt, and asked about a D&D game — and after showing up three times, my friends have asked you to DM. It’s unheard of.”
Humans fill in with words, at a time like this, but the vampires had taught her you learn more by being silent. So while Kelsey wanted to tell him she liked him too, and how happy she was to have someone in the house who understood her, she remained silent.
Eunice walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I haven’t had a relationship in nine years. I train submissives for other people. I’m aware some of the submissives who’ve come to me to be trained have wanted a relationship with me, and some of them offered themselves for a three-month term, once their training was finished. One offered herself for six months, completely giving up her autonomy in exchange for being my slave. My housemates will argue those were relationships, but the fact of the matter is they had an expiration date from the beginning. I never, even once, considered asking them to stay longer.”
Part of her wanted to put her hands on top of his, over her shoulders, but her inner voice told her to keep them at her sides. Her vampire training told her to keep listening, but her instincts told her she needed to give him something. He wasn’t used to this kind of thing, and she could sense his tension and discomfort, even if she couldn’t smell it.
“I liked you from the start as well, and I was disappointed you were so clear, at first, about not interacting with me, other than as the