they have to work their way out and then they'll come out with ease. Practice a while before you bare them at another vampire. They're bound to just laugh when they see them if you’re angry with any vampire."
She smiled. But then she leapt out of bed and raced to the bathroom. She wanted to see them before they disappeared. Atreides was with her in the next instant as she peered at her enhanced canines.
He ran his hand over her back as if in trying to reassure her, and she suspected then he thought she was going to be upset, but she thought this was the coolest thing ever.
"Baby teeth. But I can't just extend them unless I'm angry?"
"Or hungry. We have sustenance in the fridge. You don't ever have to suck on somebody unless it's for the pleasure and they're mutually interested in it."
They heard a noise in the kitchen, and he said, "I'll meet you in the kitchen. Catherine is preparing breakfast but might not realize we still have a whole houseful of guests right now." Then he vanished.
It was so different now for her. Before when a vampire appeared and vanished, it would fill her with momentary alarm, worried the vampire would reappear somewhere else and attack.
Now she could do that. But she wouldn't be as arrogant with rogue hunters or rogue vampires. If she was in a confrontation with one and she was losing, she would vanish in retreat.
She dressed, transported herself and ended up in the kitchen nearly on top of Colt.
He stepped back in alarm, then realizing it was just her, he smiled. “You'll get the hang of transporting so that you can feel objects close to you, like the sonar in bats."
"What about shifting into other animals?"
"That takes more time," Atreides said. "Coffee?"
"Tea."
"I've got it, and everyone get out of my kitchen, please," Catherine said, shooing them out. "I'm glad you joined the clan," she said to Selena.
"Thanks. I guess I didn't have much of a choice."
"You could join the fringe groups," Catherine said.
There was a resounding “no” from Atreides and his friends.
"I'm really not a rule breaker so I think I'll be fine with the clan, but I'll have to learn the rules first."
"He's in charge," Catherine said, "when Daemon and Tezra are away. Tezra is still learning the ropes and there are still some who are having trouble accepting a huntress turned as our co-leader."
The same would happen if they learned Selena had mated Atreides, she figured. If she had ended up with a vampire who didn't have such a high status in the clan, she probably wouldn’t have as much difficulty being accepted.
"I still say things might be different for Selena," Atreides said, ushering everyone into the dining room. "Since she was turned against her will by a rogue vampire. Some will sympathize with her cause, and she did try to protect one of our own before that happened."
"I totally accept her," Colt said.
"Me too," Catherine said.
"And me. Basil says he does too," Renault said.
"But it's all the others who would have to," Selena said as Catherine served up the food, then left the dining room. Selena’s stomach was grumbling, and she couldn't believe she was just as hungry as she normally would be when she hadn’t eaten in some time in her pre-vampiric state. She served up some of the hash browns, passed the platter to Atreides, forked up several slices of bacon, three servings full of scrambled eggs and two slices of toast.
"I think we ought to go with you to the border towns," Colt said to Atreides.
"No, they're used to seeing me going into the border towns. If a bunch of clan vampires arrived in their towns, they would be sure to think we were coming for a fight,” Atreides said. “If one of you went, it would have been fine.”
After breakfast, Atreides and Selena went to the first of the fringe towns to see if they could learn anything about the vampire who had turned her. She was afraid that they wouldn't talk to them and give up one of their own. But Atreides knew a lot of them and greeted several vampire men and women and no one seemed to have any animosity for him. At least with the ones who came out to talk to him. Those who wouldn't? Who knew? Maybe they couldn't be bothered with the prince when they didn't care about the rules of the clan. Or maybe they didn't like