The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,32

job. Shaking away the memory of Beth's poor ba ered body, she con nued, "I took excep on and ended it. Then I picked her up and she directed me to her home. But it turned out it was a brothel, and the man I'd stopped had been their protector." She said the last word with distaste, for he hadn't been anywhere near protec ve of any of the women under his care. The group she'd found at that house had all been terribly young, half-starved and each bearing the scars and marks of past beatings. Drina sighed. "Well, Beth, the girl I'd saved, told the others what I'd done. Half of the women were furious that I'd killed their "protector - "

"Killed?" Harper asked, one eyebrow flying up.

Drina grimaced. "It was part accident and part self-defense. He didn't care for being tossed about by a female and pulled a knife. That rather irritated me, and I tossed him up the alley." She shrugged. "He landed on his knife."

"Ah." Harper nodded.

"Anyway, as I say, half of them were furious I'd killed him, and the other half just didn't seem to have the energy to care either way. Then Mary, a rather mouthy bit of goods, announced that since I'd killed their man, I was now their protector." Drina smiled faintly at the memory. She'd been rather dismayed at the me but had felt responsible for the women and hadn't known what else to do. So, she'd become a madam.

"According to Mary I wasn't a very good madam," she admi ed with amusement. "I mean, I kept them safe and made sure none of their clients hurt them, but I didn't take any of their money. In fact, it cost me money instead," she admi ed with a grin. "And as far as Mary was concerned, that made me a failure as a madam."

Harper chuckled, but asked with interest, "So you just hung about and looked out for them for nothing?"

"At first," she said slowly. Sighing, she admi ed reluctantly, "But a er a par cularly nasty encounter with three drunk clients who tried to abuse one of the girls . . . well, I was injured. And healed," she said dryly.

"They sorted out what you were," he guessed.

"One of the risks of spending too much me with mortals," Drina said dryly. "Fortunately, the women took it much be er than One-eye had. In fact, they were surprisingly accep ng, and most just seemed relieved."

"Relieved?" Harper echoed with surprise.

Drina nodded and explained, "Well, I looked out for them but would never take their money. It turns out this had le them feeling beholden, and not one of them was comfortable with that. But now they felt they had something to offer me."

"To feed on them," Harper breathed, sitting up.

Drina nodded solemnly. "I refused at first, but Beth sat me down and explained that I was being terribly selfish in refusing their kind offer."

Harper started to laugh. "They had your number."

"Perhaps," Drina admi ed with amusement. "But it wasn't what she said so much as what she didn't say. I realized that they were afraid. I was the best protector any of them had had. I didn't beat or rape them, didn't even take a cut of their money and had suffered a few injuries to protect them and yet expected nothing from them in return. It confused them. They didn't understand why I did it."

"Why did you do it?" Harper asked.

Drina considered the question. "Because I could, and no one else would."

"I think there was more to it than that," Harper said quietly. "You were your own woman and in charge of your life in Egypt un l the Romans invaded, and it seems to me that you spent a good part of your life a er that figh ng to get that independence and freedom back. You managed to regain some small measure of it as a gladiator, then some more from ruling a country as a puppet master/concubine, became a duchess to escape your brother's rule, and then pretended to be male to run your own ship."

He nodded. "I think you felt for those women. I think you were trying to free them from the tyranny of a male-dominated world, allowing them the independence to earn and keep their own money, and protec ng them from those who would have abused and taken advantage of them. You saw yourself in them and were trying to give them what you'd