get to know you conversations,” she admitted on a sullen note. He thought she would continue, but she went quiet.
Smoothing a hand through her still damp hair, he waited her out.
She let out a sigh. “Why did I get memories when Asshole fed me?”
Ah. “Because that is who he is.”
Eyebrows arched, she stared at him a beat. “Well, that wasn’t helpful at all.”
Rogue chuckled, and the action made them both groan. Fiona let out a little gasp as she began to squirm. Need stamped its way over her, and he slid a hand between them to tease her clit. In no time, her panting came in sharper, faster gasps, and she spasmed around him as she cried out. When she collapsed against him, he lifted his fingers to his lips and cleaned them off one at a time as she stared at him.
Studying her, he said, “Alfred is one of the seven.”
“The Magnificent Seven?” Her voice was a little slurred. “That’s a movie.”
He barked out a laugh. “No, little sváss, the original seven vampires. He’s one of the seven.”
Fiona blinked at him sleepily. She was content like a cat and every inch the kitten Maddox called her.
“His blood carries memories, and he takes memories from blood. When he fed off of you, he would have learned all about you, and in turn, he gave you his when you fed from him.” Smoothing her hair down again, he added, “It is an honor to take the blood of one of the seven. They are all different. They each possess a different talent. Alfred’s…Alfred’s is to keep our history.” It also made him oddly vulnerable, though few saw it the way Rogue did, and despite his own irritations with him, he shied away from revealing that to Fiona.
A little frown tightened her brows. “So all you have to do to get a history lesson is feed from him?”
“Crassly put, but yes.” Tracing patterns against her back with a finger, Rogue debated how much he should tell her, then shrugged it away. If Fiona was ever to truly trust them, they had to trust her with their secrets. “But he only shares his blood with a select few.”
“Lucky me,” she murmured, and her eyes grew heavier. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”
“Then we won’t.”
“Are you going to feed?”
“I am well enough,” he promised her, no matter how much he longed for a taste. He could go much longer.
“Lost your taste for me?”
The question cut at him, sharper than a dagger, and he lifted her hand to his mouth, then moved to her wrist and sank his teeth in. The first rush of her taste across his tongue threatened to leave him drunk for more. He forced himself to only take a small measure, enough to quiet her concern. Her happy little sigh betrayed her, and Rogue sighed as she drifted off to sleep. He licked the wound closed, then settled her hand against his chest as he turned his gaze to the ceiling.
When his knot relaxed, he would tuck her in and go about readying the house for her occupancy. He welcomed the weight of her, his heart slowing to beat in tandem with her own. The taste of her on his tongue lingered like the finest of nectars. He hadn’t been kidding when he said Alfred only shared his blood with a select few.
The seven were notorious in their privacy and for establishing their will. So much so, they faded to myths and legends until it was time to remind the peasants of their presence. Such was the case now, as Isaac defied him.
Another problem to be dealt with. All the princes needed to be reminded they held power only as long as their presence pleased those of the seven that granted it. While the others might be quiet, Alfred was awake and showed no signs of planning to sleep again any time soon.
His reaction to Fiona’s defection, however, was even more telling. He’d summoned the princes to him—all of them. The ones who hadn’t shown up were marked, and they knew it. Some, like Isaac, had run. Others had dug in.
It wouldn’t be long before Maddox or Rogue would be paying them a visit. If Alfred went himself, there might not be anything left of the cohorts when he was done. His patience had worn thin. Though Rogue suspected it had far more to do with Fiona’s rejection than anything else. The vampire had never been so resisted before,