The Vampire's Surprise - Stormy Glenn Page 0,8

but he was still responsible for them. He was all they had. Their fathers were all dead, and their mother only cared for them long enough to drop them off with Quinn each time she had a new kid.

Quinn brushed his hair back again and then drew in a deep breath. He suddenly felt as if the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders and punching him in the gut. "Look, no matter how much you argue, this isn't happening tonight. You need to go so I can get to bed."

And pack and get the hell out of here.

"Aren't you worried that those rogues might come back?"

Quinn sucked in a breath as a new fear filled him, and he already had enough to deal with. "I thought you were taking them to your prince?"

"I am, but what if they had friends?" Dmitri asked. "Do you even know why they were here? Those three were the same vampires that were at the restaurant. They had to have followed you home."

"They thought they knew me," Quinn said defensively. He couldn't exactly tell Dmitri why they had really been here. That would get him killed for sure.

"So, you shot them?"

"They were rogues," Quinn insisted, but it sounded lame even to his ears. He didn't personally have a thing against rogues. He had a thing against assholes. "They wouldn't leave when I asked them to." He lifted one eyebrow. "Kind of like you."

"Look, you need to wrap your head around this. You have unregistered vampires in—"

"Fine, we'll leave. I can have us packed and out of here by the end of the week."

"And go where?" Dmitri waved his hands in the air. "Nikolas Vaile's territory?"

Quinn couldn't have prevented his upper lip from curling back on a bet. "I wouldn't go to Vaile's territory if he offered me all the gold in the world."

Dmitri cocked his head, a questioning look coming into his eyes. "You have something against Prince Nikolas?"

"I have something against someone who withholds synthetic blood from people who need it because he can't make a profit off of it, and then labels those same people rogue."

"You mentioned something like that before. What are you talking about?"

"You know Vaile Industries charges an arm and a leg for synthetic blood." Quinn felt as if Dmitri stared at him as if he were stupid. "You're a vampire. You have to know that."

"Every tribe recognized by the council contributes to a general fund, but the supply of synthetic blood is always free to its members."

Quinn pointed a finger at Dmitri. "And that right there is the problem. It's free to its members. Well, guess what? We're not members, which means we can't afford it. No one who isn't a registered member of a tribe can afford it. Where do you think rogues come from? I'd bet you anything that a majority of them are simply poor and have no affiliation with one of your recognized tribes."

"Nothing is stopping them from joining a tribe."

"Bullshit!"

Dmitri's head snapped back. "The only reason to not join a tribe is because they want to feed from humans and it's against our laws."

"Or you're mated to a human." Quinn's jaw clenched as the old hurt he'd lived with most of his life grabbed him. "If you're a vampire and you make the mistake of bonding with a human, and then you get knocked up by said human, neither your mate or the child, who is a product of that mating, are accepted into one of your precious tribes."

"That's not true," Dmitri insisted. "I'll admit we're not allowed to tell humans about us unless we are mated to them or under special circumstances, but that doesn't keep them from joining our tribes. Even Prince Nikolas's mate is a human."

"Then why was my family denied?" Quinn snapped. "We were told humans weren't accepted. Half vampire, half human children were not even accepted. Our mother is a vampire. Our fathers were human. We've been called worthless, half-breeds, abominations, you name it. We were told that we would never be allowed into a vampire tribe because we weren't good enough."

"No, that's wrong," Dmitri said. "Who told you that?"

"Your precious vampire tribe. Nikolas Vaile's vampire tribe. Every damn vampire tribe in the city." Quinn tossed his hands up into the air as he spun away. "I've been to them all. I've begged and pleaded for them to at least take the kids. They need blood. I don't. I was turned away every single time and