as you wish. Whatever the king wants, the king gets.”
“Precisely,” Diego growled.
The rest of brunch passed in awkward silence.
After brunch, Diego offered me a ride to the tower of doom, and I gladly accepted. Once I was settled in the back seat with my two doggie bags of leftovers, we started the short drive to my temporary home.
“Aside from almost making yourself a Level One, you did very well today, Drew.”
“Yeah, can you please explain that entire thing to me?” I asked.
“Once you become a vampire, the coven owns you,” Diego explained. “If they don’t like your job, they can assign you to something that benefits the coven. The higher your rank, the more freedom you have. I didn’t want Graham making you his secretary or some shit out of spite.”
Wow. “Thank you, Diego. I know that probably created a lot of problems for you, but I’m glad you did it.”
“I do have empathy, you know. Your job might not be conventional, but it’s important to you. I don’t want you giving that up because Graham has an issue with me.”
I didn’t want to feel a sense of satisfaction from his kind words, but that damn sire bond between us made me wiggle in my seat and smile. “I’m used to people not thinking highly of my career. I like proving them wrong.”
“I didn’t realize that you had such a pivotal role at your company,” he said.
“You didn’t really take the time to get to know me,” I replied while looking out the window.
I felt a hand wrap around my thigh, and I turned to face Diego. “How about I answer some of your questions in exchange for you telling me about you. And when we get back to the dorms, I’ll have Rocky give you your phone so you can contact your friends. Ryan has been particularly difficult to influence. We keep having to send men there to do daily compulsions. I can’t tell if he’s got a superior mind or if he’s just seriously devoted to you.”
I smiled at that. I missed my friends. It was rare that I went more than a day without talking to them. It figured Ryan would be stubborn. “Well, I guess my first question is how do you compel someone? Can every vampire do it?” I remembered how he threatened to compel Graham at brunch. Was that something only a king could do?
Diego withdrew his hand from my thigh before answering. “It takes some practice. You probably won’t be able to successfully do it for a few months, but yes, every vampire can compel humans. Think of it as hypnosis. We’re predators. We have a variety of advantages at our disposal.” I didn’t know how I felt about being able to manipulate people. Free will and consent were a big deal to me. “There are rules, though. Vampires are forbidden from using compulsion to sexually take advantage of a human. We only use it to protect the coven’s secrets. And as king, I’m able to glamour my subjects. It’s one of the hallmarks of royal blood.”
That made me feel a little better. “Interesting. How do you do it?”
“Nope. It’s my turn,” Diego replied as the town car turned onto another street. “Why all the pink?”
“Why all the black?” I fired off. “How do you do it?” I repeated.
“It’s difficult to explain. You’ll have more lessons that will cover all the basic abilities, including compulsion. They will be taught by someone who is far more adept at teaching than I am. Where did you grow up?”
“No. That wasn’t an answer, I get another question.” I thought for a moment, unable to remember a single question I had jotted down in group therapy. “How old are you?”
“I stopped keeping track after my three hundredth birthday. Where are you from?”
Damn. Talk about an age difference.
“I grew up in Chicago with my mom and stepdad. My real dad was in the military, and I saw him maybe twice a year before he died in combat. We never really got along. It sounds terrible, but I wasn’t sad when he died. I felt sort of indifferent. We were strangers, you know?” Diego shook his head. “I’m glad Mom found Bodhi. He was kind of a hippie, but I loved him for it. He always encouraged me to be myself. They both passed away in a tragic boating accident when I was twelve. Their deaths were definitely harder to swallow…” I chewed on the inside of my cheek