Free Blood Bonds by Adrienne Wilder

by turning the hunger of others to something he could control, something that made him more interesting than a snack.
    Pleasure. Sex.
    For him it was a natural as breathing.
    Four hundred years was more than enough time to perfect technique. No wonder every time he slept with a woman she wanted to
keep
him.
    Haley sighed and went back to reading her mail. There wasn’t much. Just a few internal memos, some spam mail, and one from an unknown sender. She clicked on it.
    Beside her, Farley said, “Look, I’ll talk to Claire.”
    “You need to break up with her now before it goes too far. Before she wants you to go with her to pick out drapes. Good grief, look at how messed up Deshi’s life is.”
    Farley made a face.
    “You know I’m right.” Her eyes were still on the email. She read it a few times trying to take it in.
    “Unlike Deshi, I’m not delusional. Besides, if I break up with Claire, I won’t be able to tell you all the juicy stuff when we go out on movie night.”
    Haley rolled her eyes. “Trust me. I can live without hearing your imitations of the sounds she makes when you ... hey ... when did Medan get email?”
    Farley turned to look at the screen. “She’s had it ever since she put the Pit online. It has Wi-Fi now and everything.”
    Haley read the email for the third time, but her brain flat out refused to process the words. “Seems like she wants me to meet with her.” She leaned back in her seat. That couldn’t be right. Not leave-forever-or-die Medan.
    “Damn...” Farley whistled.
    That was the understatement of the year. Even if Haley wanted to go--which she didn’t--she couldn’t. Because of her sensitive position with the Center she was forbidden from the Dens.
    As in, her loyalties could be seriously compromised. Queens were notorious for head games, and they could really screw up a person’s brain matter, Female or not.
    “Email her back and tell her you can’t,” Farley suggested.
    Haley waved a hand at the screen. “I can’t. There’s no return address.”
    “She’s clever, I’ll give her that.”
    Yeah, in order to tell Medan she couldn’t meet her request, Haley would have to show up in person. Which put her right where the she-bitch would want her to be.
    Haley bit her lip. “Maybe I could call her?”
    “Good luck. Only time there’s anyone around to answer the phone is during club hours, and then the place is so loud you can’t hear it ring.” Farley gave her a pat on her shoulder. “You have my sympathies.”
    “Gee, thanks.” Haley stared at the email a little longer. Maybe she could get Ken in IT to do a trace on the IP. And if all else failed there was always snail-mail.
    Someone knocked on her door. Farley hopped off her desk and crammed his hands in his pockets. Human sensitivity training at its best.
    “Come in,” Haley called.
    The door opened and she didn’t need to look up to know who it was.
    Speak of the devil. Claire Patterson. Her ears must have been on fire.
    “Hi, there.” Claire’s voice was way too sticky sweet to be addressing anyone but Farley. “Did I interrupt?” Her cornflower blue eyes did a lap around the room.
    So polite. Hard to imagine such dirty little things coming out of that mouth. Haley stared harder at her screen, not reading any of it.
    “Um ... no. We were just talking about Agent stuff.” Farley inched closer. His fists made lumps in his pockets. No doubt, he was just dying to reach out and touch someone. But of course that would have broken ten thousand Human sexual harassment rules.
    Thank you God of Man, those kinds of Taboos didn’t exist for Kin.
    “I can...” Her hands made little butterfly motions. “I can come back later if you want. Becky said she saw you come in and...”
    Haley glanced at the woman from over her monitor.
    “Naw ... no way. I was ... I was just coming to find you.” The expression on Farley’s face was a cross between adoration and innocence.
    “Yup, he sure was.” Haley grinned