Free DeLeina, Maya - Veil of Seduction [Ambrose Heights Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Maya DeLeina Page B

arrangements for the mass enthrall once we identify everyone who knew Ryan. Don’t worry. It’ll be taken care of.”
    Steffan took in a long, deep breath. “All right, with our investments safely in the hands of family, you and I can concentrate on the serums.”
    “Sounds like a great plan. But, I can still feel you harboring something. What is the real issue here?” Eilian asked.
    Steffan latched on to the red jasper that sat in his pocket, allowing little bits of lightning to penetrate him.
    “It just angers me. He has no recollection of their love. He speaks of no woman…anyone, as a matter of fact. I enter his mind and find emptiness. Absolutely nothing! Not an image of a woman, a scent of a woman, or a voice of a woman. I never turned anyone before, and the one time I follow my heart, I’m dealt a bad case of blackness.” Steffan released the jasper and balled his fist in his hair at his forehead as he leaned his elbow on the table. “I made the choice of this life for him. I based my decision on what he said that night, what came out of him effortlessly, above the pain and anguish he was in. I mean, if there’s nothing there, what in the hell was he referring to as needing her ?”
    Steffan released his hair from his fist and grabbed the edge of the table with two hands. “When I first saw the black, I should’ve stopped it, but I didn’t.”
    “Look, you did what you thought was right. You can’t compare what happened when Rhys turned Dominic.”
    Steffan pounded his fist on the table. “How can I not make the comparison to what happened with Dominic?”
    Eilian jumped back in response.
    Steffan combed his hand through his hair. “What have I done? Money, power, greed—this is what Ryan was all about. We knew it. I knew it. It was exactly what we wanted for our human feeder who controlled our investments. He was supposed to still be mortal, damnit! But I turned him, knowing full well that deep down he could’ve turned black! Eilian, I ignored my better judgment all because that damn second of hope he gave me. And he’s one of us now. An eternity’s worth of material possessions and sexual conquests, that can’t be enough to satisfy him. He’ll eventually want a mate, and then what? I mean, we can teach him about the mate claiming, but the blackness in him could cloud his judgment. He could even view the claim as a simple possession in itself. The blackness can overpower him. It could be embedded from the transference of his human existence so deep that it’s purely innate, and all of our teachings could just fall on deaf ears. Worse yet, he could select a mate for the wrong reasons and face depletion and suffer an agonizing death from a blood-claim rejection. How could I live with myself if that happened?”
    He paused and frowned.
    “And if he can’t find a mate, he could go completely mad. I am responsible for him. I am responsible for everything that happens to him.”
    “You are responsible to a point, Steffan. Don’t do this to yourself. And who knows, he could surpass all of it, understand and embrace the theory of the claim that we teach him, and come out of this all right,” added Eilian.
    “I don’t know. I just fear it’s going to be another Dominic,” Steffan explained. He bit down on his pinky, deep in thought.
    “Look at it this way, Steffan, you haven’t found your mate and you haven’t gone mad. At least…I think you haven’t gone mad.”
    “Number one, I don’t have the blackness inherent in me. And number two, I have other interests and endeavors to occupy my time. If I had a mate, how would I have created Ambrose Heights, oversee our lair, or come up with the possibilities of Defender or Consumption? ”
    Steffan headed toward the metal door, and Eilian followed closely behind. The door had no handles. No locks. Steffan balled his hand and tapped the silver disk embedded in the wall with the side of his fist. The metal door rotated on its center hinge,