Free Cool Hand by Mark Henwick Page B

monsters and feeding from the fear of their human Blood slaves, or a Carpathian spy who could go along with the practices to disguise her true origin.
    The briefings I’d had so far hadn’t progressed to telling me how Carpathians treated their human Blood donors. I wasn’t sure anyone in Altau knew anything beyond old tales. And old tales in Athanate terms meant really old.
    Yelena didn’t seem to think feeding from toru was so bad. As House Farrell, that upset me, but it was something I would have to explore later.
    “And here, in Denver?” Bian continued. “If you didn’t use the toru, how have you survived?”
    “None of the team at this apartment used the toru. We were the first to be here, in deep hiding. We had to make our own secret arrangements to begin. Then, once the rest arrived, there would have been too much traffic out to Bow Creek. We had small jobs that gave us chances with marai.” She paused. “With humans.”
    She’d slipped into using a Basilikos name for humans. Marai . It was the Athanate word for cattle which didn’t belong to anyone. I wondered if that showed how deep that Basilikos mindset had gone. I knew about working undercover from my time in Ops 4-10—the danger that the way you had to behave became the way you believed.
    “What about you specifically?” Bian wasn’t going to let her evade the question. “What did you do and where?”
    Bian waited. I felt Yelena look at me, but I didn’t offer support. I understood what Bian was doing—putting her under pressure, trying to catch Yelena in a lie.
    “I was…a dancer at a club called Platinum Eye, not far from here.”
    A dancer. Could mean anything.
    “That gives you money,” Bian said. “What about Blood? You couldn’t risk biting people in the club.”
    “No.” Yelena turned her head away. “Sometimes, men at the club wanted a date.”
    Bian just stared at her until she went on, her voice getting more accented and harsher with anger. “Yes, I worked as a whore. Is that what you want to hear? Men who were visiting Denver, men who had too much to drink. They took me to their hotels and paid me. They got what they wanted; I got what I needed. Was honest exchange. No killing.”
    “And afterwards, they remembered nothing about being bitten?”
    “Of course.”
    I tried to watch Nick as well. He didn’t look as if this was new to him, but that wasn’t the only thing I was looking for. He’d known the places to look. He understood the way hidden teams of Athanate would need to operate, what choices they’d have. The skinwalker was full of secrets.
    “So much for Blood,” Naryn said. “What about Rahaimon ?”
    Yelena’s face was frozen, but her eyes grew even more angry. Still, she looked first at me. “He uses the Athanate word. You know it?”
    I did. Athanate fed from humans, not just their Blood, but also their emotions. That’s what Rahaimon meant. This was the big difference between Panethus and Basilikos. Panethus loved their kin and fed on that love returned. Basilikos despised humans and fed on fear and hate.
    That’s what I’d been told.
    Naryn seemed to be trying to get Yelena on the defensive. Whatever he expected, she wasn’t going to take a backwards step. She got progressively angrier as she spoke.
    “Yes. I fed. Lust and ecstasy are easy to cause, like fear and hate. And next you will ask me if I have fed on fear. You want me to lie? They are all frightened at the start. I cannot help that. I fed on it, as any Athanate would. Rahaimon does not make difference between love and fear. Even your kin are afraid sometimes. Tell me this is not true. Tell me you do not feed on it. You train Aspirants how to hold new kin on their first bite to stop them struggling in panic and tearing their flesh when your fangs are in the neck. You Panethus make such a virtue of your kin and their love for you. The truth is that it is easier to make your kin love you than fear you for a long time. Your great virtue