Bad Blood (Cora's Choice #3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

same as never,” I said. I looked away from the changing view of the people gathered in the ballroom to frown at Dorian.
    He shrugged. “One every few decades. I can’t keep them from being subverted, but a proving will break the thrall and enable them to tell me what happened to them and what secrets they betrayed. That makes the technique of limited use to one of my enemies.”
    “But you suspect that at least one of them is…subverted…now.”
    His expression was grim. “Not many others, human or agnate, knew of your conversion until you called me for help. If a human is put under another’s thrall, he will do the other agnate’s bidding until the control is broken—including telling him all about you.”
    I looked again at the people standing around the room. They looked so ordinary. Some appeared to be my age or even younger. Others looked older than my Gramma. Tall and short, fat and thin. Some were talking in animated groups. Many looked bored. A few looked angry or scared. They didn’t look special or different. They could have been any crowd, selected at random.
    But they weren’t. They were all employees of an ageless vampire. And he’d already told me that they all knew what he was. I was sure that, without compulsion from another agnate, they’d never betray that knowledge. Dorian would never allow that.
    The thought made a sour taste in my mouth even as asked the question.
    “So they’re all in your thrall, then? Normally, I mean?”
    “Of course,” he said. “It’s a part of the proving, and every agnate must demand absolute loyalty from those who serve him.”
    His cold logic made the thought no more pleasant.
    “Then they aren’t ever doing anything of their free will . They’re just…puppets,” I said, remembering the word that the person on the other end of the radio had said.
    “With some agnates, that is the case,” he said evenly. “They wish their servants to be nothing more than bodies to do their will. I have found that allowing people to have full lives, both in the physical world and in their own minds, is mutually beneficial. I require only loyalty, nothing more. And those who serve me know this before they make the choice to do so.”
    “Why would anyone agree to that?” I protested. But I knew. A vampire could make cutting off one’s own arm seem attractive in his presence. How many people would even hesitate if he asked only for loyalty?
    “T here are certain advantages.” His tone was dry. “Aside from my charm, which humans find not inconsiderable, I pay well, the job always has complete satisfaction, and there is a lesser version of the benefits that you enjoy—a slightly increased resistance to human ailments and a somewhat decreased rate of aging. There are many humans who would give much to live longer than ordinary people. These benefits are directly related to the closeness of working with us and the frequency of the renewal of the thrall.”
    “I suppose so,” I said, still feeling uncomfortable about the entire idea. “So how do you…put them under your thrall?”
    “A small amount of their blood is mixed with mine externally, then taken by mouth,” he said. “This establishes a new thrall, replacing any that already exists.”
    “It doesn’t kill them? I mean, when you bite someone—”
    “No, saliva doesn’t mix in their bloodstream, so it does no harm.”
    I thought about this for a moment. “And to break a thrall without making a new one?”
    “ That would be another area of research,” he said dryly. “One without a compelling enough benefit to invest in. Even if a human is nominally under an agnate’s thrall, it doesn’t mean that the agnate must affect him. If the agnate chooses to give him no orders or thoughts, he would not live any differently than a person in no thrall at all. And a thralls fade over time of its own accord. If a vampire desires a true puppet, the thrall should be renewed every week. Even the slightest