Minty by M. Garnet Page B

and we had very little conversation.”
    He looked around at the others in the warehouse. “Where is the male who first saw her? Is he here?”
    A man moved forward from those watching. “Sire, I am the one who first started watching the female.”
    “The night he was at her apartment, how long were they together?”
    The new man looked at her and at the man sitting on the table. “Sire, he was there six hours before he left. During that time the lights were out, but when he left all the lights were back on and the apartment was locked.”
    She sucked in her breath and a shudder went through her body. Was it possible?
    “Do you still deny this meeting?”
    “Yes, I have no memory of it?”
    He looked at her. “Could he have wiped her memory?”
    “I don’t see how, I am older by centuries than Bider and I can’t find an entry into her. She is one of the rare that cannot be influenced.” They all looked at her for a long time.
    The one on the table nodded. They brought a woman forward. She seemed to be on drugs or in a trance. She walked forward, but her eyes seemed to not see anything in the room.
    “So, he didn’t tell you that he was a nightwalker?”
    She looked from the woman to him. “As I said, I’m not familiar with the term.”
    “And he didn’t say he was a nightwalker. He did request you serve him?” He was reaching out for the woman. Minty watched, but she shook her head no .
    “Do you know what a Vampire is?”
    She looked at him for a long moment. Okay, where are we going now? “I have seen the movies and read the books. I don’t believe them.”
    “Really.” There were a couple of chuckles in the room. She felt pressure on her shoulders as she was held tightly by the two heavy hands.
    He looked directly at her and opened his mouth and she saw the impossible. His canine teeth began to grow, to extend downward. He pulled the woman over, grabbing her hair. He twisted her over until he had her exposed neck in front of him. He stared at Minty’s eyes over the woman. He sank his teeth into the neck and began to suck.
    The woman sighed and shuddered almost as if she was having a sexual experience. He never took his eyes from Minty as he drank the blood he sucked from the woman. The woman began to fall from weakness. He finally withdrew and ran his tongue over her neck and let her fall to the floor. One of the men stepped forward, half picked up the woman and dragged her away.
    “Everyone in this room is what you would call a Vampire, with the exception of you and that useless trash. We call ourselves nightwalkers because we prefer the night. Now, your Alex is definitely one of us. Do you want to tell me one more time that he did not reveal himself to you in any way?”
    She couldn’t answer. Her mind was working somewhere inside, but telling her that her body was able to keep her alive, to keep all the processes working. It didn’t need her conscious brain to supply the body. That was good because she was still processing what she had just been exposed to with this feeding. She didn’t even have the relief of fainting. She just sat there, held in place by some monster behind her, while she watched these monsters in front of her.
    “I believe her. He never let her know about nightwalkers. Take her back up to the office until we find out why he wanted her, what we should do with her. I need to return to Rome, and you need to get your men together to see if you can build a bigger army.”

Chapter Thirteen
    It was strange — Alex was in the middle of a meeting at the large conference table. He sat in one of the large chairs at the head, looking out without much interest at the group at the foot of the table.
    They had only allowed two of the petitioners to sit. The rest stood around the chairs or against the wall, all pleading their cases. This was a no win situation. No matter how the Council ruled, everyone was going to lose. Even the Council was going to have to give up something. Politics