Generation V by M. L. Brennan Read Free Book Online Page B

out of the house, but now I was curious. “Why would I be interested?”
    “Because we are to have company. A scion of the Naples nest has requested visitation into my territory. Here is your opportunity, darling, to have that question that you have always asked yourself answered.”
    “What question?”
    Madeline leaned forward and her ever-present smilebecame unfriendly. “Whether other vampires are like us. Whether I am better or worse than the others of our kind. Whether your destiny is truly tied in blood, or whether others walk different paths.”
    A long moment passed, and I knew that I was caught. Madeline knew me too well, and knew all the things that haunted me at night.
    “Naples in Florida?” I asked, goading her a little.
    “Italy,” she said blandly, not rising to the bait. “He is a descendent of a nest mate of one of my blood siblings. The vampires of the Old World are forced to cast their eyes to the New, and they have dispatched an emissary that hospitality dictates I must welcome.”
    “Why are they interested in you?”
    “Because, darling, their numbers have dwindled. Few of our young are born, and fewer still survive infancy. Some old ones die with no heir to claim their territories, leaving them in dispute between their neighbors. More perish in those conflicts who cannot be replaced. And yet I sit in a young land with many healthy offspring.” Her smile widened. “Their emissary wishes to learn my secret.”
    “Do you have a secret?”
    “Of course, my darling.”
    “Will you tell it to him?”
    “Perhaps.” She laughed. “Though it is unlikely to do him any good. So tomorrow you will return and meet someone who is so distantly related to you that he cannot in any honesty claim a kin tie. I hope that this will be an illuminating experience for you and that”—here she swept a sharp eye over my clothing—“you will endeavor to launder your clothing before you come. There is a stain on your trousers.”
    My cheeks heated even as I automatically stepped in to help her get out of her chair. I’m never sure how many of these moments of fragility are acts and how many are the actual weaknesses of her age. I once tried to test that theory and she fell over, leading to a horrible lecture from Chivalry, and the headache of wondering whether she fell over to trick me or fell over because she fell over.
    “Now help me downstairs,” she said as I handed her her cane, which was silver with a top knob inlaid with mother-of-pearl. “The cook has made beef bourguignonne.”
    My vegetarianism has been a hard sell in this house.

Chapter 3
    Madeline’s blood left a certain spring in my step on the drive home, despite my best efforts to ignore it. The enhanced sense of hearing and the rush of predatory instincts had faded almost as soon as I stopped drinking, thankfully, but I was still nervous that it might return. I wouldn’t need to drink human blood until I fully transitioned into a vampire, an event that no one seemed interested in giving me a general estimate on. Prudence rarely deigned to talk to me at all, and Chivalry would only admit that he’d been a lot younger than me when it happened for him. Madeline would just give a very unhelpful cackle. But if I could put it off forever, I would.
    Back at home, I staked out space on the sofa and waited for Larry to get home. This wasn’t an aftereffect of the blood—this was an aftereffect of my last credit card bill’s minimum payment nearly clearing out my checking account. I needed this month’s rent payment, and preferably all the money he owed me on top of it. Unlike with a lot of down-and-out postgraduate film students, the option of selling plasma and semen was cruelly withheld from me. The latter was sterile and useless, and the former was not exactly a substance that I could offer the RedCross with any ethical comfort. After all, a pint of Fort-positive would probably kill anyone who needed a transfusion. I have enough