Mastered: Ten Tales of Sensual Surrender by Kate Pearce, Portia Da Costa, Opal Carew, Marie Harte, Jennifer Leeland, Madelynne Ellis, Emily Ryan-Davis, Carrie Ann Ryan, Joey Hill, T. J. Michaels, Sasha White Read Free Book Online Page B

research, that had been driven by vampire benefit. Very few vampires relished having to execute their servant. And when a servant died, that sharp truncation of connection between vampire and servant was disorienting, emotionally and physically.
    For that reason, another ten percent of new servants were lost to fights, because battles between vampires often involved taking out a servant for the same reasons warriors of old would take out a cavalry horse, hoping the momentary disorientation would help them take the head of the rider.
    Then there was the last twelve percent, the group of servants whose early demise was rarely discussed.
    Suicides.
    He thought of Debra, the sadness in her face, and a cold feeling gripped him low in the stomach. He’d never even considered… No, she was rational. She’d never do such a thing. Like the best vampire servants, she was completely committed to his service. But finding out that it was not a reciprocal relationship emotionally was a difficult transition for most humans, used to framing a dedicated relationship in terms of marriage, family…soul mates.
    Debra was the first human servant he’d chosen for himself. He was from a noble family, a born vampire whose father was a wealthy English landowner to the human world and a Region Master in the vampire world. Brian had been born to the entitlements of such privilege and was taught early the distinction between him and other vampires of lesser stock. It made the gap between vampires and humans even more of a chasm. That had been hammered home to him throughout his childhood and adolescent years. While he’d chosen a different path for vampires than his father had wanted, he was still very much a product of the culture in which he’d been raised.
    Many vampires lost themselves in a servant’s initial passion, forgot what the boundaries of the relationship had to be. He’d shut down any feelings like that in himself, ascribing it to a chemical urge, like endorphins. More than his family history took him down that path. Early in his studies, he’d envisioned a research facility dedicated to the vampire species. To accomplish that, he’d have to achieve credibility with much older vampires, and most doubted the maturity of a vampire prior to his first century mark. His self-control was constantly under the microscope.
    Fortunately Debra had not only understood his drive in that regard; she’d matched it. She was one of the most remarkable women he’d ever met. He hoped he conveyed that in the responsibility he gave her, in the confidence he had in her findings and his overwhelming respect for her mind. But what he’d seen there tonight made him wonder if he was somehow making a grave error, overlooking something vital he needed to provide her.
    He’d thought she’d reconciled herself to her role. He’d certainly taken some distastefully extreme steps to ensure it. But no matter what boundaries, protocols or lessons existed, most humans didn’t understand what the relationship truly was until the first several decades had passed, and he and Debra hadn’t even spent their first decade together. However, she was more mature, a faster thinker. What would take others thirty or forty years to realize, maybe she faced now.
    And maybe the capricious heart alone made the decision as to what a servant could and couldn’t accept. The thought disturbed him, but he pushed it away for now. Time for a shower. They had the Helsinki figures to review.
     
    Brian scrolled through the latest space station data on the properties of sunlight, comparing it to data they’d culled from the ashes of vampires gathered after they chose to meet the sun. He saw some intriguing findings from Lab 6, under Debra’s supervision. Nothing right now that suggested a way for vampires to endure sunlight more comfortably, but many scientific discoveries occurred as a result of seemingly unrelated leads and sifting through tons of data, just to see what random