Safeword: Storm Clouds by Candace Blevins Read Free Book Online Page B

nodded Abbot continued, "Would you be qualified to teach vampires who have lived hundreds or in some cases thousands of years how to use a computer? How to use email, and how to send and receive text messages on a cellphone? I realize money probably isn't an issue for you, but it would pay well and it would include being placed under my personal protection."
    "I can do more than that. If you set me up with a classroom with as many computers as I'll have students then I can teach them all at once. I find that group learning works better for people who are resistant as long as at least half the class is interested in learning. If you have all resistant vampires then you'll need to send some in who want to learn but just haven't done so yet. I'll give them the basics of how to move around in whatever operating system you choose, and then I'll get them familiar with email and with some basic internet surfing. If you give me notes on some of the resistant people's interests I can target some of the internet searches I use as examples towards their interests and that will help show them how this can benefit them personally. But the other things I can do for you include looking over your current set-up and finding the security holes and plugging them up. I can also talk to you about the various ways to encrypt the messages going back and forth that you don't want outsiders to read. And as I see emerging technologies that may be of use to you I can bring them to your attention."
    Abbot looked thoughtful. "Kendra, this could work. Having him teach classes puts him in the position of being a human who is teaching vampires. It puts him in kind of an authority position to start with." He looked back at Eric. “Eric, once our contract is in place and you are my employee then there is a way you must answer any challenge you get. Should anyone challenge you in any way that would require that you defend yourself you must say, 'Since I have a formal arrangement with Abbot Hamilton any challenges you might have towards me should be directed to him'. Once you are under my protection you will be able to speak to me with your mind, and you'll need to open up so I can hear those words. I will know who you are saying it to, and I will then be able to control them. If you act in any way to defend yourself then my protection will do you no good though, so it is imperative you don't try to go all macho when challenged by any of my people."
    "Can Kendra and I speak to each other that way? Through our minds?"
    Abbot looked at Kendra, so she explained, "It is possible that we can do that Eric, but I haven't bound you to me. I only bound you to your promise. If I bind us together metaphysically then we can do that, but I won't bind you without talking to you about it first. I don't want you to see it as an invasion of privacy, so I won't do it until you understand it and ask me to do it."
    "But Abbot will have to bind me to him somehow to protect me?"
    "Yes, but what he does will be different than what I do. Mine will be a lot more personal. His will be business."
    "Once he has bound me, can he then make me do what he wants, even if I don't want to do it?"
    Kendra didn't want to have this particular conversation, but Eric needed the truth. "Eric, he can make you do what he wants you to do now, without binding you. He'll have a better connection to you once he puts you under his protection, but it won't give him more power over you than he has now."
    "What do you mean he could make me do something I didn't want to do now?"
    "You've heard the vampire myths out there about people compelled to do things by vampires. Stories of people who get up out of bed and walk outside to the hungry vampire. No one believes them, the stories are said to be people who are sleepwalking and who dream of vampires. But the fact is that vampires in history have done this at times. We can compel most humans to do what we want them to. It's not something either of us is in the