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to suppress them. All they can see is what they’ll lose, and never stop to consider what they’ll gain.”
    “I’m afraid of change, too.” Corynne was almost breathless. “What was your life like as a human?”
    I’d never shared my past with a courtesan. None of them ever asked. I hadn’t realized it until now. They’d been nothing more than a cheap thrill. What brought them to this place hadn’t mattered. They blurted out what they needed the money for in the second before I sucked the blood from their veins. It was always the same. School, a sick family member, someone who’d done them wrong. They got their money, and we both lived to see another day.
    “I’d been a friar before the Black Death rolled through Britain. It was common in those days, my older brother inherited our family manor, leaving me nothing to offer a wife—no land, no money. So I went to the church. To stay healthy, we isolated ourselves from the rest of the village off as long as we could. We prayed that we could ride it out and survive. As the epidemic worsened, I’d been called to help the village. To pray with them. But God wasn’t interested in helping us, and the sickness wiped out half of the country. I didn’t get sick, even working with those who were on their deathbed and blessing the deceased.
    “On the way back to the friary one night, a man approached me. Nash—I took the name of my village because I never wanted it to be forgotten—was small, and we didn’t get many outsiders. The stranger insisted I could do more good with him than praying that the sick made it to Heaven. It was blasphemy. He turned me that night, and there was nothing God could do to stop him.”
    “God didn’t help me, either.” Corynne seemed wise beyond her years, and so unlike the other girls that stood on the auction stage. She’d bared herself in so many ways to me tonight. The V on her chest had smudged with the strap of her dress.
    I wanted her, but I wouldn’t take her tonight. Even a vampire had limits.
    “What did you do, once you were a vampire?” The reflection of the fire flickered in her eyes and her power pushed against me. It surrounded her like armor, protecting her from evil. We both knew evil came in the prettiest packages. All the better to tempt us with.
    “Our mission was to save extraordinary men from an untimely fate. To give a voice to the silenced, and to celebrate progress. I never understood why I’d been chosen, besides as a rebellion against the church, and because I’d managed to stay healthy during the epidemic. I didn’t want to disappoint my maker, especially surrounded by so many powerful beings. I was ruthless, savage, and would stop at nothing to do his bidding, lest he realized he made a mistake.
    “I’d been bloodthirsty, uncontrollable, and enthralled by this new world without rules. My human life and the path chosen for me had been governed by them. I’d told my parish they’d receive their reward in Heaven, but mine came from an eternity on earth.
    Corynne shuddered, as I expected her to, but then her lips curled into a smile. “What about extraordinary women? I bet you needed a few of those.”
    “Actually, we didn’t. Only the Makers can reproduce. The rest of us can only replenish. We formed allegiances with human women, and the tradition of blood courtesans was born. It was a way to flaunt our power, with beautiful, wanton women while human men had to ignore those desires to conform with what society dictated for them.”
    She didn’t like that answer, but there was no need to sugarcoat the truth. She’d probably come here with some romantic notion about vampires that she’d seen in a movie or read in a book. That one bite would make all her problems go away. It didn’t work like that.
    “You’ve never met a woman that you wanted to spend more than one night with?”
    “Of course I have. I know when someone is living in Hell on earth. I’ve been there. I turned Alexandra after