Demon Moon

leader; you should follow their example in that—if only that. In their constant fighting amongst themselves for position, they killed each other as successfully, if not as quickly, as the nosferatu did.”
    Paul pressed his lips together and shook his head, clearly unhappy with such an answer. “But this club was the center of vampire activity before the nosferatu arrived. You’ve purchased and reopened it. For what purpose, if not to reestablish the community here in San Francisco?”
    “John Polidori was a friend of mine; I didn’t want to see his legacy—such as it is—in ashes. If you are seeking a leader, do not look to me. If someone else wishes the position, he need not fear I’ll challenge him.”
    “We don’t need just anyone,” Paul said. “We need strength. The nosferatu massacred the elders, yet you remained in the city and lived. My consort was one of those killed; I won’t lose another.”
    Colin glanced at Fia. The only humans brought into the community were those a vampire intended to turn. A human could not be fed from daily for long; it became too dangerous. Yet she was comfortable among them, and obviously familiar to many. Either she had known of vampires before Paul had lost his partner, or she’d absorbed knowledge from him and entrenched herself in the community very quickly. “Then you’d best learn to protect her better. I’ve little interest in leading a group of vampires who would use a human as their weapon and shield.”
    “Yet you feed from them?”
    And another had grown bold. Colin barely glanced at the speaker—dark and tall, shaven head, his leather vest exposing his muscular arms and a tattoo of a wolf. There were advantages to his extraordinary— nosferatulike —speed; Colin memorized the vampire’s appearance in that swift look, though to the vampire, it would seem as if Colin hadn’t given him the slightest acknowledgment.
    As an insult, the cut direct had been much more effective in London’s drawing rooms—instead of being silenced the vampire’s voice rose and rang with challenge. “You endanger all of us. The elders should never have allowed such as you to roam the streets.”
    Such as him? Colin’s amusement returned. “They attempted to stop me…once. Will you try to do the same now?”
    “You fought them?” Fia’s question was echoed by uneasy murmurs.
    Colin raised his heel to the sofa cushion, rested his elbow on his knee. His smile was as lazy as his posture. “I’d no need for such drastic measures,” he told her. “Would you kill such as me?”
    Her lips parted as her gaze slid over his features. For an instant, she stopped breathing…then shook herself out of it. “Yes. If you didn’t follow the community’s rules.”
    Delighted by her response, Colin laughed softly. “Your elders found that they could not kill me. And why should they? When I first came to this city, there was no vampire community here, and worldwide the requirement of partnerships and bloodsharing was in its nascent stages; our numbers weren’t high enough to warrant it.”
    As the vampire population rose, it became a requirement of most communities that each vampire have at least one blood-sharer, so that they’d not feed from humans. Almost all vampires paired up in twosomes or threesomes and exchanged blood between themselves. It was an arrangement that had evolved from the need for secrecy; even a single vampire would be found out if he needed to hunt each night.
    But for Colin.
    He agreed with the reasoning behind bloodsharing, though he could not do it—and he would not tolerate being told how to live. “Why should I submit to a rule that didn’t exist when I was born?”
    “For our protection,” Paul said, as if it were that simple.
    “You’ve been watching me feed for months; have my activities drawn human notice?”
    “No.” Once again, the bold vampire with the wolf tattoo spoke. This time, Colin caught a hint of frustration and bewilderment in his psychic scent. From his inability to understand how Colin could feed undetected, unremembered?
    Even Colin did not fully understand it.
    “But that doesn’t mean you won’t be discovered in the future.”
    “I have not in two hundred years,” Colin said with a careless shrug, and returned his attention to Paul and Fia. “I’ve no intention of bloodsharing, or discontinuing my hunts. I’ve no intention of leading you. I fear I don’t have what you’re looking for.”
    “You have