Ruthven met Aubrey's gaze. "I swear it was only to protect him and myself. I have been alive a long time, and done things in that time that will never cease to haunt me. Abraham was not the only vampire I killed, nor the only one I fed upon. There will probably be others, for it is my duty to help control the Pets until three hundred years have passed and the arrangement can be renegotiated. Until we think enough time has passed that we can live safely again, without fear of g******e ever again being a possibility."
He turned to Aubrey. "That day, after I spoke with your father, I saw you. You were a sweet child, Brey." He smirked. "I guess the temper came later."
"Che," Sangre said, and laughed briefly when Aubrey glared at him.
"You made me smile, and that was something I had not done
