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“Who will be his first kiss?” Jean-Claude asked.
I felt the movement before I turned and saw the audience. There was no fear now, Jean-Claude’s voice had taken their fear. All I saw now was eagerness, at worst, uncertainty, as if they just weren’t sure. The first few hands went up with money in them, and once that happened, more followed. No one wants to be first, but no one wants to be left out, either.
Byron pulled gently on my shoulder. “We need to bind that wound, Anita. Let’s go backstage.”
“He’s right,” Nathaniel said, and he was closer now. Close enough that I could see that there was some blood spattered on his lavender shirt. He must have been closer to Primo than I remembered. But I wasn’t thinking well. It was as if I hadn’t been quite myself since I got out here. What was wrong with me?
I nodded. “Okay, okay, yeah.”
I let Byron and Nathaniel lead me away, but my glance stayed turned to the room. The brunette from the alleyway was ru
Jean-Claude touched the big man’s bare back, and Primo’s face turned back to the woman. There was no confusion on his face now.
There was nothing but lust, and in that moment I understood.
Jean-Claude was controlling Primo. He was manipulating the vampire more than he had ever manipulated the audience. They’d come for a little bit of lascivious fun. Primo had come to be Master of the City, but instead, he was just another act at Guilty Pleasures. He kissed the brunette like he’d breathe her in, as if to kiss her were life itself. When he let her go and one of the security guards eased her shaking body into her seat, money sprang up in hands throughout the room. Welcome to show business, Primo, I thought.