Chapter 4
The party had devolved into chaos. The men in it, less flabby than Alek expected, had started to fight back and his own men had reacted the same way warriors often do when the kill isn't clean.
They became confused.
They had been honed on their own planet. Desert and ice mountain fighting left them toned and hard. The oxygen levels were thinner there and on Earth the thicker atmosphere acted like a drug, making them stronger than ever, faster and a little doped.
The Vampyren didn't fight amongst themselves. Disagreements between provinces were settled by the Games and the losers forfeited their females, their children and then their lives.
Honor was the fight.
For humans, they scrabbled to stay alive, they protected each other or gave each other up or they acted smart or stupid or cowardly. They almost never did the same thing as anyone else.
He found them aggravating and exhausting.
Now as the entire condo full of men began to riot, he shouted orders to his aide and to his soldiers and when nothing came of it, he grabbed one of the men, one of the largest, and forced him over to the terrace and off it.
The man dangled at the end of Alek's arm. "Hold them," he snarled about the other humans.
His men stopped the struggle and subdued the men. Within seconds one human male was dead. But only one.
"That was a waste," Andros said as they zip-tied the prisoners together.
Andros didn't have seniority over Alek. He stopped and stared at the man, then leaned forward and sniffed at his breath. "Have you eaten?"
Andros didn't respond. He turned away and started to assist one of the other soldiers in tying the prisoners together.
Roughly, Alek spun him back around. "Answer me." All of Earth was swimming with humans who could be bled as food. With as few troops as they'd brought to colonize the planet, it would be an extremely long time before they had to ration the humans or make max consumption laws.
"Let go of me." Andros's voice was low and angry.
In a flash, Alek drove him backward and pinned him against the wall, a forearm locked over his throat.
"Never forget I'm your commanding officer. Never refuse to eat. Never question me."
Andros brought his eyes up, staring belligerently for close to half a minute.
Then he dropped his gaze. His entire body slumped, to the extent a Vampyren would ever let himself slump. "I'm hungry." It came out sullen and unwilling.
"Then eat." He shoved the other man away and stood breathing hard, running one hand through his hair. As it fell back over his forehead, he saw where Andros was heading and snapped, "Not them."
Too fast. Andros had been heading for Mindy and Candy and Alek had called him off too fast. Pan had turned to watch the exchange, his eyes sharp and judging.
"The women are going to the harem. Or breeding. Don't take a chance with them." He gestured. "One of them."
Andros's eyes were dark with anger again, but he nodded, curt and efficient, and snapped the ties on one last man's wrists, dragging him away from his fellows.
The man had struggled, kicking and throwing ineffectual punches as he was tied into the line of men.
He'd been next in line to the man Alek had dangled and dropped from the terrace.
Now the man struggled and fought to stay where he was, his voice escalating in terror as he babbled promises and plans and ways he could turn traitor on the humans and be of such use to the Vampyren.
Before he'd gotten him halfway across the condo Andros backhanded the man, leaving him semiconscious.
Dragging him up and throwing him over one tattooed shoulder, Andros carried the man to the terrace, propped him against the railing there eighteen stories above ground level, and tore his throat open with his fangs.
The man would still be alive when Andros either finished and dropped him, or offered up the remains to anyone who needed a boost.
Fine. Alek turned back to the task at hand. Chaos had been tamed. The men were mostly subdued.
Time to move the lot of them to Caesar's Palace.