The Men of Otherworld: Collection One by Yasmine Galenorn Page A

children would follow decorum with one another, and they would break that decorum at risk to themselves and their standing in her court.
    He vacillated for another moment, glancing at Menolly who shot him a confused look. Finally, Roman strode toward the door. “I’ll be back with your…beverage. I’m leaving the door open. It’s to stay open during my absence. This is my house, and you will honor my wishes.”
    Caleb shrugged. “As you will.

    Roman motioned to the one bloodwhore he knew had proclivities for masochism—actually she was a switch. In all the time he’d known his brother, which was far too long, he had also known that Caleb preferred his prey able to handle a little rough treatment.  
    “Listen,” he told Renee, “I will not require you to service him if you don’t want to. But you are the one among the stable who can handle his proclivities. If Caleb gets out of hand, Wendy has permission to step in and remove you. If he gets too rough, give her the signal and she’ll put a stop to it.” Wendy was a vampire, tough as they come, and she guarded his stable for him.
    Renee gave him a steely eyed nod. “Yes, Lord Roman. And…thank you, for watching out for me.”
    “I’ll do the best I can but remember, this is my brother. He’s one of the court. I cannot guarantee your safety but I’ll do my best.” Roman frowned. While he had lost a great deal of his humanity over the thousands of years, he cultivated what remained, and tried to keep enough humility to avoid sliding fully into predator-mode. Once a vampire began to view humans—mortals—as expendable, they lost their ability to think clearly and usually found themselves very dead, very quickly. Power without restraint led to carelessness, and power without reason triggered panic. And a group of panicked mortals were far more dangerous than the worst predator on the planet.
    “I understand.” Renee went to freshen up. Roman instructed Wendy to bring her to the office when she was ready and hurried back. He thought about calling his mother first, to find out if she knew what Caleb was up to, but if she didn’t, she’d just get irritated at him and tell him to deal with matters on his own.  
    As he approached the door to his office—which was still open as per his instructions—Roman slowed. Vampires had excellent hearing. And sure enough, he heard Caleb talking.
    “My brother is softer-hearted than I am. I prefer the Old World, where they still fear vampires enough to give us the respect we deserve. This harebrained idea he and my mother have is a fool’s errand. And now you tell me you would prefer to remain here, at his side, as a consort than come with me and become a queen in your own right?”
    Menolly’s voice filtered out, the sultry tones vanishing from her cool, harsh reply. “Lord Caleb, your invitation is no doubt one most vampires would swoon over, but I passed swoon a long time ago. You’ve insulted my wife, you’ve insulted your brother—my consort. And you’ve insulted me, and then you invite me to switch sides and follow you to Europe? I have no clue how you can possibly think I’d be interested.” She snorted. “Truth is? I’m from Otherworld. You will find me far less tractable than women who are full-blooded human—even if they have been turned. I’m not good at being a puppet with a hand up my ass.”
    Caleb sputtered. “You fool. My brother has far too many enemies and far too little gumption to wipe them out. This Vampire Nexus he seeks to create—it will be strangled and not by me. No, I leave that to the humans who will never accept our kind— or your kind .” He must have been talking to Nerissa at that moment because she let out a harsh laugh.
    “You truly think you can go back to when vampires ruled the night and people believed they were invincible? There are a thousand wannabe Buffy the Vampire Slayers out there among the hate groups, and some of them are pretty damned smart. And just