Raven's Blood Page 40
Chapter Thirty-Five
Graham was so angry, he was going to have to kill someone. It was the only way to relieve the tension building inside of him. It’s not like his orders were that hard to follow.
“So, you’re telling me you attacked the blood brat settlement?” Graham asked calmly.
“Yes,” the man replied as he fidgeted nervously by the door, flanked by several turned vampires. Graham hadn’t offered him a seat. Only Graham, Miles, and two women were seated.
“When did I tell you to attack the settlement?” Graham asked in a bored tone meant to keep some of his rage masked. It wouldn’t be good to have people figure out how much this bothered him, especially Miles. Miles already looked pissy. Probably because Graham hadn’t told him about the attack. The little prick probably couldn’t wait to run off and tell Roger about it.
“You said we would attack in a week,” the idiot mumbled as he stared at his own shoes. “After we regrouped here.”
“Then why did you attack early?” Graham asked.
“The guards were distracted at the gate,” he explained quickly, his eyes now on Graham’s. “They’d also let up the guard on the roads. It seemed like the perfect time.”
“Would you give us a moment to discuss this unpleasantness?” Graham asked the women. Both were attractive and had only been allowed into his inner circle as possible breeders. They acted as figureheads on the leadership council, but there was no need for them to be involved in this.
They both smiled and hurried out of the room without a word. His eyes stayed on their retreating forms for a moment. He did like a well-trained female.
Graham rose and approached his worthless underling. The moron was caught completely off guard when Graham’s fist made contact with his nose. Behind him, he heard the clank of silverware as Miles continued to eat.
The idiot didn’t cry out, but he did reach up to cover his bleeding nose. The turned vampires started to growl. The blood called to them, and their growls made the idiot shake slightly.
Graham loved the fear in the other man’s eyes.
“Had you waited a week, the gates would have been even less heavily guarded. We also would have had more expendable vampires with you,” Graham snapped. “Now, you’ve cost me several valuable vampires, and as I understand it, they took two of them alive.”
The idiot’s voice shook. “Who cares if they have the vampires? They’re all expendable, and they can’t exactly be questioned.”
Graham shoved the man against the wall. “Are you really that stupid? Some of the newly turned vampires take longer to lose all their memories. The plan was to send in the expendable vampires with no memory. You had several new vampires with you, ones who might remember being infected.”
“I’m sorry,” the idiot stammered. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“Your job is not to think,” Graham hissed, turning his back on the idiot. “Your job is to follow my orders.”
“Perhaps the problem is with leadership,” Miles mused around a mouthful of food.
Graham cringed. “Yes, Miles,” he gritted out, “I’ve been much too kind and forgiving of failure.”
Graham looked at the growling turned vampires with their fangs hanging over their bottom lips. They were hungry, and the smell of blood was inciting their hunger more. Still, they followed orders without questioning him and never thought for themselves. They were the perfect army. They were far superior to the idiot human standing in front of him. It was a pity, he couldn’t get all humans trained this well.
“Take him back to the holding area and eat him,” he told the vampires.
He could hear the idiot begging and screaming as the vampires dragged him away. Graham wanted to watch but not enough to deal with the mess and the smell. Too bad he didn’t have security cameras in the holding area. At one time, they had, but supplies had been hard to come by for decades. Soon that would change, and everything would be as it should be. He would find a way to fix the mess the recent attack had caused.
“You’re becoming unstable, my friend,” Miles remarked around another bite of food. “Maybe it’s time for you to step down.”
“Step down?” Graham hissed.
“Only temporarily,” Miles added. “The stress seems to be getting to you.”
Graham stalked out of the room to find a woman. If he didn’t relieve some tension soon, he was going to put a steak knife in Miles’ eye, which would be a shame since it was his fantasy for Roger. How dare Miles suggest he step down! How dare Miles make him even angrier! It was definitely time for a new inner circle, but that would have to wait. It was best to avoid any major changes. As soon as things were more settled, he was going to give in to his steak knife fantasy with Roger, and he’d come up with something equally pleasant for Miles. For now, he’d have to satisfy himself by strangling a beautiful woman during sex. That had been fun the last time, and he’d been looking forward to doing it again. It was a pity to lose an obedient female, but what other choice did he have?