Page 39 of The Feeder Legacy

Mum gives me an impatient “pay attention” look. “He stopped them from making new vampires without consent,” she reminds me. “He also cracked down hard on vampires who were abusing their feeders or assaulting random humans and mind-wiping them. A lot of vampires were executed after he arrived, but there were some he couldn’t get enough evidence on. They weren’t happy about it, but they toed the line publicly.”

“Publicly,” I repeat, and she shrugs.

“It was pretty much an open secret that they were behind some of the atrocities that would occasionally happen. Tristan couldn’t ever prove it, but everyone knew. They defied him every chance they got.”

“And these are the vampires who made Geoffrey?”

She nods, just as Dad comes back in, laptop in hand. “He was a random human they’d picked up somewhere and convinced that it was an honour to be a lackey to vampires.”

“So he wasn’t, like, from a feeder family?”

“No,” Dad says. “Though I think they fed from him—all of them. He was unregistered, too. From what we read, he basically acted as a dogsbody for them, and was treated atrociously, until someone reported it and Tristan found out. It’s against the law for any human to be treated that way.”

My brows draw together as I try to connect the dots. “I don’t understand why he was made into a vampire. If it’s against the law for vampires to abuse humans, and they were abusing Geoffrey, then wouldn’t that have given Tristan the evidence he needed to, uh, deal with them?” I can’t bring myself to say “execute.” This is Australia, for fuck’s sake. People don’t get executed here anymore—not legally, anyway.

Unless they’re vampires, apparently.

“Yep,” Mum agrees. “But when the vampires he dispatched to take them into custody arrived, they found Geoffrey on the verge of rising after being made. Someone had tipped the vampires off.”

I shake my head. “I don’t get it. Why does him being made change anything?”

Dad opens his laptop and starts tapping at the keyboard. “The vampires claimed that Geoffrey had never been abused, that he’d been learning what it was like to be a vampire before deciding if he wanted to be made one. It’s a bullshit excuse, of course, but most humans who tag along after vampires like that do want to be made. Geoffrey being newly made meant that he couldn’t testify to any abuse—he wasn’t in his right mind for months—and when he finally was sane enough, well, he’d gotten what he wanted.”

“They made him into a vampire so they wouldn’t get into trouble? What, like a trade? We’ll make you a vampire if you never admit how we’ve been treating you?”

Mum nods. “Basically, yes. Though a lot of that is guesswork and leaks from the Council.”

“Leaks from the Council?”

“Tristan tried to keep the details quiet, but he had to report everything to the Council, and they weren’t as circumspect. Everyone over in Europe was talking about the Australian Scandal, and the gossip made its way back here via the Dish. The suspicious circumstances around Geoffrey being made are part of the reason the Council has banned the making of new vampires.”

I rub my forehead. “This is unhinged.”

“We’re not even close to done,” Dad says. “Some of those vampires are the ones who kidnapped and murdered Tristan’s feeder eleven years ago. They’d gotten cocky after getting away with so much over the decades, and they wanted to prove that they were more powerful than he was.”

“Is that more guesswork and leaks?”

“No, they made a video saying so and posted it on the Dish,” Mum says, her voice wavering a bit. “It was horrific. Benjamin was… It was awful, Adam. I had nightmares for years.”

I swallow, my brain instantly conjuring a list of things that might have been said and done in that video. Do I want to see it? No, but…

“It’s been taken down,” Dad tells me, obviously reading my expression. “Some people made copies and tried to get them out there again, but Tristan has them removed every time, and they don’t try again.” The implication that they’re too scared to cross Tristan is clear.

“What did he do? To the vampires?” I know the answer to this—Pierce told me. Executions. But I want the context.

Mum makes a face. “He destroyed them. All the discussion I saw refers to ‘the executions,’ and I guess technically they were, but not in the sanitised way the word implies. He went after them and ripped them to pieces, one by one.” She swallows hard. “He showed everyone exactly why the Council appointed a vampire who was barely a century old to be a regent. H-He made a video of his own, showing the pile of their limbs and organs”—organs?!—“a-and other parts and him setting it on fire and watching what was left of them burn to dust. Y-You could see their eyes staring out of the flames.”

It sounds like something that might play at an indie film festival. I press my lips together to keep a hysterical laugh from erupting. That’s the person I let sink his fangs into me twice a day. The sudden feeling of intense vulnerability that overtakes me is humbling.

“Good,” I manage. “I doubt anyone would try to kidnap another one of his feeders after watching that video.” I hope, anyway. But what do I know? Maybe that’s like flirting for vampires.

Mum and Dad exchange a worried look. Can’t say I blame them.

“Alright, so I know Geoffrey’s backstory. Why would Tristan be pissed at him now? Like threw-him-at-a-wall levels of pissed.”

Dad’s eye twitches the way it does when he’s mega stressed, and guilt pangs in my chest. “He threw someone at a wall? Adam, is he violent⁠—”

I hold up a hand. “Stop, Dad. I mean, yeah, obviously he’s violent. I just told you he threw Geoffrey at a wall, and you told me about his little film project. But I’ve never seen him be violent with humans.” Scary and intimidating, yes. Violent… no. Not yet, anyway. “Trust me, I’ve been my usual self around him. If he was going to show violent tendencies toward me, I’m pretty sure it would have happened.” I cross the fingers of the hand in my lap. Clive and Anna seem comfortable being around Tristan, so hopefully my faith isn’t misplaced.