I smiled at the reaction he had not been entirely able to hide, slight movement of the jaw from his gritting teeth, the almost imperceptible furrowing of the brow. Leaning back, I kept my gaze on the male before me, but returned him some space. The confirmation that his rebellion was still in there pleased me.

"Have you wondered why I bought you specifically?"

His lack of response was no surprise.

"The obvious answer really is your handsome face. You might have noticed that I have something of a collection around here. Lovely males of all varieties to cater to my whims. Different sizes and appearances and skills and capabilities and talents. It's quite pleasant. Perhaps you imagine that's why I chose you?"

No answer.

I smiled as I continued. "That's not the only thing you have, or rather had, in common with them, though. I saw something in all of them, that spark of rebellion that refused to die even when exposed to our cruel reality." I paused for effect and to watch his reactions more carefully. "I have something of a reputation for enjoying taming wild humans, rather like a hobby. I suppose I've become rather predictable in my selections, since even the most imbecilic councillors are aware."

I considered my silent male. "You have been doing an excellent job of pretending to be a docile, broken creature, but that first moment you met my eyes, you gave yourself away. Even right now, what do you want?"

He shifted almost imperceptibly, a sign of discomfort I would have missed if I had not been watching so closely.

In spite of his movement, he retained his silence, but I was breaking through the facade. "I bet, even right at this moment, you would dearly love to incapacitate me, find a stake and stab it through my cold heart, sever my head, and drag my body out into the midday sunlight to crumble to ash, wouldn't you? If only you thought you could get away with it..."

Inching forward, cruel monster that I was, I forced him to look at me. "I bet right now, your hands are aching to try to end me, aren't they? You're just biding your time."

I met the rage in his eyes with a smile. Now this was amusing.

"Yes."

I had heard him speaking gruffly from far off, but it was fascinating to have that gravelly tone directed at me.

"Oh, so you can speak, Little Human. Of course, I know you've said a few terse words to my servants, but this was to me, with killing intent. Almost enough to make my still heart flutter. But of course, I'm not someone you're capable of killing, at least not easily."

"Won't know until I try."

I cocked my head. "At least promise you'll make your eventual attack on me interesting. I would hate for your attempt on my existence to be redundant. At a certain point, I just can't help but roll my eyes while I squeeze the life out of yet another unimaginative assassin."

He resumed his silence, but his eyes glowered at me.

"Come now, that is not so much to promise, now is it?"

My Little Human was apparently done with conversing, but I was not done with trying to provoke him.

"But, I did not call you here for this lovely conversation, enjoyable though it has been. I actually summoned you for another reason."

I waited, merely to give him time to think through the possibilities. We both knew I had not used him as a feeder yet and he was likely waiting for that moment. Would he attack me then and there, or would he bide his time?

"Come closer," I ordered, but without compulsion. Our battle of wills would be no fun if I cheated.

His expression darkened as he ran through the possibilities. He had me here, alone, seemingly as defenceless as a conscious vampire could be.

But he would not be likely getting out afterwards if he somehow managed. It seemed my new human had something to live for. It was likely more of a vendetta than a spark of hope for a brighter future, but still he did not want to throw his life away on me alone.

Shame. I genuinely liked when humans had hope. They did unpredictable things under the influence.

Still, his stubbornness was a rare treat. He was also rather brave. He certainly feared me on some level, but he did not let it control him.

Again, my mind wandered to what a magnificent vampire he would be. Attractive enough to bring half the population to their knees, powerful enough to force the other unwilling half down as well if he pleased.

He would probably be my downfall.

If I was as wise as it was believed, I would drain him dry right now and throw his corpse out for the scavengers.

But, I was not, at least not enough to counteract my curiosity.

I was almost startled from my musings when he moved closer and bared his neck. "Do your worst, Leech."

Would my heart have leapt in that moment if it had been able to?

"Awe, you've given me a pet name, Little Human. That's sweet. It's been years since someone has called me anything like that. I think the last was Leif... Or no, I think it might have been Marcel. They only call me Mistress now, but perhaps I should instruct them to call me something more defiant..."

Maybe I should not have been stoking his anger so recklessly, but it felt just too good to stop and who was I to deny myself fleeting amusement?

I looked at the base of his neck he was so defiantly offering, the spot where his blood would flow freely, but instead I turned my attention away and clapped my hands.

The door opened and Leif strode in with his typical stern demeanor. Nearing forty, he had aged nicely. This handsome human likely had some degree of far eastern lineage, but it was hard to be certain after centuries of chaos in the human breeding population.

Turning to my newest acquisition, I smiled widely. "I do appreciate the offer, Little Human, but I don't think you're ready for anything like that yet. I simply wanted to welcome you to my home and then have Leif familiarize you with your tasks here."

I was rewarded with his pure fury, before his stoic mask slapped back into place. "Leif? Please show Little Human all that he needs to know to get by."

"Yes, Mistress," Leif said with a little respectful bow. My new human was watching, probably recalling with horror my hints of the former rebellious spirits of the other males.

It would be amusing when he would see the truth with his own eyes.

Or perhaps if, although I had not yet failed to bring any of my chosen humans to heel before. This one might be a first.

I turned my attention to Leif. "We'll give him a week to settle in and improve his health before we set him to doing something useful, so focus on that."

Leif nodded and spoke to my new human. "Follow me, please."

When the doors shut behind them I smiled. This was terribly amusing.

I could clearly get him all worked up and angry, but could I calm him down again after?

I imagined I would find out.

* * * * *

As instructed, Leif gave Little Human a few days to get acclimated. Meanwhile, I turned my attention to what needed to be done, although there was not much thanks to Leif's organizational skills.

His excellence left me little to do but wander around my home and force myself not to go and entertain myself with another attempt at further riling up my resentful new human.

I did visit Trisha again. She had been set up in the wing where I kept my female servants and seemed to be settling in nicely. Like Little Human, we were just getting her up to standard health levels, although she had clearly fared worse than him while loose in the wild.

Many of the free humans came in in terrible condition. My medical staff checked them over, the kitchen gave them double portions, and they began physical training at an easily manageable level.

All I needed was patience. It usually took a bit of time to figure out where each individual would fit best to suit my purposes. I had not entirely figured out Trisha yet and Little Human would hardly thrive where I would prefer him to be, at least at this time.

Patience was my elusive ally. I could deal with all the waiting, but I just desperately wanted to know his actual name. The longer he withheld it the more I wanted to know.

Perhaps I would threaten to name him something myself and he would cave. I had managed to annoy him into talking, so perhaps a similar strategy would work on him again.

His presence was enjoyable, an interesting new problem for me to solve in a world that seemed to have fallen into dreary equilibrium in the last centuries.

I remembered when the world was more. Few others were old enough to recall the way things had once been when humans ruled the world and we vampires had hidden in the shadows. Things had changed so quickly then, as humans invented and created and built and destroyed. It was good and it was bad, it was glorious chaos.

I had absorbed it all as I lived on the edge and watched it occur, creating life after life among them, always present, but scarcely perceived.

Then, the vampire kind was revealed. A group of relatively young vampires had come out and recklessly exposed themselves, breaking the age old tenet of our kind and starting a revolution.

It had taken the humans the blink of an eye to adjust to the new knowledge of our existence and then another before they recognized the threat and had done a darn good job of trying to rid themselves of the vampires in their midst.

Obviously, their numbers could not compete with our strength and experience, but they had nearly persevered. There were only about twenty vampires left who were my age or older. The rest were killed in the purges.

From time to time, I still felt a bit of nostalgia for such good old days when the humans had been in control. They had been the very antithesis of boring.

Most of the vampires now in existence could barely remember such turbulent times, if at all. Most of the ones that could remember thought that we were better off, solidly at the top of the food chain where we clearly belonged. Many of them had been sired during the battles and surely their beginnings had a significant effect on their outlooks.

I was not exactly complaining, although the lack of discord could get a tad tedious from time to time.

That was where my newest acquisition came in: an invaluable potential antidote to my tedium.