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mythical creatures also existed. Just because her family specializedin one kind of hunting didn’t mean that there weren’t other things to hunt.
    â€œThe night world is bigger than I’ve been led to believe, isn’t it?”
    He grinned. “Oh, the creatures I’ve seen and heard of. No doubt sometime in the future, we’ll all have separate cable channels and equal rights advocates lobbying in Washington. But that’s for the future. You’re giving me a history lesson now.”
    â€œWhile we wait to be attacked,” she added, and took a quick glance outside the car’s windows. She didn’t see anything, so she went on. “The one thing we’ve been certain of about the Manticores from the fifteenth century on, is that they specialize in slave dealing, within and outside the vampire community. Mostly they kidnap human women, but they take Family and Clan females when they can. The humans they train as sex slaves, but vampires are used as breeders.”
    â€œYou make it all sound so sleazy. Manticores consider this a valuable service within their community.”
    She gave him a disgusted look. “I wouldn’t think a Clan Prime would joke about such a thing.”
    â€œBad taste.” He shrugged. “The Clans do nottake losing their females lightly. No vampire does.”
    â€œYou don’t have that many women,” she said. “You have to protect them for self-preservation, even more than the duty, honor, and respect you claim toward your matriarchs.”
    â€œWe do need to keep the species going.”
    â€œThe children you have with mortal women don’t inherit many vampire traits. I’ve heard that they’re called mules by vampires.”
    He lifted his head proudly. “No Clan Prime would ever call his child by such a derogatory name. I’ve heard that hunters call such children abominations.”
    Okay, she’d baited him, he’d baited back. She let it go. “A pack or two of Manticores came to America in the early 1800s. They settled in the Five Points area of New York City, where they fed and preyed on the poverty-stricken immigrant community. Then the Family Caeg moved in and drove them out of New York. They moved south to New Orleans, and out to the Californian gold fields. Wherever they went, people disappeared, especially young women. In the wilder parts of the country, those women were openly used as prostitutes. By the end of the century they operated brothels in several California cities, as well as dealingslaves to other tribes. Over several months at the turn of the twentieth century, the hunters burned down the Manticores’ brothels and freed the women.”
    â€œDidn’t the newspapers of the time report all this as some sort of gang warfare? Criminal elements at war with each other? And they editorialized about how both sides needed to be stopped,” he said.
    â€œAnd weren’t some of the newspapers of the time owned by Clan members?”
    â€œThat I know nothing about. Really. Go on; tell me all about
old
Justinian.”
    He had that seductive tone again, as if he was urging her on to some sin. Eden wondered if that was a Prime thing, or if it was just him. And his hand was still on her thigh. She was exquisitely
aware
of his touch, of his presence. She had to take a deep, steadying breath, but at least that didn’t draw a smug chuckle from him. She began to suspect that he wasn’t noticing being hot.
    â€œJustinian
is
old,” she finally went on. “We have reports about him killing and raping going back at least three hundred years. He has a lot of followers, even though he’s never been officially the king Prime of the tribe. His exploits have made him popular among his peers.”
    â€œOh, yeah? Like what?”
    The Clan vampire’s almost admiring tone confused her. “You guys claim to loathe the likes of Justinian.”
    â€œWe give