He showed her the primer on the back of the bullet, explained how the hammer in the gun strikes it, igniting the tiny bit of explosives in the primer, which ignites the gunpower mixture behind the bullet, which propels the bullet through the barrel and towards the target. He broke the gun down, showed her the barrel, the hammer, the trigger mechanism by themselves. Isolated. He insisted she hold the pieces, since they didn’t seem to scare her as much once the pieces no longer looked like a gun.
Finally, he talked her through putting it back together, so she ended up holding the gun once it was reassembled. He showed her how to safely hold it without touching the trigger, and he ended with why it’s so important you never point a gun — even if you’re certain it’s unloaded — at someone unless you intend to shoot them. And how you never put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to engage it.
Basic gun safety. It had to be done sooner or later, and he’d chosen sooner.
Fabio came upstairs towards the end, but he sat quietly and didn’t interrupt.
When Collosa came down, he brought an AR and put it in the corner. Eunice was smart enough to understand he was letting her see it without inviting her to touch it yet. Baby steps.
Collosa took his seat across from her. “I talked to Aaron about your reticence around weapons. He’ll give you a few days before he wants you in the range, but he’ll want you certified within the month, so the sooner we start, the better.”
“Certified?”
Collosa had been warned about her anxiety, but he honestly hadn’t expected it at this level from a vampire. He touched her arm and then rested his hand on it. She met his gaze, took a breath, and settled.
“You’ll need to pass two tests. The first is a Drake Security test, and when you can pass it, you’ll be assigned a weapon. As soon as possible after this, you’ll apply to the State of Tennessee for your concealed carry permit, which will involve a written test and a much easier range test than the Drake one. Once you have the permit, company policy says you have your weapon on you back and forth to work, and while at work. Common sense says you should also have it on you anytime you leave the house, and handy while at home. You’ll be living with us, where we have lots of guns handy, but you’ll still need it on you when away from home.”
He caressed her arm again, let her digest that before he continued. Her stress levels had predictably gone back up, but he couldn’t sugar coat it. He could, however, help her deal with the information now that she had it.
“We’ll go slow. You’ve held a handgun now. Put one together, even. The world didn’t end and no one is dead. We’ll teach you the safety protocols to keep you and those around you safe. It’s going to be okay.”
He looked to Fabio a few seconds, and breathed in. Fabio gave him a cocky smile, and that told him all he needed to know. He met Kelsey’s gaze. “You seem well fed. Anything we need to be aware of?”
“I don’t believe so.”
He looked back to Fabio. “Final count?”
“Three, but only two count. One was before I explained there would be consequences.”
Collosa nodded. “And then we had one this morning that won’t count. However, if she screws up on counting floors in the future, it will count. She knows now.”
He looked back to Kelsey. “Tell us the consequences that have worked the best for you in the past.”
Her trainers had given them notes, of course, but he wanted to hear what she’d have to say.
“It seems cruel to make me tell you. I’m aware my trainers list the whip, time in storage without food, and responsibility for cleaning bathrooms as their primary modes of consequences. I’ll add that one specific trainer was a horse shifter, and he would fuck me in the ass while he was in partially shifted form when he was really unhappy with me. It would’ve killed a human, and it took me weeks to heal.”
“Tell us about the storage you were put into,” said Fabio.
“It’s a steel box. There are metal pieces that trap your wrists, ankles, and neck. It’s an inch off your neck, so it isn’t like it chokes you, but you can’t sit up or turn over or scratch your nose. You’re flat on your back in the dark. I spent a month in a box once when I lost control and hurt someone. Usually, I was only in there from one to five days. I was nearly mad after a month.”
Eunice leaned back in his chair. “We have concrete jail cells downstairs at Drake. Lightproof. Six feet by four feet. No bed or furniture. Nothing flammable. I don’t foresee needing to use one, but it’s there if you do something we deem makes it necessary. So long as you’re under 20 demerits, we’ll stick with more traditional consequences.” Eunice met her gaze and leaned forward, considering. “Ten strikes of the cane per demerit seems a good place to start. So you know we’re all capable, you’ll get twenty-one today. Seven from each of us.”
“Eunice will dole them out most often,” Collosa told her. “But any of us can, and none of us will take it easy on you. If we can’t discipline you properly, the vampires will want you under their roof. Aaron and Nathan don’t want the coterie to have regular access to you while you work for Drake Security.”
“You should know that this is the least of what we’ll do,” Eunice told her. “I’m quite partial to a stainless steel meat tenderizer to the clit.”
Fabio gave a loud sigh. “Part of the deal, bringing you in, was that you need to be dominated. Need to submit. It’s a new-vampire thing, and Marco tells us we run the risk of you needing to be destroyed if your training is interrupted. We talked about safewords this morning. You’ll have one with me during sex because that’s the way I operate. Collosa will explain his rules.”
“In private,” Collosa told her. He respected safewords for some submissives, but worked without them for others. He hadn’t quite figured out how it would need to be with Kelsey yet. Since she came to them with a contract stipulating she got them, she’d have to voluntarily give it up, if he didn’t want her to have one. No doubt he could manipulate her into it, but he wasn’t certain he wanted to.
Meanwhile, Fabio was looking at Eunice as if he expected him to join the conversation, and their grumpy mongoose rolled his eyes at them.
“I don’t fuck vampires,” Eunice told her. “Nothing personal, just not my thing. I sometimes contract with a young lady to train her to be a sex slave. When I do, these two are permitted to use her once she’s a few steps into the training process. Sometimes, the girl’s Master sends her to me to be trained, and in those cases, he frequently sends her back for retraining at intervals. One such former student is due to arrive next week. Your only rule will be that she doesn’t exist. You don’t look at her or speak to her. Even if she’s giving one of us a blowjob while we talk to you, or if she’s leaned over the table being fucked up the ass when you walk into the room, you pretend not to notice her. Break this rule and I’ll punish you.”
He paused a beat. “I don’t believe in safewords, even for humans. It isn’t likely to be an issue since you and I won’t have sex with each other, but there it is. With humans, I usually at least pause and check in if they forget and say it anyway, but it isn’t like I’m going to accidentally kill you because your airflow is restricted.” He looked at the other two men and then back to her. “We’re all kinky, but we’re different flavors of kinky.” He sat back and crossed his arms. “It’s important you sound American. Do you agree?”