And then I gasp as the pieces click together. I grasp my arm, remembering the light pink scratch from Carnevale. Rafe sees the movement and nods. “Yes, when the Guard traitors stole your blood, they took it for doping. They were likely looking to have some fun at your expense before they handed you over to the Inquisitors. As a Sire, your blood would have a much more profound effect than usual; it could even temporarily grant the drinker your Sire abilities.” He shifts the girl off his lap and smears patch paste on her wrist. “However, the Testament of the Guard has long forbidden the consumption of another Maker’s blood. Only philistine or animal blood can be used for doping.”

“How… can you just compare humans to animals like that?”

“Oh, come on, you treat humans like animals all the time.”

“That’s not true!”

“Don’t be so self-righteous,” he snaps. He swipes blood off his chin and licks his fingers. “All of humanity has been benefiting from the blood of other humans since the beginning of time. This entire country has been leeching off innocent lives since they decimated the indigenous population and built your economy on the backs of slaves.” He uses the ruined bedsheet to wipe the worst of the blood from his neck and torso. There’s obvious power pumping through him. I can almost see his dragon tattoo ripple as his heart—which I now realize is a lot colder than I’d begun to hope—beats with power from stolen blood. “You pretend you’re more enlightened now, and yet you all still buy your technology and fashion and fuel your cars by putting money in the pockets of regimes that are killing and oppressing their people to continue making a profit. You spent your life ignoring the price for your modern conveniences, yet you’re always so willing to crucify anyone who is a little more honest about humanity’s parasitic nature.”

My mind is reeling at his accusations. He sounds like Grandfather, always trying to explain about big companies who take advantage of immorally cheap labor. But that’s not the same as the bleeding girl lying on the bed. “So you think that makes… this… okay?”

“It means that you and I aren’t so different as you like to think. I’m just honest about it. You can go ahead eating meat from animals you would never kill yourself and send children off to die in a war you wouldn’t fight yourself. If you’re going to profit off someone dying across the globe just because you’ve never seen their face, then you’re a gravdamn hypocrite. I know who I am and what I do. You can keep living in your world of denial. Keep lying to yourself, but don’t judge my actions.”

“Why didn’t you just drink my blood?”