Quinn folded her arms. “Can’t they be vassals?”
Everyone looked at her in shock. Annika coughed. “Excuse me?”
Senguine scowled. “Don’t you understand what that is asking? You would be demanding that they abstain from sexual relations with any creature other than him. Depending on their feeding habits, that could prove extremely problematic.”
“I’ll do it,” Ria offered shyly. “I can be a vassal.”
“You will do no such thing,” Senguine growled. “I will not see you suffer such a fate.”
Ria raised her eyebrow. “Oh? Now you’re going to tell me what I can or cannot do?”
Senguine rolled her eyes and looked away. “There are things that you don’t understand. Not yet.”
Quinn narrowed her eyes but didn’t comment. “It was just a thought. We don’t have to make anything official.”
Jared silently thanked her. Fortunately, he had had the prescience not to react when Ria spoke up — he might’ve offended her or worse, Quinn. Truthfully, he was still uneasy about the whole concept.
The room was quiet again. Annika broke the silence. “No, we do need to figure this stuff out. None of us can have sex with him unless we can make that commitment, or we risk damaging his power supply.” She hesitated. “What’s your current plan to get vassals? How many do you have?”
Jared looked down. “One.”
Kiara winced. “That’s not good. We only have a few months.”
“It’s fine. Between all of us, I’m sure we can manage to wrangle up some humans for him to-”
“We’re not doing that.” Quinn bit her lip. “We’ve made a deal. She has to be willing, and he has to get to know her first.”
The proteges collectively groaned. “Are you kidding me?” Ria exclaimed. “He’s never going to get powerful at that rate!”
“I never should have agreed to that deal,” Annika muttered.
Jared was irritated. “Alright, look. Senguine, what is the minimum number of vassals I’d need to get accepted into the Summit?”
Senguine thought for a moment. “At least ten. Fewer, perhaps, if you have demonic vassals.”
Jared cringed inside. “How many if they were all demons?”
Senguine gritted her teeth. “No fewer than seven. But that number would be immensely difficult. Save yourself the trouble and take some humans.”
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Quinn said dismissively. She grinned. “Counting me, if you all became vassals, we’d be well on our way.”
“That’s the minimum,” Annika commented. “That’s not very good.”
“Quality over quantity is your only bet,” Ria said quietly. “You’d have to be… thorough.”
Jared took a deep breath. “I admit, I don’t think I’m ready for this, but I guess I don’t have much of a choice. I’m not going to force any of you into anything you don’t want to do.”
Kiara shifted. “You saved my life. Becoming a vassal is a small price for that.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“Regardless,” she held up a hand. “It offers our best chance of survival.”
“Not as high as if he would man up and take some vassals by force,” Annika reminded her.
Quinn folded her arms. “You seem opposed to this idea. Why?”
Annika pursed her lips. “Let’s just say that having some options in terms of sex is probably a good idea for my goal.”
Ria bumped her with an elbow. “What happened to being all in? No plan B?”
Annika scowled and closed her mouth. “This had better work.” She threw her hands in the air. “Fine, I’ll be a vassal.”