"Heh," he said, "I appreciate that. My sire hasn't managed that much with any of his male progeny, but something tells me he's not really trying."

After all, it was very clear that his sire considered his progeny expendable and entirely replaceable. Thomas, however, had no intentions of dying, with or without his sire having his back. Most of what he figured out when it came to control he'd done entirely on his own. Coming up with believable lies, however, was not something he mastered yet.

"I...no. I was just going to go with the broken bottle story."