And it was Felix.
She was already fighting to get away from the two vampires when she heard him scream, “RED! RED! RED!”
Safewords weren’t allowed for level three people, so the fact he was screaming it, his voice frantic and high, sent adrenaline flooding into her veins.
Her body reacted, muscles tensing, straining against the vampires’ hold. The one behind her faltered, his cock stillburied deep, his hands gripping her hips; the one in her mouth tightened his grip, confused by her sudden resistance.
She didn’t think — she fought. Her arms pushed against the table, legs kicking, a snarl ripping from her throat. The vampire at her head cursed, his cool hand slipping as she twisted, spitting his cock out. The one behind her tried to push down on her back to hold her in place, but she thrashed and rose to her knees, elbows slamming into his ribs, her shifter strength surging in a desperate, primal burst.
She leapt from the table and ran to Felix’s screams, dodging people and equipment. He was hanging upside down by his widespread ankles, angry crop marks on his inner thighs and cock, and his asshole looked as if it’d been cropped plenty, too. Whip marks streaked his body in bloody rips, and bruises bloomed all over.
But Felix was staring at his arm, frantic with pain, and Emmy immediately saw what looked like a lowercaseeburned into his flesh.
Emmy’s heart slammed against her ribs, and she leaned down, settled her arms around his torso, and lifted him into her arms, adjusting her stance so she could cradle his body with his legs still suspended.
“It burns!” Felix screamed. “Fuck! It’s like it burns all the way into me!”
She got a better look at his arm. She’d lifted him so it wouldn’t be against her body, and since he was holding it so he could look at it. Her up-close view told her it was likely arash rather than a burn — an angry red, raised bumps, the edges fading rather than sharp and crisp.
She ran through the possibilities. Not acid, not silver. She leaned in and breathed, smelled something, but didn’t recognize it.
Mostly, she scented Felix’s pain and fear.
“I have you,” she told him, and looked around. One of the black-suited monitors was near, and she ordered, “This isn’t a sexual thing. It’s a rash. Let his fucking legs down!”
No one moved, and she cradled Felix’s body a little better. The vampire holding the crop stepped forward, but then Zander was approaching, folded wings framing his face, black feathers ruffling with his movement. He ignored Emmy and focused on Felix.
“What happened?”
Felix shook his head and held his arm so Zander could see. “I don’t know! It burns! Please make it stop!”
Zander looked to the monitor. “Release him.”
Emmy stayed silent. She didn’t want to be sent away, so silence was probably the best option.
Zander’s gaze flicked to her, and the electric tension from before sparked again, his blue eyes piercing, unreadable, but heavy with something unspoken. She didn’t look away, but her focus was on figuring out the problem with Felix’s arm. What would he have reacted to?
She had no idea, and she told Zander. “I smell something but can’t identify what it is.”
Zander leaned down, sniffed, and stood. Ten seconds later, another monitor arrived, this one a bear shifter — likely the best nose in the place.
He put his nose an inch away from the mark, sniffed, and then lurched to the side, dry-heaving, his massive frame shuddering like he’d tasted death.
Zander’s eyes narrowed, a muscle in his jaw twitched, and he turned to the vampire who’d been working Felix over, crop still dangling from his hand. “What did you use on him?” Zander’s voice was a blade, sharp and cold, cutting through the ballroom’s bass thrum.
The vampire was wiry, with horns curling from his brow. He wore a ripped mesh bodysuit with a huge rip for his cock and balls. He met Zander’s gaze and told him, “Just the crop. He was already suspended when I started on him. I went to my knees and fucked his mouth, then caned his cock, his asshole, and I was working on his inner thighs.”
Emmy stepped a little closer to him and breathed in his scent as he talked, but she didn’t scent any deception. That didn’t necessarily mean anything with ancient vampires, but it was all she had.
Felix was sobbing in her arms now, clinging to her. Her arms tightened around him, and she leaned her head down to kiss his forehead.
Zander looked to the first black-suited monitor a good twenty seconds, and then looked around in silence again. Spence stepped close to Emmy and told her, “He went into the heads of all the monitors, and has a list of every vampirewho touched Felix. He’ll have them brought to him one-by-one, so he can question them.”
Meanwhile, someone erected a round wall of curtains around them, so the activity in the rest of the room wasn’t affected.
Emmy took a deep breath to slow her pulse after the adrenaline dump. It no longer did her any good. She needed her brain in full functioning order now. Her body ached in all the best ways, but she put it all out of her mind and focused on how the vampires answered Zander’s questions.
The first was clipped and defensive, and she noted the hawk shifter standing just behind Zander — yet another kind of lie detector, this one visual rather than scent. She approved.
