“What the hell is she doing?” I demanded, staring in shock as the woman began to slip out of what little she wore.
A knife was strapped to her stocking covered thigh. A few thin cuts marred her wrist and stomach. When she stood half-naked before Kale, she pulled the knife from its sheath and slid it across her forearm. A thin line of blood welled up. She dipped a finger in it then rubbed it along Kale’s lower lip. He couldn’t resist licking the tiny smear.
She sauntered away, her bare br**sts bouncing provocatively. After fetching a chair from the table, she sat down ten feet away from Kale and taunted him. Making shallow cuts, she played in the blood, rubbing it over her br**sts and down her stomach. It didn’t take long for Kale to bare fangs and begin uttering threats. This was vampire torture at its finest.
I was a twisted combination of horror-struck and enticed. My bloodlust awakened, driven by my desire to make someone hurt. I turned to face Briggs with a wicked glare.
“Make her stop. Now.” My tone was quiet, almost a whisper, but it was deadly.
Whatever Briggs saw on my face must have been enough. He hit the intercom and shouted, “Sylvia, that will be enough for tonight.”
Silvia hesitated, staring at the mirror even though she couldn’t see us. Maybe she hadn’t known she was being watched. One of the agents in the room with me leered openly at her nudity. She took her sweet time slipping back into her bra.
Just when I thought she’d exit the room, she glided up next to Kale and pressed her cut arm to his lips. When he bared his sharp fangs, she pulled away so he snapped at empty air. Her arrogant laughter filtered through the wall intercom.
I pounded both fists against the glass in anger. The pane didn’t budge beneath the force. Sylvia didn’t know it yet but she had just guaranteed herself a date with a vampire that wouldn’t go easy on her. I’d seen horrific things in Arys’s memories, but all of them were better than she deserved. My wrath demanded to be sated.
My sanity slipped. The cuffs were keeping a lid on my power, but they couldn’t keep my four fangs hidden or muffle the snarl that spilled from between my lips. I eyed the three humans each in turn, trying to decide whom I wanted to taste first. The need to feel warm human blood dripping on my tongue was overwhelming.
An image flashed behind my eyes, sudden and startling. The bright red of my Charger beneath the streetlights, a flash of golden hair, an angry shout. Then blood, pumping hot from the artery.
I watched through Arys’s eyes as he slaughtered the agents outside. Somehow, he’d escaped Falon’s hold, unless the angel had simply released him.
I fought back the image and the hunger it drove crazy within me. Knowing it was Arys’s bloodlust feeding my own made it easier to regain control. Regardless, it was time to go.
“I’ll bring you the files on a flash drive,” I told Briggs, forcing my gaze away from the pulse beating steadily in this throat. “You and your people will then leave me and my people alone. We are not your enemy. Keep me on your watch list if it makes you feel better. I assure you, I have no interest in interacting with the FPA as either an enemy or an ally. Understood?”
Agent Briggs appeared undecided. Information was the most valuable tool these organizations possessed. He was taking a gamble and so was I. Neither of us knew what those files could mean to either of us. I was taking a chance that no matter how bad it was, it would be worth Kale’s life. Briggs now had to decide if he felt the same way.
“Certainly,” he said at last. “We will arrange a time and place to exchange Sinclair for the flash drive. It’s best that you don’t come back here.”
“I’m not leaving him here like this.” I gestured angrily to bloodstained room. “I can have the files for you in a matter of hours. Tonight even.”
Briggs was stony faced, his eyes emotionless. “We’ll be in touch within seventy-two hours. Take it or leave it.”
I felt helpless. I’d never believed I would be leaving here without Kale, but with Arys running amok outside and no access to my power, I had very few options.
“You’re making a mistake, Agent,” I warned.
Briggs banged on the heavy-duty door, and the agents standing guard outside opened it. “The only mistake I’m making, Ms. O’Brien, is allowing you to walk out of here at all. My men will escort you. We’ll be in touch.”
It took all my strength to turn my back on Kale and walk out of that room. Briggs disappeared down an adjacent hall, but Juliet remained. Falon was gone.
Several agents ushered us to an elevator. I observed carefully as an agent provided both a voice and fingerprint sample to a scanner before the elevator began to move. Juliet waited until we had stepped out a secure exit at the rear of the building onto the grounds outside. Then, she pulled me aside and removed the cuffs from my wrists.