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Genie crossed her arms. “I’m fine now, so it wasn’t that kind of torture, but while it was happening I thought I might die.”

Ezra stepped out of the office, wrapped his arm around her, and walked her into the office.

“While he is in this office, Ezra is not a slave and he is supposed to tell us his wants and desires,” Dev told Genie.

“Oh, good,” Genie said, and she pushed Ezra so he was sitting on the sofa. She climbed in his lap, rested her head on the front of his shoulder, and said, “I would love it if you’d hold me when you don’t have to, but it’s a request, not an order.”

Dev couldn’t help his smile, watching Ezra wrap his arms around Genie, one of his hands on her back, the other on her head, holding her to him.

“What is your full name?” Ezra asked her.

She went stiff. “Georgina Patricia Hughes. Why do you ask?”

“Because it isn’t something pleasure slaves are allowed to ask of those they’ve been gifted to.”

She relaxed in his arms again. “One of my grandfathers is George, the other is Patrick. Or was, I guess. Anyway, I was named after them. What’s your full name?”

“We never had last names until we had to be provided travel papers, and we found out our last name is Cortigiano. We both have the same middle name, Saverio.”

“Ezra Saverio Cortigiano.” Genie smiled and gave him a quick kiss. “Almost as much of a mouthful as that beautiful dick of yours. Do they have a special meaning?”

“Our last name means courtesan or courtier, and Saverio is splendid, but it can also mean anonymous, so…”

Which meant the names were terrible, but the odds of Brooke’s people finding siblings with identities to buy, much less twins who looked similar to Elijah and Ezra and were a similar age, were practically zero. So, the cats were probably stuck with their names, since they already had legal papers.

“Elijah is writing lines,” Dev said, hoping to move the conversation away from what he assumed was a painful subject. “When he finishes, Ezra has suggested we team up and play ping pong. Do you know how to play?”

“As it happens, the Patrick I’m named after was a fire chief, and when he was a fireman, his station played ping pong in their down time. He taught me how to play. It’s been a while, though.”

“Excellent,” Ezra said. “My brother and I are quite good. You and I can team up, and we’ll put Elijah and Dev against us.”

Genie turned her head to the side and met Dev’s gaze. “How much do you know?”

“I believe she shared the entire interaction with me. I’m sorry you had to go through it. Was she right? Are you seeing it differently now that some time has passed?”

“My original intention was to get into my car and leave, once I was brought back here, but then I felt like I needed to explain to you why I was leaving.” She buried her face into the side of Ezra’s neck. “Now, Ezra’s arms make me feel as if I don’t want to go, and I need to be here for Elijah, when he finishes writing lines. I’m not sure he’s going to be up for ping pong, and ya’ll are going to expect him to act as if he’s okay, but he isn’t going to be, just as I’m not really okay right now, either.”

“What can we do to help?” Ezra asked.

Dev felt so helpless, letting Ezra comfort her when he wanted to, but she saw Dev as part of the problem, and there was nothing he could do to fix that. He was aligned with Brooke and always would be — and it was important for Genie to understand how Brooke ran her people, her coterie.

But he was smart enough not to try to explain it right then. He sat beside them and put his hand on her back. Her energy was all over the place, and he tried to balance it between the three of them. It took a few seconds, but Genie breathed out in a long sigh, and she seemed better.

“Would Brooke have refused to let us be an item if I hadn’t stood up to her?”

“I don’t believe so. Knowing her as I do, she’d have treated us more as…” he took a few moments to consider it. “Me on top, you in the middle, and the twins below you. Now, she’s more likely to see us as an equal couple, with me slightly ahead only because I know more about the supernatural world, and about training slaves in a way they can become successful men and women who make good decisions.”

Dev telepathically sent Ezra a short snippet of what Brooke had done to their owl, so the other man would understand.

“The logical part of my brain,” Genie said, “tells me I should want a leader who prefers people who will stand up to her, rather than demanding they silently follow all orders no matter how they feel about them. I’m still pissed and hurt and…” She sighed. “I don’t know how to describe it, but I was so damnedhelpless. I don’t want to have to talk to her or see her again.”

“Only the most powerful vampires can do what she did,” Ezra told her, his gaze meeting Dev’s while her face rested on his chest. “Most of them are quite old and can hardly remember being helpless to others. I mean, they understand it from a logical standpoint, but I don’t think they appreciate the visceral fear it can evoke.” He rubbed her upper back a few seconds. “I lived with a dozen vampires who thought nothing of freezing you in place if you were the least bit annoying — sometimes with pain, sometimes not, depending on the vampire and how badly you’d annoyed them.” A sigh. “And Elijah is quite good at annoying old vampires.”

“Why did you stop him today, when you’ve spent years supporting his naughtiness and being punished alongside him?” Genie asked.

“I’ve been thinking about that since Dev asked me, and I think I have a better answer than the one I gave him. Before, I think Elijah’s very existence depended on us presenting a solid front, but I trust Brooke and Dev in a way I’ve never…”

A few seconds of silence, and he broke the eye contact with Dev, closed his eyes and started again. “They’re going to let us be individuals without the risk of trying to come between us. I’m so sorry Brooke broke the trust you had in her, but she’s done nothing to show us she’s one of the dark vampires who feed on terror. Her people are content in a way I’ve never seen before, and I’ve visited more vampire coteries than I could possibly count. Even the so-called good vampires, with coteries that ran like clockwork, you could sense the fear and dreadwhen they were in the presence of their Master, even when they thought they felt devotion and love. I only sense devotion and respect, and sometimes love, but it isn’t the kind of affection and reverence the vampire can create with mindfuckery. It’s true respect, which, yeah, there’s a touch of fear in it because my guess is she isn’t shy about correcting small problems before they become large, but it isn’tbasedon fear.”