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The girl was saying “Red,” over and over again, and Ezra would bet money the vampire was trying to mindfuck her into asking him to bite her.

And then a blur knocked the vampire away, another blur caught the girl, cradled her, and then Elijah gently placed her on the floor and felt for a pulse. He must’ve found one, because he put his mouth close to her ear and talked, though the audio didn’t pick it up. Meanwhile, Ezra was on the edge of the screen, struggling to hold the vampire until help arrived.

“I could hear her heart and knew it was beating, but I needed to feel the strength of her pulse to be sure,” Elijah said. “I was telling her she beat him, she won. Reminding her to breathe. I told her she was safe, and I might have to help my brother hold the bastard who’d hurt her, but if I had to leave her side, I’d still be close, and she was safe.”

Ezra was thankful the cameras had picked up so much. Brooke would’ve been able to go in everyone’s heads and see what happened, but this meant everyone else could see, too.

“Brooke is downstairs with the girl and says they think the human is going to be okay,” Dev told them. “Concussion, lots of bruising and some damage to her throat, but she’s breathing okay and no longer blue.” He sighed. “We have more people in-house tonight and today than we usually have in one location, and things aren’t exactly on a schedule. The flock is sacrosanct here. I know that isn’t the case in the homes of all Master Vampires, but they feed and nourish Brooke and her vampires, and they are treated well. They’re kept safe. Brooke is livid one of her flock was harmed, but she’s pleased with the two of you. Quite pleased.”

“I was trying to help her,” Elijah sobbed. “And they treated me likeIwas the problem!”

“I believe tonight’s actions on your part will change your status so security will no longer restrain the two of you simplybecause you’re part of an incident. If it appears you are at fault, they will, but if it isn’t clear, and so long as you follow their instructions, you should be seen differently in the future.”

“We blew it our first day here,” Ezra reminded Elijah. “They don’t know us. They just know we’re slaves with a history of bullying women.”

“But we were helping!” Elijah insisted.

“Yes, you were,” Dev said. “Let’s get the two of you back to my room. It’s almost sunrise and Brooke is rushing back to her rooms, so we’ll have to wait to hear from her, but she telepathed me to make sure the two of you know she’s grateful you interceded.”

Dev settled Elijah on his feet and pointed towards the kitchen. “The two of you still need to get our food. I was opening the wine and getting plates for us.”

Both platters had foil over them, but Ezra scented various meats and cheeses on the cold tray, and crackers and bread on the other platter. He thought he smelled some fruit as well.

“Forty-six hours until we see Genie again,” Ezra noted on the way back to the room. “We sleep today, spend half the night here before we return to Dev’s home, the rest of the night there, sleep the day, one more evening and night without her, and then she comes to us the following morning.”

“And she’s going to be exhausted,” Dev reminded them. “We can sleep with her until we wake, but then we leave the bedroom to talk so she can sleep until she wakes up naturally. However long that takes.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Genie didn’t expect to see Dev standing at her car when she walked into the parking lot Friday morning, but she was so tired, she walked to the passenger side, got in, and buckled her seatbelt without comment. Dev got into the driver’s side and pushed the button to start the car. He didn’t need the key because the fob was in her purse.

“Thank you,” she told him. “I was considering stopping for coffee on my way home. I’mdonewith hospital coffee until next week, but I needed a boost for the drive home and sufficient time to take a shower. With you driving me, I can make it without needing more caffeine. I think my system’s had more than enough.”

It occurred to her he might just have been close and stopped by to follow her home, and she asked, “Wait, where’s your car? I’m sorry, I assumed—”

“I had someone from the flock drop me off. She’s in school to be a physical therapist and is doing an internship as part of her degree, and I caught a ride with her.”

“Thanks for thinking of it. I’d have been okay to drive, but it’s nice I don’t have to. Can you talk to me? Tell me things I don’t have to respond to? How was your Christmas?”

“Our twins have several new privileges you’re going to like. They’ll be able to sleep with us in bed now, though I have no idea how that’s going to work on my bed with all four of us. Brooke says she can put me in contact with a man who makes larger-than-normal beds, and she tells me a few mattress manufacturers have larger sizes available for special order.”

“For now, we can push a cot to the side of your bed, or a twin-sized bed if you don’t have cots.” Genie told him. “The twins can take turns sleeping on it.”

That problem would be fixed soon enough, but she couldn’t tell him how. “What did they do to gain that privilege?”

“They’ve slept with me three of the four days you’ve been gone. I had them outside in their cat forms the first day. But the biggest change is that they can move around inside the house without an escort now. There are some restrictions — no access to the garage level, and they won’t get near the other exits, even though they don’t know where they are.”

“There are other exits?”

“You don’t think a snake would live underground without multiple exits, do you?”

No, probably not. She’d have to trust that he’d show them to her when she’d earned enough trust. It was probably part of that trust that told her about them in the first place. If she knew where the exits were, she’d have more ways in, after all.

“How did they gain these privileges?”

“I promise the coterie and my home are usually safe. The twins were an anomaly because it was their first day, and…” He shook his head. “The coterie also has multiple fail-safes to keep everyone safe at all locations, but the morning after we celebrated Christmas, as the vampires were preparing to lie down for their repose, one of the newish vampires, around eighty years old with problems to start with, which is why Brooke has him, attacked a young member of the flock who had gone to the kitchen for minty hot chocolate and mint chocolate bark. Apparently, the scent of her sugary blood set him off and he wanted to drink from her. He scared her and she safeworded, which pissed him off, and he might have killed her had the boys not been on their first experimental trip without an escort.I’d sent them to the kitchen to bring back trays the cook had prepared for us.”

“They stopped the vampire?” Genie was afraid for them. Vampires were stronger than shifters, plus they could do the mind control shit, so even if they weren’t stronger, they could just turn you into a statue and then do whatever-the-fuck they wanted to you while you were frozen.