Page 52 of Cruelly Bitten

CAM

It tookphysical restraint not to react to the injured female on the ground.

My nose had led me to her the moment I’d stepped off the elevator onto my floor. For whatever reason, those had begun working before the lights had flickered back on.

I’d been on my way to check the door to my quarters when Ismerelda’s alluring scent had led me toward the stairwell instead.

Her fresh blood had been like a beacon, calling to my inner predator and taking me downward.

Where I’d found her crumpled on the floor with her ass exposed, thanks to my rumpled shirt.

Not that she seemed to have noticed her precarious position. She’d been locked up in the fetal position, her pain evident.

Her skinned knees and elbows flavored the air with her essence, but that wasn’t the heart of the aroma that had called me to her.

No. The source of my intrigue rested between her thighs and the alluring blood seeping from the bite I’d given her earlier. Her tumble down the stairs—if Michael’s description of the accident was to be believed—had likely worsened the wound.

“Everything went dark, and the door to your room opened,” she said, drawing my focus to her lips. “I grabbed your laptop to use as a flashlight and went looking for you. But there was nothing on your floor other than the stairs, so I started wandering downward.”

She uttered the words with the conviction of a queen, her pain seeming to take a back seat to her need to explain herself. It almost made me proud, which was a strange reaction. Her ingrained forwardness was something I had to break, not praise.

And yet, it came in handy in this situation.

“So you didn’t fall in the dark?” I asked, arching my brow.

I suspected Michael hadn’t been entirely forthcoming, mostly because he’d been interested in interrogating Ismerelda only an hour ago. And I’d told him to stay away from her, yet found them alone in a stairwell.

“I did,” she replied, her gaze boldly holding mine. “I fell after Michael abruptly took the computer away and blinded me in the middle of the staircase.”

“Because I wanted to end whatever game you were playing with your brother,” my progeny stated flatly. “Which obviously worked since the lights came on not five minutes after I closed the laptop.”

That was a suggestive piece of evidence.However…“Have the technology teams confirmed that the system intruder lost his connection? Or did they successfully remove him?” I faced Michael again. “And have they confirmed it is, in fact, Damien hacking our network?”

The tic in Michael’s jaw confirmed his answer before he voiced it. “No, my liege, they have not. But they sent me up here to track the source using this.” He pulled a square device from his pocket. “And it led me to your laptop.”

“Is that a scanner?” I asked, eyeing the item in his hand.

“It’s a tracker that pulses with color,” he explained. “The techs told me what floor the breach appeared to be coming from and sent me up here to investigate. The closer I came to your laptop, the brighter the flash got.”

“It isn’t very bright now,” I said, still looking at the unassuming black box in his palm.

“It turned off when I closed the laptop.”

“I see.” I shifted my attention to the computer in question. “Then I suggest you take that to the technical team and ask them to conduct a thorough review.”

“Yes, my liege.” He tried to glance around me. “And what about her?”

“Ismerelda is mine to handle,” I told him, my tone brooking no argument.

“But this is proof she’s working with Damien, my liege.”

“I fail to see how her using my laptop as a flashlight is proof of anything other than her being resourceful while exploring areas she shouldn’t.” Which was technically my fault, as I hadn’t explicitly told her to remain in my room. I’d simply implied it.

“Maybe she doesn’t know that she’s helping him,” he said, his tone urging me to reconsider. “I found a scanner, my liege. I can bring it to you. At least then you can be certain Damien didn’t implant a chip inside her.”

He must have been very serious about this accusation to have found a scanner in such a short amount of time.

Alas, he wasn’t exactly wrong to make these assumptions. He simply wanted to protect the operation, and someone—possibly Ismerelda’s brother—was making that very difficult at present.