In the Company of Vampires(78)

I’ll tell you about him later.

“You didn’t mess it up. Luis is safe, and although Ben has been outed, I believe that we should be able to learn what we wish to know from Luis once we can counteract the drugs he’s been given. I might have wished for things to turn out a little differently, but no, you didn’t ruin anything. On the contrary, I have much to thank you for, although Ben looks ready to hang me up by my intestines for letting you get involved.”

“Not your intestines. Your balls,” Ben answered with a dark look.

I nudged his side with my elbow. He made a big show of sighing. “When I was young, I used to dream of the day when I had a Beloved who would allow me to take care of her as I was born to do. I never imagined she’d be a woman who spurned that which I had to offer. You may stop looking daggers at me, Francesca. I know perfectly well that you are able to take care of yourself.”

“Just as I know you can’t help being overly protective. What are we going to do about them?” I nodded toward the two men.

“I’m sure David has plans for them.” Ben lifted his head, his body language tense for a moment before he smiled and relaxed when Diego emerged from the trees.

“Oh, yes,” David said, a note in his voice sounding remarkably like the low rumble of a lion. I edged closer to Ben. “I have plans.” He said something to Diego in whatever language it was that therions spoke to each other, then tossed Ben a set of keys. “Take Fran home. We won’t need you any more tonight.”

Ben lifted an eyebrow. “Not even for the . . . interrogation?”

“You’re not going to torture them!” I gasped.

“Torture? No.” David shook his head.

“They will have to be questioned, though,” Ben said.

“And they are bound to resist,” Diego added, smiling as he nudged the still unconscious Micah.

David hauled Isaak to his feet and looped a nylon hand restraint around the latter’s wrists. Isaak was aware enough to protest, but not to put up much of a fight. “Torture implies violence for no particular reason other than to cause pain. Our violence against Isaak and Micah will be for a completely different reason.”

Isaak understood that well enough. His eyes widened and he started stammering out excuses as David, with a cheery wave at us, hauled him down the slope to the parking lot. Diego cuffed Isaak, and since he still wasn’t conscious, simply grabbed his feet and hauled him naked after David.

I winced as Diego purposely dragged Isaak over a prickly looking bush. “I really don’t want to know what they’re going to do, do I?”

“No.” Ben took my hand and led me on a diagonal line from the path the two shape-shifters had taken. “But David will not harm them if they tell him what they know. He’s not a vindictive person.” He stopped for a moment, making a little face. “Well, not normally.”

David’s car was parked a half mile away, hidden behind a ramshackle shed that was obviously used to store farm equipment. As we drove back to the Faire, I mused over what I’d seen.

Ben suddenly interrupted the silence that had filled David’s car. “Francesca, I do not like this silent treatment. I know you are angry at me for what you saw, although in my defense, I would like to point out that you wouldn’t have seen it if you hadn’t insisted on spying on the tyro. I know you are angry about it, however, and I’d much prefer that you yell at me now rather than seething quietly.”

I laughed at the outrageous picture he drew. “Since when have I ever seethed quietly?”

“You’re not angry?” He shot me a quick look before negotiating a busy intersection in the middle of Brustwarze.

“Oh, I’m furious. But at Naomi, not you.” I laughed again at the confused expression on his adorable face. “Ben, I’m well aware that you did everything humanly possible to keep from participating in the orgy. I don’t like the fact that Naomi was all over your private parts with a familiarity that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, but I do recognize the difference between her helping herself and you egging her on. You may rest your mind that I am not sitting here seething quietly, not that I think I could even if I wanted to. I’m not the quiet anger sort of person.”

“I didn’t remember you being so, but thought that, too, had changed.”

I slid him a hesitant glance. He smiled. No, I do not want you to change any more than you have. You more than please me the way you are, nonseething abilities and all. Did you mean what you said?

Absolutely. I honestly don’t know how to seethe.