“I‘ve told you before,” Jack says impatiently to Kai, “the Mice have eyes everywhere. Gus has been posing as a thrall for a while now.”
I frown, taking a few steps to confront the impossibly large man. “You thought right.” I push up onto my toes and kiss his cheek in thanks. The pink tint of Gus’s cheeks turns into a full-on tomato red.
“Hey now,” Jack says, running his arm through Gus’s with a possessive scowl. “Don’t be trying to seduce my man.”
Kai’s brows shoot up in surprise. “Your man?”
“Didn’t know you were such a homophobe,” I say, addressing Kai’s shocked reaction.
Kai sends a scathing glare my way. “I’msurprisedbecause I didn’t know there were more human/vampire pairings.” Then in the most mature Kai fashion, he sticks his tongue out at me.
I’m tempted to snatch it and hold it.
“Wow,” Jack says to Gus, “They aren’t what you said they were. They are so much worse.”
“Hey,” both Kai and I say in protest at the same time.
“As fun as this is,” impatience tinges Jack’s voice, “we need to tell you what we found about that night. We know what they were arguing about.”
“Something called the Red Room.”
Kai stiffens, his back turning ramrod straight.
“What? What’s the Red Room?” I ask him.
Jack and Gus wait for him to answer as well, but Kai turns to pace away from us before coming back. He runs an agitated hand through his hair.
“And why would there be a place called the Red Room when vampires consider red to be so vulgar?” I throw in for good measure.
“That’s a PR statement,” Jack answers this time. “We don’t consider it vulgar, it’s ah. . . how do I explain this.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “It’s basically a massive aphrodisiac to us. We see red, we want blood. It makes us lose control.”
“Kai, what is it?” I push again.
“It’s. . . it’s a place where vampires take familiars they want to play with,” he says hesitantly.
“What?” I ask the question though I don’t really want to hear more.
“It’s a space reserved for the Midnight court to play and feed on beaters. The beaters don’t usually walk back out.”
My gorge rises. He’s describing a torture and kill room.
“Repulsive,” Jack says, spitting off to the side before his voice raises in outrage. “Treating humans like they are cattle, playthings, like?—”
Gus grabs his hand, silencing Jack.
“Do we know what was said?” Kai asks.
“Byung-He and the King were discussing the beaters for the Red Room. It was a disagreement about which ones would go in and which ones wouldn’t.”
“Who usually goes in?”
Kai clenches a fist. “Thralled familiars.”
“And no one fucking knows about this?” Gus asks his pitch a little higher than before.
Kai shakes his head. “My father is careful. If he sent a familiar in there, he’d have to make sure they fit a certain profile. No family, no friends, no connections. If they disappeared, they couldn’t be missed.”
“You know this for sure,” I ask, not liking the slithery, sliding feeling in my gut.
