“What’s the blood for?” Ozzy asked after clearing his throat.
“To taunt him. I’ve heard Omega blood is the sweetest for vamps. Is that true?”
Both of them nodded, Nolan a little dazedly.
“We’re going to waft it under his nose while we’re torturing him, showing him everything he can’t have.”
“We shouldn’t use your blood for that,” Nolan protested.
“Do you have any other Omegas around here? If everyone is going to know what I am, I might as well utilize my designation to make my life easier.”
I still lamented the loss of my scent dampener. Living as a Beta had been easier in all ways, even though it could never have been more than a temporary thing. “If he gets free, he’ll come for you specifically if he’s crazed over your scent,” Nolan said.
“And you think I can’t protect myself from one weakened, starved, and beaten vampire? I thought we’d talked about how I’ve killed over fifteen people.”
He flushed. “I know you can protect yourself.”
“Then why suggest we do something else? Are youworriedabout me, Nolan?”
Oswald had known better than to argue, even if it was stupid to use my own blood for a task like this. Once I’d made up my mind, it couldn’t be changed, as he’d learned time and time again. Nolan was avoiding eye contact, back to how he’d been before we been in the torture mindset. I grabbed his chin and turned him to look at me.
“There’s something charming about you being protective,” I murmured. “Might have something to do with how you kidnapped me and were originally a person I’d need protectionfrom,according to Shan, anyways.”
“Charming?” Oswald asked with a snort. “You threaten my life if I try to protect you. Same with Shan. But Nolan is charming now? This is incredibly unfair.”
“Get over it,” I said.
I ran my fingers through Nolan’s hair once before releasing him. He sucked in a breath as I moved away, bringing my cup of blood over to the captive. The vampire stared up at me, his eyes filled with hunger. I dipped a finger into the blood, letting drops of it fall onto his legs. When I brought my finger close to his face he tried to surge forward and bite me, but a restraint around his neck held him back.
Oswald’s discomfort with the situation pulsed through the bond, but he didn’t try to stop me. It was one of the things I loved about him. He didn’t agree with half the shit I did, but he was great at shutting up and watching me do it, only interfering if it was necessary. If Shan was more like him and didn’t shove himself in every tiny thing, we would have been fucking far sooner. Hell, we might even be bonded by now.
“Want some?” I asked softly, dipping my finger in the blood again.
Knowing his range of motion, now, I brought my finger up to his face and left a line of blood along his jawline, far enough away he couldn’t reach it. The vamp let out a little growl. I grinned. “That’s too bad. Looks like you can’t reach it. You can only scent it.”
I turned on my heel and walked back to my kit, leaving the blood on a table close to our captive. He didn’t take his eyes off it until I murmured another spell and my knife came flying back to me. I carefully held the handle, then threw it, picking up another to hurl in quick succession. They embedded in each of his shoulders. His screams started fresh, hunger forgotten in the face of unbearable pain. The poison-coated blades had been refreshed before I’d thrown them, my aim helped along by a spell.
Doing this much magic would have made me dizzy, before Emmett claimed me. Now, I felt all-powerful. A vampire without magic of his own was useless against me, especially when he was already contained.
“Should you be straining yourself so much after your near-death experience?” Oswald asked. “Between the magic and the blood loss, you shouldn’t go too far.”
His caution was relevant, as usual. I sighed. “Fine. I’ll hold off on magic. I’m plenty good at torturing with my bare hands and a couple choice weapons, anyway.”
“I’m excited to see it,” Nolan said, grinning. “The vampire’s predicament is already psychologically damaging. I wouldn’t have thought of taunting him with blood.”
He flattered me. Considering he was a vampire too and knew what it felt like to have a meal withheld, he’d probably used this tactic before. Then again, from what I’d gathered he dealt more in assassinations than information extraction.
I grazed my fingertips along the tools I had at the ready, remembering the last time I’d done this. I’d done screws through the hands, that time, and it had been enough to gather the information I needed. This time, I didn’t especially care about the information extracted. I cared more about how I’d been put through shit by his employer, and I needed to let that anger out on someone.
Picking up a bigger scalpel than the one Nolan had originally grabbed, I turned to him. “I might go traditional after all. Want to help?”
He nodded eagerly, reaching past me to grab a thick serrated blade. He’d chosen so quickly he had to have had his eye on it before. “I’d be thrilled to help. Is the goal still just fun?” he asked.
“If we can get anything, I’ll be thrilled,” I said with a shrug. “But I doubt he knows anything I care about. This is more cathartic for me.”
“I think it will be for me, too.”
We grinned at each other and set to work with the blades, Oswald rolling his eyes.
