Chapter Seven

Somewhere along the way, Toni'sbrain had come unplugged. There wasn't much going on inside her mind except a lot of white noise, backed by a repetitive holy crapping chant which seemed to be caught in an endless loop. No grand plans about how to get herself out of this disaster, that was for damned sure.

Okay, time to regroup. Line up her thoughts into a manageable row.

Right. The main thing was to Stay Calm. Panicking could only lead her into more acts of stupidity, like threatening three men who were in top-notch condition – one who looked to be set on permanent wanna-kick-your-ass mode – with little more than a letter opener. Not the best of ideas.

Behaving idiotically wasn't her usual style, but in her own defense, this was the first time a group of individuals had drugged her, kidnapped her, told her they wanted to use her as a brood mare because she was a "dragon," and then claimed to be "vampires." Uh huh. Here's what was really happening; she'd woken up on the TV show Scare Tactics, and any minute now Shannen Doherty was going to jump out and jeer, "Ha, ha, you fell for it, you boob." See, because the last she'd checked, there was, you know, no such thing as vampires.

She fidgeted in her chair, her fingers flexing and releasing around the armrests. Okay, door number two, Bob. This wasn't a reality TV hoax. She was being held hostage by a bunch of schizoid delusional freaks who appeared to have formed a cult – or, ahem, "community" – for all of their schizoid delusional followers. Oh, God …. Her throat shut off. A cult. What she wouldn't give to go back to these guys being Mafia.

The moment she'd seen the tattoos on that Jacken creature's forearms was pretty much the moment her self-control had gone bye-bye. The marks were almost exactly the same as the tattoo she'd seen on that corpse's jaw the night of the crime scene, although Jacken's were more like black interlocking lines, rather than flames… no, not lines: long, swooping teeth of the kind on a saber-toothed tiger. Seeing them had instantly filled her mind with nightmare images of having her skin stripped off her body in a ritual satanic killing.

Tension coiled across her shoulders as she tried to imagine what these sickos planned on doing to her. The possibilities, especially those of a sexually deviant nature, were endless. Just her luck that she'd ended up being kidnapped, not just into some vampire cult, but into a vampire sex cult.

"Ah, here they come." Roth rose smoothly to his feet at the sound of male voices approaching. He pushed a button and the double doors buzzed open.

Dr. Jess reentered with three men trailing him, a blond, a brunette, and a black-haired one.

She came stiffly out of her own chair, schooling her face into an indifferent expression. The last thing she'd wanted from her challenge of Roth's claims of vampirism was a meet-and-greet with the "vampires" she was expected to do the nasty with. Whatever concrete proof he planned to show her using them, she didn't even want to try and imagine.

The three drew up in front of her, and only her years trained in the art of keeping bad diagnoses from her face allowed her to deadpan her reaction to them, because, Jesus, they were all ridiculously gorgeous.

To a man, they had physiques to die for, their powerful builds only enhanced by the dark workout gear they were wearing. Each was dressed in black wrestling shoes, a black lycra T-shirt, and black shorts styled after Calvin Klein boxer-briefs. The trim cut of the shorts emphasized each man's … er, potency in a manner that gave the impression of straining seams and near-popping front laces.

Heat crept into Toni's cheeks, and she forced her eyes away. How long had it been since she'd had sex, that she'd be staring goggle-eyed at the packages of men who were no better than Jim Jones wannabes?

Roth set right to the explanation of how matters stood. "Dr. Parthen and I have been discussing some of the distinctive traits of our breed, but, as one might expect, she's having a bit of difficulty accepting the authenticity of everything without some proof. Ergo, I thought this might be a good opportunity for her to meet all of you and familiarize herself with your unique qualities."

"Familiarize?" The blond, who had enough innate sex appeal to melt iron, despite some fading bruises on his throat and bloodshot eyes, cocked a single brow. "You mean, like … she wants to give us a medical examination?"

"Works for me." The one with black hair, matching goatee, and a small Bad Boy gold hoop earring dangling from his left earlobe, glanced around the room. "Where do you want us to undress?"

Her face burned hotter. "I don't think –"

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Roth jumped in.

"Cut the shit, Nichita," Jacken snapped.

"Yes, sir." Bad Boy winked at her.

"You see, Dr. Parthen, there are different breeds of Varcolac," Roth explained, "within the entirety of the species, and each one has an extraordinary ability." He laid a hand on Bad Boy's shoulder. "Devid Nichita here can –"

"Excuse me, but please, it's Dev," Bad Boy corrected. "I hate Devid."

Well, she could relate to that sentiment. She'd always thought her mother had been suffering from a severe case of postpartum dementia to have named her Antoinetta. But Shannon had always claimed she'd just been compelled to give her children majestic-sounding names, and to this day she was grumpy that Alexander went by Alex, and Antoinetta, by Toni.

"Dev's a Pure-bred Varcolac," Roth continued, "like myself and Dr. Jess. You can always tell a Pure-bred by their black hair and their ability to grow facial hair. A Pure-bred can also see in the dark and light up his eyes. You'll be impressed by that, surely."

Dev bobbed his eyebrows at her and grinned broadly, displaying a mean set of canines.

She took a step back. She couldn't believe someone would purposely file down his teeth like that. It had to have hurt like hell. But then again, none of these men was altogether there in the sanity department, were they?

"This is Thomal Costache and Kasson Korzha," Roth introduced the other two.

Kasson, the brunette, had a boyish-looking cowlick in the front of his hair, and what appeared to be a serious case of the fidgets.

"They're what we call Mixed-bloods," Roth said, "meaning they have both Dragon and Varcolac ancestry in their bloodlines. Dragons always have light hair: blonde, just like yours," he made sure to emphasize, "or varying shades of brown. The blonder they are, the more Dragon they have in them. Dragons can move with blurring speed. They also have a full dragon tattoo on their backs, but their creatures – unlike the washed-out tattoo that Dragon humans such as yourself have – are made of colorful scales. I thought we'd start by showing one to you."

"Ho, really?" Thomal's face brightened while Bad Boy Dev turned his eyes to the ceiling and muttered a curse.

"Kasson." Roth gestured Cowlick forward. "Come here, let's have you –"

"God, no way!" Kasson jerked backward, his eyes rounding.

A frown tugged at Roth's mouth.

"I-I'm sorry, sir, but I can't get close to her. She … she …." Kasson closed his eyes and moaned. "She smells."

Toni tucked in her chin. I what?

"I'm afraid I might …." Kasson shook his head. "Oh, this is bad."

Roth looked nonplussed. "I don't understand. Are you saying she's more pungent than the other Dragons?"

Jacken answered that. "Definitely."

Flushing, Toni self-consciously squeezed her arms against her ribcage, closing off her armpits. Steeped in hospital yuk for a day and two nights, she probably did smell like an unpleasant combination of rubbing alcohol, latex, and orange Jell-O, but there hadn't exactly been time to take a shower.

"Interesting." Roth turned to Dr. Jess. "Are you picking up on it?"

"No."

"You two are mated males," Jacken said tightly. "For an unmated, it's pure torture." He gestured at the other men. "Trust us on that."

Dr. Jess crossed his arms, the finger of one hand pressed contemplatively against his lips. "What does she smell like?"

Dev snorted. "Nothing that can be described politely." He glanced at Thomal. "Was it this strong at the hospital?"

"Vinz's blood was around, so –"

Hospital! "Oh, my God!" Toni burst out. "You're Nurse Fine Ass!" Glaring, she pointed an accusing finger at Thomal. "You drugged me, you big jerk!"

Thomal's expression flared wide with astonishment. "Hey, whoa!" He threw up his hands. "I was just doing my job, okay? Don't get mad."

"Nah, get as mad as you want, Doc." Dev slung an arm around Thomal's shoulders. "And feel free to have this jerk bounced off your list of mate-choices. You have other options, you know."

Thomal shoved Dev off him. "She doesn't want to get rid of me, Nichita. Weren't you listening?" Thomal settled a pair of stunning blue eyes on her. "She just said I have a fine ass."

"All right, enough of this," Roth intervened. "Let's move on to the demonstrations. Dr. Parthen, if you would take a seat …."

She closed her eyes. Demonstrations? Oh, this day was turning into a regular party.