Page 85 of The Monster and the Last Blood Match

Reyna stumbled out of the main room of the brothel. It was difficult to see where she was going through the tears in her eyes, but she pushed past people anyway. All she wanted to do was be alone. She felt a breakdown coming on and couldn’t allow herself to do that in front of people.

Yet she couldn’t seem to find anywhere unoccupied. The Vault was built like a maze, trapping her inside and refusing to let her out of its grip. All she did was move in the opposite direction of the traffic. After a few minutes, she found a long hallway lined with doors that was practically empty compared to the rest of the building.

She wiped her eyes softly, trying not to smudge her makeup, and then walked down the hallway in search of an empty room. She wrenched open the first door. A man had a woman bent at the waist and was drilling into her from behind. Reyna squeaked and then quickly slammed the door shut.

She raced farther down the hallway and tried another door. This one was even more disturbing. There were at least ten people involved in whatever sex acts were going on.

“Don’t you see the room is occupied?” a woman yelled at her.

“Sorry. Sorry. I didn’t know,” Reyna murmured.

A nude vampire man who had been watching the display grabbed her wrist. “Hey, love, not so fast. You look absolutely delicious. Why not stay and join us? Plenty of room for one more.”

Reyna felt panic setting in. “No…no, thank you.”

“Oh, come on. We’ll be gentle. Won’t we?”

His eyes clearly said thatgentlewasn’t even a word in his repertoire. Reyna yanked away from him, but he circled her waist and drew her farther into the room.

“Let me go,” she shrieked. “I said no!”

“You’re part of the Vault,” he said, breathing in the scent of her hair. “Nodoesn’t exist here, doll.”

Reyna blanched. “That’s rape.”

“You’re here. You already gave consent,” he said callously. “How tasty you must be with all that blood running so fast through your veins. I can feel your heartbeat skyrocketing.”

“Please, please let me go.” She sounded breathy and desperate, and she didn’t care. Shewasdesperate. She hadn’t wanted this to happen. She had wanted to be left alone to sort out what had happened with Beckham.

“Let’s see what type you are. Not that it matters in here.” He cackled.

Reyna froze in place. This was exactly what Beckham had said. These people were obviously part of the first faction of vampire who had no regard for humanity. They didn’t care if they raped her or if drinking from her would inevitably kill her or everyone else in the room.

The man grabbed her wrist, his nails biting into her skin. He glanced down at the diamond bracelet Beckham had put on her wrist earlier that evening. When he read the inscription, he dropped her hand as if he’d been burned.

“Beckham Anderson?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, stumbling backward.

“I’ll take my chances with someone else. The man is a feral murderer.”

Reyna didn’t need to be told twice. She bolted out of the room to the sound of laughter. She ran all the way down the hallway until she was sure no one else had come down this far, then entered an entirely empty room. She crashed back onto the bed, curled her knees up to her chest, and let the tears flow.

After a minute of near-hyperventilation, she forced herself to get it under control. She could be upset—about Beckham, about Penelope, about the man who had wanted to rape her—but she couldn’t let it leave this room.

No wonder Beckham hadn’t wanted to bring her here. He didn’t even drink from her. He certainly didn’t want to share, and yet he was out there drinking from Penelope. Doing who knows what to Penelope.

Ugh! She couldn’t even think about that.

She had fallen for him. That much was certain. It wasn’t just physical anymore. She saw the real Beckham in the glimpses. The way he told her about the Elle rebels, the way he constantly looked out for her and protected her, the black card he had given her while asking nothing in return, the camera he had given her when she needed an escape, the way he talked to her about photography. Everything. He wasn’t the hard businessman that he showed everyone else. He was a different man entirely, and it was breaking her heart into a million little pieces to accept that he wasn’t going to be hers.

As sexy as this place had seemed when she first entered, the Vault was a disease. It did nothing but perpetuate the very behavior the blood type cure had tried to curb.

She longed for her camera to reveal therealdark side of the vampire elite, but of course she couldn’t do that. She didn’t have her camera, and even if she did, she wouldn’t implicate Beckham in this. As much as she hated him right now, she wouldn’t hurt him the way he had hurt her.

All she wanted was to go home to her brothers. She had saved enough for a little while, and she would redouble her efforts to get another job once she got back to them. Anything would be better than this game they were playing.

She sat up on the bed and took a deep breath. Yes. That was what she would do.

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