Page 72 of Princess Broken

“Masters?” Her head tips to the side. “Oh.” She giggles. “You mean the brothers? Masters. That’s hilarious.”

I shift on the chair, finding nothing humorous about the idea.

She slides a hand over the arm of her chair toward me. “I’m sorry for laughing, Ana, but you have the wrong idea.”

“I’d like to better understand,” I tell her. “But I don’t want to push you to say anything that makes you uncomfortable or might put you in danger.”

Pushing down on both arms of her chair, Maria lifts her feet up off the floor and plops back down cross-legged. “I’m not uncomfortable in the least,” she says. “You seem nice. And if Flame trusts you, then I trust you too. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

I smile. Her body language matches her words, and relief floods my heart with more joy than I expected. These vampires are holding me captive, even if that’s not the way they see it. But I hate thinking they’re holding humans captive to serve them.

“How did you come to work for the brothers’?” Gracen also used the word brothers, and yet it’s clear they aren’t genetically related. “And is work the right word?” I pray the reality isn’t more sinister.

“Sure. Best job I’ve ever had.”

Relief loosens the tension in my belly. “I’d love to know more. How did you come to get your positions?”

“Pierre and I met Flame in a bar.” Her teeth scrape her lower lip. “A bar for the vamp-curious.”

“Vamp-curious?”

“Humans who want to hang out with vampires. Maybe let them feed. Or do other stuff.” A blush rises on her cheeks.

“Oh.” I’ve heard of such places, and they fill me with disgust. Vampires preying on curious humans. Taking advantage. But again, who am I to judge. I’ve lived a life of privilege. I never had to wonder where my next feed of human blood would come from.

Shaking her head, she leans forward. “That’s not why we went there. It wasn’t that bad.” She must have read my expression. But then she shrugs. “Although, it could get pretty crazy sometimes.”

I’m about to ask what she means, but want to know more about their meeting Flame.

“Pierre and I, we heard about this place, Hell Hole.” She draws a long breath that seems full of nostalgia. “We were kids, nineteen and twenty, both really into the Goth scene. We loved cosplay and went to tons of conventions.”

“Cosplay?”

She laughs. “Wearing costumes. Dressing up like characters from movies or comics, or—” she shrugs “—mythical creatures.”

“Mythical, like humans believed vampires to be back then.”

She nods.

“Anyway, we’d been going to Hell Hole, like once or twice a month, for a while. Neither or us had gotten brave enough to actually let one of the vampires bite us—the club had a strict policy about doing that without consent. But not every vampire at Hell Hole cared about the rules.”

“Like Flame?” My stomach contracts. Even though he confessed how he’s roughly and impersonally fucked so many women, I dread hearing negative stories about him. Not today. Not right now. Not so soon after—

“No, no.” Her head tips to the side. “Well, I can’t say Flame didn’t cause some shit in Hell Hole. The owner didn’t love it when Flame lit fires, burned things.”

“Did he ever burn…people?”

“No.”

I heave an audible sigh of relief, but she looks to the side. “Only once that I know of.”

I wince, my heart dropping.

But leaning forward, she smiles at me. “Flame’s a good guy. Honest. All four of them are good guys, in spite of their scary size and gruffness.”

“I am glad to hear that.”

“I do mean it. And if you’re here, then I’m sure you know it too.” Her smile widens. “Can I just say, Pierre and I were shocked—” she leans forward “—but super happy to discover you here with Flame today. He needs a woman in his life. They all do.”

---