Page 127 of Halfblood Deceived

“Let me go, bitch!” someone screamed.

Aella jolted and turned to see Reese twisting Blue-eyes’ arm behind his back. Their other hand pressed the man’s face to the table.

“What part of ‘don’t touch the staff’ didn’t enter your thick fucking skull?” Reese asked, voice lethally calm.

One of Blue-eyes’ buddies broke a beer bottle against the table, making as if to stab Reese with it.

Aella yelped, but Rod was there, twisting the arm of the man behind his back, forcing him to release the makeshift weapon with a scream.

The other two were grabbed by Tim and Mac, respectively.

“Oi!” Tim protested to Mac. “Are you trying to leave me without a job?”

“Maybe, you never know,” the blonde half-fey answered.

Jordan appeared next to Mac. “May I?”

Mac released the human. “All yours.”

Jordan caught the human by the nape of his neck as if he were a misbehaved pet, and lifted him off the floor, hauling him to the exit. Tim and Rod followed, herding the other two men.

“You and I are gonna have a little chat,” Reese promised Blue-eyes.

He tried to struggle against Reese’s hold, but that was impossible. Reese took him toward the back exit. Everyone moved out of the way.

The music hadn’t stopped but there was a small crowd looking at Aella, their faces blurry but their gazes seemed to pierce her skin.

“Come on,” Diana said, wrapping an arm around Aella’s shoulders and leading her to the staff room.

Aella’s butt landed on a chair.

Head between your legs, deep breaths, she instructed herself.

After fifteen inhalations, her sight was clear and her hearing was back to normal.

She wasn’t alone. Mac, Diana, and Lupita were there.

Diana handed her a cola. “Are you alright?”

Aella hastened to drink a few gulps of the carbonated drink. The sugar helped her feel better at once. “I’m alright. I’m sorry I caused trouble.”

They blinked at her.

“What the Hell are you talking about?” Mac asked, brow furrowed.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Aella,” Lupita said, clearly baffled. “Those dumb hijos de puta2 did.”

Comprehension along with helpless rage shone in Diana’s eyes. “It’s not your fault, Aella. It’s never your fault, nor something you must feel embarrassed about, alright? They should be embarrassed. Not you. But since people like that are incapable of shame, we have to settle with punishing them.”

The concept of punishing males for taking what they wanted was still odd to Aella. But she didn’t precisely disagree with it.

“How did you get to me so fast?” she asked Diana.

Diana ran a hand through her short, always artfully messy hair. “I was keeping an eye on you.”

“She jumped the bar like an Olympic athlete without knocking even one glass,” Lupita supplied. “It was fucking awesome.”

Diana scratched the back of her neck. “Eh.”

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