Risk was leaning up against the wall to my left, hands stuffed into the pockets of his black dress pants as he watched with a bored look on his face. But every time Belvini stated the name of a demon whose blood he’d used to perform the ritual, I saw Risk’s jaw tighten.
The crow at my shoulder stayed watchful, never once leaving from its perch beside my head. Every once in a while, when my anxiety spiked, I felt a little beak burying itself in my hair and nipping lightly at my neck, like it was trying to comfort me.
Finally, the lights brightened, and that part of the presentation ended, and then it was time for the main event.
Us.
“Now, you all were invited here for an exclusive demonstration. We’ll show you exactly the level of power Spector can bring,” Belvini announced, waving his hand in a flourish to point to us.
As one, the guards moved aside, parting like curtains to show actors on a stage.
Belvini called the male necro up first. He stood ramrod straight on the stage, staring out at the crowd with a blank look as the demon went over his file. “One of our Thibault graduates who decided to volunteer,” Belvini said by way of introduction. The fact that he made it seem like we willingly joined Spector made me sick.
“Necro. Nineteen years of age. His demon gave him the ability to take any physical injury that others sustain onto himself and then heal at an accelerated rate.”
Damn. No wonder he hated Spector so much. I didn’t even want to imagine all the trials and tests they’d put him through.
One after another, Belvini called up the hybrids, showing their stats and video clips of their powers in action. Some of them—like the shifter girl who could duplicate objects—were made to use their power on stage.
“This is worse than the time my mother made me do that beauty pageant in Belize, and those presenters were super skeezy,” she said under her breath with a shudder.
“Now I’ll bring up Black Widow, one of Spector’s most promising hybrids,” Collector said while gesturing toward me.
My eyes snapped over to him, my heart rate picking up in speed. Cheryl nudged me forward when I still hadn’t moved, and I reluctantly made my way up the steps to the makeshift stage, my legs trembling in trepidation. I obviously wasn’t moving fast enough for them though, because one of the guards pressed his gun at my back, pushing me toward the podium.
“The Black Widow is a vampire hybrid and was successfully possessed two months ago. She has unique abilities. She can lure her prey, spin webs from her fingers, and is significantly stronger after she feeds,” Belvini continued while nodding at the screen projector behind him.
As the screen loaded, he addressed the crowd again, that sly smile of his firmly in place as he adjusted his tie. “I felt that for her particular demonstration, a video would be more appropriate.” Some of the guards chuckled at that, and I felt my stomach drop. No. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t just stand here while all these people watched me fuck and feed.
My eyes reluctantly snapped to the screen, and sure enough, I was front and center, teasing my meal with my demonic grin. The man was naked and barely lucid, drunk off my lure.
“The Black Widow feeds off the essence of others through sexual contact. Once penetration is achieved, she feeds from their life force, making her stronger than any of the other hybrids we have in our arsenal.”
I glanced at the shadowed crowd. Some of them looked horrified. Some looked intrigued. Risk looked murderous.
It was an intimate video, showing my arching back and the sweat dripping down my spine. It showed the human’s flinching body growing gradually still, until there was nothing left but vacant eyes and my demon’s satisfied grin.
“But this isn’t her only ability. We’re still working out how to mass produce her talents, but she does have the ability to form mate bonds, and her partners become invincible,” Belvini began. The screen then flipped to a shot of the tank. I was sobbing in a web of grief, and Tomb’s lifeless body was lying on the ground in front of me.
“Here, one of her mates died during a feeding, but as you can see…” Belvini said while fast forwarding the tape. “He emerged with a mate mark on his neck that matches her own, and he is now indestructible.”
The screen then changed again, showing the very training room we were standing in. Clip after video clip, Tomb was murdered. Tortured. Suffocated. Burned alive. I watched the entire scene with anger in my blood and revenge dripping from my fangs. They fast forwarded through most of it, but the message was clear.
Tomb was everlasting, and I’d made him that way.
At the end of the clip, dozens of hands shot up. “Is she for sale?” a man greedily asked while eyeing me. He was a shifter male that reeked of alpha authority.
“Not at this time, no. We’re hoping to research her abilities more and somehow reproduce her bonding effects once we can control the outcome. Mate bonds can be fickle, but we think we’ve found a way to streamline the process,” Collector replied.
A few hands went down at his answer. Sick bastards. I’d burn this place to the ground before I let them commercialize my mate bond. Supes were always looking to level up. It wasn’t enough that they didn’t age, they wanted the guarantee that nothing could ever kill them either.
“So she kills anyone she sleeps with unless they become a mate? How can you guarantee that we won’t get possessed with something like that?” a man asked. “I don’t know about you, but I value my sex life, and my husband would probably kill me if my dick turned murderous.” The room chuckled at the male’s words,
