Bitten Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 3)

“Dice, take her friend home,” Zee says, making my stomach lurch. “This one is staying with us.”

“No!”

I grab Marilyn’s arm when the one dressed in too much leather tries to touch me, and he eyes me with amusement.

“I know how dematerialize her without killing her. I’ll carry her,” a girl says, confusing the absolute hell out of me. “She needs her memories wiped, anyway.”

When Marilyn vanishes from my fingertips, a wave of nausea crashes down around me.

“I used to be the only one able to do that,” G-name guy mumbles, but I barely hear him over the thump thump thump of my own heavy heartbeat.

“She’s fine,” a blonde girl says, pulling Chaz away from me. She gives him a pointed, warning look that doesn’t faze him, and he crosses his arms over his chest. His eyes stay on me, and I continue shaking.

“What is she, Karma?” she asks the short-haired girl that I never saw come back into the room.

What… what?

“Human. Completely. Not even a blip.”

The girl has dark circles around her eyes, as though she’s tired or maybe sick. Not that I mention that aloud.

“You should go rest. You’ve been working yourself too hard,” the leather-clad guy with the weird name tells her, kissing her as though all is normal tonight. The blonde regains my attention as she shifts closer.

“Your friend will wake up tomorrow with no recollection of this night. Roslyn just took her to take care of her memories. She’ll feel hungover and possibly a little dizzy at first, but otherwise, she’ll be fine.” She takes a seat beside me, and she blows out a breath. “My name is Ella. It might seem hard to believe, but we’re actually the good guys.”

Swallowing down the impossibly huge knot at my throat, I ask, “How?” It’s barely a squeak of a word, but she seems genuinely concerned and nice. Unlike the savages she’s in company with.

“Magic,” she says simply.

Such an explanation would have sounded absurd this morning. Now… Fuck me. Anything and everything seems twisted and distorted.

“And me?” I ask, again finding it impossible to use a stronger tone.

“We’re going to ask you some more questions, and the same process will be repeated on you. It doesn’t hurt. It’s simple, painless, and you won’t remember a thing. It will be just another day, and you’ll wonder how you passed out last night.”

“I’ll do the real interrogation,” Chaz says darkly, and I shudder.

Dice looks away from his conversation with the girl who appears to be on the verge of collapsing so he can speak.

“No. I’ll handle it. I have more finesse, and she won’t be able to stop herself from speaking. It’s my shining point.”

He looks smug and too pretty to be harmful, but I’ve learned looks can be very deceiving. In a desperate attempt to stall, I do something ridiculous and pray it works.

I pretend to freaking faint.

Chapter 6

ZEE

“Damn it,” I hiss as Leah lifelessly collapses to the couch. Ella gently maneuvers her so that she’s lying down, and then she stands up to glare at all of us.

“A human can only tolerate so much intimidation, jackasses. She’s endured a seriously traumatic experience tonight, and then Roslyn yanks her friend away without any warning. Then you dickheads act like you’re going to gut her. What did you think would happen?”

She’s yelling. Ella doesn’t yell very often. I have to wince because she’s very high-pitched when she yells, and that shit hurts my ears.

“I offered to take over,” Dice points out, even though his attention is mostly focused on a very weak looking Karma.

“What’s wrong with her?” I ask, motioning toward the demon hybrid as she stumbles to a chair and sits down like she can’t force herself to stand.