Season Content Notes: abduction, blood, sexual content
Leyla
For once, Leyla didn’t want tea. She wanted a cold drink and an hour with her battery-operated boyfriend (his name was Steven). Watching Karen and Nastasia try to devour each other was the hottest thing she’d seen in years.
Which was odd because Leyla wasn’t a voyeur, and Karen had never turned Leyla’s gears, but she wanted to join them. Put Nastasia in the middle, rub against her, bite her neck. Lick Karen’s blood from Nastasia’s lips.
Later, that part might disturb Leyla. But now, the faint scent of that blood ratcheted her up — it smelled like sex, but better.
Next to her, Marcus tried to discreetly adjust himself, and Victor was half out of his seat. Benj groaned, and the sound broke the moment. Nastasia and Karen broke apart, and Nastasia giggled.
Fucking hell, that giggle. It was like a shot of espresso straight to Leyla’s sex. She’d convinced herself that she’d imagined it. That it wasn’t that sexy. Nothing could be that sexy.
It was, and Leyla was off her seat and halfway around the kitchen island before she caught herself.
Clearing her throat, she redirected herself, offering Karen a hug and a (chaste!) kiss on the cheek. “I think this is where we say congratulations?”
“Wow…” Benj said under his breath. Then grunted. Victor must have kicked him.
“That sounds about right,” Victor said. Then he grinned at Nastasia. “No offense Ma’am, and I’m not her brother, but I think this is also the part where if I was, I’d be supposed to point out that I know where you sleep.”
Nastasia giggled again and said, “I am appropriately threatened.”
“What–?” Karen started to ask, and Leyla patted her shoulder.
“Nothing to worry about. Macho posturing. I’ll explain later.”
“Oh, thanks Leyla,” Karen smiled at her.
At that moment, Leyla understood — really understood — that the confusion she felt over this whole sotii thing was Tuesday for Karen. Because she lived in a world that never made sense. If Karen could deal with that shit every. Damn. Day. For years… then Leyla and the rest of them could deal with this sotii stuff. “I’ll try and do a better job of explaining things from now on.”
“Okay. I’d like that.”
Marcus started to get up, and Nastasia glared at him. “Sit.”
He sat back and raised his hands in surrender. “Karen, I can’t say I’m not worried, but if you are happy, then I’m happy.”
“What he said,” Benj added roughly. Leyla didn’t think it was tears he held off just them. Not that she was one to talk — her panties were soaked through.
Still, they had a problem or two to deal with. Leyla squeezed Karen’s hand, then stepped back to lean against the counter. “I don’t want to take away from the moment — but I think the rest of us need to get a better handle on where we’re at.
“So, Nastasia — what did you expect when you asked us to be sotii?” Leyla tried to make the question gentle, but Nastasia still flinched slightly and reached for Karen’s hand.
Then she squared her shoulders and looked Leyla dead in the eyes. “I expected to become part of a team. I expected my sotii — you — to work with me, support me, advise me.” She paused, looking around the room. “After that night… after I had a chance to meet you… I expected that we might be friends.”
“And then we went professional on you.”
“Is that what you call it?” Nastasia snorted. “You became distant. Silent. You went on duty, and everything stopped. Karen even stopped asking to see my knives.”
Karen meeped and jumped on Nastasia. “I forgot about the sharps! Damn it, I forgot about the sharps.” She buried her face in Nastasia’s neck, and Leyla would have said something, but Nastasia pulled her close. “I’m sorry. Work messes with my brain.”
Leyla sighed. “I’m starting to think it messes with all our brains.”
Victor
Victor was listening, but he was also watching. Two doors, a window, and one skylight. His back to one door because sitting at the island counter didn’t leave him much choice. At first, he didn’t really notice the black shape circling overhead. Turkey vultures weren’t common, but you still saw them. But it kept circling. Coming around again and again.
And its movement was wrong. Victor couldn’t say how he knew. How he saw it so clearly when it was so far away. Bit by bit, he stopped listening. Karen would fill him in later. Her timeline for something she saw and heard herself would be sharp as her knives. Marcus and Leyla between them would sort things out with Nastasia. Sounded like a failure to communicate anyway. But that spot. It was bigger now, and the shape was wrong for a bird. It reappeared in the skylight a bit too regularly, its circle too exact.
Understanding came like ice in his veins. “Eyes in the sky. Get Nastasia out of here.”
He rolled onto the countertop, Glock out, and tucked by his side. He didn’t see Leyla and Karen hustle Nastasia out and down the stairs, but he heard them.
“Threat level?” Marcus asked — through Victor’s comm, he must have gone down with them.
“Unknown. Looks like a high-end drone.” Now that he had a clearer view of it, Victor realized that he saw the thing with an impossible amount of detail. That vamp virus thing taking effect, maybe? It looked like one of the newest spy drones he’d seen in the trade mags. “Might be some kid with a new birthday present, but I don’t think so.”
“Acknowledged.” Marcus was quiet for a moment. “You’re sighting, your call.”
Victor said nothing for a moment. “I might be able to take it out, but they’ll know we caught them. With the privacy screen on the skylight, it can’t have seen anything yet.
“Watch it for now, and prepare for all hell to break loose.”
“Concur,” Marcus replied. “We’re suiting up; Karen and Leyla will relieve you and Benj as soon as they’re ready.”
“Roger that.”
“Sure, boss,” Benj said across the room. He was tucked in the corner furthest from the island, where he could keep an eye on the window and both kitchen doors. “Here’s hoping for another round of ‘hurry up and wait’.”
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