“No offense, Luther, but you make it hard to like you.” Damien was smiling as he said it. The others laughed.

“Please tell us it’s a good vision this time,” pleaded Harvey. “Like Coach is finally going to dump Jared and Bind with me.” Despite that Sam had ascended, we would always think of her as ‘Coach’, first and foremost.

Sparks of electricity suddenly shot from the fingers that Jared had been drumming on the table and hit Harvey smack-bam in the forehead. The impact made his entire body shudder. A glint of satisfaction lit Jared’s hazel gaze.

Sam rolled her eyes, complaining in her British accent, “All right, all right, pull your big-boy pants up and stop moaning. What we’re about to say is serious, and you need to take it that way. I’ll let Luther tell you what he saw.”

His posture regal, the Gandalf-lookalike cleared his throat. His grave, solemn expression made me tense. Yep, things were about to go to shit.

“It was a large manor of some kind,” he told us. “Luxurious. Elegantly furnished. But there was such evil – it was in the air, in the walls. You were all there, searching the numerous bedrooms. I could feel that you were disgusted, enraged. Some of you were carrying female vampires, all of whom were malnourished, scantily dressed, and drugged to the point of unconsciousness.”

There was complete silence for a moment. Then Max asked, “A brothel?” Luther nodded.

“You don’t think the females are there willingly,” I guessed, my voice hard with anger at just the very idea of it.

“No, I believe they are being held against their will.”

Profanities rang throughout the room.

Denny shoved a hand through his scruffy dark hair, appearing lost. “What you’re saying…is that someone’s running a brothel for vampires?”

Luther sighed. “It would seem so.”

“The brothel keeper will probably be female, since that’s how many human brothels work.” Reuben suddenly flushed, clearing his throat. “Not that I would know from personal experience or anything.”

“One thing is for certain.” Sam’s smile was a little on the malevolent side. “I’ll enjoy whipping the living shit out of her just before I burn the place down.” I liked that idea. Being a Feeder, Sam was able to absorb and manipulate the surrounding energy. She liked to shape the energy into different things – bolts, beams, balls – but she much preferred her energy whip.

“But…I don’t get it.” Chico was stroking his Johnny Depp style moustache and goatee, as he often did when thinking hard about something. “Vampires are naturally sexual creatures; we can get sex easily enough without paying for it.”

“Yeah,” agreed Stuart, “there are clubs we can go where we’ll find that willingly, and it happens right there on the dance floor.”

“There’ll always be a market for illegal brothels,” Sam pointed out, her aquamarine eyes sad. “Maybe this brothel exists to cater for certain…tastes.”

“When do we leave?” Butch’s eerily dark eyes were eager. If there was one person who enjoyed assignments more than I did, it was Butch. The fact that his gift was defensive rather than offensive didn’t make him any less dangerous. He was an asset to the squad with his ability to deflect or negate anything that came at him.

“I’ll teleport us all there soon.” Jared had three gifts, thanks to Antonio’s ability to impart power: teleportation, electrokinesis, and telepathy. He wasn’t able to read minds, but he could hear any thought that was directed at him. “Luther gave me the coordinates for the place; it’s in New Hampshire.”

Sam’s gaze came to rest on Ava. “We’d like you to come along.”

I stiffened. Oh, the hell no. “No disrespect, Coach, but shouldn’t this be handled by the legion?”

Sam shrugged, unconcerned. “If Ava accepts my offer to join the female squad I’ll soon be forming, she will be part of the legion. This will be good experience for her.”

Okay, I couldn’t deny that, but…“You don’t think this is a bit much for her first assignment?”

“Clearly you’re missing the fact that this is none of your business,” Ava sang at me. I chose to ignore her remark on the grounds that it simply didn’t suit me.

“We’re going to be invading a brothel. It’s not going to be pretty.” I’d come to learn that Ava had a big heart and was highly empathetic. She would no doubt be sickened by what she found there; the images would stick with her. I didn’t want that.

Stifling a smile, Jared raised his hand. “Salem, take it from someone who has a lot of experience with independent females, you don’t want to say another word.”

Oh, but I did. I knew Ava could take care of herself, knew she was strong. Her gift of muscle memory meant that she could memorise and perfectly replicate any combat move she saw. It also made her faster and stronger than other Sventés, and it gave her better reflexes. But, dammit, that wasn’t the point.

“Your concerns are noted, Salem,” said Sam. “But she was in Luther’s vision, she was at the brothel with us. Taking her out of the equation might alter things in a bad way. We can’t risk that.”

Fuck. That wasn’t something I could fight.

“I’m happy to be on board.” Ava ignored my scowl.

“Good.” Sam rose from her chair, and everyone followed suit. “You all have ten minutes to tank yourselves up on NSTs. I want us at full-strength.”

NSTs, or Nutritive Supplemental Tonics, contained blood and vitamins. They were developed by Antonio, so that he didn’t need to move thousands of humans into The Hollow to feed on. The NSTs provided a boost and quickly satisfied the thirst, but they never quite quenched it. Only pure blood did that.

As everyone piled out of the conference room and into the pristine corridor, I kept my eyes on the tiny female in front of me…who was starting to pick up her pace, like she was trying to get away from me. Not gonna happen. Fisting my hand in the back of her t-shirt, I lifted her – ignoring her kicking legs – and shoved her inside the nearest empty conference room before closing the door behind us.

Ava spun on her heel to face me. “I’m not a ragdoll.”

Even glowering at me, she looked cute and sweet. How was that even possible? I advanced on her, pleased when she didn’t back up. “Tell me what’s wrong.”