Letting his fangs descend, Merlin opened wide and hissed slightly, loving the way the human flinched. He was banged against the wall before he closed his mouth again. The abrupt attack caused his head to bounce.
“I better not ever feel them, not unless you want me to snap that pretty neck of yours.” The human was flush against him now. He could feel his erection, so mission accomplished. Sort of.
Swallowing down the hint of trepidation, Merlin nodded. “Of course. I’m bored, not stupid. I thought I was going to get to be one of the Master’s warriors. I want something to do.”
“Don’t worry, precious. I’ll keep you occupied.” With that, the man tugged Merlin into the room he’d flown out of.
One step in and Merlin had to fight to contain his elation. This was the next best thing to the computer room he sought. The entire back wall was filled with screens displaying real-time images of what was happening at all of the entry and exit points—confirming that there were sentries posted. Dracul wasn’t that far gone, apparently and this was critical information for when the rescue came. Plus most of the rooms of the complex—other than what he thought of as the throne room—were monitored, even the communal bathrooms. Ick. Likely, Dracul’s private chambers were excluded, although having never seen them, he couldn’t say for sure. On a quick look, nothing looked like Andri’s room, either, a place he had been before and would recognize if it were on one of the screens. But there was an image that showed Mateo and Dafydd lying down, so he’d been right about the surveillance. The cameras all seemed fixed in a single direction, except for the ones showing the hall, which swiveled slowly through three hundred and sixty degrees. Unlike everywhere else, there were no blind spots out there.
He took in everything within a millisecond as he got dragged over to the chair the man obviously sat in during his shift. In one corner, there was a cot, with a litter of clothing and empty food containers strewn about. Behind that was another, smaller door that was ajar sufficiently to show a cramped bathroom.
“Welcome to my world, cunt. Nothing happens down here without my seeing it. Some jerk-off spells me for a few hours so I can hit the rack, but otherwise, I’m the boss’ eyes.”
Merlin resisted wrinkling his nose. He could well believe the human spent his entire time in this cramped, fetid room—and the news delighted him. His path to getting Annika her information and helping the rescue launch had just gotten a lot clearer.
He cocked a hip and lowered his gaze. “Impressive. Muscles are thick on the ground around here. Brains, not so much.” He dared to raise one hand and trace a fingertip down the man’s chest. “What’s my entrance fee?”
That almost-smile came out again as the man dropped into the chair. Releasing him, he spread his legs then patted the bulge behind his fly. “I’ll assume you’re brighter than you look, pussy, and can figure it out on your own.”
Merlin wanted to roll his eyes at the guy’s limited vocabulary when it came to degrading monikers, but that would only work against his interest—against the Queen’s interests, more to the point. As he slid onto his knees, he kept an image of her fixed in his mind while he did what he needed to do.
Chapter Four
Alex entered his suite with the single-minded goal of putting to rest necessary paperwork and losing himself in the mindless pleasure of fucking his dear, sweet boy. That was assuming, of course, that Quinn didn’t become so pissed-off once the topic of said paperwork was broached that he left Alex, either for the night or forever. The mere thought of losing him was like a hammer to his heart. Yet he was determined, entirely resolute, that his decisions about the future were the best thing for the human. Whether Quinn saw it that way was another matter. At a minimum, he knew that there was going to be one hell of a fight about it. It was only a matter of him being victorious.
As he opened the door, however, his plans and train of thought were entirely derailed by the sight that greeted him. Quinn, dressed in a black thong, was dancing around to the strains of a song Alex recognized as Circles. It was one of those moody ballads that the boys had liked to switch to