48. EZRA

My eyes darted between Devrim and Obsidian. They stood a few feet away, talking to Reeves and a man he had introduced as Mike Rhatt, a tourist visiting our island for a few days.

I didn’t like the man, and by the look of things, neither did they, but we couldn’t make a scene. We couldn’t leave either, because we have only been here for about an hour and a half. In order for Obsidian’s plan to work, we needed to stay long enough for the killer to see Vanya here.  

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

The concerts were over, and everybody had been escorted to a room a lot bigger with a space to dance and a table filled with food. It was decorated with bright lights that hurt my eyes and two tall trees that were decorated with small, colourful lights.

I looked at the humans dancing and frowned. It looked complicated.

“Ezra, would you like to dance?”

I turned and frowned down at Vanya. She’d been talking to Betsy, but the other woman had disappeared.

“Do you?” Vanya asked.

I swallowed. “I don’t know how.”

“I’ll teach you.” Vanya grabbed my hand and tugged, but I didn’t follow.

I pulled her back and nodded at Obsidian who was frowning at us. “We’re not supposed to wander off, sugarplum.”

“It’s not wandering off. We’ll still be within sight.”

My eyes dropped to her lips when she pouted.

“We won’t go far, promise. I just need to get on the dance floor before someone starts asking me questions again.”

Vanya wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed her body against mine. My eyes instantly dropped to her chest where the dress had created a gap, giving me a glimpse of her breasts. A purr fell from my lips before I could stop it.

“You owe me,” she whispered. “Or do you want me to get on my knees again to beg you?”

Colour flooded my cheeks, and my shaft jerked in response. I could still feel the heat of her mouth wrapped around my shaft.

“I’d like that very much,” I muttered as I wrapped my arms around her waist and rested my hands in the small of her back right above the curve of her ass. “Very, very much.”

Vanya giggled, but it died down when I kissed her. My hands slipped to her hips to pull her tighter against me as I deepened the kiss.

With a whimper, Vanya broke away and dropped her forehead against my chest, similar to the way she had done a few hours before. I leaned down and pressed my lips to her ear. “I don’t think dancing is a very good idea, Vanya,” I whispered. “If we start, we might end up fucking in the bathroom like you and Obsidian did.”

Vanya shivered. “How do you know about that?”

“I can smell you, and I might have heard someone talking about it.”

She pressed her face to my chest again with a low groan.

Chuckling, I glanced over at Devrim and Obsidian to make sure that they were still within view.  

“Hey, Ezra.”

I looked down at Vanya with a frown.

“You’re not being fair, you know,” she said softly.

My frown deepened. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve heard what you said about Devrim and Obsidian.” Vanya took a step back, but kept a hand pressed to my chest. “What do you have against them? What’s wrong with Obsidian and Devrim being in a relationship?”

“You won’t understand,” I muttered.

“Try me, Ezra.” She shook her head when I remained silent. “I need you to be open-minded about this. Just think about things and try not to worry about it being right or wrong, okay? Just let it happen.”

It took a few minutes for her to speak again, but this time, there was a note in her voice that I couldn’t understand. “You can’t help who you fall in love with, Ezra. Sometimes it happens so suddenly that you can’t really do anything about it. There is nothing wrong with Devrim and Obsidian being together. As long as they’re happy, then it’s okay, right?” Reaching up, she pressed a palm against my cheek. “If I listened to everything—every insult and every speech about how wrong it is to be with you, I wouldn’t be in a relationship with the three of you.”

“Vanya—”

“Don’t be a hypocrite, Ezra.”

I pursed my lips and glanced around us. A few of the humans were staring at us while others stole glances in our direction every few seconds, but most of them were keeping their distance like usual. What had they been saying to her? 

My eyes darted over to Devrim and Obsidian. Both of them appeared angry and I noticed the way Devrim had discreetly placed a restraining hand on Obsidian’s arm.

Shit. 

Gripping Vanya’s hand, I hurried us over to them just in time to hear the end of their conversation.  

“It was just a suggestion,” Mike muttered.

“Thank you,” Devrim growled, “but your suggestions are not needed. Vanya is perfectly safe where she is. We don’t need any help in keeping it that way, either.”

The man held up his hands and took a few steps back. His eyes locked on Obsidian, and his lips curled up into a nasty smile that made the hair on my arms raise. The look in his eyes was something the three of us were very familiar with. I was right, something about this man wasn’t right. He was another human to add to our list of suspects.  

Before the conversation could get out of hand, a commotion across the hall caught our attention.

“Help! Somebody help! He kidnapped her!”

“Stay with Obsidian,” Devrim ordered Vanya as he pushed her into his chest.

Without glancing at them, I took off after him. The woman who had called out for help was hysterical. Reeves took hold of her arm and led her out of the room into a smaller, more private room where she was handed a glass of alcohol that she drank in one gulp.

I stepped forward, but Devrim grabbed hold of my arm and stopped me. My eyes shot over to his in question.

He shook his head. “We’ll scare her. Let Reeves handle this.”

But Reeves was taking his damn time. Every minute spent standing there made the unease in me grow.  

“Who was kidnapped?” Devrim finally interrupted Reeves.

He threw a glare at Devrim before he turned back to the woman with a smile. “Tell us, dear, what happened? What did you see?”

Swallowing, the woman’s eyes darted over to us and then down to her shaky hands on her lap. Her lips parted again, but no words escaped. After some more swallowing, she finally spoke.

“W-we were standing outside talking. I s-saw Betsy by the pillar, smoking. I wanted to talk to her, so I started making my way over to her, but a m-man suddenly stepped out from the dark.” Her eyes darted between Devrim and me. “He hit her over the h-head and then grabbed her. The moment he had her over his shoulder, a car pulled up.”

We had failed to do the one thing Vanya wanted us to do.

We had failed to protect Betsy.