“Cameras?” Cassie frowned. “I didn’t see any cameras. Did The Beast take them with him?”
Amelia shook her head.
“No, today he didn’t have a camera. Not like the ones they used on the other days, anyway. Today he had this little silver ball shaped thing with lights all over it—about as big as an orange.” She cupped one palm to demonstrate. “It flew up into the air and went whizzing all around while he was…was doing what he did,” she finished in a whisper.
“A holo-recorder camera drone,” Stone growled. “That’s alien tech.”
Amelia shrugged.
“I dunno what it was, but he took it with him when he left.”
“So most days everything was okay—they just shot porn on regular cameras with the girls they brought in here and then they all left with nobody hurt or dead, right?” Cassie asked.
“Yeah.” Amelia nodded.
“But today it was just The Beast with a girl and things got violent?” Cassie said.
Another nod, this one very subdued.
“Okay, so tell us everything that happened today,” Cassie urged her. “How was it that The Beast didn’t see you watching?”
“I told you, I was hiding in the closet! See, most days the guys would come early and be setting up and filming by the time I was leaving for school,” Amelia said. “But today is senior skip day so I—”
“Wait—senior skip day?” Cassie frowned at her. “What school do you go to?”
“Our Lady of the Sacred Heart over on MacDill.”
“You mean the Catholic girl’s school?” Cassie shook her head. “I thought you were in college at least! How did you get into a place like the Velvet Noose if you’re still a minor?”
“I have a friend who knows the bouncer,” Amelia admitted. “She said he would let us in if we at least looked old enough. My mom and dad never let me go anywhere. So when they decided to go on a second honeymoon—”
“You decided to use your newfound freedom to go exploring on the dark side of town,” Cassie finished for her.
“I told you, I was just curious,” Amelia protested.
“And I think you can see where that got you,” Cassie said sternly. “But we’re getting off track. You said today was senior skip day so you what, decided to stay home?”
“Yeah.” Amelia nodded. “I wanted to see exactly what was going on. So I pretended to go to school, then snuck back in and hid in the closet. I thought I was just going to see, you know, regular porn. And it kind of started out that way. Well, except the girl was really nervous about being tied up.”
“I bet,” Cassie muttered. “So what happened next?”
“Oh, The Beast got her calmed down. He’s really good at talking people into things, ya know?”
“Like talking you into letting him film porn at your house,” Cassie said dryly.
Amelia hung her head.
“I guess. But like I said, I didn’t know it was going to be porn—especially not that kind of porn.”
“BDSM,” Cassie supplied.
“BDSM?” Stone asked, frowning.
“Bondage, domination, sadism, and masochism,” Cassie explained to her partner. Apparently the Kindred didn’t do kink.
“Like I said, what little I saw wasn’t bad until today,” Amelia told her. “I mean, just like spanking and moaning and stuff like that.” She shrugged.
“But then today, it was different because the girl didn’t want to be tied up?” Cassie asked. “But you said The Beast talked her into it?”
“He did.” The girl nodded. “But only after he gave her a shot.”
“A shot?” Cassie asked. “A shot of what?”
“Dunno.” Amelia shook her head. “He just said, ‘this is gonna make everything all right.’ And then he stuck her in the neck with a needle. At first, she was mad at him—she said, ‘Hey, that hurt! What did you do that for?’ But after a minute, she seemed to change.”
“Change how?” Cassie asked her.
“She said she felt warm all over—especially between her legs. And then The Beast asked her if she wanted to be tied up and she said, ‘yes!’ like she was really eager. She even went to the cross-thingy and put up her arms for the ropes. And when he was tying her up, she kept saying, ‘tighter! Make it tighter!’ Then she said, ‘hurt me!’”
She shook her head and shivered.
“So what did The Beast do then?” Cassie asked quietly. She could tell the girl was really upset. If she’d really lived such a sheltered existence, it was no wonder seeing such violence had shaken her. Her innocence was gone now and it was never coming back. Not after what she had witnessed.
“He…he slapped her.” Amelia made a motion with one hand, as though to illustrate it. “Really hard. And then he did it again and again. But no matter how hard he slapped her, she kept begging for him to do it harder. It was so weird.” She shook her head. “It was like the shot he gave her changed her whole personality.”