Page 68 of The Devil's Embrace

“Shouldn’t we ask the detective for his opinion?” Titus moved closer, pulling a multi-slate from his pocket.

“No, we shouldn’t,” Aodhan stated. “He’ll like it better if we don’t let him have a say.”

“What’s going on?” Cal hated that he sounded uncertain but… “We need to call this in.”

“We need,” the doctor said, “to recreate it.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Let me go.”

Aodhan made a sound akin to a growl and Titus shushed him.

“You’ll want to refrain from saying things like that for now,” the director suggested, stopping in front of Cal. He clicked something on the screen of the multi-slate and then turned itaround so he could watch the video that started playing. “This. This is what he’s referring to.”

Under the harsh lights of the school classroom, Calix writhed and sobbed on the dirty ground. His clothes had been torn away, and he was naked aside from the socks that had been left on. He was clearly slipping in and out of consciousness, sometimes mumbling before going silent, only to rouse and cry out again.

He hadn’t noticed there’d been a camera in the room the night of the reunion.

He hadn’t noticed his assailant had changed either.

Cal had passed out before Heathe had actually touched him, but he’d just assumed it’d been him since he’d had his cock out and everything.

But it wasn’t.

In that very moment, the man rutting between his thighs tossed his head back, looked directly at the camera, and grinned.

A hand reached past Cal, pausing the video so that he was left staring into that familiar pink gaze.

“Don’t we look pretty?” Aodhan purred. “Let’s do it again, shall we, baby?”

Calix stomped down on Aodhan’s right foot and then slipped an elbow free, swinging back into Aodhan’s side. He spun, attempting to lift the blaster, but Titus was faster than him.

The director wrapped an arm around his throat, cutting off his air supply while his other hand smacked the gun away. It hit the ground and slid across the floor. He tugged Cal back, putting some distance between him and Aodhan, but he didn’t let up, no matter how much Calix struggled and fought.

“Relax,” Titus told him in a tone that could almost be considered gentle. “I’m only putting you to sleep for a bit. Relax. We won’t hurt you.”

“Not yet, anyway.” Aodhan grinned in a mirror of the vicious and twisted image still paused on the multi-slate on the floor between them. “It’s not fun when you aren’t awake for it.”

The video had started to play again when it’d fallen, the sounds of Calix crying and begging, of Aodhan moaning and laughing that night echoing around them. All this time, Cal had gotten it wrong. It hadn’t been Heathe who’d hurt him, it’d been the doctor.

The same doctor he’d opened up to and allowed to touch him after the fact.

The one who’d played him.

Cal’s last thought before passing out was that everyone was a liar.

Which meant he was a monster after all.