“They’d been right,” Zephyr muttered.
“Your son didn’t die initially,” I said. “He survived somehow. He wasdying, though.”
Vince nodded, his expression still eager.
This…was a very sad man.
I couldn’t imagine missing someone so badly that I needed their last words, even as it would hurt me.
“He wanted me to watch him die,” I said slowly. “I think. He called me–”
Zephyr made a sound of disapproval, and I stopped, then amended what I was about to say.
“He kept calling me some code name. He wanted me to watch him. He said he’d been worshipping something, but…I don’t know what it was. I was angry he’d stood by while they hurt Levi, so…I killed him.”
Vince nodded as if I hadn’t just told him something horrible.
“You said they weren’t looking for Skye. Why was there a code name?” Rafe asked.
Vince shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t privy to everything going on. I was just tasked with finding the male.”
Rafe shook his head, and then Vince spoke again.
“Thank you.”
“That’s all you wanted?” Wyatt asked in disbelief.
“I get the feeling you don’t know what it’s like to love someone so strongly,” Vince said, narrowing his eyes at Wyatt. “But I loved my son, even when he was lost to me. I wasn’t even that far from him when he died. I came upon him after the fact, and a Healer told me what’d happened, but I still wanted to know from the source.”
“A Healer,” Rafe murmured. “Which Healer, Vince?”
“Holmes,” he replied before sitting back in his chair. “She’s the best of the best. They had her out there not long after the strike.”
“Holmes,” Rafe said slowly. “And she told you? What had killed your son?”
Vince nodded, looking a little confused. “Yeah. I told her I’d been distracted by a strong affinate, and she told me it was a Telekinetic that’d killed the group of men. I couldn’t feel the affinity anymore, though. I wasn’t sure how you’d escaped.” Vince’s jaw worked for a second, as if he were reconsidering what he was about to say next. “I sensed the teleportation, I’d just never sensed it before, so I didn’t know what it was. When I met you at the testing center, though…I felt it again, and I…justknew. I’d had years to reconsider what’d transpired at the massacre.”
I nodded. That all made sense.
“Why’d you lie?” Zephyr asked.
Vince shrugged again. “I may have known what the affinity was,but there’s no code for it in the system. I’m not really lying if there’s no way for me to log it, right?”
Zephyr gaped at him.
“And Aiden?” I asked sharply.
Vince’s blue eyes finally rested on Aiden. He hadn’t looked at him once since we got here. Aiden stared back, looking bored, but I could feel his anxiety spiking.
“Didn’t lie about that one,” Vince said.
Wyatt groaned.
“Then why does he have a new affinity?” Rafe asked. “Did Lucille put you up to it?”
Aiden blinked several times as shock rolled through us. Rafe and Wyatt thought Lucille had…paid Vince off?
I was getting tired of not having all the details before going into a situation.
