A few generations back, Flix’s family had traveled to this planet from another. At the time, they’d been relatively powerful and had come with the Voids to help form their own mafia on a flourishing world instead of the dying one they’d fled from.
Both the Fulminis and the Voids were Shouts by blood, but there hadn’t been a member in Flix’s family that had Shout abilities in a long time.
At least, that’s what everyone believed.
Flix couldn’t be the one to spill that secret. He may be close with Baikal, but betrayal was still betrayal, and things were already rocky now that there’d been a change of power. Baikal could more than handle the Brumal, but there would be pressure from older members to punish the Fulminis if this got out.
So, he’d been forced to grin and bear it and allow his captors to run the show—and what an absolutely fucked up and confusing show it was.
“Trying to decide if you want to go the route of more sexual torture?” Flix gave in and broke the silence first, thoughhe chose his words carefully so as not to tip his hand. The popcorn man wasn’t the one who got off on that type of thing, but he didn’t need to know that Flix had caught on to their little rouse.
For some reason, they wanted him to believe there was one of them acting alone. The first break had come last week when the one who was into shoving things up his ass had broken his silence and whispered to him. There was little doubt in Flix’s mind that he was watching this exchange now or that he would watch it later, and it was being recorded.
That was the one in charge. Popcorn man was merely acting out his orders.
But the sadistic fuck who assaulted Flix with toys every day was clearly losing patience. If he kept pushing them, he’d crack sooner or later, and then Flix could hopefully find an opening and a way out of this mess.
He just had to keep playing dumb.
His specialty.
“Tell me about Russ,” the popcorn man demanded. He kept his distance. From the sound of his heels clipping against the solid stone ground as he paced, he was at least five or so feet away.
“Are you afraid of getting too close?” Flix teased, tugging at the metal cuffs that secured his wrists to the wall. There was also one at his neck and around his ankles. They definitely weren’t taking any risks where he was concerned. He was still trying to decide if he should be flattered or frustrated. “What? Only good for it during the day?”
He had no clue if it was actually daylight hours or not, only that the pattern had a beginning and end, and this was the end portion. That’s when the interrogation began, the questions always a mixture of the same boring flavors.
Telling flavors as well, but Flix hadn’t let that on either. Mostly because until he knew exactly what was going on and why, he wasn’t about to tip any of his hand.
That, and they didn’t deserve it.
Maybe if it’d been a regular beating like usual, Flix would have given an inch after he’d figured out who one of his captors was, but because of the sexual torture…Nah.
It also made it obvious that even if he was honest, they wouldn’t believe him. Why bother if he was only going to be called a liar?
“Russ,” the man repeated tightly. “You two dated.”
“Dated is a strong word.”
“You used to sleep with him.”
“I sleep with a lot of people.”
“What did you do to him?”
Flix would have cocked his head if not for the metal bar holding him tight, forcing him to face forward and nowhere else. “Aren’t you tired of this dance yet? Always the same questions.”
“So then answer them honestly so we can both be done with this.”
“Getting frustrated?” Good. Flix clicked his tongue. “Come on. You’ve got to have more stamina than that when dealing with a Devil, Popcorn.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Do you, like, only eat that? Or do you bathe in butter? Live at the movie theater? I’m trying to paint a picture here.”
“I’m the one who asks the questions.”
“Yeah, but your questions are boring. Seriously, how do you get yourself to smell that way? And also, why? Does your boyfriend get off on it?” Flix barely contained the scowl that thought brought, forcing himself to smirk instead to cover up the almost slip.
