His face was back to the familiar stony expression. “Yes, but I want something from you.”
“What?”
“Let me touch Willow,” he said, then stepped back before I could lunge at him. “Only her hand. I want to feel her essence. Her soul. It might help me find another human like her.”
“You can have one, brief, handshake,” I agreed.
He gave a single nod. “Let's hunt.”
I didn’t like the way Vengeance walked around Willow’s apartment. He moved systematically through the small space, methodically touching everything damaged. I had to hold back my objections when he walked into Willow’s bedroom. I must have made a sound when he picked up an article of clothing because he gave me an annoyed look.
“Shut up or leave,” he ordered.
I turned on my heels and marched out the front door. It was just as cheap and flimsy as the original and it made me want to hunt down the manager and eat him.
I was so full of anger and helplessness that I scowled at a young man carrying groceries to the apartment next door. He rushed inside, and I heard some things fall to the floor.
Willow wouldn’t have liked that. I worked on schooling my features to a more pleasant expression, or at least less angry.
Vengeance finally emerged from the apartment.
“There were three humans who did all the damage,” he said. “One of them was focused on Willow, the other two were concentrating on enjoying their destruction.”
“I knew that,” I grumbled.
“Then I guess you don’t want me to take you to them?” he asked and turned to walk back into the wrecked apartment. I hurried after him.
“You can have the two who weren’t focused on Willow. I want the one who targeted her.”
His expression didn’t change. “Follow.”
Turning to mist, he moved high in the sky and headed southwest with me right behind him. He paused several times but finally sank down into a small house. Two men were sitting on a couch playing a violent video game.
I materialized between the men and the TV. There was no reason to be subtle in this enclosed space, and I trusted Vengeance to lead me to the correct men.
As expected, the men screamed with surprise and fear and tried to run. Vengeance appeared to block them from escaping through the kitchen and out the back.
Realizing they were trapped, the two men started acting in predictable but different ways.
The shorter one sank to his knees and brought his hands together in front of his face. “Holy Mary, mother of god, protect me. Holy Mary, mother of god, protect me.”
“Take anything you want,” the other one said. “There’s money in the kitchen, I can get it for you. And my truck. You can have my truck. It’s yours. I won’t say nothing. Nothing!”
I shook my head. “Tell me about what you did last night.”
He blinked rapidly. “Last night?”
I could tell he was trying to figure out what I wanted to hear, which meant I wouldn’t get the truth. I turned my gaze to Vengeance and nodded at the man. He stepped close and grabbed the man around the neck.
Part of Vengeance's power was the ability to force a confession out of someone. A large part of how he fed was on that confession. The victim needed to know what he was being punished for. They needed to know they’d brought their pain and death on themselves.
The man gasped but didn’t struggle. His gaze focused on Vengeance’s glowing eyes.
“That bitch Willow made us do it,” he said, speaking rapidly. “She broke up with Alex. She wouldn’t even talk to him so he could explain. No woman gets to treat one of us like that. She deserved what she got.”
I leaned over and put my face in front of the man still praying. “Are you Alex?”
He shook his head so hard, his entire body shook. “N-n-no! I’m Jim. Alex isn’t here. He hung out for a while but then decided he needed to do something more.”
