Foxx plastered a fake and very sweet smile on his face. “Tell me exactly what was violent about my reaction, doctor? Was it the screaming? The crying? Me uselessly pulling on the cuffs around my wrists and ankles?
“Come on, tell me? How would you react to waking up confused, and to not only find yourself bound, but with a person standing over you actively and purposely hurting you?”
“There is some debate on whether they were hurting you, is there not? Either way, I doubt it was on purpose. While I understand your kinds reluctance?—”
“You understand NOTHING! That same priest was part of an organization that has MURDERED thousands of my kind. For you to sit there and say, knowing all that was discovered about them, that what he was doing could be debated, is not only bollocks of the highest order, but now has me questioning your analytical skills. Are you a fake it until you make it kind of guy, Johansson? Is that why you are so uninformed, or do you just choose to be an ignorant fuck?”
The human’s eyes widened in shock. “You...”
“What?” Foxx chuckled. “Did you think because I look cute, I wouldn’t call you out on your rubbish takes?”
Johansson’s cheeks reddened again, clearly from anger, but the man, instead of snapping, took a deep breath and said, “I feel we have gotten off on the wrong foot.”
“You don’t say?” Foxx drawled sarcastically.
The human cleared his throat again and flipped a page in his file. “Why don’t we switch to your time in captivity. The torture is one thing, but thepeoplewho were around you is another. The other vampires, a few didn’t survive.”
The way the man said people…really drove home that Johansson didn’t actually see any of his kind as people.
Foxx took a deep breath in and out. “Some were dead before I even got there, and for others, by the time the rescue came, it was too late.”
“Do you think that you being there caused their deaths?”
“No,” he replied quickly.
He had…at one point. But…surprisingly, Harlow had made him see that him being there likely had no effect on those who died.
“Really?” Johansson asked with a small smile, brow raised. “You don’t think you being there led to more deaths?”
“No,” he said with a fake smile. “They would have died whether I was there or not.”
“Are you sure? From the report, the actions of the criminals?—”
“The priests.”
“Ah…yes, the…priests. They intensified due to your antagonistic actions.”
“You mean when I ripped a man’s throat out as he attempted to drag me away for more torture?” Foxx chuckled. “They did what all monsters do when defied, they lashed out. But I’m not responsible for that.
“The vampires, sadly, would have died no matter what. Were some of their deaths sped up? Possibly. Were their deaths ultimately my fault? No.
“The ones at fault will always be the bastard priests who kidnapped them, and were intent on torturing them to death.”
Even if the worsening torture had sped things along, at most, it had robbed a few horrifyingly painful hours from them. Those who had died would have anyway, whether he’d been there or not. While he hated the thought that he sped up their deaths, he clung to the reality that many more would have died if he hadn’t been there.
“It’s interesting that you feel no guilt,” Johansson drawled.
“Is it? How so?”
“Most would feel some guilt knowing they had a hand in the death of others. Don’t you feel any survivor’s guilt at all?”
Foxx’s head tilted. Was the man trying to push his buttons? Trying to get him to break down? As much as Foxx hated to admit it…a few months ago, it probably would have worked. The question was…how many times had thegooddoctor tried this shit on others?
“I feel it’s been clarified thatIdidn’thavea hand in their deaths.”
“I don’t think it has. Is it not true that you decided who to save? Were there not moments when you made a choice between lives?”
His eyes narrowed. “The only choice I made was whether a child’s life was worth more than mine. If I wish to sacrifice my life for a child’s, that is my right. Or do you think the others there had a right to decide who my energy went to?”
