“Now?” Nico asked, his eyes focused on Ben, but his hand was stroking over Teilo’s.
“Let me finish making breakfast, then we can talk about it.” Ben made two more omelets and plated the remaining food and placed that in the middle of the counter for them to take what they wanted. Ben shielded his thoughts and sat down to eat.
The silence was tense as they all ate. Neither man sat opposite him took their gaze off him. With the plates cleared, Ben knew his time was up, their time on the island was up… for now. “As you know, I asked Todd, the man who organized our food, to do some digging into the place they held you both.” Two nods got him continuing. “I haven’t read the files he’s sent as yet, because the second I do, it means I will need to start acting on what I learn.”
“What about us?” Teilo’s voice trembled, and he reached out for Nico.
“You’ll come with me. I’ll never leave you. Me and my panther would hate to be apart from you both.”
“Me, either,” Nico growled as he tugged Teilo to his side.
“Me, too,” Teilo whispered.
Ben nodded, and deep furrows appeared over his forehead. “What we need to decide is where we go. The council is going to need my attention, eventually. Right now, someone has stepped up to run the shifter council in my absence. That’s temporary though, as was my position. Next month, the council members will need to vote for who they want to take on the role permanently. I need to make sure that those who might put themselves forward aren’t involved in the shit that has gone down recently. I haven’t spoken about the issues that came before I found you, but there are things you need to know.”
He laid it all out, explaining about the assassin program in the US, the issues with the pretend shifter who’d run the council for such a long time—furthering his own agenda. Ben told all he knew—the horror of what had happened with Marvin, the lost boys, and the men who’d held him. Nico had growled at that, and Ben had to work quickly, assuring both Nico and Teilo that the abduction had a valid reason behind it—even if he hadn’t thought that at the time.
There were so many complex layers that had led to finding out about the changeling and Nico and Teilo interrupted often, with questions on the parts they didn’t understand. By the time Ben had finished explaining the situation with Andromeda, the evil bastard who’d potentially set the wheels in motion for the Paraguay assassin program, the sun was reaching its peak heat of the day.
The room was warm and the breeze coming through the open windows did nothing more than move the hot air around.
“So, you believe this person, or thing, is responsible for us? The man your friends killed?” Teilo asked, his expression a mirror of Nico’s seriousness.
“That’s the assumption we’re working with.” Ben shot a look at his phone. The answer was probably in there, but just the thought of wading through all the information Todd had probably compiled gave him a headache.
“We never saw a man who smelled of the sea,” Nico said. “You say this Andromeda lived on a boat. He would’ve carried the scent of the sea and the evil magic that kept him alive for so long. We saw no one like that.”
“It was the dark man,” Teilo insisted. “He was the one—”
“You’ve mentioned him before,” Ben interrupted. “Who is he? What do you mean by dark man? Was he dark skinned? Like darker than mine?”
“He was dark inside.” Nico scowled. “They thought we couldn’t hear when they drugged us, but we could hear fine. He was someone who paid the scientists and trainers who had us, so he could use us to solve his problems with people. They sent us. We killed those people. Sometimes we were told to make them suffer. Other times, quick kills.”
“They paid a lot for me and Nico. They used our connection to each other.” Teilo’s voice was quiet as he huddled into Nico’s side.
Ben could tell just thinking about the killings upset their mate, and while his cat was all for hunting down someone who made Teilo shiver, he had to push for more. “So, we have this one man. You said he was dark. But dark skinned, or did he look like you or me?”Or Andromeda,but of course, Ben couldn’t ask that because Nico was so sure that was someone he’d never seen.How is this connected to the council? Has someone gone completely rogue?
Teilo shuddered as he explained himself. “His skin is like your brothers. Nico was right, it’s his soul that’s dark. His scent was… bad… his eyes they lookeddead.”
“He liked to watch the experiments. He enjoyed our suffering.” Nico’s voice was flat and emotionless.
Only that was not what was coming through their link. Nico felt ashamed and furious he’d not been able to protect Teilo from the abuse.
Ben got up and came around the counter and slung his arms over both mate’s shoulders and tugged them both into him. “It’s time for those who used you both to find out exactly what I’m capable of.”
Nico glanced at him, dark eyes glittering. “It’s not only you the dark man has to worry about.”
Even Teilo growled in agreement.
“I was thinking about the council, but yeah, the dark one, too.”
Chapter Fourteen
Nico
“We have to go back.” Ben was busy, device in hand, a scowl on his handsome face. Nico had pulled Teilo aside, wrapping his arm around his cage brother’s waist. “We never thought… we never knew…”
“You’re talking revenge?” Teilo kept his voice hushed. His eyes were a little wild as well. “I thought… I’d hoped… I didn’t want to see the dark man again.”
