The demon lifted the blade to his mouth, licking Isaac’s blood from it. He leaned in, so close his breath grazed Isaac’s temple as he crooned, “You taste decadent, killer.” Teeth scraped against his cheek, and Isaac’s gut swooped with something he didn’t recognize.
He tilted his head back under the guise of getting away,and for just a moment, their breaths mingled. There were stars in the demon’s night black eyes. They had their own gravitational pull, and with a start, he realized his body was in danger of leaningin.
“Gross,” Isaac quipped, though his heart wasn’t in it. It certainly didn’t feel gross. “Don’t make me spit on you again.”
Fingers wrapped around his throat, tightening dangerously, and Isaac’s body tensed automatically in response, his thighs quivering uselessly with the urge to stand and attack. “Don’t you dare,” Black Eyes growled, his chest rattling inhumanly. He relaxed, releasing Isaac before the lack of air could become an issue, and backed away. “I need to have words with the others.” He smirked. “Don’t move. I’ll be back.”
“Sure,” Isaac replied. “I’m so comfortable, I wouldn’t dream of it.”
The demon laughed, a bright sound from such a dark creature, and left the room without another word, taking his blade and his disconcerting good looks with him.
The scent of the demon hung in the air, like black cherries and tobacco smoke. He inhaled deeply, letting the scent drip down into his lungs, and held it there.
Alone and unwittingly trapped, Isaac sighed. “Fuck.” They thought he could give them Sloan’s secrets? Sloan didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him. Isaac wasn’t stupid. He was made to kill things, not to make decisions. Sloan didn’t care for his input about the direction he was leading the guild. That was the way it had always been, ever since he was a child.
You didn’t put the junkyard dog in charge of the junkyard.
Chapter 6
Shadrach
Everyone was still waitingin the main room when Shadrach returned, gobsmacked and more than a little turned on. They all turned at the sound of his footsteps, and Talon frowned at him.
“There’s remarkably little blood spatter on you. I take it you didn’t get as dirty as usual.”
He hadn’t.Whyhadn’t he? That human spat in his face. He should’ve pried his fingernails off with the blade he still held like an afterthought. Instead, he’d gotten far too close, tasted his blood. His head still swirled with it, and goddamn, it was the sweetest tasting blood he’d ever had. Nothing would ever measure up. He wantedmore, but he wasn’t willing to maim the human to get it.
“Unfortunately, Luke was right,” Shadrach said, flapping the knife at the human, who was leaning against the half-wall with Malachi. “Torture doesn’t exactly work with him. Helaughed.”
Luke huffed out the barest approximation of a laugh, though it held a grim edge. “Yeah. That’s Isaac.”
“How do we get him to talk, then?” Talon asked.
“Why do youwanthim to talk?” Alex asked, glancing between them. “Isaac might’ve been spying on some people for Sloan, but I doubt Sloan has been telling him anything about his plans. None of the paladins are privy to the inner workings of Sloan’s mind. Isaac wasn’t a captain or anything. Nate was probably closer to Sloan than Isaac is.”
“We can’t just let him run back to them, little bird,” Talon said. “Imagine how Sloan would react if Isaac told him we kidnapped and tortured him.”
“Thenwhydid you kidnap and torture him?” Alex folded his arms haughtily.
“All right, look, perhaps it was compulsive, but I meant well. I overheard that he was spying on your people. Without him there, the dissenters can continue to meet without a snake in their midst.”
An ironic statement coming from aviperlike Talon, Shadrach thought.
“I’ve, uh.” Nathan stopped, crossing his arms, and then forged on. “I’ve got Daniel’s number. I could contact him, warn them that Isaac’s been reporting to Sloan. If they’ve said anything compromising in those meetings, they might need a warning. I don’t know how bad things have gotten since I left.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Ira said.
“I’ll make him talk,” Shadrach said, crossing the room and returning the knife to the weapons table. “Give me time. Let him stew for the day. I’ll enter his dreams tonight and see what I can learn. His defenses will be down there.” He couldn’t remember the last time he’d entered a human’s dreams. Most of them were tedious places. Nightmares about nudity in public spaces and imaginary monsters in thedark. What would a paladin’s dreams be like? What wouldthatpaladin’s dreams be like?
Alex cast Talon alookat that that Shadrach couldn’t interpret.
“What happens if we just let him go?” Luke asked, looking from one face to the next. “Hypothetically.”
“Hypothetically, he runs back to Sloan,” Shadrach said with impatience, “and knowing we’ve kidnapped one of their people right out from under their noses will be enough to convince them all that we deserve to die.”
“Many of them arealreadyconvinced we deserve to die,” Malachi groused.
Shadrach gestured at him. “The rocker wannabe speaks the truth.”
