Luke stiffened. “Who?”
“Isaac,” Ira answered, folding his arms and bowing his head. “It’s Isaac.”
“What… What does that mean?” Alex asked, glancing from face to face. “What’s happening? Why are we here?”
“I captured him,” Talon said. “He’s tied up in the storage room.”
“Youwhat?” Alex squeaked, and the others all exploded in outrage.
Shadrach watched them all with idle interest. Wolf leaned on the wall beside him. Quietly, he said, “He’s been dreading this for a while now.”
“He knew about this?” It was rare that either of them would admit anything about Ira’s visions. It was maddening, even if Shadrach understood, logically, why he’d keep most of his knowledge to himself.
Wolf nodded. “Bits and pieces, I think. He always says he never has the full picture about any of these big events.”
“Any guidance?” Shadrach asked. If he asked for more, Wolf would clam up on him, he was certain.
Wolf tilted his head. “He hasn’t told me much.”
Shadrach schooled his expression to hide his disappointment. This was abig event, which meant some things were about to unfold. He wanted to be there when they did.
“What do we do?” Alex asked, looking to the other humans.
“You should let us interrogate him, little bird,” Talon coaxed gently, drifting closer to him. Talon only had eyes forAlex when they were in the same room together. He softened in a way Shadrach had never seen before. He didn’t understand it. Alex was fine—attractive enough and maybe more stubborn than most, which made him a little more interesting than the average human. But worth all the fuss Talon made over him? Shadrach didn’t think so.
“You mean torture him,” Luke said, scowling.
“Torture doesn’t work,” Ira said. “It’s been disproven many times. He might talk, but we’d have no way of knowing if anything he said was true.”
“Wecould make him talk,” Talon said darkly.
“No, he’s the type to lie just to have us chasing our tails,” Nathan said.
Interesting.
“Torture might work on some people, but it won’t work on Isaac,” Luke said scornfully.
Doubly interesting.
“Why don’t we find out?” Shadrach said, his cigarette clenched lightly between his lips. “I’ll go have a little chat with him andfind outwhat he thinks about torture.”
Luke frowned at him. “If anyone’s going to do it, I’d rather it be Talon.”
Talon cast Luke an amused look. “Thanks for the vote of confidence?”
“You’re just a little less sadistic than Shadrach,” Luke said bitterly.
Talon scoffed. “You only think that because you never knew me before.”
Alex softened, looping his arms around Talon’s waist and kissing his collar. It was like watching a rabbit snuggle with a tiger.
“If you want a gentle hand with your torture, a leviathanshouldn’t be your choice. They like inflicting pain too much,” Malachi said, sighing. “I wouldn’t be opposed to handling it.”
Luke looked faintly sick. “I’d really rather you didn’t.”
Malachi wrapped an arm around his waist. “Whatever you want, treasure.”
Treasure. Satan help him. Shadrach struggled not to roll his eyes.
