His hands tightened on her knees. “You’ve done a lot, sweetheart. But you’re right back here alone in a cabin with me. I could pretty much do anything I want with you, physically or mentally. And where the fuck is Niall or all your soldiers?”
She sighed, and her shoulders drooped. “I can handle this on my own.”
Ha. It was unthinkable. As soon as he got Sam back, he’d have to take out Niall. Sometimes life was too simple. “You must have some idea of where they’ve taken Sam?”
She winced. “Somewhere in Scotland, but again, I don’t know where the cells are. Where they take people for questioning.”
“Can you find out?” Logan asked.
She started to finger-comb her drying hair. “Maybe. But I’d have to ask Niall.”
That wouldn’t do.
“And I can’t help you anyway. It’d be treason, and I agree with what we’re doing. The Seven are truly clueless.”
“Then explain it to us,” he snapped, losing patience again.
She threw out her hands. “I wanted to. I really did. But our elders said you males wouldn’t listen. This is our only hope to fix what you’ve done. We can’t sacrifice the universe for you guys. Just can’t do it.”
None of this made a damn lick of sense. “What do you want with my niece?” he asked, switching topics on purpose to throw her.
Mercy shook her head, and the firelight caught the wild red hues in the dark mass of her hair. “Can’t tell you. I’m so sorry.”
“So am I.” Holding her knees, he gently probed into her skull.
“Stop it,” she snapped, her voice weakening.
He kept the movement to a gentle glide. There was no choice. “Tell me about Hope.”
She’s the lock. The words came from Mercy’s head as clearly as if she’d spoken them.
“How do you know that?” He pressed harder.
Mercy’s eyelids fluttered closed. “The prophesy is all about her. The ritual of the Keys can’t be completed without her.”
He already knew that. The ritual would take down the most dangerous, evil bastard in the entire world. A being so bad he had the means to end all enhanced females, probably including fairies. He was being held in a prison world, another dimension, one that was about to fail. “Why don’t you want the ritual to be completed?”
She swayed. “You don’t understand. Messing with the laws of physics was a huge mistake. You created three prison worlds, then bound them together to keep Ulric in the middle one. You can’t do that, you arrogant asses.”
“Why not?” he asked softly. The three worlds had been created eons ago, trapping the biggest threat to his people in the middle. Two members of the Seven occupied the protective outer bubbles, keeping evil secured inside. One bubble had burst recently, leading to the conclusion that the other two would soon fail as well. “Why was it a bad idea to create the bubbles?”
She snorted. “You can’t combine dimensions, dumbass.”
The name-calling while he was in her head was interesting. She had defenses he hadn’t come across before. “Watch the name-calling.”
“Spineless, easy to knock out, vampire-demon dumbass,” she returned, not opening her eyes.
All right. Enough. He slid against the pleasure zones in her brain. She gasped, leaning forward at the waist. “What are you doing?”
“I told you not to call names. The only repercussions available to me are pain or pleasure. You’re lucky I was amused enough to choose pleasure.” He was getting tired of her dicking him around.
She sighed and threw her head back on the sofa, relaxing. “I’m getting really tired of being turned on here. It seems like we should take the edge off and then negotiate. What do you think?”
He thought she was going to fucking kill him. “I scared you out by the tree.”
“Nope. My reaction to you scared me. You haven’t scared me yet.” She opened her eyes. “Listen. I have no clue where Sam is, and I won’t even have a chance to find him until we’re off this island. We can’t leave here until morning when the storm dies down. I won’t tell you about Hope, and I know you can go through my brain, but truth be told, I don’t understand her role in the ritual. I’m more of a community planner and moneymaker.” She shrugged. “I’m just here until I escape. Nobody is worried about info I don’t possess.”
In other words, even if Logan tortured her, he wouldn’t learn much. “Your betrothed is an asshole.”
