It was one of the most important skills he possessed that more than made up for his weak compulsion. The ability to determine if a prisoner would respond better to pleasure or pain was pivotal, especially when he only had one shot. The longer an interrogation went without his subject breaking, the less chance he had of ever cracking them open like a coconut to get the juicy information he needed.
Donna had shown her hand too soon, though. Revealed too much. He wouldn’t waste his time offering her comfort, food, or empty promises that they could still recover from this. No. If she truly believed his family to be monsters, then no amount of bribing would convince her otherwise.
Pain it was.
“There are two directions this conversation can take,” Saiden commented, casually leaning against the bars. “Well, three I suppose, but I truly don’t think you’ll start telling me everything I want to know, so that just leaves us with the first two. Option A, I torture you. Option B, I torture your family.”
Damn, humans were so easy to read. A little twitch here, a slight widening of the eyes there.
“I see we’re choosing Option B,” he said, since that was the one that spiked her pulse exponentially. “That wouldn’t have been my first choice, but to each their own. Personally, I believe people should be held accountable for their own actions.”
Saiden dragged a finger along one of the metal bars, taking a second to let the woman soak in her own fear.
“Since I am in a bit of a time crunch here, I'll cut right to the chase,” he said when he felt the tension was sufficiently built. “I’m going to ask a question. Answer truthfully, and nothing bad happens. Lie or refuse to answer, and Baylin gets to have fun with your family. He’s alreadyplotting out the most creative ways to destroy them. I don’t think your daughter will get to keep her teaching job when her background report suddenly shows seven charges of drug possession and five charges of prostitution.”
The disgust on Donna’s face pained him, but he didn't let it show. He never enjoyed embracing the stereotype of the evil vampire, and seeing in her eyes how effortlessly he had pulled it off stung a little.
“You would destroy an innocent person?” she breathed out.
The cell bars groaned, and they started to bend under his grip. “I would burn this country to the ground and use the ashes to fertilize my front lawn if it got me what I wanted. And right now I want revenge for my mate. So, let’s start easy. Why?”
Donna shrugged.
The fucking human justshrugged. As if his mate’s death meant less than that of a housefly.
“When I was in town shopping,” she began, “I was approached by a young girl who asked me how I really felt about my employers. I’m not sure why I told her the truth, but I did. I told her that you’re all monsters. That I’ve spent decades at your beck and call, watching you live the high life, young and beautiful forever. You get whatever you want, but you know what I get? I get old. I get arthritis. I get my dreams ripped from my grasp. And any one of you could have changed it. Could have changed me. You hoard your power and watch us pathetic humans wither and die while you drink martinis and flit around the world to any exotic place you desire. You don’t deserve the gift you’ve been given. So yes, I told her how I felt, and she offered to help me get even. All I had to do was distract security for thirty seconds while she scaled the outer wall, and she would take care of the rest.”
A muscle feathered in Saiden’s jaw. It was nothing he hadn’t heard before. Humans begging to be turned so they didn’t have to age anddie. He was just surprised that they never suspected Donna of harboring those wishes.
“Did you know?” he asked, death riding shotgun alongside his question.
“Know what?”
“Did you know what Bianca was going to do?” His hold on the bars tightened, each of his fingers leaving elongated grooves in the metal.
“She said she wanted to get revenge for the death of her children. Beyond that…” Donna shrugged once more, and Saiden wanted to tear her arms from her body so he never had to see that casual lifting of her shoulders ever again.
“She murdered a human! She murdered my mate!” Rage exploded from him like a thunderstorm, rocking the tiny cell. “For all your scheming, the only person to die last night was a human. One of your kind!”
“But she wasn’t going to stay that way, was she?” Donna shot back. “I heard Tressa and Raven talking. You were going to turn her. You brought her into this house and waved her under my nose. The human who would get what I always wanted. Sorry if I don’t mourn for the collateral damage needed to destroy you.”
The more Donna spoke, the less he recognized her. Deep-set bitterness twisted the wrinkles of her face into something grotesque and vicious. How long had it eaten away at her? That resentment. Writhing and boiling, getting worse the longer she had to keep it hidden.
Everyone showed their true face in the end, though, and there was nothing left to be saved in Donna.
“Last question. And believe me when I say that if you lie, I will hunt and drain every single living relative that you have all the way down to Jerry Fitzsimmons, your third cousin twice removed.”
Donna gulped, and that tiny movement was all he needed to see.She believed him.
“So ask,” she replied weakly, all traces of defiance gone.
Saiden grinned. They were in the endgame now. He would have his revenge if it was the last thing he did. And it likely would be.
“Tell me where to find Bianca Holmgren.”
Chapter forty-two
Cora
