The youth glared at me with hostility. “I was sold by my enemies.”
I was about to ask for more details when Lucian interrupted me. “I can assure you, Stefan, we won’t harm you or make any physical demands. Unless, of course, that is your desire?”
Stefan turned his luminous eyes on Lucian. The intensity of his gaze reminded me of your cat. “It is not,” he said with perfect clarity, and I was surprised by both his directness and his ability to resist Lucian’s seduction. Lucian, to his credit, took the rejection in stride.
“I’m sure you’re exhausted from the trip,” Lucian said as though Stefan was only suffering from jet lag. “Why don’t you take your pick of the bedrooms, and I’ll see that you’re not disturbed?”
Stefan rose gracefully and surveyed the food before him in a princely manner, then selected a honey-glazed brioche to take with him. “I couldn’t eat too much,” he said to me. “Didn’t want to be a meal for Diavol.” He shot a calculating look at Lucian. “I do not want to go back.”
“That’s not up to you,” I said. I didn’t care for Stefan’s entitled attitude, nor did I wish to keep him around for an extended period of time. The young man made me uneasy. And if you had, in fact, killed his cellmates, it meant Stefan was a natural enemy.
Lucian stood and bowed slightly, ever the gallant gentleman. “I’m sure we can arrange something.”
When Stefan had departed, I said to Lucian, “I don’t want him here. I don’t trust him.”
“You don’t trust anyone.”
“He could be a spy.”
“They’re all spies. The moment we send these soldiers back, Azrael will know all of our strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities. That’s the risk we take in keeping them.”
“That youth is a miscreant. Do not invite him into your bed.”
Lucian smiled, all teeth. “Then perhaps I have met my match.”
He selected a plum from the fruit basket and tore into it viciously while I considered Stefan’s intel. None of it was useful in knowing where you might be stationed, and it only confirmed that you were being mistreated.Tortured.
What might Azrael be using you for? Why bring you on a tour of Imperium strongholds? Starving you long enough to invoke a frenzy. What would be the benefit of that?
And then I understood. It was at once so obvious. Azrael was using you as an interrogator to ferret out dissidents among his soldiers. Denying you bloodmeals must be his form of coercion. And the humans Stefan had claimed you’d killed… if it was true, it must be destroying you.
Be brave now, Vincent.I’m coming for you.
