Rune swore under her breath. “I fucking hate them for using my power and killing our people.”
My chest ached with how much I wanted to fix it and how utterly impossible that was in this moment.
“Hey, sister-by-mating.” Slater slung an arm over Rune and grinned at Pandora.
“Hi, Slater,” Pandora rasped. “Bram’s busy today with a class issue.”
“I know, he told me,” Slater pouted, glancing at the fear demon and dream demon representatives. “Hey, Skel. Hey, Reed.”
“Hi, Slater,” they said in sync.
The space between us warped before Drecken appeared, warlock magic wrapped around him like a storm. “Sorry,” he said breathlessly. “Had to convince Rowan to let me come and dissect the human here.”
Jesper jerked his chin toward a fenced-off area beside the building we were in front of. “The human’s over there. Pandora kept a body for you.”
Drecken’s mouth curved. “You are so kind.”
“I was told you were interested in the body of the one who has venom,” Pandora said mildly.
“Yes,” he verified. “The last one ended up turning to mush before I could get to it, eaten by its own venom.”
“Myvenom,” Rune corrected in a huff.
“Yes, viperling,” he agreed, shooting her an apologetic smile. “You are absolutely right.”
We followed them to the side of the building.
On the ground lay what had clearly been a human, not long ago. Now, it was just slack meat in charred tactical gear.
Drecken stood above it, his hands hovering over the corpse. “Let’s see what we have here, shall we?”
Magic thrummed around him as threads of power sliced under the human’s skin and along tissue. With precise, almost absentminded motions, he opened the human up with his telekinesis. Flesh parted under invisible blades, ribs spreading with loud cracks.
Rune stayed beside me, jaw clenched, watching.
Drecken frowned as he examined the insides.
“Look at this,” he muttered, bending down and reaching in. “The veins and arteries are melted into the surrounding tissue, and the organ structure, it’s all basically liquefied.”
He prodded what was left of the liver, but it collapsed into sludge.
“Disgusting.” My stomach heaved from the scent of the human’s blood. It was disgusting and sour.
“This is all from the DNA grafting,” he muttered. “They spliced Rune’s magical essence into the human’s body, but their physiology can’t sustain it. I’m honestly impressed any of them stayed alive long enough for us to have to kill them.”
“Translation?” Slater asked, scratching his head.
“From the second her DNA is grafted to theirs, they’re given a death sentence,” Drecken explained. “There’s no stable limit. The venom chews through them. They’re walking corpses.”
Rune’s expression grew cold. “Good. If they insist on using my power, the least it can do is destroy them.”
I admired the strength of my mate more than anything.
Drecken gave her a sympathetic look. “Still doesn’t mean it’s fun watching them fling your venom at our people. I get it, viperling.”
She inhaled slowly, nodding.
“Um, excuse me,” a calm voice murmured. “I hate to interrupt the autopsy, but I believe you have another problem.”
