Page 67 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

It’s not a precursor but an order.

They’ve done this in the past, though not for a long time.

They haven’t needed to.

Good cop, bad cop.

Licking his lips, Kade steps forward.

He digs deep for Riley.

‘I want you to answer his questions, Seth. Can you do that for me?’

‘For you?’ Seth echoes softly, his gaze vacant, though he’s rigid with cold anger. ‘Why would I do anything for you? You’re fucking the man who killed my brother.’

‘I’m not fucking him. Is that your motivation?’

‘What motivation do I have now that my brother is dead?’

‘Revenge,’ Lachlan answers easily. ‘It’s all that fills the void.’

Seth manages a hollow smile. ‘I don’t want revenge, cunt. I want you cut open on a table and kept alive so we can learn every single thing about what kind of fucking freak you are.’

‘Sure,’ Riley observes softly, his head cocked, ‘but you want revenge too.’

‘Fuck you, meta-lover,’ Seth hisses at Riley.

Kade’s insides turn to water.

Seth is going to die today.

Riley remains unaffected by Seth’s outburst, but Kade knows him.

There’s no way he’ll let that stand.

Riley glances at Lachlan. ‘You wanna know what was on your steak?’

Nonplussed, Lachlan wrinkles his nose. ‘Beg pardon?’

‘Shall I tell you why it tasted so good?’ Riley begins to circle Seth at a measured pace, just like he did with Lachlan days ago. ‘It wasn’t my spit. That’s disgusting. No. It was human blood.’

Seth goes very still. ‘The fuck are you talking about?’

Kade trusts Riley. He knows to let whatever he’s doing play out, but it’s a weird tactic, unsettling. Riley’s eyes are so very blue when he looks at the former bodyguard, smiles just a little and says, ‘Do you want some more?’

The silence in the Drowner is broken only by the onset of Seth’s hyperventilation. He looks rapidly between all three, blinking hard.

‘Bullshit,’ he declares, his cheeks pink at the edges.

‘You were right,’ Riley tells Seth. ‘He is a new kind of freak. I’ve been watching him,’ he says of Lachlan, ‘and this morning, before the attack you ordered came storming in, I began to suspect a few things about what he is or…’ Riley inclines his head. ‘What he needs.’

‘You’re a liar.’

Riley extends a hand towards Kade, palm up. Kade doesn’t hesitate to pass his knife over in silence. Riley pops the blade out with a clean snick and presses the tip to Seth’s jugular.

‘No matter how civilised we become, or how far we remove ourselves from the grisly mechanics of the food chain, all humans retain the primal fear of being eaten.’

‘Fuck you!’