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Chase’s eyes go wide as he struggles beneath me. “Dude. No, I won’t do anything else. I swear.”

“Sorry. Now you know who I am.”

“I-I don’t.”

“No? How many guys are you beating up, then?”

He gags, then he turns his head and vomits. The acrid scent of piss hits me too, so I adjust to make sure I don’t get any on me. He’s scared. Really fucking scared.

Panic spreads over his face as he mentally claws for any reason to get me to stop, but it’s not gonna happen. He’s going to be an example to his friends and anyone else who thinks they can get away with this.

“Two guys,” he mutters. “This one guy, Nick, and this other guy, goes by Jazz.”

“So you really are a bully?”

“Yeah, but I swear to god I’ll stop. I’ll never go near either of them again. Please, please don’t kill me.”

Leaning in close, I hold my mouth near his ear. “I’m gonna let you go, but if I hear anything from anyone about you and your friends doing the same shit, I’ll be back, and I’ll use the gun next time. We clear?”

“So fucking clear.” His voice shakes as he nods rapidly. “I swear.”

Seconds later, I’m on my feet and gone, jogging back to my car without seeing another person.

Once inside, I peel off my gear shove everything into my glove compartment, and lock it. A little tip I learned in case I’m ever pulled over—gotta have a warrant to search the car.

I turn on some rap music and slow my breathing as I drive home. Chase better not bother my brother again, and hopefully his friends get the message too. I showed him mercy I didn’t feel and he saw my face, but hopefully he was too drunk to remember the details.

As I slip back into the quiet apartment, I glance around, satisfied that all is well, then I plop down on the couch.

I wish I could go back to wherever Whisper is. If I focus, I can still feel the way his cock stretched my lips and bruised my throat.

I can still taste him.

I don’t even care that I didn’t get off tonight. It was enough that I made him weak for me. And now that I think I know where he lives, I might just have to hang around and see if I can figure out more about him since he obviously doesn’t plan to tell me.

What would he think if he knew what I was? Would he be repulsed? Turn me in? Or would he help me? Would he understand that sometimes the only way to banish monsters is to become one yourself?

In my room, I dig through my drawer and pull out the few pills I have left. Months ago, I found the Lorazepam on one of my victims and realized they really help me check out and sleep. Now I get a few a month from the many dealers around the city selling them. I pop two into my mouth and swallow them dry, then go to the bathroom to wash my hands and brush my teeth.

After getting settled in bed, I lie back and wait for the guilt, remorse, or disgust over what I’ve done to settle in, but it doesn’t come.

It never does.

I make sure of it by taking enough of anything I can get my hands on to dull it all. I’m doing important work; I don’t have time for my conscience to fuck with me.

CHAPTER 12

Whisper

“Hey, Whisper, did you see this?” Ghost puts his phone in front of me, open to a news article about a violent assault near the university campus last night.

“No. Anything interesting about it?”

“You mentioned you thought there was a serial killer on the loose. The victim said he was attacked and the guy pulled a gun but decided not to use it at the last minute. Think it fits?”

I read over the details of the article. “Nah. This guy was young. This is probably drug related or some bullshit campus stuff.”

“Oh, that’s right, you said it was always middle-aged men.”