Page 49 of Lust

“How could you possibly know that? How can you be sure when he’s the reason this thing has already killed at least one person? We don’t know Luke. We don’t know what he could do now that he knows he has this power.”

“But you said it yourself: as long as he has all this power and doesn’t realize it, he’s dangerous. If we explain this to him, help him control his powers, maybe he won’t be.”

Seth’s gaze wanders, like for the first time, he’s seriously considering something I’ve said. I’m sure it’s at least in part because of Cody’s intervention.

“So which is more dangerous?” I press. “Him doing this stuff without knowing what it is, or him doing it on purpose?”

“It’s not just that,” Cody says. “Luke can obviously see things without getting wiped out like I do. That could be an advantage against the Slasher.”

This is the first I’ve heard Cody give it a nickname. “Is that what we’re calling it?”

“It’s how the original Sinners referred to it. At least, I think this is similar to something else they encountered.”

“And you’re just telling us this now?” I ask.

“He doesn’t know for sure,” Seth says.

“After Luke mentioned the creature was feeding on blood and fear, I remembered some of the monsters the original Sinners profiled and checked my notes.”

Since discovering the Sinners’ bible, Cody has been working his way through it. He’s got a binder full of translations, which we’ve relied on as we learned how to use our powers and connect with the Guides. It’s also how we know about the history of the Sinners.

Even though Cody shares everything he’s translated, there’s too much for me to remember all of it, and clearly, even Cody needs to occasionally refer back to it to refresh his memory.

Cody heads over to his desk, retrieves some papers, and passes them to me. “They called this type a Slasher. They can appear in different forms, but they are similar in nature. Feed off blood and fear—those are the elements they need to grow and become stronger. When Waters and Dobbers encountered the first one, they used their powers to trap it and a shotgun to blow its head off, so we know it can be affected by the laws of our world and the spells we have.”

“There’s more,” Seth says. “We think something about Luke’s power is what it’s after. That’s what the Guides were trying to tell us.”

“Because it feeds off energy?”

“Exactly,” Cody replies. “Maybe they were warning that if it gets Luke, that will make it far stronger, which in turn…”

“Means it can kill even more people,” I conclude.

“There’s another fact about the Slasher,” Cody adds. “The way it murders its victims helps it extract more power. The first kill was quick because it needed to feed, but as it gets stronger, it can slow down, take its time to torture its victim to extract as much energy as it can from them.”

“Like setting someone on fire or impaling them.”

“All seems to fit together,” Cody says.

“More reason to get rid of Luke,” Seth adds, and I glare at him before he snaps, “I told you how I feel about this.”

“Yeah, and what happened to ‘we decide those things as a group’?” Cody retorts, making Seth huff.

“Seth only wants to do things when they work for the plan he already has in his head. Maybe we need to remind you that life’s different when you can’t just push what you want on people.”

Cody’s eyes narrow. “Did you really feel that was constructive?”

“No,” I confess.

He disregards it, saying, “Is there anything else anyone wants to bring up? Anything that maybe you feel like the other hasn’t been hearing?”

“I’ve said what I need to,” I reply.

Seth takes a moment before he adds, “I’m a little annoyed at Brad right now because I feel like, since Luke got here, he’s been keeping secrets about this…whatever we’re gonna call it.The Lust.”

The Lust. That’s apt.

Seth goes on, “You don’t talk about it or tell us what you’re going through. And when we ask, you get real defensive.”

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