Page 9 of Avenger of Sins

Was it true? John wavered: this was his chance to talk Ryan down. But it also could be another trap. “Slow down, Zahira,” he said at last. “I think he just wants to talk. But if I start acting weird, gun it.”

She slowed, but asked, “Are you sure this is wise?”

“No,” he replied honestly. “All right, Ryan. Talk.”

“I just…wanted to make sure you’re all right.”

John closed his eyes and concentrated on the distant voice.I am,he thought.No thanks to you.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would approve of…my solution.”

John shook his head.So you decided to take away my ability to say no. Just like Walsh and the others did at the Center.

Silence. Then, after a long moment:“This is our only chance for justice. You know it as well as I do.”

You’re not a murderer.

Something like dry laughter came through their connection.“Of course I am. Jennifer and Marc—Mom and Dad—didn’t kill themselves. Granddad didn’t just decide to take a walk at the exact moment a rougarou was outside.”

The day at the hospital came back to John. Ryan standing with his parents, the preacher, the hostility.I don’t understand. Why did you kill them?

“You don’t know what it was like. Granddad hated me when I came back. He learned not to say anything out loud, but I could still hear his thoughts. Just a stream of abuse, day and night. When I sensed the rougarou outside…I don’t know. I’d had enough.”A pause, then, stronger:“It must have been fate, since that was what brought you back to me.”

Arguing would be counterproductive.Where are you? Let’s meet face to face.It would be dangerous as hell, but with Gray and Night…

Ryan caught the thought.“I’m not letting monsters drag me back to SPECTR.”

They aren’t monsters.

“You’re wrong.”The sense of a shiver came through the mental link.“They’re fucking dangerous, John. I hoped I could get you away from them. I understand why you feel bad for Caleb, why you see yourself in his predicament, but you’re better off without them.”

John ground his teeth together.Like hell. You didn’t hear that from my thoughts, because I would never think it.

“We all deceive ourselves.”Ryan sighed.“I have to go. Please don’t try to stop me.”

The sense of another presence disappeared. John tried to reach out, but he was no telepath, and Ryan’s attention was clearly somewhere else.

Which…wasn’t good.

“Back to the house,” he said out loud to Zahira. “Something’s going down.”

FOUR

Gray wrenches backfrom the needle, sending it flying. The attached syringe is empty, plunger fully depressed, and a sensation of numbness spreads out with every heartbeat. Their limbs feel wrong, muscles going to rubber, and suddenly the floor impacts their knees. The dog scrambles away, growling and barking in a rage at the woman who appeared beside them as if out of thin air.

“Jo.”Caleb’s thoughts are sluggish.“Ryan hid her from us—he must be close. We’ve got to move…”

Gray snarls at her. He’s clearing the poison from their blood, but it takes time, and that is one thing they may not have.

She flicks her honey-blonde braid back over her shoulder. “It seems like the good Doctor Foster had a problem abusing sedatives,” she says. “My luck; your loss.”

Fire blooms along her fingers—a pyrokinetic. Caleb’s fear spikes their blood, but feeling is coming back into their limbs, Gray needs only a few more seconds?—

Night lunges across the room, fangs bared at Jo. Jo swipes at the drakul’s face, fingers trailing fire, and Night jumps back to avoid being burned. Shaking off the last effects of the drug, Gray grabs Jo’s wrist, below the flames.

They spread, running like water over her skin. The sleeve of her shirt catches, even though the skin beneath remains whole, and the flames bite into their fingers like a thousand hungry mouths.

He wrenches back, the smell of their own cooking skin thick in their nostrils. A flare of panic from Caleb, who doesnotlike this, and for the first time in a long while they try to control the same limb at the same time and end up flailing.

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