Page 119 of Taste of Forever
“Whoever’s giving you information sucks at it.”
“Oh really?”
“Here’s something I’d like to know.” I licked my cracked lips. “How come I never heard your men’s heartbeats?”
Soren grinned coldly. “My men are extremely well-trained. Navy SEAL and Green Beret training are child’s play compared to what these men go through. By the time they’re done, no amount of stress will trigger a central nervous system response. Doesn’t matter if they’re fucking, fighting, fleeing. Nothing will make their heart rate rise above resting.”
“How do you do that? Torture all of the emotion out of them?” My voice was heavy with sarcasm.
Soren gave a shrug and a nod at the same time. “Works best when they don’t have much empathy or emotion to begin with.”
How was it not surprising at all that a shadowy government operation recruited psychopaths?
“Here’s a question for you.” Soren held my blade up toward the light in the ceiling, turning it to make the metal and blood shine. “What’s a blood mate?”
I tried not to show surprise at the question, but exhaustion and silver overriding my system delayed my reactions. And Soren was sharp enough to see right through it.
“That’s what Heather said she was to you. At least, you believed she was.”
I said nothing, keeping my face stoic. He was trying to provoke a reaction out of me by saying her name. Well, fuck him if he thought he’d get it.
“Something about her blood being nutritionally perfect for you, specifically? You got hooked on her and nothing else could compare.” Soren leaned back in his chair. “Like a dog after a bone.”
I ignored him, focusing on the itch of my skin repairing itself on my face. Three of his men had had a go of using my head as a punching bag for a while. Thankfully no silver was involved there. Just some fuzzy vision, a bit of blood, and a ringing in my ears.
“You wanted her for yourself, and I can’t say I blame you.” Soren brought his hands together. “And I hate to be the one to tell you this, but she was disgusted at the idea of fucking you.”
My gaze returned to him, again unable to hide my surprise. “What?”
His eyes lit up, delighted that he’d baited me, even as his face grimaced. “Yeah. Sorry, man. But she doesn’t see you as a person. You’re not even the same species as us. She said vampires are closer to animals than human. That’s why she worked willingly with us to gather intel from the beginning, and got paid well for it.”
Soren put on his best imitation of sympathy. “There’s no future with her. I’m sorry. But if you cooperate with us, we’ll help you, Laith. Our government takes care of those who sacrifice for this country. Just answer our questions, let us take samples so that our scientists can study you, and you’ll be in good hands.”
At first, I snorted. The sound morphed into a snicker under my breath that gradually grew louder. And then, because I was too exhausted and weak to school my reaction, I started full-on laughing my Temkra-damned ass off.
Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. My brain was probably desperate for some happy chemical shit, because I laughed as if Heather had declared a tickling war on my armpits.
It honestly started to hurt after a while because I couldn’t catch a full breath. And when I finally did, the whole process started all over again.
Because Soren just sat there, growing more and more pissed off. He tried a few times to ask what was funny or make some snide remark but my laughter drowned him out. Everything was morbidly hilarious. The fact that he tried to act like he knew Heather better than me. Tried to act like the sincere and sympathetic Good Cop after sticking my own knife in my leg. The fact that he’d thought I’d believe him. And the look on hisface right fucking then, the realization that he hadn’t reeled me in at all, and that I was getting under his paper-thin skin, was just the cherry on top.
“Wow. You think you’re really good at mimicking human behavior, but damn.” My laughing fit subsided and I finally managed to catch a breath. “I bet women can sense how vile you are from a mile away. Is that why you have to stalk and harass them for a shred of attention?”
A vein pulsed in Soren’s forehead while his heartbeat hammered in my ears. Oh,nowhe was emotional. The anger and embarrassment came off him in waves. And now that I’d gotten a reaction out of him, I just couldn’t help myself.
“You couldn’t even get into Sanguine yourself. You had to threaten a woman to collect intel for you,” I went on. “Is your tech not sensitive enough to pick up our border magic? Or are you just too much of a coward to be surrounded byscawy vampiwes?”
I purposely made my words childlike at the end of my question. Meanwhile, Soren got to his feet, bringing the knife to my neck with surprising speed for a human.
“Careful,” I said. “You need me to talk right? Even if you kill me and dissect my body, my corpse will only tell you so much.”
He pressed the tip of the knife into my skin and I inhaled sharply, bracing against the flinch of burning silver.
“If I let you live to talk, you have to actually answer questions,” he hissed. “Can you do that?”
“Depends on how and what you ask, tough guy.”
Soren’s jaw clenched. I had pissed him off. Embarrassed him. Crushed his fragile little ego. And it was eerily clear how much he wanted to kill me. That was the only desire I saw in those dead eyes.
