Page 20 of Dark Gambit Reliance

How much would they know?

Was it even worth the risk of detaining them?

Beside him, Mia gaped at the males, wide-eyed. "I expected them to look more alien, but they look a lot like Vrog. A little different, but they could easily be mistaken for humans."

"They are hybrids." Toven sighed. "We've gone to a lot of effort to lure them into a trap, and they probably don't know much more than Sofia."

"The hybrids serve in Igor's army," Morgan said. "They should know about the compound's military capabilities."

"I hope so."

As a knock sounded at the door, Morgan walked over to open it for the others, and Mia wheeled her chair around to greet them.

"Sofia." As she opened her arms, the girl bent down to hug her.

"Hi, Mia." Sofia straightened and looked at the two chained males. "Neither of them is a pureblood."

"Do you know them?" Toven asked.

She nodded. "The one on the right is Dima, and the one on the left is Anton."

The girl looked exhausted, and as he motioned for her to take a seat on the couch, she gave him a grateful nod.

"Those are Russian names," Toven said when she sat down. "Is that common?"

She nodded. "Almost all of the hybrids get named by their mothers, who are mostly Russian, and they choose names they are familiar with."

"Are they good guys?" Mia asked.

Sofia shrugged. "Dima is a jerk. I don't know Anton well, but I didn't notice him doing anything mean. They are both young. About my age."

"I assume that they are not high on the totem pole." Marcel sat next to her.

"They are not. I'm not important enough to justify sending higher-ranking people to follow me around."

Things weren’t adding up. "And yet he put his second-in-command in charge of your mission." Toven crossed his arms over his chest. "What are we missing here?"

He hadn't posed the question to the others but rather to himself.

Nevertheless, Sofia answered. "Maybe he figured that hybrids were good enough to deal with a bunch of humans. They can also blend in. If he needed them to get into Safe Haven without arousing suspicion, it would have been easier to do for males who could pass for humans."

Those were valid points, but Toven had a niggling suspicion that those hadn't been Igor's reasons. The problem was that he couldn't come up with an alternative.

He turned to Morgan. "How long until they wake up?"

"I don't know," the Guardian said. "Julian supplied us with darts that can knock out Jaguars, but that might be overkill for these dudes. Neither of them weighs more than one hundred and sixty or seventy pounds. They have the bodies of teenage anime characters."

Toven stifled a smile. The description was apt, and just like those anime males, the hybrids were much stronger than they looked. "Will splashing them with cold water help?"

"I don't think so," Marcel said. "The drug needs to get metabolized."

"Well then, we just have to wait." He looked at Sofia. "Now that you’ve identified them, I no longer need you here, and I prefer that they don't see you. I suggest that you stay in the bedroom during the interrogation. If I need to ask you something, I'll send Marcel over."

Sofia swallowed. "What are you going to do to them?"

He smiled. "Don't worry. I don't need to beat them up to get them to talk. But I won't be as gentle with them as I was with you."

She winced. "That was gentle? I felt as if you were trying to pull out my brain through my eye sockets. I'll gladly rest for a little bit, though." She looked down at her dusty clothes. "But I don't want to dirty your bed."

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