Page 40 of Capturing Sin

Rubbing bleary eyes, I groggily tried to scrounge up the courage to knock on the polished office door and face whatever nightmare my uncle had in store this evening.

For the past two weeks I’d been playing juice box to the demon, and it was literally draining. Even taking iron supplements had done little to improve things. Eating more would have, but I could barely afford the microwave meals and ramen noodles I was currently surviving on.

Martin had fetched me from my daily horror show with Cara, summoning me for an impromptu meeting with the hunter prime.

It had been two days since I’d last fed Sin, meaning I was scheduled to see him after.

I wasn’t sure which would be worse.

The demon had put me through a hellish two weeks of mocking taunts and denied orgasms already. He brought me to the razor edge of bliss and stopped right before I could tumble over the edge.

Not that I wanted a demon to make me come. But being denied over and over was getting to me.

I was hyperaware of his every move. Sometimes I swore I could sense him, even when I was working in another lab.

Combined with the unknown effects of whatever substances I’d been injecting myself with, who knew how long this game of poison Russian roulette could last?

But what choice did I have?

More than Rhia when she’d been murdered in a seedy alleyway.

With a deep breath, I knocked on the office door.

“Enter.”

Even through the wood, my uncle’s disapproval rang clear.

I grimaced, allowing myself a singular moment to feel the trepidation.

Had he discovered the…side effects from Sin’s bite? Had Leo convinced him that rescuing my subject deserved punishment? Had Martin realised I’d been faking tests on the hybrid to protect her? Or maybe Cara had snitched on me for what happened with Fane?

His dying eyes sliced through my mind, merging with the sunny pair of my demonic saviour.

My list of miniscule betrayals was getting longer every day. An “accidental” overdose to one of our captives was probably the thing he’d be least angered by.

After all, the only good demon was a dead one. It was practically the hunter creed.

A terrifying thought occurred to me.

Had he found the money I was saving to escape him? Did my uncle know I no longer believed in the cause he killed for daily?

I carefully locked my emotions down, leaving nothing but the cold, brutal hunter he’d raised me to be.

I stepped inside, closing the door softly behind me.

There were no games this time. My uncle’s full attention weighed on me the moment I crossed the threshold. Soulless grey eyes, leeched of anything colourful or bright, dissected me.

He nodded to the chair before his desk, and I dutifully took a seat on the creaking plastic.

“I assume you know why you’re here?”

I froze, mask hardening in place. “No, Prime.”

I waited for the axe to fall.

He frowned, the slight displeasure sending my pulse skittering. “You’ve been at this new project for weeks now, and not a single compound has proven effective.”

I almost sagged in relief. Of all my supposed sins, this was the least punishable offence.

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