Page 178 of Hunters and Prey

Bad Woman

BLACK HAD ME TELL HIM every detail of that night.

He called a meeting with his senior team members, including all of the senior seers under Yarli, his head infiltrator, and all of the humans that comprised his inner circle. Then, in the middle of that group of humans and seers, he sat me down in a chair at the head of the giant, brushed-steel table of his largest conference room.

He had me recall everything that happened the night before.

Everything I remembered, every word exchanged between me and Brick.

He wanted to know everything about Zoe.

I could tell a lot of the humans were confused, and most of the seers, but they didn’t ask any questions as Black fired his questions and requests for clarifications at me, and as he continued to mine my seer’s photographic memories for details.

He requested permission to read me, so he could see exactly what Zoe looked like now, as a vampire. He also requested permission for his entire infiltration team to read me while I spoke, so there’d be as many seer eyes on my memories as possible.

He instructed his infiltrators to start building solid IDs on every vampire who attended the meeting in the Conservatory of Flowers, including those who just lurked in the background.

The whole exercise probably took about two hours.

Then Black informed me he intended to tell his entire staff what I’d done.

Feeling something on me when he announced his intentions inside my mind, he gave me a grim look, his thoughts turning harder, more blunt.

I have to tell them, Miri, he sent. You don’t want me to be like Charles? Then don’t ask me to act like him. We’re not going to be that kind of team, the kind that lies about this shit. I’m not hiding that from them. They have a right to know.

Grunting, he lowered his mental voice when he added,

Hell. Maybe it’ll motivate some of them to take my warnings more seriously. I need my whole damned leadership team working with Cowboy and some of the seers, primarily on shielding against these kinds of mental incursions. I noticed you didn’t try any of this shit on Cowboy… and you were smart not to. I suspect it wouldn’t have gone well for you, if you had.

Giving me another hard look, he added,

Ironically, the only human who really tried to learn that shit up until now was Nick. He worked with Cowboy and Mika almost every day. He was getting damned good at it, too, before he disappeared.

Looking at him, I felt my chest clench.

I didn’t answer him, though.

I’m not trying to put any more pressure on you, doc,Black added, his mental voice sharper. If you don’t want to be here when I tell them, then leave. But if I let this lie hang over them, over all of us, it’s going to impact the team. Whether they know it consciously or not.

His mental voice lowered to a growl when he added,

I’m not a nice guy, doc. I’m not a particularly nice employer, either.

I grunted.

Black ignored me, his gold eyes cold.

I don’t leave their minds alone because I’m some moral sea of righteousness. I don’t fuck with my team because I value them. I spent years hand-picking them, choosing people I trusted, who had character traits that were important to me. In terms of skill sets, I could replace all of them tomorrow, but that’s never been the fucking issue for me. I wanted a team of people I could count on… a team I trusted.

Clenching his jaw, he made a vague gesture with one hand.

In order for me to continue to trust them, I need them to trust me, doc. I don’t just mean so they do whatever I say. Trust goes both ways. You know that. You know it intimately, and not only because you’re a shrink.

He gave me another hard look, adding,

You broke that trust. I need them to know who broke it, and why. I told you before that humans sense it when their free will is violated. It makes them afraid of the person or persons who violated it. It’s instinctive… entirely subconscious on their part. The only way to dispel that is to give them concrete information to go with their unease.

His jaw hardened as he made another of those vague gestures.

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