Page 179 of Hunters and Prey

I need them to know everything, doc. One, because it hurts the team as a whole if they start to fear me, as an extension of you. Two, because I need to rebuild that trust again.

Taking in all of that, I thought about his words.

He was right. He was dead right.

It shouldn’t have surprised me that he would have so much insight into how trust and cohesion within a team functioned, given the team he’d built here… but, given how dense he could be about human psychology in general, it did surprise me somewhat.

Still thinking, my jaw hard now, even as my stomach roiled under a thicker feeling of shame, I realized the true impact of my actions of the night before.

I felt my face grow hotter as that guilt continued to sink in.

I considered apologizing to Black again, then realized Black didn’t want that from me right now. He didn’t have time for me to make this about me… or even about us.

In his view, I’d just broken his team.

Worse, I’d done it at the brink of a multiple-front war.

In the end, I only nodded.

I’ll stay,I sent. Just tell them, Black.

Studying my eyes, maybe to make sure I wasn’t about to leave my body again, he nodded, once.

Turning his back on me, he faced the team he’d assembled in the conference room.

Then, without preamble, he announced that everything they’d just heard from me had come from a meeting I’d had with Brick the night before––behind his back.

No sugar-coating. Not a single punch pulled.

Angel and Cowboy, who’d been busy with something else, walked into the conference room right around when he started explaining what I’d done. I saw Angel’s eyes widen as she exchanged looks with her boyfriend, right before she looked at me, her eyes incredulous, but also asking me silently if Black’s words were true.

Looking at her, I only nodded.

I saw disbelief flicker across her expression, right before she frowned.

I returned my gaze to Black, forcing myself to listen.

He named every single human I’d pushed, using my seer’s sight. He listed them off by name, and told them exactly what I’d done to each one of them. That included the security team, Dex, A.J., Javier, Luce, and two other guards. He described how I’d used them to get weapons, to erase and switch out security recordings, to get drugs and syringes from the lab to knock him out. He told Luce I’d pushed her to drug a seer who stood on guard duty with her, outside me and Black’s door.

He told them how I’d gotten out of the building without him knowing––by violating their trust, their free will, and by taking advantage of them due to their race.

He didn’t apologize for any of what I did.

He just laid it all out, bare bones.

Then he walked out of the room, leaving me with them.

I’m not sure I’d ever faced a silence like the one I faced after he left.

I knew I got off easy.

I knew if any other seer had done what I’d done, to even one of Black’s human employees, they would have been immediately fired. They would have been kicked off the team and out of the building, without so much as a conversation most likely.

So, yes… I got off easy.

Even knowing that, the whole thing embarrassed and shamed me in a way I’m not sure I’d ever been embarrassed and shamed before.

It also earned me, rightfully, of course, a lot of cold looks, and cold shoulders.

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