Page 73 of Black to Light

Black should be alone right now.

He hadn’t yet told Miri everything else they’d found in that room, which included replicas of actual medievaltorturedevices, not to mention a shockingly diverse collection of knives, floggers, whips, surgical instruments, choke collars, and a wall of more “standard” b.d.s.m. toys unlike anything Black had ever seen… and he’d thought he’d seen a lot.

Some of those things wouldn’t have bothered Black particularly if he hadn’t seen the recordings, and if he hadn’t known Rucker’s particular brand of kink explicitly denied his partners anything remotely resembling consent, much less enthusiastic participation.

That, and Rucker clearly had a thing for kids.

He seemed to like them both pubescent or pre-pubescent.

Black wondered, his mouth still tasting sour, if any of the others had survived their time here. From the little he’d seen, Black had his doubts––about some of them, especially.

None but the seer cub had lasted more than eleven or twelve months before their names stopped appearing on recordings. Black guessed Rucker wouldn’t risk killing most of them here, or likely anywhere in the United States. A lot of the recordings clearly hadn’t happened in this house. Between that and the ethnicities Black had seen, Rucker had likely stolen some of them from countries where prosecution wasn’t much of a risk.

Some he might have simply dumped back in those same countries, in whatever condition he’d left them in, knowing his victims had no hope of holding him accountable.

If anywerekilled, it likely wasn’t by Rucker himself.

Either way, in most cases, their disposal likely involved a private plane, a remote location, and a handful of cash… if they were lucky.

It might also involve paid-off officials, but Black doubted it.

Rucker would want the circle small.

Miri’s voice interrupted his train of thought. “What do you mean, you don’tthinkso?” she asked. “What’s going on with Jem, Black? Why wouldn’t he pick up your call?”

Black forced his mind back to the present.

“Jem’s been acting weird for a while,” he admitted quietly. His eyes remained on the mansion’s front door. He knew how sensitive vampire ears were. “I’m pretty sure him not picking up the phone has more to do with that.”

Black’s answer seemed to stump her.

“Jem’s being weird?” she asked, bewildered. “Weird how?”

Black again glanced at the mansion’s open door.

He knew the room below-ground was soundproof. They’d tested it, including with Black screaming inside and Nick being outside with his sensitive vampire ears. Even so, Black was wary about talking about this with Nick even being in the same part of the city as him.

“We can talk about it later, Miri,” he said. “All I meant is, I’m positive Jem’s not in any physical danger. Certainly not from Frasier.” Black frowned, his eyes still on the door. “Well, as positive as I can be,” he muttered.

“Not reassuring, Black,” she said, annoyed.

“Doc, for fuck’s sake.” He focused on his wife. “I have absolutelyno reasonto think Jem is anything but perfectly okay.” Thinking, he added, “…But yes, we need to talk about what’s going on there. We need to talk to Jem when he gets back, too, even if it means cornering him, and having to endure him being an absolute prick about it. But I’d prefer if we did itwithoutNick, at least in the beginning. I don’t want to confuse things by mixing in a bunch of mate shit.”

She snorted. “Mate shit––”

“Yeah, Miriam,” Black cut in, even more annoyed.“Mateshit. You know. That hyper-sensitive, irrational, potentially explosive,dangerousshit that’s hadusclose to killing one another a few times. You want to deal with hyper-protective, hyper-paranoid, hyper-violent,vampireNick losing his shit on me because he thinks I’m trying to turn Jem against him?”

There was a silence on the other end of the line.

He felt her turn over his words, then reluctantly agree.

“All right,” she said.

“How’s the kid?” Black asked, partly to change the subject.

“Vanessa finished with her,” Miri said. “Holo, too.”

She let out a sigh, and Black imagined her combing her fingers through her long, black, insanely soft hair. “Holo ran a bunch of tests,” she added, quieter. “He said he’d get back to us with results in a few hours.” Thinking, she grunted humorlessly. “I think Vanessa was a little offended we brought in a second doctor to ‘check her work,’ as she put it.”

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