Page 90 of The Firebrand
Sabine turned to Dax. “Would you be so kind? I don’t want to be cruel. I’m a nymph, not a bloodthirsty vampire like you.”
Dax growled but filled a ladle with water, touching it to Ulfur’s mouth. The shifter’s chin fell forward onto his chest after a few sips.
With that, Brak closed his eyes again. Ulfur shifted.
Sabine’s knife sliced into his back. “Let the flaying begin.” When he returned to human form, he wailed. Sabine might have had some sympathy, but the guy brought drugged humans to Scath. That was not a positive character reference.
“Damn, wolfman, shut the fuck up. Way to ruin my concentration.” Brak frowned, deep creases above the bridge of his nose. “Sorry,freron. Once more.”
A chill swept through the air. “Feel that?” asked Ram. “I think the binding spell broke. He’ll spill now.”
“I-I-I’ll t-t-tell you what you want to know.” Raspy, stuttering words tripped across Ulfur’s cracked lips. “S-s-stop. I’ll talk. I w-w-will. Just kill me quick-like afterward. Don’t skin me. P-P-Promise me that.”
“Sabine?” Brak turned toward her, eyebrows raised.
“Rug or confession followed by a quick death? My new place is so bare. I could use the fur. A nice caramel color. Still, Kole won’t be happy. Let’s hear what Ulfur has to say. If it’s worthwhile, I’ll consider the deal.”
“Talk, dog boy.” Brak spun around to face the wolf.
“Not until you p-p-promise to k-k-kill me quickly. Your word.” The shifter swallowed hard.
“If we believe you, you have my word,” said Sabine.
“Take me down. At least let me die with my feet on the ground.”
When they lowered Ulfur to the floor, he babbled on about the operation. “I go where I’m told. I don’t decide anything. I’m nobody. Nobody.”
“Start making sense, dog boy. Otherwise, it’s fur rug time.” Sabine raised her blade.
Ulfur shuddered. “Somebody tells me when to go to the other realm, which humans to get, where to find them. When I come back, I drop off the package along with the portal jumper. They give me money. It’s just business. Business.” Head in hands, he wept in silence, shoulders bobbing.
“Who takes the human and pays you?” Dax growled his question from across the room, keeping his distance.
Ulfur hesitated.
“Okay, shift him, Brak. I’m tired of his shit. My floor’s still bare.”
“No. No. I only dealt with three people. Melia, the nymph; some bloodthirsty, scary vamp; and Kur, a coyote shifter. I don’t know the vamp’s name. That’s all, honest.”
“How do they contact you?” asked Sabine.
“Outside my cave in the Shelters, they leave a jumper along with a note telling me the when and where of my next job.”
Sabine tickled under his chin with her dagger. “What do they do with the humans?”
“No fucking clue.”
“Come on,” said Brak. “Guess.”
“Rumor. That’s all.”
“Well,” said the carnal demon, “let’s hear it.”
“They sell them as sex slaves. It’s profitable. Can I have some more water?”
“That doesn’t bother you?” asked Ram.
Ulfur puzzled a lip. “Should it? They’re humans.”
