AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I peered at the monitor that showed the young woman’s face. The surrounding conversations faded out, becoming background noise as I watched her for a few minutes.
Her long, curly brunette strands fell into her face and her nose scrunched up like she smelled something foul. Beauty marks run across her nose and along her cheeks.
I wondered if Levi or one of the guys would notice her. She seemed to have an inner beauty that even normal “humans” didn’t have. Could she be more than human?
What brought you here? Why did Diablo finally wake up and drop you on our doorstep? Narrowing my eyes, I focused on her aura but came up blank, like a blanket was dampening her somehow. What are you?
“Is it possible to question her without hurting her? If we can do it without her knowledge and nothing goes wrong, then we wouldn’t have to take drastic measures in the first place, right?” I asked. I felt eyes on my back as I gazed at the monitor, but I kept looking at her anyway before turning around to find Carl. My question must have given him a lot to consider, because he continued to stand there with his hand under his chin, looking thoughtful.
Daniel cleared his throat to draw everyone’s attention back to where he sat at the table. “If she’s burning through Delvin’s Tranqspells, there’s a good chance my thrall won’t work on her. Maybe adding the white cuffs while another spell is cast will allow us to gain information before we make any hasty decisions.”
Carl brightened up. “Yes! That’s an excellent idea,” he said, then mumbled incoherently for a moment. “I’ve never done this with a human, but let’s get this interrogation started,” he called over his shoulder while walking out the door.
A chill ran down my spine at that word, and I flinched.
Interrogation.
It seemed such a harsh word for such a young woman, but I understand the caution. However, we needed her to trust us, and interrogating her for merely showing up unconscious was a huge red flag saying: “Hey! We can’t be trusted.” We needed that trust more than anything.
A few weeks ago, the earth’s world leaders received hints they weren’t alone out there. There was a fine line to balance if we indeed came out of the proverbial closet, especially when politics were involved. The movies, books, and entertainment that featured us lately should have softened the blow, hopefully.
Right now, though, we were still in the shadows, waiting for our time. Presumably, we would have a better outcome than we did a few hundred years ago. The Salem Witch Trials were still a sore subject for the magic users after all this time. I should know; my grandparents were among them.
The monitor crackled to life as I watched Delvin, Carl, and two guards step into the room. They propped her up against the bed, handcuffing her with white dampening cuffs, and then inserted a syringe of orange liquid into her arm.
Carl pulled up a chair and took a small tablet out of his lab coat to start his questioning. A guard rushing into our room pulled our attention away from the window, and I immediately picked up the sense this guy was petrified.
“Speak,” Dan commanded.
“Sir, what should we do with her pet?” he asked, practically shaking as he pointed to the girl in question.
What pet?
* * *
This time coming out of the immersion is easier, but that might be because we were in Dean Caldron’s head. It was weird yet refreshing to see things from his perspective, and it lines up with what he had told me from before.
“Man, that was trippy,” Lynx says, shaking his head.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” JP agrees.
“Isn’t that how your talents work when you see people’s experiences?” Ryker asks, leaning forward to rub his temples with his palms.
“Pftt. Not at all. It’s like watching a movie, like I’m right behind them or next to them,” JP says, getting animated as he moves his hands around in front of him. “It’s not as if I am them, and I definitely don’t hear their inner dialogue either,” JP retorts, shaking his head in surprised confusion. “Oh, wait, I do,” he laughs. “It’s just different. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Who’s Delvin?” I ask, wondering who the guy is and why he seemed so important.
“Delvin is… or was a high mage, only second to my dad,” Levi answers.
Was?
“Was? What happened to him?” Lynx asks, picking up my question and running with it.
Levi sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose, but it’s Zeke that speaks up.
“We’ve been trying to get that information. Your interrogation was actually the last time anyone saw him,” he supplies. “I’ve been trying to track his last movements, but after he left the hospital, it’s like he disappeared. Poof. Gone! So I don’t know if the Sulks got him, the Rebels, or what.”
I sit, somewhat devastated that one of the strongest and most powerful mages just up and disappeared right after seeing me. How did that come about? If it wasn’t for everything else that’s happened during my time in Purgatory, I would just call it odd, but I can’t let it go. It can’t be a weird coincidence. The room goes quiet as we all take in what we’ve learned in this short amount of time until Moni speaks up out of nowhere.
