“It didn’t happen when we fought this thing either,” Killean said.
Beside Lucien, Saxon shifted uneasily and glanced out the door at the women. Lucien sensed his need to go to Elyse, and Lucien felt the same pull to Callie. He almost sought her through their newly formed bond, but she couldn’t know how much he despised being in this room; it would only upset her.
Ronan rested his hand on the demon’s shoulder. It felt like a spider skittered up Lucien’s neck as he recalled touching the monster. He knew how clammy it was, but Ronan did not indicate that the unnatural feel of the thing bothered him.
“What is that sword?” Ronan demanded as his fingers dug into the demon’s shoulder, and Willow returned the weapon to its scabbard.
The creature released another gurgling laugh as its eyes remained focused on Willow. Over the next hour, they took turns doing what they could to get it to talk, but when it wasn’t laughing, it watched them with hate-filled eyes. Throughout it all, it never spoke.
Lucien had always enjoyed the battle and destroying things, but he’d never been one for torture; none of them were. Sometimes, it was a necessary evil, but it was one he preferred to avoid. He couldn’t wait to be free of this place so he could shower before pulling Callie into his arms.
After another hour passed, Lucien stepped away from the creature and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “This thing isn’t going to tell us anything.”
The demon chortled again, and Lucien backhanded the thing before stalking away to stand by the door. The demon’s laughter broke off for a second before becoming louder. The sound was worse than a dozen people raking their nails down a chalkboard.
Lucien stared at Callie as he worked to calm his turbulent emotions. He wanted to give her a life filled with love and laughter, but as long as these things roamed the earth, that would never happen.
“We did learn something else about it before you arrived,” Ronan said.
Lucien turned away from the door. “What?”
Ronan nodded to Saber, who stood behind the chair. Without a word, Saber lifted the chair and walked over to set it at the edge of the sun’s rays.
The demon hissed in a breath as its skin instantly started to smoke and flames blazed to life. Lucien recalled how the body of the one they killed in the tunnels went up like it was doused with gasoline.
This demon had the same volatile reaction to the sun. Savages caught on fire and burned, but it took a little time. This thing caught fire like a drought-ridden Christmas tree doused in gasoline and struck by lightning.
Saber moved the chair out of the sun’s rays and set it back in the shadows. Logan lifted a burnt blanket from the ground and used it to smother the flames. The demon’s crispy flesh continued to smolder while it glowered at them.
“Their tolerance to the sun is far worse than the Savages,” Ronan said.
Lucien rubbed his chin while he studied the repulsive creature and pondered this. “The human part of our DNA protects us from the sun… until we start killing. Then, the more we kill, the more we become like them.”
“It’s like killing strips the humanity from our DNA and leaves us more demon than human,” Declan said.
“And the more we become like them, the more we gain some of their strengths, but also some of their weaknesses.”
“Hence the Savages growing inability to tolerate the sun,” Ronan said. “And I suspect we wouldn’t be able to get this thing across a large body of water without inflicting a lot of pain on it.”
“I’d love to see how it reacts to a crucifix,” Saber murmured.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any of those lying around,” Saxon said.
Logan stepped forward and crossed his index fingers one over the other. He held them before the demon who glowered at him. Logan shrugged and dropped his hands. “It’s probably not the same.”
“Probably not,” Nathan said.
“So, killing makes us more like a demon than a human. Of course, there are plenty of humans who enjoy killing too, but not like these things,” Lucien said.
“The more innocents we kill, the more demon we become,” Declan said.
“And this thing’s reaction to the sun is probably why they live underground,” Lucien murmured.
“That’s what we assumed too,” Ronan said.
So even if they still didn’t know what its intentions were, they had at least learned a few things about it. Capturing this thing hadn’t been a complete loss, but he wasn’t sure how what they’d learned would be able to help them.
Chapter Forty-Nine
