He heard his own quiet voice in the truck cab. “Probably good I don’t have feelings. ’Cause if I did, I bet I’d be having a lot of them right now.”
Why was he talking? Reece couldn’t hear him. But words were falling from his lips all the same. “And I haven’t said thanks. For coming for me—forsavingme. I owe you, Care Bear.”
I’m not your Care Bear anymore, Reece had said.
Grayson tightened his arms.
“The hell you’re not,” he whispered into the silent truck.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
... and while some have called our research “sensationalized,” a survey of diverse mythology suggests sexual demons were believed to prey on mortals, drawing their own energy from their partners’ pleasure. In this paper we will argue that through their emotional absorption, empaths possess this same quality...
—Excerpt fromEmpaths: The Modern-Day Incubus, a privately funded study
Lumen Field was eerily silent after midnight, with a ghostlike quality to the endless rows of seats. Sean Lennox and his team were in a press box rented for the day, a security camera broadcasting to a large monitor and several empty pizza boxes and energy drink cans scattered about the room.
Lennox himself had been watching the camera for several minutes, but the empaths weren’t doing anything. Just huddled together in the Stone Solutions luxury box on another level, hugging and comforting each other.
He counted their bent heads again. Definitely twelve. Hadn’t they only grabbed ten in Bellingham?
The door to the press box opened, and Charles Stonestepped inside. “Well done, Sean,” he said to Lennox. “I trust everything is in order?”
“Absolutely. No issues at all transporting the empaths here.” He wasn’t gonna fucking say anything about the numbers. More empaths could only be a good thing.
“Excellent,” Charles said. “And are we ready to broadcast to the empaths?”
Lennox nodded. A moment later, Charles was seated at the table in front of a laptop. “Go ahead and put me through.”
Lennox clicked through, and a moment later, the empaths were all looking up and over at the television in the suite.
Charles leaned forward. “Hello, empaths. I trust you’re comfortable enough, although perhaps wondering why you’ve been locked into our corporate box at Lumen Field?”
The empaths exchanged confused looks, some of them nodding.
Charles steepled his fingers. “Tomorrow, our home team will be playing one of their rival teams. We expect a very full stadium, but in that stadium, we unfortunately also expect some violent and dangerous elements to appear.”
The empaths collectively gasped. Several covered their mouths in horror. Lennox rolled his eyes. Fucking little drama queens.
“It is essential that you remain in that box and make no attempts to communicate with the press or anyone else, or quite a lot of people may be hurt,” Charles said. “Or worse.”
There was outpouring of protests from the empaths, cries about the danger to the stadium. “Why is this happening?” one of the empaths demanded.
But Charles had already ended the call, the screen in front of him going black. “I’m handling the transportation, but I want every man we have watching this stadium tomorrow,” hesaid to Lennox. “Because when the crowd needs a scapegoat—as they always do—they will learn that empaths were present at the game. And they’ll be there to take the blame.”
Lennox nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“And make sure the empaths don’t actually see any violence,” Charles added.
Lennox wrinkled his nose. “Why?”
“The threat of violence is a very useful and powerful tool for manipulating empaths,” said Charles. “Exposing empaths to actual violence, however—well. You had best be prepared for the consequences.”
He looked at his phone and frowned. “Why the hell haven’t I heard from Victor?”
Fury as he sees Evan in chains on that table—
Vengeance as he sets the thralls loose on the lab—
