Page 54

I was right. The three humans on the couch looked frustrated. Lain did, too, but his was tempered by concern. I couldn't bring myself to look up at Quinn to see how he was taking this.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" the detective pressed. "Who told you to hunt Landon DeVor?" His eyes narrowed and new suspicion clouded his face. "Who will you report back to once you're healed enough to move?"

"I didn't think of that," Alex breathed. "If someone created you and ordered you to go after people…"

"Someone like those soldiers in town," the strange human suggested, their voice sharp.

"Do you belong to them?"

The detective's question raised the beast's hackles and got under my skin, fear and fury battling for dominance.

"We don't belong to anyone. We are free," I hissed, the beast's growl rumbling through the words.

Free. We will never go back. They cannot make us go back!

The fear and anger coalesced into panic, our body shaking with the need to pace or flee, anything but think about Before. The beast seemed to remember more than I did, but even I knew we'd be better off dead than wherever we'd come from.

A gentle touch stopped our spiraling emotions and I looked up to see Quinn watching me, his hand now resting on my shoulder. There was still some hesitation, a wariness that hadn't been there since the first night he'd found us, but he saw we needed him and he hadn't run. That would have to be enough for now.

"I take it you don't like whoever created you?" the strange human asked. I spared them only a brief glance, unwilling to look away from Quinn. The other human was watching us both closely, particularly the way Quinn's hand remained on us.

"I don't know," I repeated. "I don't remember. But we will never go back."

"We?"

I didn't want to do this anymore. These people were supposed to help and instead, everything had gotten worse. The beast was upset, Quinn was scared of us, and now these humans who'd hurt us before knew our secret and that we were easy prey now.

As badly as I wanted to make them all leave, though, one thought kept me quiet.

Without their help, I couldn't protect Quinn.

The strangers in town had to be looking for me, for us, and that meant while I was here, Quinn was a target.

"They're just trying to help, Typhon," our human murmured. He still touched us, going so far as to perch on the arm of the chair we were in. Two of the kittens immediately started climbing his leg, diffusing some of the tension in the room.

"I know." I did. But that didn't make this any easier. For him, though, I'd do my best. Words still escaped me sometimes and it took a minute to organize my thoughts into something that made some semblance of sense.

"I don't really remember where we were before here, only that it was bad. I think we escaped," I began. I tried to probe our shared memories for more, but the beast refused to look back and I didn't want to force the issue while he was already upset.

"Was that before or after you were hunting teenagers?"

"Donovan, let him talk."

The detective murmured a quiet apology to Alex, but not to me, before motioning me to continue. Of all of them, he would be the hardest to convince, after what we'd done to him.

"After we escaped, everything was… foggy," I went on. "The beast and I are the same, but different. He took control to protect me, but all he knew was to hunt skin-changers. We were told that they're dangerous and have to be removed."

Who had told us that? A vague memory swam to the surface, a brief flash of an older human with dull grey hair and fire in his eyes, shouting something at us. I couldn't make out the words, but the fervor on his face as he ranted scared me.

"If we hadn't stopped you, would you have killed Landon?"

I blinked to find the strange human staring at me, their face expressionless. Of all of them, this one worried me the most. Without a scent, there was no way to tell what they were, but I didn't need my nose to tell me they were powerful. Not powerful enough to take us down at full strength, I knew that from before, but weakened like we were now? There was a good chance they would win that fight.

"Yes." There was no point in lying anymore. "The beast's instincts were to hunt and kill, so… yes."

Quinn's grip on my shoulder tightened, a comfort I didn't deserve.

"But you wouldn't now?" Lain cut in before anyone else could speak. He, at least, seemed to want to trust me.