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No matter how much he also didn’t.
“Because his brother bit you.”
Reese wanted that to be the reason. “I don’t think so.”
Luca huffed. “You don’t have to make excuses for them.”
“I’m not.”
Luca looked at him. There was still disbelief shadowing his eyes.
“When I worked at the Utah Facility, when your brother was with his betas, I felt something.”
“You watched them?”
If only Reese could have lied. Even if he could, he had a feeling Luca would know. “Yes. We all did. You had to.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, because it wasn’t… it wasn’t…” Reese searched for the words. “I don’t know how to explain it. Something else was happening besides the…” He rolled a hand.
“Sex?”
Reese rubbed his face. “Yeah, that. It wasn’t sex, though.”
“I think I get it.” Luca’s cheeks turned red. “I’m not really experienced or anything, but I’ve seen porn and stuff, and I’m pretty sure when I’m with Nox, it isn’t—”
“Ordinary?”
“Except for when Isaiah was giving him the Rakta. The Anubis didn’t take over. But Nox says it wasn’t because it couldn’t.”
“What changed?”
“He said it was waiting for the chance to kill everyone.”
“It displayed tactical deception.”
“Is that the scientific word for lie?”
“It’s when an animal changes its normal repertoire to mislead or deceive.”
Luca cocked his mouth to the side.
“Yeah, it lied.” Which in itself was mind-bending. “The question is how?”
“It pretended to be suppressed.” Luca said it like it explained everything.
“No, I mean, the ichor is aware of its surroundings, it can communicate with itself, it has a desire for tactile experiences, but lie? That usually requires higher thought. An understanding of others’ desires, intent. That sort of thing. Some behaviorists believe it’s a sign of evolution involving specialized brain functions.” Did that mean the ichor was changing, or it had simply deceived Reese and the others for years in the lab?
“Then it definitely lied,” Luca said. “It knew Nox wanted to be with me like a normal person.” Why did Luca sound disappointed?
“You didn’t like it?”
Luca widened his eyes. “Of course I did, it was nice, it just wasn’t… This is going to sound terrible, but—”
“It wasn’t what you wanted.”
He wrung his hands in his lap. “No. And then today?” Luca went back to staring at the door except this time his expression was one of concentration. “It was like I was a part of him. Or maybe all of him?”
