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Chapter Forty-One
“We will stop you.”
He was mad, Zee thought. This wasn’t just prejudice and fear. He was delusional, truly believed the hateful rhetoric so many anti-Pretern people prattled on about.
“We’re stronger, faster, longer-lived and much harder to kill,” she said. “Doesn’t it make sense that if we wanted to subjugate humans, as you say, we would have already done so?”
“Humans have greater numbers and better tech. We’re smarter.” He beamed at her, almost as if he was pleased with her ability to discuss his theories. “That’s why you haven’t beaten us down. But... Therians are crafty. People underestimated you before—before the war, during it... there were the traitors who fought with you, but they weren’t the worst. We were handicapped by those who never realized how cunning animals are. That’s why we didn’t annihilate you the first time. We learned our lesson and we won’t make the same mistake.”
“But you don’t have the numbers. Humans First doesn’t have the reach it had before the war. You never regained that standing.”
Amusement glinted in his eyes. For a few brief seconds, it outshone the fervent need he had to please the Fae woman in front of him. “That’s what we want everybody to think. The truth is that we’ve grown right under your noses.”
Zee clenched her jaw.
Niko growled, the rumble coming from deep inside his chest. “Humanity United.”
She didn’t need to see the pleased smirk on Ball’s face to know Niko was right. HU had emerged from the shadows of the war as a peaceful philanthropic group that focused on the underprivileged youth. The vast majority of the world’s poor were humans and HU’s pockets had been deep. Building youth centers, offering scholarships and grants, they had shaped the futures for many human youths, and more than a few Preterns in their early years.
It was hard to pinpoint just when the philanthropic group had become more focused on humans alone, and even harder to pinpoint when their focus shifted from philanthropy to politics.
The suspicions that there was a connection between HU and Humans First had existed since before Zee was born, but finding proof had been, and remained, difficult. That Ball was speaking of it now—did it mean anything, or was it just simply the results of her Fae magic?
She didn’t know.
Crouching in front of him, so close now he could almost reach her, she pushed harder. “This information... is it secret?”
“Yes.” His smile spread. “I have to kill all of you now that you know.”
“Is that so?” She saw a faint groove appear between his brows and he tried to touch her. She caught his wrist and nudged it back into his lap, then stroked his brow, soothing away that line of tension. “Be still, Terrence. You don’t have permission to touch me. But I’ll keep touching you if you’re good.”
There was rapture in his eyes, his lashes fluttering down until his gaze was all but hidden. “I like it when you touch me. I don’t know why. You’re Fae. You kill my kind.”
“I’ve never killed a human.” She had to force the smile. “If you know anything about the Fae, you know we don’t lie.”
He sneered even as he leaned into her touch. “That’s nothing but bullshit and fairy tales. The Fae are deceitful scum.”
“Perhaps, but we don’t lie. The truth will always come back to us, and usually in an ugly way.” She pressed her index finger to her lips in the universal signal that indicated a secret. “But I’ll tell you something, just between us. It’s not the lies you need to be concerned with. It’s how we can sidestep the truth.”
He looked confused.
She swiped out, her clawed hand gripping his throat, the sharp tips sinking into his flesh just enough to break the skin, sending rich, dark red trails of blood down his neck. “Just because I haven’t killed a human doesn’t mean I can’t... or won’t. Be quiet. I don’t want you to scream or even whimper.”
His sob cut off, his wide-eyed gaze fixed on her.
“You don’t want to fight me,” she said, pushing more of the strange Fae power into her words as she rose. Both the wolf and Sidhé rode her hard now, fury a drug in her system. “You would let me rip your throat out here and now if I chose, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes... ” Eyes bewildered, Ball gaped at her. Tears broke free to roll down his cheeks.
“Why was Niko’s father targeted? Are there other plans for the Appalachia pack, the new Prime?”
“The old Prime was loved, respected. His son is hotheaded and reckless.” The words came out garbled and Zee realized she was squeezing tighter and tighter.
It took more effort than she liked to lower him to the ground, more effort than she cared to admit to ease the stranglehold she had on his throat.
“Keep talking,” she demanded.
“We had plans for him. Then you showed up, distracting him. Grady panicked when he saw you. Everything went to shit after he tried to take you out and failed. We cut him loose.” Ball’s gaze flicked to Niko.
