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"Does this mean you finally trust me?" Brice asked.
"Not at all," Thane promised. "It means I'm watching you, keeping track of things to use to prove that you're more fucked up than I am, and if you ever betray me, I'll use them all."
"Then how do I help?" Brice asked.
"I don't know yet," Thane admitted.
"How's this?" Brice smiled. "I just gave you a very good reason for why your summoning tomorrow won't work. That's what the note was, right? The Cardinal wants to talk to you? Because first they grill us, then they use us. So, when he asked why it didn't work, I mentioned the morale problem in here. I talked about how you're feeling guilty because Lucas was with us, and you're all pissed that you didn't protect him."
"Shit," Thane grumbled. "I'm no hero."
"The Cardinal doesn't know that," Brice pointed out. "He thinks you've hung the moon right now. So I told him you've been moody, snappish, and not yourself. Told him Dale's distracted, zoning out, and trying hard to put on a brave face, but we're hurting. We're all scared of what's going to happen next. While one demon is dead, the other did most of the damage, and we aren't sure we can stop her. We feel like we're being sacrificed with no end in sight."
"That's taking a risk," Thane pointed out.
Brice nodded. "Yeah, but I figured that if you're being the perfect little hunter, one of us has to be the bitter one. I have nothing left to lose, Thane. Not a single thing. So, when he asks how you feel about this, you tell him that you're distracted. That you're mourning the guys we lost. Something. Set it up so that when he sends you into that room, we're playing by the same rules. We can't call her back because we can't make ourselveswanther back."
"And you think a shit-ton of those guys in there won't notice that we're talking?"
"Sure they will," Brice agreed. "So tell the Cardinal it happened. Be worried about her getting away. Seek out vengeance, or hope it's a sign she's dead, or whatever line you want to use. I'm just hoping that if I prove I'm really on your side, you'll find a little extra room in your getaway van."
Thane stood there for a long time, just looking at Brice. Over and over, the guy had crossed lines. He'd gotten Thane to say shit that would get him killed. He'd put things together, but in all honesty, the only thing they had that bound them was the simple fact that Dahlia had let him live.
It wasn't enough. It was also all he had, and this mess wasn't the sort of thing he could deal with on his own. If Thane had only needed to worry about himself, that would be one thing. But if Brice decided to spill his guts, Laird would be dragged down with all of them. Then again, that included Brice. Unless he was working under an elder's orders, the things he'd already said and done would get him accused of blasphemy and staked.
Thane wanted to ask for proof, but lies were easy. He'd been proving that almost daily. He wanted to trust Brice, but that was a stupid move. The problem was that with just him and Laird against the world, it wouldn't be long before things stopped adding up so nicely. They would start to look guilty of something, and it wouldn't take a lot of digging to figure out what.
"I don't have a getaway plan," Thane finally said.
Brice's shoulders slumped. "Which means you still don't trust me."
"Well, that," Thane agreed, "and I don't have a plan. Laird's been talking a lot about my girlfriend, though."
"What girlfriend?" Brice asked. "That chick from the pub?"
Thane just gave Brice a look. "The girl I met online that I've been talking to. She's from out of state. Not sure she's willing to talk to me again, though."
"Yeah, that sucks," Brice said, and then he paused. "Oh. Oh! Yeah,thatgirl!"
Which meant he understood Thane was talking about Dahlia. "Mhm. Met her a few days after the pub incident. I've been talking to her on my phone, chatting just about any chance I can get, right?"
"'Cept you need to spend more time chatting where the new guys can see," Brice told him.
"I've been waiting for that chance," Thane admitted. "I just need a few people to know it's 'going on' so that when it's actually going on, it doesn't look suspicious."
"So, you looking to hook up with her or something?"
"Something," Thane admitted. "I'm looking to learn about a few things she's into. All I'm saying is that my big plan involves a girl I've barely talked to."
But Brice's lips were curling into a smile. "Kinda hard, what with all the shit that's been going on here. The team being torn apart, trying to show the new guys what we need, and then all the running around. You just met this girl, and now you don't even have the time to actually talk to her. Yeah, I heard you bitching about that the other day when we were outside."
Thane just shook his head. "Why are you being so fucking helpful? Too helpful, Brice."
Brice just scoffed at that. "Believe it or not, some of us are desperate. If you can't call this girl back, I'm sure they'll keep digging, and eventually, I'll be the one standing face to face with the demon that's already killed more of us in a month than all the rest have in a decade. If that happens, I know exactly what I'm going to do. I figure that your way sounds a lot better."
"My way could get us all killed," Thane countered.
"My way definitely will," Brice said. "It's also kinda nice to know that I'm not the only one who feels this way. I'm a good hunter, Thane. A damned good one. So are you. Good enough that it's hard to overlook the obvious." He lowered his voice to barely a whisper. "Because they don't want to kill her. They want to use her, and that scares me more than meeting her again."
