20. Twenty

twenty

None of us liked getting wet, so we'd never found or made a bathing area in the caves. I was really missing Kendal's shower as I plunged myself into the frigid lake on the far side of the forest.

I reminded myself holding Kendal was worth any discomfort.

I reentered the main room and found my brothers looming over our prisoner.

Roul started when he saw me. "You're wet."

I nodded. "I took a bath."

His jaw dropped and his ears flicked. "You took… a bath?"

I nodded and put my hand on his shoulder. "It's not so bad out here. Kendal showed me it can even feel good."

He stared at me like he wasn't sure he could believe me, but we'd never lied to each other. Roul snorted and pointed to the man, who was still out cold.

"How hard did you hit him, Drym?" Roul clicked his claws together. He was probably sadder than Quin to miss an opportunity to shed blood. He'd gone to a dark place after our escape, and nothing I nor my brothers did helped.

I leaned down into the man's face and saw a telltale flinch. "Not hard enough to keep him out this long. He's faking."

Before any of us could react, Roul slid his claws down the man's side leaving behind four neat trails of blood. The cuts were superficial, but they got the intended effect.

He jerked against the ropes holding him with a hissed, "Fuck!"

Roul leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Better to face the beasts than hide, idiot."

Kragen tilted his head. "So, Bill…"

The man's—Bill's, apparently—skin drained of color, his saucer eyes stuck on Kragen's jaw. "You're … real?" The simple words strangled out of him.

Kendal pushed herself between me and Kragen and stood her ground despite my best efforts to shove her back.

"What, you thought they were men in fursuits or something?" She rolled her eyes. "You're smart enough to snatch women off the street with no one noticing, but you didn't figure that out? Didn't you see your friend get ripped in half?"

"I thought … masks … blades…"

"Swords only slice through people in movies, dumbass. Unless you're talking a two-handed broadsword and that was more of a"—she flattened her hand and dropped it from shoulder height—"downward swing type thing."

Bill wasn't the only one looking askance at her.

She shrugged. "I went through a sword phase."

I turned my attention back to Bill. "Now that our existence is cleared up, can we get on with it?" I cocked an eyebrow at Kragen.

Quin bounced on his paws. "I don't know. It's kind of amusing to see a normal learn of our existence. I thought there'd be more screaming and running, though."

Thurl punched him in the shoulder. "Where is he going to run, dumbass? We're in a cave. And he was unconscious until a minute ago. I'm sure the screaming would have happened if he knew from the get go that we were real."

"I can scream if you want me to."

A surge of anger hit me. He was already entering the bargaining phase, which meant I wouldn't get to hurt him as much as I wanted. This man had hunted Kendal. Scared her. Put his hands on her. I wanted to make him suffer before he died.

"He was at the house?" I ran the back of a finger down Kendal's soft cheek. I wasn't sure if I was grounding her or myself.

"Yeah. He was one of the ones who took me. Then he was one of the regular ones who brought us food and water in the basement."

I growled and my arm drew back, determined to mimic Roul's earlier move only deeper and aimed at his neck.

Kragen caught my wrist before I could connect.

"Answers first, brother."

Three shaky inhales later I was able to step back. Kendal wrapped her right arm around my waist and her scent settled me. I did my best to ignore Bill and shoved my nose into her hair.

"What are the names of the men who were present at the house?" Cavi took over the questioning from where he stood at the long table, an open laptop in front of him.

Bill shook his head. "I don't know."

"Bullshit!" Kendal spit.

His eyes big as saucers, Bill scanned the monsters surrounding him. "I swear! I didn't ask questions."

"How were you paid?" Kragen moved to stand in front of him.

"In cash. Look, they were careful and paranoid. They never used real names, only code names. Always wore masks while the hired help was around. Never arrived in the same car, never brought anything personal with them."

"That's a lot of detail for someone who never asked questions." Roul snapped his teeth close to Bill's neck.

A dark stain bloomed over the man's crotch. The smell of urine flooded the cavern. I dragged Kendal back a step in disgust.

"Me and Sam—." Bill swallowed hard.

I surmised Sam was one of the bodies we left in the woods.

"We'd been casing them for months. They had to be rich, right? Never showing up in the same car, with expensive gear and fancy guns. We thought if we could get a bead on even one of them, we'd be set for life. Nobody that fancy would want their side hobby going public."

"You mentioned code names?" Cavi tapped away on the laptop, taking notes. He was the fastest of us at typing, but he was still slow.

Kendal slipped under my arm and pushed him aside to take his place. Her fingers flew over the keys and in seconds she narrowed her eyes at Bill. "Code names, Bill."

He jumped and tried to turn to see her, but she was too far behind him. "Colors and numbers. I think the colors were the founding members, and the numbers came in later. They were talking about another round of guys, referring to them as letters."

"List the colors first." Kragen crouched in front of the man, his voice calm.

Bill nodded. "Yeah, yeah. There was Mr. Red, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Yellow."

Kendal paused her typing and I looked to make sure she was okay. Her head was tilted and her eyes wide.

"Primary colors."

Bill was nodding. "Yeah! That's why Sam and me figured they were the first."

"And the numbers?" Kragen asked.

"Misters one through five." He didn't wait to be prompted for the next list. "I only heard them talking about the letters once, but they were arguing about letting Mr. E join. Sounded like most of them didn't like him."

"Thank you, Bill." Kragen stood and flicked a knife from the man's boot. He spun it in his palm before offering it, hilt first, to Kendal.