He didn’t know what had happened in this room or what they did to this creature, but it hadn’t been good.
“Did you learn anything?” he asked.
“Only that this thing doesn’t tan very well,” Saber said.
“It hasn’t revealed anything to us, but for all I know, it might not speak any of the languages of Earth,” Ronan said. “However, I suspect it does, and it’s just refusing to answer our questions.”
“Which is amazing, considering….”
Willow’s voice trailed off as she stared at the demon, but Lucien heard what she didn’t say... considering what they’d put it through.
Declan’s gaze traveled to the door behind Lucien as he removed a lollipop from his pocket. He stared at it for a minute before returning it. “We have to leave before the sun sets. We’ve already spent too much time here.”
Lucien agreed with that.
“We have to see if we can learn more from it,” Killean said.
“It’s not going to reveal anything to us,” Declan said. “Other than what it already has.”
“And what has it revealed to us?” Saxon asked. “This thing hasn’t uttered one word or sound since we put it in this room.”
“Do you sense anything from it?” Ronan asked Declan.
“No, it’s like a wall in that way. I’ve never encountered anything like it before. However” —Declan flicked a glance at Willow— “before we arrived here, it revealed it wanted the sword and believed it could call the weapon to it. Which means that, at one time, it could.”
Fire shone in Willow’s eyes as she reached over her back to touch the hilt. “It tried to take it from me, but the sword wouldn’t go to it.”
Lucien wasn’t sure how to take those words, and if the look on Declan’s face was any indication, he didn’t like hearing them.
“How do you know that?” Nathan asked.
Willow focused on the demon as she pulled the sword from its scabbard. The rasp of the blade against leather was the only sound in the suddenly quiet room. She twisted the sword in front of her before resting it across her palms and holding it out.
The light shining through the glass door caused the jewel in its hilt to gleam. It was a striking, well-crafted weapon, but no human or vampire had forged it, which made it an unnerving mystery.
The way Willow handled it with such ease made him glad she wasn’t his mate. He’d hate it if Callie wielded that weapon. The sword was a powerful weapon for their cause, but he was sure Declan would prefer to see it destroyed; they all would, except for Willow, who had forged an attachment to it.
More frightening, it had formed an attachment to her.
A muscle in Declan’s jaw twitched as he stared at the sword. Lucien wondered how many times his friend had considered destroying it while Willow slept. If it wasn’t such a powerful weapon against their enemies, and if it wouldn’t piss her off, he suspected it would be scrap metal already.
“I felt it. The sword reacted to the demon when it tried to take it from me, and he tried to take it by using his mind. Which means they have or had the ability to do such a thing.” Willow lifted her head and leveled the demon with a look that would have made most men cower. The creature simply gazed back at her. “It failed.”
“It would seem they only have that ability on certain things, and maybe they only ever had it on the sword,” Declan said. “Otherwise, these demons would call weapons to them all the time, and that didn’t happen when we fought the one in the tunnels.”
“It didn’t happen when we fought this thing either,” Killean said.
Beside Lucien, Saxon shifted uneasily and glanced out the door at the women. Lucien sensed his need to go to Elyse, and Lucien felt the same pull to Callie. He almost sought her through their newly formed bond, but she couldn’t know how much he despised being in this room; it would only upset her.
Ronan rested his hand on the demon’s shoulder. It felt like a spider skittered up Lucien’s neck as he recalled touching the monster. He knew how clammy it was, but Ronan did not indicate that the unnatural feel of the thing bothered him.
“What is that sword?” Ronan demanded as his fingers dug into the demon’s shoulder, and Willow returned the weapon to its scabbard.
The creature released another gurgling laugh as its eyes remained focused on Willow. Over the next hour, they took turns doing what they could to get it to talk, but when it wasn’t laughing, it watched them with hate-filled eyes. Throughout it all, it never spoke.
Lucien had always enjoyed the battle and destroying things, but he’d never been one for torture; none of them were. Sometimes, it was a necessary evil, but it was one he preferred to avoid. He couldn’t wait to be free of this place so he could shower before pulling Callie into his arms.
After another hour passed, Lucien stepped away from the creature and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “This thing isn’t going to tell us anything.”
The demon chortled again, and Lucien backhanded the thing before stalking away to stand by the door. The demon’s laughter broke off for a second before becoming louder. The sound was worse than a dozen people raking their nails down a chalkboard.
Lucien stared at Callie as he worked to calm his turbulent emotions. He wanted to give her a life filled with love and laughter, but as long as these things roamed the earth, that would never happen.
“We did learn something else about it before you arrived,” Ronan said.
Lucien turned away from the door. “What?”
Ronan nodded to Saber, who stood behind the chair. Without a word, Saber lifted the chair and walked over to set it at the edge of the sun’s rays.
The demon hissed in a breath as its skin instantly started to smoke and flames blazed to life. Lucien recalled how the body of the one they killed in the tunnels went up like it was doused with gasoline.
This demon had the same volatile reaction to the sun. Savages caught on fire and burned, but it took a little time. This thing caught fire like a drought-ridden Christmas tree doused in gasoline and struck by lightning.
Saber moved the chair out of the sun’s rays and set it back in the shadows. Logan lifted a burnt blanket from the ground and used it to smother the flames. The demon’s crispy flesh continued to smolder while it glowered at them.
“Their tolerance to the sun is far worse than the Savages,” Ronan said.
Lucien rubbed his chin while he studied the repulsive creature and pondered this. “The human part of our DNA protects us from the sun… until we start killing. Then, the more we kill, the more we become like them.”
“It’s like killing strips the humanity from our DNA and leaves us more demon than human,” Declan said.
“And the more we become like them, the more we gain some of their strengths, but also some of their weaknesses.”
“Hence the Savages growing inability to tolerate the sun,” Ronan said. “And I suspect we wouldn’t be able to get this thing across a large body of water without inflicting a lot of pain on it.”
“I’d love to see how it reacts to a crucifix,” Saber murmured.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any of those lying around,” Saxon said.
Logan stepped forward and crossed his index fingers one over the other. He held them before the demon who glowered at him. Logan shrugged and dropped his hands. “It’s probably not the same.”