Page 21 of Tainted Souls
“I said, step away from the civilian.” Her tone brooks no argument.
“He’s my boyfriend! I need to be with him!”
“What you need is to comply with direct orders.” The keeper forcibly pulls me away from the transport. “This man is in transition and you’re interfering with emergency protocols.”
Max reaches for me, panic in his eyes. “Seraph, don’t leave me!”
“I’m not leaving you!” I twist against the keeper’s hold, desperation making me reckless. “Max!”
Another keeper approaches. “Detain her!”
“What? No!” I protest, thrashing as both keepers work together to spin me around, wrestling my arms behind my back. The cold metal of handcuffs snaps around my wrists with a damning click. “You don’t understand.” I try to keep my voice steady as they lead me toward a separate vehicle. “I’m a victim here. Those vampires, they were—”
“Save it for the interrogation room.”
CHAPTER 4
THEharsh fluorescent lights make the deep, jagged lines on the steel table stand out. I trace them with my eyes, fingers itching to follow the contours, as if doing so could make time move faster. The walls are lined with bulletin boards displaying mugshots and wanted posters.
There’s one that looks like my brother. In fact, itishim—the paper old and slightly scratched up, like someone had been close to giving up. The chief of Penn City finally walks in, sliding a cup of water across the interrogation table, a tablet clutched under her arm.
“Seraph Rosen,” she says, sitting straight-backed in her chair, her calloused hands folded in front of her. On her lapel, a golden pin shaped like a scale stands out against the dark fabric beneath, a symbol of her high rank on the council. She’s an older woman with a few wrinkles around her brown eyes and mouth, her dreads styled into a bun. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”
I stare at the water, not touching it. My mind keeps replaying Max’s lifeless state as the medical team wheeled him away from me.
“Your partner is stable,” she continues, reading from her tablet. “At least for now.”
“Stable?” I snort. “He died and is being reborn as something he hates.”
The chief’s face remains impassive. “Let’s start from the beginning,” she says, tapping her screen. “You were at Hot Shot when—”
My elbow lands on the table with a loud thud, head resting against my hand. “I’ve already told two different officers what happened. Max was attacked. The Ravens showed up. Keepers failed to protect us. End of story.”
“The Ravens. Including your brother?” she asks, her eyes narrow.
She already knows the answer. She just wants me to confirm it out loud.
“Yes.”
“And their leader?”
I swallow hard, the memory of him making my skin crawl. “Yes.”
“The same leader responsible for the Redmoore Massacre?”
My fingers curl into a fist under the table. “Yes.”
The chief leans forward, her voice dropping. “Yet he saved your life. Why would he do that?”
“Beats me,” I mutter, the truth of it burning like acid. Ten years of hunting, preparing, and imagining all the things I’d say when I finally faced him, only for me to be left with more questions than answers.
She leans back in her chair. “Be honest, Seraph.” There’s a weighted silence as she studies me, the kind that makes truths feel like lies, her gaze piercing, like she’s trying to dissect me,to understand how I’m still sitting here in front of her. It is the same look I’ve seen a hundred times before, from people who think they know what it means to survive. “Would you die for your brother?”
The words hang in the air for a moment as I process her question. What is she digging at?
“Yes,” I finally say. Because it is true.
“Do you think he would do the same for you?” She taps her fingers on the table, releasing her words like calculated weapons.
