at the mouth of another tunnel. “He's through there. I'll get your daughter.” His eyes harden, and it's hard to read him. I don't get a feeling from him that he's a bad man, just that he's in a difficult position. It's an added on feeling that there's more going on here than I know. The only thing I can do is try to trust Alex, to believe him when he says that this is what he needs me to do.
Alex squeezes my hand, but he looks up at the man and shakes his head. In a low voice he tells the man, “Get someone else to do it. You'll be needed up front.”
There's a shift in the man's expression, but it's hard for me to pin down before he locks it tight again with a nod and then heads off back the way we came.
Alex looks down at me, his eyes, large and green and dewy. For half a second, I worry that he's going to grab me and hug me again, but he doesn't. He takes my hand and pulls me into the extra tunnel.
There are some mean looking men guarding the extra tunnel. They see us enter, but they seem to recognize Alex as he walks up with his free hand in the air. They take a look at me and they can see right away that I'm no threat. I'm nothing, just a human girl, and they let us pass.
At the end of the tunnel, there's no cloth. A man sits in a seat faced with a few other men who are talking to him. They turn to look at us when we enter. At the sight of Alex, most of them seem surprised. They step to the side and Alex stops just behind them, his grip on my hand starting to hurt.
The man in the seat looks from Alex to me and a smile breaks out on his face. He doesn't look like anything special, but something about him makes me uncomfortable anyway. His eyes rake over me from the bottom up before he looks back at Alex. “I didn't expect you'd return. Who's this?”
The other men who had been in front of him step back along the walls to give us room, but stay close enough to watch.
Alex keeps his eyes on the man in front of us. “Brandon's weakness.”
The man stands up. He's taller than Alex. He wears no shirt, exposing plenty of handmade tattoos that are rougher than Alex's across his chest and on his arms. On his chest there is a scorpion, a creature of myth supposedly based on a real animal, with its tail pointing threateningly at anyone he faces.
“Who is she? What's her connection to him? He doesn't keep pets.” The man looks down at me and I shrink behind Alex.
Alex hesitates. The man looks up at Alex, but where he was just curious with me, he looks annoyed now. “Well?”
“She's their mother's daughter.”
Alex says it quickly as if I won't hear it if he can speak fast enough. It catches me off guard to hear him lying, He's horrible at it. Even if I didn't know, it's clear that he's not being honest. In some small way, it relieves me to know that he's not a great liar. But why is he trying to lie now about something so basic too? Why doesn't he want this man to know how I'm related to Brandon?
There's a telepath in the room. I remember when I catch the eyes of the girl behind the man. She's small, probably only fourteen. Her eyes are clear and grey and her hair is cut short exposing her delicate neck and bony shoulders. When I see her, that's when I realize that my thoughts aren't free. A tingle jumps down the base of my skill, and I give a small shudder.
“You're not being honest,” the man says. He's watching me again, a strange light in his eyes. "She's Henri's. Even better, not that he'll care until I've killed his second in command.”
Henri hardly knows me. I don't know how or why my relation would make a difference, but from the look in the man's eyes it makes a big difference.
Alex still looks away. The man smiles at me. “So I have a little sister.” He laughs at my sudden confusion. “I'm Killer, your oldest brother.”
Twenty-six
My brother named Killer watches me with a smile. He has to bend down a bit to look at me properly