Seduce the Darkness (Alien Huntress #4)(9)
Author: Gena Showalter

Though he only lived for his own pleasure nowadays, he couldn’t walk away from a friend in need.

He would regret it, and Devyn never did anything he would regret. Dallas scrubbed a hand down his face. "I’m not sure you can fix this.”

“Tell me, anyway."

"Remember Nolan?"

"Of course." Nolan was a new breed of alien called the Schön. They were beautiful and deadly, and they had come to Earth, destruction hot on their heels. Everyone they’d bedded, everyone their blood had come into contact with, had soon become cannibals. Once-loving humans had morphed into flesh-eating murderers. They’d also died slowly and painfully, the virus eating through them.

AIR had managed to capture Nolan and kill several of his brethren—as well as everyone infected— and that should have been the end of it. But "should have" meant nothing. Now the queen of the Schön, the woman responsible for the virus and the greatest source of its power, was on her way to this planet.

When she would arrive, no one but Nolan knew, and he wasn’t talking. AIR only knew that she would come, and she would kill. Already she had destroyed several worlds, for the more people she infected through sex and bloodletting, the longer she lived, keeping the disease at a minimum inside her own body. Same with her army. Same with Nolan. If they didn’t pass the disease on to someone else, and then someone else, and then someone else, they too became cannibals.

It was a vicious cycle.

"You ready for this?" Dallas asked. "Lay it on me."

"Nolan escaped AIR."

Okay. No, he hadn’t been ready for that. "Shit. How long ago?" Dallas glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. "About fifteen hours.”

“And no one realized until this afternoon when Mia called the meeting?”

“That’s right."

"How is that possible?" The guy had been locked in a state-of-the-art facility, complete with fingerprint IDs, retinal scanners, and weight- and heat-sensitive tiles, all of which should have caused the alarms to screech to life the moment he stepped outside his cell. Again, "should have" sucked ass.

"God only knows. He’s out there, probably screwing his way to good health while infecting innocent women, who then infect their lovers. If that’s the case, this thing is going to spread fast. So fast we might not be able to stop it."

Devyn placed the now-empty beer bottle atop the stack of unfolded laundry beside him. "Think the Schön will want revenge against Jaxon and Mishka?"

Mishka, the cyborg Devyn wanted a go at but wouldn’t make a play for because he did not poach his friend’s females, ever, had befriended and betrayed Nolan, all to protect Jaxon. Saving the world from that sadistic disease by locking Nolan away had been a side benefit.

"Revenge?" Dallas shrugged. "He didn’t seem the type, you know? He was more concerned about falling in love before he died than truly hurting others. I mean, I got the sense that he didn’t enjoy infecting his lovers and only did it to survive."

Love. Devyn barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. Love could be found in the arms of anyone, anywhere, if only people would abandon the silly idea of monogamy. What was the point of giving yourself to only one? Boredom, that’s what.

"I’m guessing a patrol has been sent out to look for him," he said.

"Correct. So far, no sighting. Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong, and he’s not out there screwing everyone he meets. Maybe he’s keeping to himself, hoping to die with a little dignity. You know, without an AIR audience. Or maybe he caught a solar flare home." Solar flares were what opened the wormholes that allowed the travel between the planets. That was how Devyn so easily moved between this one and his own. "There’s been no new case of infection."

"None that have been reported, at least." One thing Devyn knew about those in power: they kept secrets. Many women could have been infected by Nolan and eliminated by the government already.

And one thing Devyn knew about men: they liked to have sex. Nolan needed sex more than most, not just for pleasure but for survival. He was sleeping around, keeping himself strong, no doubt about it. There would be no dying with dignity.

"Nolan didn’t return to his planet," Devyn said. "It was wiped, remember? All of its people were either infected or killed. And then, of course, the infected traveled to Eden’s planet, Raka, wiped it, then ventured here. We have to catch him, and we have to kill him this time."

Dallas shook his head. "We can’t kill him. He’s the only one who knows about the Schön queen we’ll soon be fighting. Speaking of, I wish there was a way to send the bitch a message. Come here, and we’ll hang you with your own intestines."

Devyn, too. "We’ve questioned Nolan repeatedly. Hell, I even tortured him. He never broke and managed to keep every one of his secrets. And the fault was not mine. I’m a damn good torturer." It wasn’t something he usually enjoyed, but he’d been the only one for the job. Touching Nolan hadn’t been an option. Spilling his blood hadn’t been an option, either. The disease inside his body was alive, with a will and agenda of its own, and it only left a host when another was nearby.

Devyn had not wanted to become one of those hosts. As he could force objects to move in the same way he could force people, manipulating their energy, he’d been able to shatter every bone inside Nolan’s body without ever setting foot in the room.

"It’s time to end him," he added, "before he begins a pandemic." Dallas scoured a hand down his tired face. "That’s what we decided, as well." Wait—what? "Then why the hell’d you hassle me about keeping him alive for his secrets?"

"Mishka spent an hour trying to talk us out of killing him. She cried, Dev. Real damn tears." The agent leaned his head against the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling. No one was tougher than Mishka, who had once had a chip in her brain. A chip that had forced her to do things she hadn’t wanted to do. Murder people she loved, have sex with people she didn’t. Only recently had it been removed. "I wanted to cut out my heart and give it to her. Now you waltz in here, late, and state as pretty as you please the very thing we had to fight her for."

"One, I’m late for everything but what really matters. And two, had I been here, we both know her tears wouldn’t have affected me." Tears never affected him. It was almost like he was missing the sensitivity gene or something. For sex, he could pretend like he cared that he’d upset a female. But actually care? No. Emotions, he’d learned from ruling his people and being responsible for their fates, were foolish. Wasted, even. "Now, why don’t you tell me what this is really about."