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It moves to hover beside her and she tilts her head as though listening to him. After a short pause she stares at it blankly and asks, “What does it feel like?”

“Comforting.” The dual voice croons with pleasure.

“A sedative,” Kimi says flatly.

“I relax people enough to put them to sleep by being in the same room. Awesome,” she deadpans. “There goes my sex life.”

She holds both hands out, palms up, and treats them as scales as she weighs her options. “Power,” one hand goes up, “celibacy,” and the other falls below the table.

“Anyway,” she shakes off the thought with a forlorn sigh and turns back to me. “My mystical mojo started affecting you guys, and I didn’t even know it.”

Her head jerks to take in Mitri with wide eyes. “That’s why she was harassing you in the office that day! I thought she was trying to get in your pants.”

“She was trying to reassert control because I had begun to act outside her normal standards,” Mitri’s eyes drift in thought, and Beatrice’s eyes drop to the gun still held in her hand.

“Is that why I got a headache whenever she was around?” Beatrice wonders aloud.

“Yes,” it may not have been an actual question for me, but I answer regardless. “My headaches began soon after you arrived.”

“Huh.” She appears dumbfounded at the knowledge. “What did she want? A mindless boy band?”

“To control and position us in a way that left the territory vulnerable.” A plan she was successful in doing.

“Vulnerable to what?” Beatrice asks.

“The Delegates,” I sneer.

“So they figure out you’re spies and then manipulate you?” Beatrice shakes her head. “That makes no sense. They should have killed you.”

“Some of us won’t die,” Mal points out with a glare at Mitri.

I lean towards her with a glare of my own. “It makes perfect sense for Delegates who have aligned with Humans. Scientists to piece together how to defeat us with technology. They would use us to be a patsy for whatever occurs here. None of us have led a life of virtue. It would be easy to see us fall from grace. Or they would make us experiments.”

“No,” she chokes, and her gaze drops to the table, hiding her expression.

“They want the old ways back,” Mitri’s head tilts slightly as he focuses on me.

“They’re using Others for testing and building an army of Human hunters with the weapons to defeat us,” I can remember that much from the endless conversations I had overheard, but not much more.

“Humans to be the patsy,” Mitri rolls a shoulder in an unconcerned shrug.

“They want another war?” Ben scoffs in an echoing tone. “A useless waste of good meat.Again.”

“War will be an end result, yes,” I consider the blank spots in my memory as I reply. “The Delegates plan on being the victors. When they win, Humans will be slaves once more.”

“Nyet,” Mitri argues. “They will be prey.”

I look at him, confused about how he came to that conclusion.

“You have not thought back far enough,” he continues in a monotone. “Before, Humans were in the minority and hunted for food. They were considered no better than intelligent cattle.”

My mouth parts in surprise. I had not heard this before.

“How old are you, Mitri?” I ask with a frown. He typically refuses to answer anything.

“Yeah,Kostya,” Mal smirks at Mitri. “Did you witness the first rise of Humans?”

He doesn’t answer, eyes drifting past us to see something we will never witness as his mind wanders.