Page 110 of Inhuman Nature

Boris took out his phone and shoved it to his ear as he left the room.

“Who, pray tell, are the ‘others’?” Kit asked.

Lynette shot him a pissed-off look, but answered. “My creations and any others that reside in Brighton. Lawrence will be answered with force.”

“So, we’re going to, what? Invade his house?” Shaun asked.

“We outnumber him,” Lynette said dismissively. “It won’t be hard. Do you have any idea where he’ll be keeping DJ?”

“Most likely in the basement,” Shaun answered, trying not to dwell on his own time spent in there.

“Such an obsession with basements,” Kit muttered to himself.

Lynette pursed her lips. “We should go to Weston as he’s asked, but with enough of us to take him down easily.”

Rake cut in. “Good. I don’t want Shaun to sacrifice himself.”

“I have no intention of either of us sacrificing ourselves,”Lynette said. “Weston will face justice.” With that, she left the room, most of her creations following suit.

Kit shuffled over to Shaun. He still appeared aloof, but Shaun could tell he was more uneasy than he let on.

“You know, I wasn’t sure you’d still be hanging around once you convinced Lynette of my innocence,” Shaun said.

“I owe it to myself. And to you,” Kit said.

“Why is that?” Shaun asked.

“Because I’m the one that taught Lawrence how to use the internet.”

This revelation left Shaun a bit cold. “I see,” he said.

“He asked me to show him,” Kit said defensively, as if Shaun had criticised him. “So I did, and then he used it to draw you into his web—pun not intended.”

“I had to talk my mum through sending an email once,” Shaun said. “It was a horrifying experience I would never like to repeat. Can’t imagine quite how awful it would have been to teach Lawrence how to use social media.”

Kit let out a hysterical laugh, then looked horrified that such a noise had passed his lips.

“It’s all right,” Shaun said. “I forgive you.”

Kit picked at his lips as he spoke. “I didn’t know what he was going to use it for, but once he started showing interest in you, I saw my chance to leave. It was cowardly, but I feared he would dispose of me once I was no longer useful to him.”

Shaun gave Kit a grim smile. “He often threatened me with the same.” At that, Rake’s fingers flexed where they held him at his waist.

“He never got what he wanted with me,” Kit said. “I’d been spending more time in the basement than in the restof the house for a couple of years by then.”

“Oh, does he have a torture basement in all of his houses?”

“Didn’t you know,” Kit said dryly, “that no home for a sadistic vampire is complete without one?”

Shaun laughed. It was refreshing, even in such dire circumstances. “If you don’t mind me asking, why weren’t you what he wanted?”

“I’m not submissive in the way you are,” Kit said, pursing his lips.

Shaun didn’t think Kit had meant his words to come across as scathing, but they stung.

Rake jumped to Shaun’s defence. “There’s nothing wrong with being submissive. That didn’t give Lawrence the right to treat him how he did.”

Kit shook his head. “That’s not what I’m saying. Iamsubmissive, just differently to Shaun.”