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“If this was what you really wanted, why did you bother keeping up with the act for so long?” Calix winced as Aodhan rotated his shoulder, checking for any damage after leaving him strung up for three days straight.

“What exactly is the ‘this’ you’re referring to, baby?” the doctor asked, though it was clear by his tone he was merely humoring him, more focused on checking the rest of his body than in what was being said between them.

“I’m fine,” Cal snapped, yanking himself free from Aodhan’s hold, even though there wasn’t anywhere for him to go. He was back on the chair, his ankles cuffed to the legs to keep him from kicking the doctor who was crouched at his side with a medical kit open on the ground next to him.

“You’ve got anal lacerations, and we’ve restricted blood flow to your hands for too long,” Aodhan corrected. “Don’t worry. After an hour's rest, you’ll be ready to be put back on the hook. You Emergents are made of tough stuff.”

“Wait.” Calix grabbed onto Aodhan’s sleeve. “No. I can’t do that again.”

The doctor stood but didn’t shake him off. “Let’s talk, Detective. How does that sound?”

Better than the hook.

“You have questions. Ask them.” Aodan’s free hand brushed a strand of damp hair off of Cal’s forehead before he pressed against him, testing his temperature. “You aren’t getting sick. We can keep going.”

“No.” Calix couldn’t get up because his ankles were attached to the chair, and his wrists were still bound together with handcuffs. The most he could do was cling to the doctor and try to get through to him. “Just tell me what you really want from me. If you aren’t going to eventually let me go—”

“I’ll never let you go,” Aodhan said. “You’re mine.”

“And Titus?”

“Mercy is mine, too.”

“You approached me because of him. Because you were jealous over nothing. There’s nothing between him and me.”

“Did he tell you that?” Aodhan snorted. “Sometimes he’s a real pain in the ass, you know? And I don’t mean in the fun way, FYI. Are you doubting me, baby? Because of a little thing like that? Does it really matter why we met?”

“You hurt me,” he reminded, voice more a growl than anything. This time, he did push Aodhan’s arm away, dropping his hands into his lap.

“But I didn’t kill you, did I? I fell for you instead. Isn’t that worth something?”

“No.”

“Because you don’t believe me?”

“Because it can’t.”

Aodhan was quiet for a second and then stepped behind him, resting both hands on Cal’s shoulders. “I know you’re afraid, but there’s no reason for you to be. We’re preparing you for something greater. You didn’t even have a plan, Calix. You quit your job, and then what?”

“That’s up to me.”

“Oh, sweetheart, no, no it really isn’t.” He sighed. “When you think about it, you only have yourself to blame for all of this. If you just told us the truth from the start, we could have skipped over all this training and gone straight to playing happy family.”

“Don’t you dare preach about honesty to me.” Calix tried to shake off the doctor’s hold, but Aodhan merely dug his fingers in, hard enough to make Cal wince.

“Everything I’ve ever said to you was true,” Aodhan told him. “Sure, there was a layer of deceit there, and my intentions for you were never pure, but I’ve wanted you since that night. I’ve wanted to make you mine and keep you forever. What’s more romantic than that?”

“You already have a boyfriend,” Cal snapped.

“You aren’t opposed to being a part of a throuple.”

“That’s besides the point!”

Aodhan grinned at him triumphantly, slipping a hand beneath Cal’s chin to force his head back so he couldn’t look away. “Got you.”

Shit.

“Why would I want to be in a relationship with you after everything you’ve put me through?” Calix countered.

“Why not?” He ran the pad of his thumb over Cal’s jaw. “I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted. In fact, I can give it to you doubled, because I come with Mercy. Isn’t that what you cried out for that night of the reunion? You said it over and over again. Mercy…Mercy…”

It took him a moment, but eventually he recalled seeing that part in the video. The words he’d been mumbling between tears and snot hadn’t been his own though, not really.

“I was remembering something else,” he said. “Something I heard from someone else. I was not calling out for your lover, or begging for you to take pity on me.”

“Pity?” Aodhan’s expression turned blank and he tipped his head. “Should I have pitied you?”

“You’re a damn doctor,” he reminded tersely. “Anyone who gets injured should be—”

“People break all the time. Unless I’m the one breaking them, I don’t see why I should feel anything toward them at all.

Make no mistake, I’m good at my job. I wouldn’t let my indifference interfere with healing someone when I should, but if you’re asking me to also feel things toward them like pity and empathy…

I apologize, Detective, that just isn’t going to happen. ”

Cal frowned.

“Can you tell me you feel that way about the people you encounter on your cases?” Aodhan suddenly asked. “Did you feel pity toward Heathe’s girlfriend when you heard her skull had been bashed in, for example?”

His eyes narrowed. “Heathe claims there was someone else there that day…Was it you?”

“No, I wouldn’t have been of much use there.”

“How many people have you killed?”

“Does that really matter?”

“Yes.”

“I can tell when you’re lying, baby,” Aodhan confessed. “I think I forgot to mention that before, but you have a pretty obvious tick that gives you away.”

“I do not.”

“You do. Would you like me to tell you what it is?”

Calix tried to lower his head, but Aodhan held firm.

“Uh uh, no running this time. No hiding either.” The doctor produced a scalpel from somewhere, holding it up to the light as though showing it off to Cal.

“I’m not supposed to touch your dick or your hole aside from giving my medical examination.

But we can find a way around that, right?

We can still play together and have a good time. ”

His mouth went dry, but it wasn’t just from the threat of the sharp blade or the returning flash of fear. Calix remembered the way it’d felt in his hotel room, when Aodhan had given him one of the best orgasms of his life by carving the letter A into his ass.

“Do you miss my mark, baby?” Aodhan’s voice dropped into a low purr. “Did you wish I’d given you something lasting instead?”

Yes.

Good Light. Yes. He’d been so disappointed when the minor cut had started to heal. Had liked that tiny hint of a claim left on his skin.

“I thought you were normal then,” Calix said, and Aodhan smirked at him.

“Got you again. You just told a lie.”

He frowned, but before he could deny it, the doctor hushed him.

“You get defensive when you’re lying, for starters,” Aodhan brought the sharp tip of the scalpel close to Cal’s eye and tapped the tender under area carefully. “And this muscle twitches ever so slightly.”

“That’s…” He’d never noticed or felt that happening before.

“Blame your left eye, not me. But it really is incredibly subtle. I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t spent all of this time with you searching for a tell in the first place.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m a liar too, which means I don’t trust anyone else not to be.”

“Smart.”

“Thanks, baby.”

“Aodhan?” Calix waited until the doctor lifted a brow, silently urging him on. “Drop the baby crap. And if you don’t intend to blind me, get that fucking thing out of my face before you slip and do something we both permanently regret.”

He laughed but moved the scalpel away. “Get it out of your system, the cussing? Mercy really doesn’t like it. I wasn’t joking before.”

“I don’t give a shit what he does or doesn’t like.”

“Liar,” Aodhan said in a sing-song voice, chuckling before he tapped the blade against Calix’s left nipple, grinning when Cal tensed. “Where would you like me to cut you? Here? Or,” he dragged the flat side of the scalpel down the center of Cal’s chest all the way to his navel, “lower?”

“Aodhan.”

“Don’t give me that look.” Some of his good mood soured and he scowled. “Don’t act like I’m going to disembowel you or something. Good Light, Cal, I’m still me.”

“I don’t know you,” he said. “I never did.”

“Wrong. You’ve known exactly who I am this entire time. Or are you really going to sit here and pretend you’re too dumb to have suspicions after I brought you to that party? Good people don’t just watch as another being is sawed in half. Not for any reason.”

“I’ve never claimed to be good.”

“Me neither. That’s sort of the point. You’ve always had a glimpse beneath the surface when it came to me. You’ve always known I wasn’t a sweet, vanilla lover, come to whisk you away in some grand fashion.”

“I at least thought you had class,” Calix stated. “I’m seeing now I was wrong.”

“Nah, I’m still classy, the issue is now that you’ve met Mercy, you’ve seen what I have to contend with.

I grew up wealthy, but him? He grew up like an Imperial.

Connects are worlds apart from us. I bet you my entire fortune that none of this was even necessary.

If he’d gone straight to your captain at the I.P.F.

and told him he was taking you as our Third, you would have been handed over with a pretty bow wrapped around this gorgeous neck of yours. ”

Aodhan’s other hand slipped around Cal’s throat, squeezing lightly once before relaxing and just settling there.

“The I.P.F. didn’t own me. They wouldn’t have the authority to—” Calix hissed when the tip of the scalpel knicked the skin just about his navel.

“Whoopsie.”

Cal glared, but didn’t bother trying to pick up his sentence again.

“Want to make a deal?” Aodhan offered. “If you tell me the truth, I’ll let you wrap your hands around your dick and stroke yourself to completion while I cut you the way you like.”

“Truth about what?”

“You want Mercy and me to throw you on the ground and fuck you until you’re a sobbing mess, don’t you?

The idea of a Connect choosing you as their Third gets you all hot and bothered.

Honestly, you’re angry, but not as angry as you want us to believe.

You’re just putting up a front to protect your ego.

I got to you, didn’t I? Made you want me? Made you care?”

Calix could tell when someone was purposely trying to get a rise out of him. For whatever reason, it was clear the doctor wanted to push his buttons and make him crack. Pretending? What a joke. Aodhan was the one pretending here.

If Cal was smarter, he’d agree to being honest and tell the truth, but even though that wasn’t technically what the doctor wanted to hear, even though he was so obviously hoping Calix would resist, the truth would still bring some inkling of satisfaction to the doctor.

At least if he continued refusing, Cal got something out of it, too.

He really only ever felt in control when he was rushing headfirst into danger.

“If that really was true,” Calix lifted his chin defiantly, “then why was I about to hop on a spaceship off planet as soon as we said our goodbyes?”

Aodhan paused, staring at him, mood darkening with each passing second until the energy surrounding him became heavy and threatening. “You really were.”

“I told the truth, so—”

The doctor chucked the scalpel across the room, then hauled Calix roughly. He shoved him toward the contraption still dangling from the ceiling, wordlessly fighting Cal when he started to struggle.

“Wait!”

“No, I don’t think I will.” Aodhan attached Cal’s wrists to the loop hanging from the ceiling and strung him up.

“You said—”

“That’s not the truth I was after and you know it,” he growled.

“That doesn’t matter. You said—”

“Didn’t anyone warn you not to play games with a devil?”

Calix swore loudly as the hook was forced back into his body.

“Learn your lesson, baby,” Aodhan hissed from behind him, his hot breath fanning against Cal’s nape. “I set my pride aside and told you how I feel. I expect the same treatment in return. You were going to leave me? Yeah, okay. Now you’ll never get the chance.”

“What if I never tell you I like you back?” Cal seriously must hate himself.

Every last atom of his being screamed at him to shut the hell up, but it was too late.

“Then I guess I’ll have to carve my name into every inch of your flesh so you’ll never forget who you belong to.”