The door at the bottom stood ajar. I blasted through to see the big Sabre pinning Aaron against the wall. The Dire be bleeding in several places, but the wounds looked to be contusions from impact, rather than from claws.
“Cody,” I hissed. “Put him down.”
The Sabre be barely human. His bones shifted beneath his skin, and the ground be littered with dark patches of fur. I caught a glimmer of copper as he shot me a sideways glance.
Instead of putting Aaron down, he lifted him and slammed him again into the wall. “Tell them what you just told me,” he snarled. The hand at Aaron’s throat had claws, and the tips were embedded in his skin.
The Dire’s bulging eyes sought my own. “Get him to put me down, and I’ll tell you.”
That he could negotiate with a Sabre ready to tear him apart said much about Aaron. Cody growled.
Cara moved up to him and put a hand on his arm. “Cody. Put him down. You need to get a grip.”
“Hetookmychildren.” The words be barely decipherable with his beast riding him so hard.
“I know.” Cara’s voice be remarkably calm, and it reached him, I could tell, so I remained silent. “But this isn’t you. It’s your beast, wanting revenge.”
A shudder ran through the Sabre. “I wasn’t there. He came into myhome. Attacked mymate. Took the twins—and I wasn’t there.”
The admission be torn from him, and the torment in them penetrated through even my warrior’s thick skin. It spoke to the most powerful of motivators—guilt. And it be something I understood far too well.
I stepped up beside the Sabre. “Duty called you away, Cody. You be betrayed, set up to fail. There be no shame in that. Aaron be a player in that, nothing more. For you to get your revenge, we need to find the brain behind the plan.”
The Sabre snarled. “He knows more than he’s telling.”
“Aye,” I acknowledged. “Maybe. But you needs to stand down. I promise you, you will have your revenge. I will ensure it.”
For a moment, I be not sure he could do it. But then he released Aaron, and stepped back.
Cara tugged on Cody’s arm, moving him away.
Aaron sneered at me. “Bloody cat. Don’t you have any control over him?”
I moved so fast he didn’t see me coming. He emitted a startled squeak as my fingers closed around his throat and planted him back against the wall.
“I may not have claws,” I hissed at him. “But I don’t need them.”
I unleashed a tiny bit of my power, yanking life energy to rip apart the cells beneath my fingers. He screamed and writhed as fresh blood flowed.
“Tell him what you told me,” Cody snarled from across the room.
I leaned close to the Dire’s face. “I can do the same to your insides,” I whispered. “You would be surprised at the amount of damage a Dire can withstand without it killing him. Very painful, though.”
I generally preferred using my horn to encourage conversation, because my power would drain me. But I found myself yearning to rip him apart in tiny pieces from the inside out.
I be, therefore, disappointed when he started to babble. “It was the Dragon,” he said. “He planned the entire thing. Him and Darius.”
“Which Dragon?” I growled.
“Talakai.”
My heart twisted inside me. “He planned the kidnapping?”
“Yeah. The underworld Dragona set it up, getting the Dragon and Darius in. But the Dragon coordinated everything at the academy with Darius.”
My eyes narrowed. Aaron’s life energy was flaring like mad. “Who be responsible?”
The Dire’s eyes bulged. “I don’t know. Only Darius—and Talakai—knew.”
