Blood Entangled by Amber Belldene Page B

the boy. “Where are the others, Hunter?”
    Sullen, the kid crossed his arms. “They all went home.”
    Kos leaned in, examining the kid. “You planned this alone?”
    The boy’s eyes flicked toward his laptop. Krist . Some teenage hacker had thrown a wrench in Kos’s plans.
    “Did you get into my email?”
    A sly smile appeared on the kid’s face. “Trying to whore out your hot blond cook?”
    Kos tackled the kid. Pinning him, he wrapped his hands around his throat, but Andre pulled him off before he did any serious damage.
    “You will not get any information from him like that. Back off and let me do it right.”
    That scared the kid. Kos could hear the Hunter’s heart race faster, even over the sounds of his own pulse hammering.
    If Hunters got hold of Lena, they’d rape her, torture her, and kill her—and not necessarily in that order. Their cruelty to humans in household service was sickening, and he couldn’t let it happen to her. He threw the laptop to the ground and crushed it under his shoe.
    “Hmmm.” Andre scratched his head. “I do not know much about these things, but that seems hasty. Might there have been information on there?”
    “Fuck.” Kos spat.
    “We’ll just have to get it out of him another way.” Andre kicked the kid’s leg just below the hipbone, not hard, or it would have cracked. Andre did crack his knuckles, and formed two meaty fists. “Talk.”
    Even Kos thought his father was scary at that moment—this kid would shit his pants. “I’ll ask you again. Where are the other Hunters?”
    The boy sat up, aiming his chin at the distant ceiling. “Like I said, they went home after Ethan Bennett called off the Hunt. We were pissed we wouldn’t earn our daggers. But he promised to call us all back together once he was fin—”
    The boy slammed his mouth shut, and actually covered it with both hands.
    Kos rolled his eyes—they were dealing with a real professional. “Finished with what?”
    “I don’t know,” the baby-Hunter sniped. Insolent brat. He didn’t seem to understand he was being questioned by his mortal enemies, not his parents.
    Andre uncurled and flexed his hands, cracking his knuckles a second time.
    “I’m serious. I don’t know. He said he was trying to figure out why you could still fly, after being exiled so long.”
    Kos wasn’t trained in interrogation, but even he could tell the kid was holding back.
    Andre toed the kid’s calf muscle. “I will break your leg if you do not tell me everything.”
    “Break it. You’re going to kill me anyway.”
    “Kill you?” Surprised laughter burst from Andre. “I will not—you are just a boy. Unlike your kind, I do not kill women and children.”
    “I’m not a—” Again, he clamped his mouth shut.
    Kos shook his head. The kid wasn’t one for thinking before he spoke, but at least he had enough sense not to argue himself out of the protected status.
    The Hunter’s eyebrows shot up, and he uncovered his mouth. “You can’t feed from me! I won’t let you.”
    Now Kos laughed. “Boy, neither of us would bother. You’re not our type.”
    Andre pointed into the kid’s face. “However, I am not opposed to hurting you. So tell me, what is Ethan Bennett trying to finish?”
    “I don’t know.” Indignation thinly veiled the boy’s fear.
    Kos took a more gentle tone. “Tell us what he said, then.”
    “He said—” the kid puffed up his chest and lowered his voice “‘—I have uncovered clues about the origin of our tribe.’”
    “Pompous prick, is he?” Andre asked with a grin, as if enjoying the news that Zoey’s ex-lover was an asshole.
    “Pretty much.” The kid looked at the floor.
    “That’s all? Clues about the origin of the Hunters?” Kos dropped to a knee, looking the boy in the eye.
    “Yeah. And everybody was jazzed.” The kid raised his hands palm-up in the air, his head bouncing with emotion. “I was pissed I wasn’t going to earn my dagger ’cause he called off the