Psychic

XVIII

I could hear the thoughts before I was even fully conscious.

What do we do with it?

Imagine what I can get from the warlocks if we give them her.

She almost looks innocent like that.

Well, I had news for that last person. I was in all counts 'innocent'. I hadn't done anything, unless you counted potentially taking down my 'father', but they didn't know that. Who knew what kind of information the hunters had been fed.

I kept my eyes closed and listened in on their thoughts for a bit longer. They were all thinking basically the same thing. I could tell that there was at least one younger hunter in the room who was a bit unsure about their motives, but the rest seemed like hardened adults. This was to my disadvantage.

I could feel some ropes holding my hand together behind a wooden chair, but my legs were free. The rope was unnaturally tight though.

I opened my eyes in a sputter when a bucket of cold water was splashed in my face. I had been too busy digging deep into the younger hunter's brain to see it coming.

"Wake up!" yelled the man who had dumped the water on me.

I took a quick look around the room and matched the thoughts to faces. The young hunter was in the corner, gangly and wide-eyed. There were three other hunters in the large room, a woman and two other men, the one closest was the one who dumped water on me. He seemed to be leading this group.

I glared at him, tempted to twist on some painful memories in his head, but refrained for now. If they didn't know what I could do, there was no need to give them a show until I learned what they knew.

"Are you upset we waked you, Olivia? I'm sure you were having a very nice sleep." He taunted, but I didn't raise to the bait. I stayed as silent as possible.

The other man in the room stepped forward, "What are you?"

I stayed silent still. I wasn't going to give them anything. What I needed to do was waste time until Magnus or someone found me, or maybe until they traded me to Hawthorne.

"That's fine," said the woman, "we've already done the majority of the tests on you. You're blood runs red, holy water doesn't hurt you, neither does salt, iron, or silver. You have no visible fangs and you're eyes aren't any unnatural color. You're not a werewolf, vampire, demon, shapeshifter, or faerie. We'll find out soon enough. You can't hide it from us forever."

I was relieved for once that there was no real way to tell what a physic was. The only way you'd know is if they told you or if you had someone like Magnus tell you. Otherwise, I looked unmistakably human.

I decided that if I had to speak, I would play dumb.

"Who are you people? Where am I?" I asked in a frantic voice. "Why are you talking nonsense?"

The man in charge laughed. "You don't need to know, creature."

"What do you mean? Please, if you let me go, I won't tell anyone. I promise!" I pleaded, a convincing tear even falling down my face.

The younger one stepped forward.

"What if she's telling the truth, Mendes?"

'Mendes' stepped back towards him and pointed a finger at his chest. "Creatures like her will tell you anything to save their puny little cursed lives. Now, if you want to actually do some good in the world, you'd treat her like the creature she is."