The Naturals, Book 2: Killer Instinct

sat this one out

That was one of the key differences between Michael’s ability and mine. Michael read people. I read personalities and behaviors—and I didn’t always need a person present to do it.

Michael crossed to stand in front of me. “I could tell you,” he intoned, “but then I’d have to kill you.”

“Basic human decency?” Briggs suggested dryly.

“It’s all connected. Our families. The things that have happened to us. The things we can do.”

“For once in your life,” she ordered, “just let go.”

I’d never really belonged anywhere before I joined the Naturals program, but for this instant, this moment, this one night, nothing else mattered.

“Maybe,” I said softly, “to do what you and I do, we have to have a little bit of the monster in us.”

“If it had been me in the woods, if I’d been the one to go with Briggs, if I’d been the one you saw at the exact second…”

Would it have been me?

If you can’t keep them from hitting you, you make them hit you.