Chapter 450


    450


    Sephie


    “From what you’ve seen, he’s pretty much consumed by the demon, right?” I asked Ivan.


    “Yeah. When they’re like the face behind the face, that’s when they’re running the show,” Ivan said,


    I looked at Adrik. He had the same thought I did. “There’s only one solution, then,” he said.


    “Stephen,” we all said at the same time.


    “He’s going to be so happy,” I said,ughing as we left the bathroom.


    When we got back to the table, the conversation was still flowing. Everyone noticed as we came back,


    but we didn’t interrupt anything. As we sat down, I told both Ivan and Adrik to either close their eyes or


    look down. I turned toward Stephen, who was sitting beside me, and shed him my demon eyes. He


    knew that meant his services were going to be needed shortly.


    We’d discussed Stephen’s gift beforeing to the hotel. Before, we had personal experiences to use


    as fuel for him to break the person. This person was aplete stranger, so we weren’t sure how that


    would work. It was Misha that came up with the idea for how to make it work.


    “Once the decision is made, I can look back through the person’s life and pick out times when they’ve


    done evil things. You and Andrei can look through their head and do the same. I can send everything I


    have to Andrei, he can send it to you, you give it to Stephen. Boss can give him “f*ck you” juice like


    before while Ivan makes sure you’re protected,” Misha had said the night before as we were discussing


    it.


    I gave the green light to both Misha and Andrei to start collecting information. They’d both been


    working on being more subtle with their gifts. It was harder to tell when they were using them now. The


    zed-over look was much less noticeable.


    As the three of us looked into this man’s life, none of us were prepared for what we found. Adrik and


    Ivan both felt my extreme nausea, which waspounded with both Misha and Andrei’s nausea as


    they saw what I saw.


    “What’s happening, love? You feel terrible,” Adrik asked.


    “I’m going to need to wash my brain after this. This man is beyond disgusting.”I told them. “You might


    not need to help Stephen. This one is going to hit very close to home for him. It’s going to send him into


    a rage.”


    The man had a very long history of taking advantage of little boys in the worst way possible. We


    collected enough of his memories that Stephen would have plenty to use. I told Andrei and Misha to


    stop, mostly because I couldn’t handle the nausea any longer.


    “I need to warn Stephen,” I said. “But we need to find a way to provoke him so everyone can see.”


    While they tried toe up with a strategy to provoke the man, I leaned over to Stephen. I was very


    careful not to touch him yet. I whispered in his ear, in Russian, “Yoden, I need to warn you. This one is


    going to be difficult for you because of what he’s done. It hits very close to home for you. If you want to


    sit this one out, we can find another way.”


    Before I could stop him, he grabbed my hand. He managed to control himself as he took everything


    we’d gotten from that guy’s life. It only took a few seconds. He looked at me, saying, “there’s absolutely


    no way in Hell I would sit this one out.”


    Andrei caught my eye, after he’d watched Stephen take everything from me. His face clearly showed


    concern for Stephen. He pushed his thoughts to me, telling me he’d figured out another piece to the


    puzzle. He suddenly realized that Viktor was here to help us as much as he was to help others. He


    could help us fix ourselves after we’d had to witness the evil this man had done over his lifetime. None


    of us wanted this hanging onto us any longer than absolutely necessary.


    I told Andrei he was a f*cking genius.


    “Stephen is ready, whenever we are. I’m not sure he’s going to need help, but I think you should be


    ready, Just in case. I can feel him smoldering beside me right now. He’s usually very cold, but he feels


    like you do normally right now,” I told Adrik.


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    450


    “I can feel him through you. I know that feeling from him. He’ll handle this one on his own,” Adrik said.


    Once again, I spoke to Battista in Italian, telling him we needed a way to provoke this man to anger so


    we could expose him. He nodded, expertly shifting the conversation exactly in the direction we needed.


    Since Lorenzo had been killed, many of his human traffickingworks throughout Europe had been


    exposed. There were a few very high profile people that had been caught having connections to


    Lorenzo, meaning they were partaking in the particr services that Lorenzo was providing. Battista


    must’ve had his suspicions about this man before today, as I couldn’t see him bringing this subject up


    otherwise.


    The man started to get ufortable as we all discussed the matter. He started to sweat when


    Battista had asked if he’d known one of the people that was currently in police custody for being


    connected to Lorenzo. Nothing had been outright proven yet, but spection as to this person’s guilt


    was running rampant throughout Europe. The man before us decided thating to the defense of an


    used human trafficker and ped*phile was his best option.


    It was exactly what we needed.


    The conversation got heated on his end, but he wasn’t angry per se. He was scared. Scared of the


    same fate. Scared of being exposed.


    I felt my anger rise to the surface and I finally let it happen, not caring one bit that my eyes were now


    ck. Adrik and Ivan’s eyes were also now ck. We watched him squirm in his seat once he saw it.


    Ivan shared what he could see with me and Adrik. The demon was clearly agitated. I nced at


    Stephen, who finally spoke.


    “I mean no disrespect, sir, but people are generally only used of such heinous acts when they’ve


    actually participated in such heinous acts,” he said. I’d never heard Stephen take that tone with anyone


    before. It was like he was mocking him. In the most menacing way possible. If I didn’t know Stephen


    already, it would’ve sent chills down my spine.


    Ivan was still sharing what he could see as Stephen revealed himself. We watched this man lose


    complete control. His demon was now angry and took over, switching his eyes to ck as well. The


    man tried to get up, but Stephen stood up quickly. Stephen was across the table from him, but it looked


    like Stephen had grabbed him and shoved him back into his seat, without Stephen touching him. He


    didn’t move after that. His body waspletely paralyzed, but Stephen had only barely begun break


    him. He could still talk; he could still see.


    Stephen was s*ipping ahead to advanced levels of control already.


    The demon started trying to talk his way out of it, making sick excuses, promising power, promising


    whatever we wanted. Surprisingly, Stephen let him talk for a few minutes. He nced at Battista and


    his associates. Battista didn’t look quite as shocked as his other two associates. He’d definitely had his


    suspicions before today about this man.


    Finally, Stephen had enough. I felt his anger level go through the roof as we watched the man’s light


    behind his eyes go out. He finally stopped talking as Stephen gave everything back to him that he’d


    done to his victims. All the pain, all the trauma, all the suffering he’d caused was now given back to him


    all at once, effectively breaking his psyche.


    Adrik’s anger was definitely not needed in this instance. Stephen had plenty of his own this time. Once


    he was finished, his anger disappeared and he went back to feeling his normal, colder than any human


    should be self. He sat back down and took a sip of water like this was a normal f*cking


    Tuesday.


    “d is going to be so impressed with your portfolio, Yoden,” I said quietly to him, in Russian.


    Heughed quietly.


    I looked at Battista and his associates, who were still somewhat shocked at what they’d just witnessed.


    “You all heard him tell you everything you needed to know about him in his own words. He was


    consumed by his demon. He has been for a very long time. He did very bad things to very innocent


    people and now he’ll be made to suffer for that for the rest of his body’s life.”


    “He’s going to stay like that until he dies?” one of Battista’s associates asked. I nodded my head,


    exining what we’d done.


    Battista turned to the man, saying, “this is why we’re all so willing to help them get Ricardo De Luca. Do


    you understand now? And more importantly, are you willing to help?”


    It became clear in that moment why Battista had set this up today. It wasn’t for his benefit, but for ours.


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