He sounded rational, but he wasn’t, and Claire froze. She didn’t dare try to shoot. He was fast, ridiculously so, and he’d move the barrel aside in these close quarters and then … then it would be a bloodbath.

He’d probably be sorry later. Probably.

She put the weapon down.

Myrnin turned his gaze back on Liz, who seemed terrified and mesmerised at the same time. ‘Now,’ he said, in that same warm, terrifying purr. ‘Let’s see what it would be best for you to remember. Ah, I know. You were abducted and held here at this place. You don’t know what their business was, but you believed that they dealt in drugs and slaves.’ He paused and frowned, then looked confused. ‘Do they still have slaves these days?’

‘Sex slaves,’ Shane said. ‘Yeah.’

‘Ah. How unpleasant. Very well, they dealt in drugs and sex slaves here at this place. There was an attack by some rival force. Everyone was killed. Then the farmhouse was destroyed. You were lucky to escape with your life by hiding in the fields.’ He released Liz, who sank back to the floor with her back against the van’s wall. ‘She’ll remember nothing else. Don’t speak to her. She won’t be able to respond, for now.’

Claire had no idea Myrnin could do something like this – though she supposed she should have known. He’d built a machine that could wipe out human memories. He’d have been able to do that only if he’d had the ability to do it himself, and known the techniques. But she’d never really seen him do it, full on.

He looked completely alien to her right now. I’ve turned him up to eleven, she thought, and had to choke back a terrified, completely insane laugh. This was a very bad idea, having Myrnin in a small enclosed space with four tempting pulses. He’d be hungry. He’d have to be hungry.

‘Yes, I am, a bit,’ he said, and she blinked. That terribly disturbing smile grew wider. ‘Does it surprise you I can read your thoughts? Your own fault, Claire. You turned on parts of my brain that I’d shut down years ago. For safety. I imagine that Oliver and Jesse are having much the same issue. I do hope that Eve doesn’t irritate them too much. I don’t hold out much hope for poor Irene, but then, she did bring it on herself.’

‘Myrnin—’