Her stomach roiled a bit as her imagination filled in more blanks. She just hoped they hadn’t been US soldiers.

He seemed to guess where her thoughts had turned. “They didn’t speak our language. There were camps of them in the mountains. We hit at night. I didn’t feel so bad after the third time. We found the remains of a male child. They’d mutilated and murdered him. He couldn’t have been more than twelve.”

Kat blinked back tears, staring at the pond too. The sight of that poor kid’s body must have been horrific. The urge to reach over and curl her fingers over Darkness’ hand, still rubbing his thigh, struck her but she resisted.

“We had no choice.” He cleared his throat. “If one of us disobeyed, they’d have killed the others. They were my brothers and we wanted to survive. It’s against our nature to give up. We’re stubborn.”

“That’s a good thing. Sometimes that will keep you going no matter what.”

Silence stretched. “One night they ordered us to sneak into a camp and kill everyone. We got there but there were no armed males. It was only females and children.” His voice deepened into a snarl. “They were terrified when they saw us.”

Her gut twisted. She didn’t really want to hear any more. She liked him too much. “You don’t have to tell me this.”

“We refused to kill them.”

She turned her head to stare at him, their eyes meeting. Relief washed through her. “What happened?”

“The humans in charge of the project ordered us to go back and kill all of them.” His chin lifted and his handsome face was clearly visible in the moonlight. He was suffering. “We refused again.”

She had a sinking sensation that she wasn’t going to like what happened next.

“Number Four didn’t feel pain. It was too fast.” He paused. “Boom!”

His sudden loud outburst startled her.

“That was how quickly he died when they detonated his collar.”

Tears filled her eyes, understanding they’d murdered his brother.

“It didn’t take much of a charge to separate his head from his shoulders.”

Jesus. She reached over. Her fingertips traced the back of his hand, so warm and larger than hers. She wanted to comfort him.

“They ordered us again to go kill everyone in that camp. I looked at my brothers and saw the same emotion in their eyes that must have been in mine. We refused.”

She guessed what was coming.

“Number Three closed his eyes and it was over. I saw fear in his expression though. He felt that before he died.”

“I’m…so sorry,” she whispered.

His hand twisted under hers and he laced long fingers through her smaller ones, holding her hand. He looked away to stare into the night again.

“They demanded again that we kill. Number Two stepped forward and said he’d do it. His survival instincts were strong and he was so enraged that he no longer cared who died. He just wanted to kill something out of revenge. It didn’t matter to him anymore if they were innocent. They were human. That was enough. I could see he’d snapped.”

She couldn’t blame his brother but it was horrific, knowing that Darkness had been a party to killing innocent people, despite being forced. It was the worst scenario to ever expect someone to be in.

He grew silent and she watched him until he looked back at her and suddenly leaned in closer. “Do you want to know why you should walk in the opposite direction when you see me?”

“You had no choice, Darkness. It was a kill-or-be-killed situation.”

“I snapped his neck with my bare hands.” His voice came out a snarl. “I couldn’t allow my brother to kill babies and helpless females. I will never forget the look in his eyes when I lunged forward and he realized what I was about to do. I saw betrayal and shock in them.” He released her hand. “I didn’t hesitate. I knew they’d kill me before I could take him out if my reflexes weren’t faster than the human with the remote for my collar.”

Kat blinked back tears, her chest tight with emotion that threatened to choke her. She wanted to tell him he did the right thing but she was afraid she’d start to cry if she did. It took everything she had not to fall apart. It broke her heart and made her respect him even more.

He lifted both hands with his palms facing her. “I clean them but the blood and deaths of others are stained here. I never forget.” He rolled away, gracefully getting to his feet. He kept his back to her. “Do you think Fury will still want to be a part of my life when he finds out I killed one of our brothers?”

She got to her knees, then to her feet. She trembled all over, emotionally overwrought. “You did the right thing and I think he’d understand,” she finally got out. “Why did they allow you to live?”

“You caught that. I knew you were smart. It was a test.” His tone came out raspy. “They needed to find out if we’d follow orders or die first. They didn’t count on the fact that I was willing to kill my own brother to save others. The test was deemed a failure and I was sent back to Mercile to the same fate as the other Species but I had to suffer the guilt of what I’d done.”

It was worse than cruel. “A failure of what kind of test?”

“To see if they could make us mindless killers by keeping us under their control. It didn’t work. They believed we didn’t have souls but they were wrong.”