Coulson shuddered violently, the hairs on the backs of his hands standing on end.
Even though reason told him the young man before him was probably messing with him, Coulson's heart still lurched as he looked at Lucian's smiling face and found not a single crack in it.
God only knew what bizarre abilities someone who could tear space apart with his bare hands and snatch an entire transport plane out of the sky at twenty thousand feet might be hiding.
Almost on instinct, Coulson rubbed the bridge of his nose while discreetly reaching his right hand down beneath him.
The familiar package beneath the fabric was still there, its contours intact and its weight undiminished.
Coulson inwardly breathed an almost imperceptible sigh of relief, but a thin sheen of sweat had already broken out along his spine.
He returned his hand to his knee and looked up to reassess the black-haired young man before him.
Back on the plane, he had still been pondering how to get to the bottom of Vought International and, along the way, tease out why Pivot had made enemies of the aliens.
Now things had certainly become convenient. Without even spending a cent on transportation, he and the plane had been bundled up and delivered straight into their headquarters.
Now that they had fallen into the hands of a monster like this, keeping secrets would only get them killed faster.
Given the abilities Lucian had displayed when he steamrolled the entire team, none of them would ever leave this building alive without his permission.
They faced the same blade whether they stuck their necks out or pulled them back, so they might as well be upfront.
Coulson straightened his slightly rumpled suit collar and slowly rose from the sofa, bracing himself on his still