by Frost Kay
Cyan Toxin
Mixologists and Pirates Part 4
Frost Kay
Contents
1. Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
2. Brutality is Not Romantic
3. You’re Not that Beautiful
4. Misery Loves Company
5. Perfecting Avoidance
6. Busybodies and Probes
7. Friends or Foes
8. Strong Girls Don’t Faint
9. Monsters Belong in Cages
10. Tricked Out Rust Buckets
About the Author
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Also by Frost Kay
Copyright © 2018 Renegade Publishing, LLC
First Edition
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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For information on reproducing sections of this book or sales of this book, go to www.frostkay.net
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Cover by Christian
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Editing by Oceans Edits
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Proofread by Holmes Edits & Pauline Creeden
Created with Vellum
1
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
He blinked at her. Like he didn’t understand her meaning.
Allie pushed him backwards, a dull ringing filling her ears. “Who. Are. You?”
His green, Human eyes narrowed on her. “What?”
“Who the hell are you?” Her voice edged on hysteria. The Av she’d come to know as Blade was gone, replaced by the Human who’d captured her on earth. Was her mind playing tricks on her? What in the worlds was going on?
Blade, or whoever he was, frowned. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“Your damn Human eyes.” Eyes that she’d seen dull and lifeless in the pictures Lev and Coal had shown her. A life they’d claimed she’d taken.
He cursed and slapped a hand against his wrist. The air around them vibrated softly and his appearance altered to the Av she knew. He held up his hands to ward off whatever expression was on her face. “It’s not what it looks like.”
Blade reached for her, and she jerked back into the wall. “Don’t touch me.”
His jaw set and his fingers curled into a fist. “I won’t hurt you, Allie. I’m your friend.”
She laughed. It was that or cry. “You’re not my anything. I don’t even know who you are.”
Blade stared at her in his quiet, unnerving way. “You know exactly who I am.”
She shook her head, tears threatening to fall. “I don’t know you at all.” She waved a hand at him. “I don’t even know what you are. Are you Human?”
“Does it matter what race I am?”
“I want to know.” If he was Human, it gave her more of an edge. She could escape a Human.
“I’m Av.”
Shoot.
He waved a hand at his body. “This is my true self. My Human skin is a mirage.”
It didn’t seem like any mirage she’d ever heard of. “I felt the difference.” She blushed at the thought. The shape of his lips changed when she’d activated his distorter. “I’ve never heard of a distorter doing that.”
His mouth bobbed for a second in an uncharacteristic display of uncertainty. Blade snapped his mouth shut and stared impassively from his immense height. “It’s military grade. It doesn’t alter just our appearance, but your sense of smell and touch.”
Allie blinked as she attempted to wrap her mind around the idea. “How the devil is that possible?”
His smile was dark. “The same way your family is able to develop a moonshine that tastes different to every being who drinks it. Chemistry.”
The distorter seemed more like black magic than science. She shook her head. It didn’t really matter what race he was. Human or Av, he’d still lied to her. “I don’t know you.”
“I’m the same person I was yesterday, and the day before, and the week before that. Nothing’s changed.”
Allie gaped. “Nothing’s changed?” She stabbed a finger in his direction. “Everything’s changed, and you know it. Don’t you dare try to placate me.”
“I’m just trying to calm you down,” he whispered, his dark gaze scanning the empty hallway. “You’re going to cause a scene if you don’t get it under control.”
Oh, no, he didn’t. “Calm down?” she hissed. “You want a scene, I’ll give you a damned scene.” She sucked in a breath to scream and froze when Blade slapped a hand over her mouth and pressed her into the wall. She bucked and wiggled, trying to get away from him, but his heavy body kept her in place.
Sympathy crossed his face as he dipped his head and his nose touched hers, but it was gone as quickly as it came, replaced with narrowed eyes and ruthless determination. “I won’t allow you to put yourself in danger because you’re throwing a fit.”
Her eyes turned to slits as she glared at him, breathing hard through her nose. He hadn’t seen her throw a fit yet.
He arched a dark brow, clearly reading her thoughts from her expression. “We don’t have time for you to lose it. Any moment, someone will come around the corner and discover us. Now, I need to know if you’ll cooperate. If you don’t, you will not make it out of this place alive.”
Her eyes widened, and a chill ran down her spine. Less than five minutes ago, he’d been wrapped around her, kissing her like there was no tomorrow. Now, he was threatening to kill her. How lucky was she? Allie always knew how to pick them.
“Do you understand me?” he whispered, a thread of steel in his tone.
She nodded slowly, feeling like a fool and terrified of the dangerous Av. He began to pull his hand away, but the flicker of rage and hurt that burned in her gut caused her to bite the side of his hand.
Blade hissed out a breath and leveled a glare at her. “Be careful, love. I bite back.” His lips tipped up. “Who knows? You might like it.”
Allie gasped in outrage and shoved his chest. He took a few steps back and crossed his arms. She adopted his stance, hating that she’d made a fool out of herself.
“So, what next?”
“You seduce the king.”
There was no way in hell she was doing that. They had what they wanted from her.
She yanked off her necklace and tossed it at his feet. “Pass. I refuse to do anything more for you. The only reason I’m here is to atone for a crime I didn’t commit. Now, I have proof.” She touched her ear. “Kale?”
“Yes, beautiful?” he answered immediately.
“Get me out of here. I’m done.”
A hand wrapped around her bicep. She glanced at the fingers and slowly met Blade’s stare from his immense height.
“No can do,” Kale murmured, softly in her ear comm. “You need to finish your assignment.”
“You won’t help me?” she said flatly.
“I’ll get you out of here as soon as you drug the target.”
“So much for being friends,” she whispered. Apparently, there was no honor among spies or comrades. Betrayal stung.
“Don’t be like that…”
“We’re done,” she interrupted Kale, rubbing at her chest as if she could rub the pain away.
Allie refocused on Blade’s face. Was that
even his real face? Or was it another distortion? Did she even care who he was? The answer was yes, and it hurt to admit it. It meant she cared. “Get your hands off me,” she murmured, her voice as sharp as glass.
The Av slowly released his hand, never looking away. She glanced down the hallway, the gold filigree of the molding seeming gaudy in the small space. If she kicked off her heels, could she make it back to the party?
“Don’t even think about it. I’d catch you before you took five steps.” A sigh. “Do the right thing.”
Her teeth snapped together as she spun toward Blade. “The right thing? How about you do the right thing?”
“I don’t have the luxury to do so. You owe it to—”
She scoffed. “I don’t owe you anything.” Not. One. Darn. Thing.
“You’re right. You don’t owe me anything.” He stepped closer and pointed down the hall, faint music drifting toward them. “But what about your people? Will you let your feelings get in the way of apprehending the greatest criminal our worlds have ever seen? If he’s allowed to go free, he’ll make his war crimes on Earth look like child’s play. Are you willing to walk away and have that sort of death on your hands? Can you live with that?”
Her stomach bottomed out. Could she live with that? She already knew the answer, and from the satisfied look on the Av’s face, so did he.
“Many lives are at stake, Allie.”
Her fingers curled and dug into her palms. “I hate you.” The words spewed from her like venom. For the first time in her life, she meant it. Something broke inside of her as he didn’t react to her words. “I’ll do this, but I want answers.”
“You’ll get them, just not now.”
“Once this is finished…”
He nodded. “I swear it.”
“Excuse me if I don’t believe a word from your lying trap.” She chuckled, the sound bitter. “Kale?”
“Yes?” he answered immediately, clearly listening to their conversation.
“Is Lev listening?”
A pause. “He is.”
She grinned, but it was more of a baring of teeth. “Listen here, puppet master,” she growled. “I’ll do this for my people. But afterwards, I walk, and if you dare try to wayside me, my green moonshine will be a paltry excuse for poison.”
“A threat?” Lev’s deep voice rumbled in her ear.
“Turnabout is fair play, I believe.”
“You’d threaten an Av Lock?”
“Not a threat. A promise.”
“Noted.”
“Good.”
As the line went silent, Allie threw back her shoulders and rolled her neck. Her emotions were all over the place. She felt like she was on the edge of losing it.
“You can do this. I know you can.”
She cast a scathing glare in Blade’s direction. “I don’t need your platitudes.”
His jaw clenched, nostrils flaring. “Understood.”
“This situation is so messed up,” she whispered to herself as she ran a hand down her hair and straightened her clothing. How did she get herself into these kinds of situations? She shook her head and blew out a breath. She needed to focus to get through the next couple of hours.
Blade glanced both ways and tipped his chin toward her. “Go back the way you came. The king will find you.”
She swallowed the retort on her tongue and suppressed a shiver. She could do this. The king was just a man.
One who had killed thousands.
“He won’t hurt you. I won’t let him.”
Blade had lied to her, but she still trusted his words. He’d protect her, not because he cared, but because of what she was worth.
“I’m sure you will,” she said, turning her back to him.
Heat suffused her back. “Be careful,” he rumbled. She gasped when he planted a kiss on the back of her neck.
Allie twisted around to tear into him, but he was gone. She blinked at the empty hallway. How in Sam Hell was he able to do that? She squinted at the dark corners. There’s no way he could hide there. He was just too big.
Another chill rushed through her, causing goosebumps to break out on her arms. She had no clue what she was dealing with, or whom. Every part of her involvement was a bloody joke. Stars above, she was stupid. The Av sector didn’t care if she lived or died. She was a sacrificial lamb, an asset, one they’d procured through deceit and manipulation. If she died tonight, they’d cover it up, no doubt.
She ran her hands down her dress and strode purposefully down the hallway. She wasn’t going down without a fight. They owed her the truth, and by George, she’d get it.
The king might be a mass murderer, but he was still a man, and Allie was a woman unlike any he’d ever known. She’d face the demented old dragon armed with only her moonshine and high heels. He’d never even know what hit him.
Allie rolled her shoulders back and held her chin up as she rounded the corner. She blinked as the flashing lights from the dance floor momentarily blinded her. Kale was where she’d left him, lounging with a plethora of females. His gaze connected with hers and widened slightly before shuttering.
Her smile was cold as she moved on to survey the room. She hated traitors.
They’d made a mistake when they tricked her. Only fools messed with a Southern belle. She might look sweet in her flowers and heels, but make no mistake, she could channel her inner ice queen like a pro when provoked.
She wouldn’t lose her temper now. No, she’d bury the feelings deep down until she could deal with them in the proper manner. Her green moonshine would pale in comparison to what she planned to release on the tricksters she thought were her friends.
She skipped over blood red eyes that were watching over the top of some sort of amber drink. Sloven’s attention was a physical thing. She waded into the dancing crowd, moving slowly, pretending to be the prey when, really, she was the hunter.
As she reached the other side of the room, large hands settled on her waist.
“Would you like to see my private collection?” the king whispered intimately.
Allie glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him. “I’d love to.”
His hand pressed into the small of her back, guiding her from the room. Her heels clacked against the floor as they left the revelry behind them, the music fading to a dull thump.
She licked her lips, activating the truth serum lipstick. Sloven didn’t know it yet, but leaving with her was the biggest mistake of his life.
She smiled. And they called women the weaker sex. Whoever they were, they had never met a Southern woman.
2
Brutality is Not Romantic
She should’ve been more afraid. Her heart raced as they walked farther into Sloven’s lair. Two enormous guards trailed behind them, their footsteps almost silent. The pretty monster at her side touched her left elbow, guiding her around the corner and through a pair of huge black doors.
Without thinking, Allie reached out with her right hand and ran her fingers along the black door. A smile touched her face as a memory pushed through some of the numbness that had settled over her. The doors reminded her of the barn at home. She was half tempted to smell the wood to see if it smelled like home. Curbing the impulse, she glanced up at the king, who watched her with avid interest.
Allie colored and pulled her hand from the door. “They remind me of home. What I can’t puzzle out is why they’re here.” The doors stood out from the rest of the area. Rustic while everything else had cold, clean lines.
“They’re a reminder of what once was,” Sloven said as he pushed open the doors to reveal a huge room.
She waited for him to continue on, but he didn’t. She took that as a signal he didn’t want to talk about it and scanned the room. It was opposite of what she expected. She thought the room would look like a gallery, with white clean walls and angular furniture, but it was lavish and spoke of something sinful. The walls were a deep wine color, broken only by huge gilded frames holding artwork she
wasn’t quite ready to look at.
The left side of the room held a bar that ran the entire length of the wall. Sloven led her toward it and pulled out a tall, leather barstool.
“Thank you,” she murmured as she climbed into the chair. She brushed her hand along the shiny black stone that made the countertop. Allie hid her wince as her fingers smudged the top. No one should take her anywhere. She made a mess everywhere she went.
Sloven wound around the bar, pulling his tie off and unbuttoning his top two buttons. She swallowed hard and slid her gaze to the expensive spirits behind him. She needed to keep it together. She’d been in the presence of many handsome men before. That’s all the king was.
Well, that and a murderer.
He threw his black jacket over the bar and rapped his knuckles next to it. “What’s your poison?”
Oh, the irony of those words. She was here to poison him. “I thought I was here for the art.”
“A great drink makes it all the better.” The glint in his eyes said he thought she was here for much more than the art. Fat chance.
“Touché,” she said, drumming her fingers on the bar as she scrutinized the selection. There were a million things she would have loved to try. He had some of the most exotic spirits she’d ever seen. But she wasn’t here for a date. “I’d like an old fashioned.”
Allie propped her chin on her hand and smiled at him. Let’s see if you can make that, buddy.
“What an unexpected choice.” He reached for an expensive bottle of bourbon she’d only ever read about and poured a generous amount into a glass that, from the looks of it, would rest perfectly in her palm. “Most would’ve chosen the Sai moonshine,” he commented as he added the bitters, orange, and a pinch of sugar.
