by Sadie Jacks
“How did they contact you the first time?” Xander asked, pulling my attention back to the screen. His brows were pinched.
“A link in a client’s email. It was supposed to have been Cloud access, but it took me to a secure, deep web chat.”
“How did you know it was a deep web chat? Have you used the dark and deep web before?” Xander asked, his face so eager and bright.
I felt bad crushing his hopes. “It was nothing I’d ever seen before. My contact told me what it was a couple days after the chat when I asked.”
Xander looked deflated. Shrugged. Shook his head. After a second, his facial expression brightened. He leaned forward toward the camera. “Do you know what date it came in? I might be able to go through your computer and find it.”
“I deleted the email, just like they told me to.” I smiled sadly.
Xander winked at me and chuckled. “Just give me an idea, sweetheart. I’ll see what I can find.”
I gave him the particulars.
“Back in a second.” He disappeared off screen.
Saint and Asher moved forward. “Keep going, Ki-Ki. Xan can hear us still.”
I explained everything. The shock and instinctual disbelief. But over the course of two weeks, they’d managed to convince me they were real, and they wanted to help.
“They knew I was going to lose an account. That I would be called to task by my father.” I had to swallow. “It happened two days later. It wasn’t quite in the way it happened, but I thought that just spoke to their sincerity and honesty. They weren’t setting me up; they just wanted to help me escape my prison.”
My shoulders slumped. “They sucked me in, made me into a puppet. I believed everything they said. I’m such an idiot.” I covered my cheeks with my hands as shame washed through my belly.
“No.” It was Saint, his voice firm, his gaze drilling into mine. “You couldn’t have known. Even though you’re a prisoner, someone who should hate the world and everyone in it, you have a good heart, honey. They played that angle, built your trust. They’re the ones at fault, not you.”
“Damn fucking straight, Ki-Ki.” Asher jerked his head in a fierce nod.
Saint cleared his throat. “If you had a phone, why didn’t you just call Enforcement? A friend? Someone to help you?”
“I had no friends, no ‘someone’ to help me. My parents have too many Enforcement officers on their payroll. I…” I cleared my throat, “I did try once. To get out, get some help. It didn’t end well. For me or the person I asked to help me.”
“What happened, honey?” Saint asked.
I shook my head. I couldn’t share that shame. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
We all sat in silence for long minutes.
“I agree with them.” Ransom squeezed my shoulders. “There’s no way you could have known, and no reason for you not to believe everything they said.”
I opened my mouth to explain why that day, why that moment.
“I’m back,” Xander said as he slid into frame. “I agree with the rest. Do you have the phone they contacted you on?”
I shut my mouth and nodded. “Give me a second.” I got off my stool and went to my room. I still felt like the world’s biggest idiot, but I could live with that.
I’d gotten lucky the day I lost the account. Other people had been there in the office with us, and that meant my father couldn’t punish me the way his dark gaze had promised. I shuddered remembering the potential of agony that day. I’d been summarily dismissed, sent back to my apartment, and told to wait for his arrival later. Twenty-eight fucking years old and still terrified of my parents.
He never showed. Waiting for the pain and violence had been almost more than I could bear. That’s when I decided to take my contact’s offer. I couldn’t afford to stay in my life any longer. I would either die because of my gift, or because of some idea of displeasure on my parents’ part.
Retrieving the phone from my hiding spot, I came back out to the kitchen.
“If it lines up, this might actually work to our advantage,” Xander said.
“What lines up?” I asked. I waved the phone in the air.
Xander’s almost black eyes lit up. “Ransom will hook it into our system.”
I handed it over.
“If what lines up, Xander?” I asked while Ransom followed Xander’s direction.
“If they called you from the phone, they might have left some digital footprints. Was the phone left for you somewhere?”
“In a planter outside the elevator on my floor. I acted like I’d dropped my pen.”
“So it was given to you. Perfect.” Xander’s eyes almost closed in ecstasy.
I laughed. “I’m glad I could make you feel good, Xander.”
His eyes opened, so dark a brown it looked almost black. “I’ll let you make me feel good any day, sweets.”
Instead of embarrassed, I felt heat kindle in my belly. I smiled at him.
All three guys on the computer screen sucked in a breath.
“Easy, guys. We have to save her first,” Ransom said. “We also don’t know if she can touch any of you without hurting herself. That’s if she wants to play with all of us.” He smirked. “Or just me,” he added.
Asher opened his mouth. Saint slapped the back of his head before anything could come out of it.
I felt my core tug and soften. The more I thought about it, the more open to all of it I was becoming.
A series of beeps came through the phone and the computer at the same time. Xander thrust his fists into the air, punching it in victory. “Fucking yes!” Concentration settled on his face, pulling him out of the conversation.
Asher pushed his twin’s chair off to the side. Xander didn’t seem to notice. “He’ll be back once he finds what he’s looking for.”
“Now about the book,” Saint said.
Chapter 38 – Ransom
She was thinking about it. Seriously considering it. I should be overjoyed, but part of me wanted to wrap her up and keep her all to myself. She still might be just mine. She might not be able to touch the others.
I blew out a breath. It doesn’t matter. Not yet anyway. We had to keep her safe. From her parents, from whoever contacted her. From fucking OTIS. Wrapping her up and stealing her away was sounding better and better.
“Taryk and Atlas sent some pictures a couple nights ago,” Saint said. “They’re still in negotiations with the museum about the book. The parts they sent over, those are illuminated leaves from the late 1100s to early 1200s. Three pictures from the bestiary section and seven pages from the scientific section. I’ll send the pages over so you can look at them.” He hit a couple of buttons on his computer. Within moments, the files popped up on our screen.
“Got ‘em.”
“According to Taryk and Atlas, The Lost Ones is one of the earliest books ever discovered. There’s no single language that runs from beginning to end. Everything from runes to Old English with enough variety to need an entire university’s linguistics department to decipher. If you look at the first of the three bestiary pictures, you’ll see why they sent it,” Saint said.
I hit the button that would bring up the pictures. The details were stunning, so intricate and rich.
Kiema gasped as she reached out a hand to trace the figures on the page. Lions, wolves, other big cats I couldn’t name, dragons, rats or rodents, bears, tigers. Each was beautifully rendered.
One of the pages was broken up into cells or frames. A man stood tall in the first frame. In the second, he appeared next to a tall spirit of some kind. The spirit joined with the man in the third frame. The man fell, his face distorted in agony as something pushed from his stomach. In the fifth frame, the man was partially beast, but his expression had changed from pain to pleasure. The last frame the man was gone, except for the shape of his eyes. The beast stood tall and proud, whether on four feet or two.
The second and third leaves showed more transformations.
“There are no
females shifting form,” Kiema pointed out.
“There’s got to be,” Asher said. His brow furrowed as he presumably scrolled his set of pictures. “Fuck. You’re right, Ki-Ki.”
“What about the scientific pages? Any females in there?” I asked as I changed the pictures on our computer.
Asher scrolled through their set. “Shit. Not even in animal form.”
“So all shifters are male?” Kiema asked. I could see her wide eyes in the reflection off the computer screen.
“I guess that’s where we get the idea that men are animals,” I joked.
She snorted and nodded. “Probably.”
Asher and Saint chuckled.
“The scientific pictures look more like old anatomy drawings. Skin and muscle pulled away in different sections. Notes and opinions on certain parts.” Kiema pointed at the various pictures.
“If you look at the last page in the scientific section,” Saint directed.
I flipped to the right page.
“Read the last caption.”
“It is the opinion of this Observer that all these creatures are from the metaphysical realm. They are both similar and dissimilar from their natural-born counterparts. This Observer has been unable to procure a living sample of any subject found within these pages. All obtained subjects were frozen in mid-shift: part man/part beast. Until living subjects can be located, all further study would be speculative instead of concrete. This Observer is uninterested in speculative discovery,” Kiema read it aloud.
“Was this the last entry in the book?” she asked.
“Unknown at this point,” Saint answered.
“Where is this section found in the book?” I asked.
Saint shook his head. “Taryk and Atlas should have more info when they get back.”
“Are there any legible captions with the bestiary pictures?” I moved back to those pictures.
“There’s one, but it’s only a partial. Muliebris animi mutatio procedit ignis. Dr. Atlas says that loosely translates to female soul starts the fire transformation.” Saint looked at something on the table, nodded his head. “Yeah. I got that right.”
“Why do you differentiate Atlas and Dr. Atlas? Are they not the same person?” Kiema asked.
I laughed. “Dr. Atlas is the bossy, overly technical medical professional. Atlas is still bossy, but he has a little more humor.”
“You’ll understand once you meet him,” Saint offered.
Kiema nodded.
“Any idea on their ETA?” I asked.
“Atlas sent us a message: These imbecilic dullards must meet with their board. I’ve made an offer they can’t refuse. Our departure should be imminent after negotiations are closed,” Asher read it. “That was almost two days ago now.”
I looked at Kiema, one eyebrow raised.
She chuckled. “I think I’m beginning to understand.”
Xander slid back into frame. “The phone was a burner. So not a lot to go on. However, the carrier data shows that it was bought and activated in North Cross. The number they have programmed in is also a burner. Fortunately for us, they forgot to turn off the GPS data once they gave the device to Kiema. Once the phone was activated, it started sending location data to the nearest tower. Address of 1 North High Court East.”
“That’s the building across the fountain. Just to the south of Feuer Tower,” Kiema said.
“Right. I checked all the registration and real estate info of the residences and businesses. A couple of them looked interesting for OTIS fronts. I found one, Apollo Inc., that looked the most promising, but they’re a music and dance company. I’ll keep looking.”
“What are you thinking, honey?” Saint asked.
I looked down at Kiema’s face. It was scrunched in thought.
“Xander can you look up Apollo and serpents, please?”
He looked a little unsure, but set himself to the task. Moments later he spoke, “Damn, sweets, you’re good. Apollo, Olympian in Greek and Roman religions, god of the sun and light. Also, god of dance, music, poetry, healing, and diseases. Probably more. Turns out Apollo was getting busy with his fellow goddesses. Apollo became the happy daddy to a bouncing baby Asclepius.” He hit a couple of buttons with a flourish.
“The Rod of Asclepius is a staff with a serpent crawling up its length.”
A beep signaled Xander had sent us something. I hit the button. A stylized picture of a serpent climbing a staff appeared on the screen.
“That’s it. That’s the picture I saw in my father’s office,” Kiema said.
Chapter 39 – Kiema
“I’ll start digging into the Apollo, Inc. files. According to their homepage, they’ve been in business since the mid-1960s,” Xander said and left the screen again.
“I think we should work under the assumption that OTIS reached out to Kiema,” Saint said. “It seems to fit the most pieces of the puzzle with the least effort.”
I nodded as Ransom agreed from behind me.
“We’re going to need the specifics of the plan they hashed out with you, Kiema,” Ransom said.
Saint and Asher nodded. “We should wait for Taryk for that though. He’s our security chief,” Saint added for my benefit.
“Got it. That’s fine with me. My brain is really full right now. I might go lay down, if that’s okay with all of you.” I looked at the two men on the screen, got their nods.
Ransom squeezed my shoulders. “Of course, angel. Go take a break. I’ll come get you if something new comes up.”
I tilted my head, kissed his fingers.
“Thank you so much, guys. Ransom’s lucky to have such wonderful people in his life.” I got up and hurried to my room. The tears pushing at the back of my throat were about to come rushing out and I didn’t want the strong men to see them.
I slammed the door behind me.
I’d known from a very early age that I had no value outside of lining my parents’ pockets. I’d grown up with that knowledge, lived that truth. It was one thing to know it. It was another thing to understand it and another to have proof to back up the fact that my parents were ruthless and money- and power-hungry.
To find out they could be part of a secret magical society that might be behind missing people wasn’t something I could easily digest.
My stomach twisted, pushing bile up my throat. Rushing to the bathroom, I emptied my stomach into the toilet. My heart hurt as much as my belly at the thought of those men and women, boys and girls, who’d needed answers and had been given a life sentence like mine.
As much as I’d been a prisoner, at least mine had been a gilded cage. I had every material thing I could’ve hoped for or dreamed of. I had the freedom to explore any topic that interested me. Unless OTIS was exceptionally altruistic, the people they had taken were probably not living in gilded cages.
A flame flickered to life in my chest. My parents played a part in keeping these people as nothing more than cattle. I would bet my life that I would be one of the few instead of the many in terms of quality of care. My parents wouldn’t get away with it. I was escaping that life. I would be part of the efforts to help others escape their living hells as well. Even if I had to do it alone, I’d try to help as many of these people as humanly possible.
Fire lighting my spirit, I pushed back from the toilet and stood up. While I was brushing my teeth, another thought occurred to me. I had access to a doctor now. Not to mention a crap ton of super sexy, super intelligent men. Rinsing my mouth out, I smiled at my reflection in the mirror.
“You got this,” I murmured.
Damn fucking straight I did.
I stormed out of my room, the door smashing against the wall. “Ransom.”
His head whipped around, his face showing his surprise. “You’re looking better. Must have been quite the nap.” He glanced at the clock over the stove. “That lasted maybe ten minutes.”
“Really, I just threw up.”
Snickers sounded from the computer.
; “I have an idea. A mission, really. And, if you guys are interested in it, I’d like you to help me.” I sashayed across the living room floor. My bare feet striking the hardwood like the blows I wanted to deal to my parents.
“What’s the mission, sexy?” Asher called. “You know what? Doesn’t matter. I’m in.”
“Count me in,” Xander called from off-screen.
“I’ll help in whatever way I can, honey,” Saint said softly.
“Obviously, I’m in as well. But I’d still like to hear about this mission,” Ransom said as he waved me over to the island where he sat in front of the computer. He moved to get off the chair.
I settled him back down with a hand on his shoulder and sat on his lap. I buried the smile when his body jerked beneath mine.
“Whatever’s gotten into you, Ki-Ki, make sure it’s still burning when you and I meet in person,” Asher said.
I laughed, low and throaty. “I’ll do that, Asher.” My words stalled Saint’s hand from smacking into Asher’s head.
Asher pumped his fist into the air.
Ransom wrapped his arms around my waist, nuzzled my hair. “Be careful,” he whispered in my ear. “You can’t promise anything. We still don’t know if you can touch them.”
I felt my heart tug. I nodded. I had to keep that eventuality in mind until we could discover the truth for ourselves.
“My mission…I’m going to take down my parents. I’d like to save as many people as I can from OTIS, as well. Which reminds me. I need Dr. Atlas to look at what I puked up in the toilet.”
Chapter 40 – Ransom
The erection that had been pushing against Kiema’s hip lost a little steam. For a number of reasons. Not the least of which was the idea that she wanted to take on her parents, and maybe even OTIS. From the set of her chin, she’d do it without anyone’s help, too.
“Angel, that’s going to be quite the project,” I said.
“I know,” she nodded. “But I figure with all of your help, I’ll be able to help them. I can’t let my parents be part of treating anyone the way they’ve treated me, Ransom. I just can’t. That’s working under the most positive assumption they’re being treated even that well.” She looked up at me, her pale gray eyes stark and fierce.
