“Your bodyguard keeps giving me the evil eye,” Zack responded, with a nod toward the bar. Julie had been keeping a close watch since he’d arrived, probably waiting for the secret word to send in the cavalry to save her.
“She just wants to make sure I’m safe.” Sage fiddled with her new necklace while she thought of something to say that might turn the conversation back to the lighter topic of fantasy. “Can’t be too careful. You know how the story goes…”
“Truth is so much stranger than fiction,” he agreed.
Across the room, Julie was holding up a bottle of white wine, tilting it gently.
“That won’t help your case.” Sage giggled as she shook her head.
“I guess not. But not everything is a horror story.” He winked at her, and his eyes sank again to her hands. “Cool necklace. Tree of life?”
Damn, he would have to ask a question she didn’t know. “I think so.”
“C’mon, fantasy nerd,” he scoffed. “You’re wearing a mythical symbol around your neck.”
“It is? I mean. Yeah. It is!” Nervous laughter wasn’t helping her case. “It was a gift, actually, from my mom. New. I was going to look it up.”
“Can I see?” he reached out, but as the tips of his fingers grazed the metal, he pulled back as if it had stung him.
“You okay?”
“Might want to have a jeweler look at that. Sharp edge.” He smiled as he pulled his hand under the table. “Pretty, though. And yes. Tree of life for sure.”
“Might as well turn in my geek card, eh?” Sage hung her head in mock shame.
“I’m disappointed.” He chuckled. “You just aren’t the woman I thought you’d be.”
She lifted her gaze, and the moment she met his eyes, Sage knew it was a bad idea. Kryptonite, for sure. Those things should come with a warning label. “Story of my life.”
“C’mon. Let’s get out of here. I know how you can find redemption.”
He was trying so hard to get her to leave. Was Julie’s mad-dogging really that intimidating, or was there some ulterior motive? “How?”
“I know this awesome little café bookstore not far from here. They have a whole section of occult and mythology. Let’s go look up that symbol. The more you know.” He flashed that award-winning smile once more, and she caught the sharp edge of his teeth.
The prospect of a fact-finding mission in a café bookshop–a public place–minimized the danger enough to have her seriously considering it.
“Walking distance?” she asked.
“About a block or two. You got comfortable shoes?” He stood and held a hand out to help her out of the booth.
“Why not?” Sage stood on her own, without accepting his assistance. “Lead the way.” She waved to Julie on her way out, asking to have the beers put on her tab. They knew she was good for it. Sage ate almost all her meals there. She was more than good for it. Julie didn’t argue the tab, but the look on her face as Sage hit the front door said she clearly didn’t approve of her leaving with Zack.
The sun had set only a few hours before, but already the night had cooled into double digits. Still hot, but much more manageable than the blistering heat of the day. They walked a little way down the road heading away from the bar, toward Sage’s apartment complex. She thought hard, trying to picture a bookstore close to where she lived, but came up blank.
As they headed deeper down the street away from shops and into the quiet residential area, she began to wonder if she’d made a terrible mistake.
Before she could give voice to her concerns, she realized her escort had disappeared. He’d been right there only a moment ago. Where? How? Sage turned round and round, searching for Zack, calling out his name.
When there was no answer, panic sent her heart racing. She’d made a terrible mistake. She couldn’t head for home and risk Zack following her. And she couldn’t stay where she was, alone on a dark street. Sage kicked herself for not realizing it sooner. Internal alarms were never wrong. No matter how good-looking or nerdy a guy was, intuition was always right. She decided she’d better head back to the bar and the safety of friends and public spaces. She’d call Matt as soon as she got there and wait until he came home. She wheeled about and headed back to the bar.
Minutes went by in terrifying slowness, with only the sound of her feet hitting the pavement breaking the silence.
Then she heard him. From a distance he called out her name, and Sage stopped and turned around. She caught a blur, then the flapping of cloth on the wind. And before her eyes could focus though the darkness, something struck her. Pain like she’d never experienced before bloomed across her skull.
The world went sideways as the ground came up hard to greet her.
TWELVE
The world faded in and out, but each time she was able to open her eyes, the setting changed, until Sage awoke fully in a bed that was not her own. The room was unfamiliar and dark. She shot up quickly, instantly regretting the movement. Her brain felt as if it were being thrown like a tennis ball against the walls of her skull. Throbbing quickly bloomed into a full blown screaming migraine. Focusing took more effort than it should, but her instinct to survive override the pain causing her to squint.
Definitely not a place she recognized. And yet, Sage felt as if she’d been there once before. Small and dimly lit, the room housed a bed and small couch. Along the wall sat a TV cabinet and dresser. All the accoutrements of a hotel room.
Why and where were questions on her lips as her heart kicked up a notch with anxiety. Struggling to remember the last few minutes before she’d lost consciousness, Sage’s mind went to the worst possible places: kidnap, rape, human trafficking. She whimpered more from fear than the pain throbbing in her aching head.
“You get one freebie.” Grey chuckled at his snarky comment.
She whipped her head around, groaning as the pain intensified. “What the hell does that mean?”
Seeing Grey was marginally better than the scenario her mind had worked out with Zack, but equally as confusing. Still in the same leather and dark clothing he’d worn the previous night, Grey had the whole daywalker vibe working for him, all except for that stupid fedora. The hat ruined whatever effect he was trying to go for. Much as it made her want to laugh, confusion and suspicion had her struggling with what to say. How had she ended up with him? Were he and Zack working together?
“That vampire back there was about two seconds away from turning you into a darkling,” he droned, as if bored. “You’re welcome.”
She winced, reaching for the back of her head to find the ice pick causing all the pain. “I hear words coming out of your mouth, but can’t understand any of them.” For all the agony she was in, there had to be something there. All this thinking only made her headache worse. “Why the hell am I here, and who the hell are you, really?
Grey kicked his legs up on the tiny wooden coffee table. His eyes had the tired look of someone who’d been waiting for a long time–probably for her to wake up– and had used all of his energy in anticipation. “I told you before. We’re special, you and I. But you have to be willing to learn the truth.”
“We’re back to this again, are we?” Sage groaned. “Last time you threw your story at me, you left in a huff when I asked for proof.” The idea of a practical joke had long since passed, but given the circumstances, she’d much rather that were the case. “Now what? You’ll lock me in until I agree to go with you?”
“If I had my way, I’d have let the vampire take you, but my bosses say I’m to bring you in… willingly.”
“Not sure how they do things where you’re from, but kidnapping isn’t the way to get people to go anywhere with you… willingly!” She threw his words back in his face, hoping they would land as hard as the smack she’d love to give him. Stupid jerk! He deserved so much more than that for the way he’d acted toward her. But moving amplified the headache, and she was doing her best to remain as still as possible. It eased slightly when she closed he
r eyes, but–now that they were open and she was on dangerous ground– that was not a luxury she could afford. Grey might not be openly hostile, but he wasn’t exactly friendly, either.
That fact was made abundantly clear by his aggressive tone. “I saved you from the vampire who was luring you into the dark. Usually when someone rescues you, the appropriate response is ‘Thank you.’”
“How is any of what you’re saying possible?” Talking hurt nearly as much as thinking. The last time they’d spoken, it was mumbo-jumbo about gods and magic. Fantasy turned reality. “Vampires?”
“You’ve grown up in the human world with a human mentality. But you are not human, Sage.”
Hearing her name spoken like that, with such force, transported her back to her childhood, being yelled at by her mother. It wasn’t the anger she responded to. Beyond the harshness there was an undertone of care. Fear and frustration that–if the importance of the message was not being heeded– something worse would happen. Despite the fact it wasn’t her mother speaking, the tone still held sway, and Sage resigned herself to listen.
“Fine. Tell me about this other world.” She stood up slowly, taking time to balance and put one foot in front of the other, carefully, as she walked toward the ensuite bathroom to grab a towel.
“That’s not really my place.” Gray’s nonchalance ruined the previous effect his words had had on her.
“And yet you expect me to take you at face value and follow you, when clearly I already made that poor choice with the guy back there.” Moving only worsened her pain. Ice would help. Sage made her way toward the bed with all the speed of a grandma after hip surgery. She grabbed the ice bucket from the dresser as she shuffled past. “What did you call that guy back there – a vampire?” She stuffed a handful of ice into the bath towel she was holding.
“Yeah, you couldn’t tell?” More condescension. That was exactly what she needed to hear from him.
“How was I supposed to tell he was a creature that isn’t supposed to exist?” Makeshift icepack in hand, she used her hair tie to close it before setting it on her head. Grey started to snicker at her, but she wasn’t about to take grief over her first aid skills. She pointed to her head and proudly said, “Life hacks.”
That had Grey doubling over with laughter. “Where were your mad life-hacking skills back there? You completely missed the fangs and how cold and pale he was.”
So much for showing off. He had her there. She had recognized something other about Zack at the bar. But beyond drooling over a cute guy giving her attention, she’d ignored the facts. He did have unusually sharp teeth. His eyes were unnaturally blue. She should have paid better attention to the inner alarms screaming at her. But the desire to be wanted had clouded her judgment. So much for that win she’d wanted. “We met in a bar, at night.” A pathetic defense, but better than saying nothing at all.
That wiped the smile from his face. “Famous last words.”
“Yeah. I get it. Game over.” Ice worked quickly to cool the angry throbbing of her head, but embarrassment turned up the temperature, warming her cheeks. “I’m paying attention now, and if you think I’m just going to gallivant off with some jerk who lurks in the shadows and is trying as hard as he can to get me to follow him into the unknown, then you have another thing coming, mister.”
“Oh, tough girl. I think I might’ve hit a nerve that time,” he taunted.
She scowled. “Does it make you feel like a big man or something, taking pot shots at me?”
“Feel free to take a shot of your own, if you can.”
Tempting as it was, she wasn’t in fighting form just yet. “Maybe when I’ve recovered.”
“Anytime.” Grey let his feet drop to the ground and opened his arms out wide, daring her.
He might have saved her, but his bedside manner made Sage wish the vampire had just taken her out. There was no escape at this point, though despite his attitude, he’d piqued her curiosity enough to wonder how much truth he had to tell. “Give me some reason to trust what you say.”
“I saved you from him, didn’t I?”
“That remains to be seen. What exactly was he going to do to me? Drink my blood?” Sage asked, feeling absolutely silly to be discussing vampires as anything more than fiction.
“For starters, yes.” His reply came without any sense of irony.
“So he was going to kill me?” she continued, to lead him toward answers.
“Worse.”
“Explain.” Extracting information from him was only making her head hurt worse. She was sure she’d get more information talking to a brick wall.
“Despite what you look like, you’re not human.” He whipped his finger at her like an accusation. “You wouldn’t just die. Vampires as a species are an abomination. Stolen magic. Once human, they are made immortal through removing that which makes them mortal and replacing it with the essence of magic. But what they gain comes at a price. They’re cursed creatures. And because of that, their kind can do great damage to our people.”
“But aren’t we already immortal?” She regretted asking the question the moment the words left her lips. For every answer she got, it created more questions, and rather than clear things up, sent her further and further down the rabbit hole.
“Yes, we are. And should they remove from us what makes us special and replace it with their curse…” He let the words trail off as if expecting her to understand.
She didn’t. Sage shrugged and shook her head, utterly confused. He might as well have been speaking a different language.
That earned her a disappointed groan. “He would have drained your body of blood, extinguishing your inner light. Taking away your magical essence. In other words, you would die!”
“But you said–”
He growled with frustration. “Between the final moments of life and death, he would share his blood with you. And as that happened, all sense of self and consciousness would be erased from your body. All that would remain would be your strength. You’d become a mindless slave, with him as your master.”
She wished he would crack a smile or give any indication of joking, but his deadpan delivery rang with more truth than she was prepared to handle.
“Why?” The words escaped her mouth in a whispered breath before she could stop herself from asking another question she really didn’t want to know the answer to.
“We’re considered neutral on the supernatural spectrum. Good and evil are always battling for the upper hand.”
“How is that an advantage?”
“They gain a very strong and sun-resistant slave.” Grey shrugged.
“And what of the other side?”
“Other side of what?”
“Good and evil. If evil makes you a lifeless zombie, what do the good… creatures… do?”
“Good by nature does not do evil,” he replied snarkily.
“Okay, so I stay away from vampires and my life is perfect. Thanks for the tip. I need to go home now and eat a bottle of pain killers.” Sage stood to leave, feeling woozy from the rush of sudden movement.
“We’re neither good nor evil. We balance both sides. Is that what you’re passive-aggressively trying to ask me?”
“You know, if you’d just be a little more forthcoming with info, this would be so much easier. Just lay it out there,” Sage demanded, clutching at her forehead as if she might grasp the pain and pull it out. The ice from her makeshift pack had melted enough to saturate her hair, and cold drops of water began to trail down her face like tears. She’d have allowed herself to cry if she were alone. Between pain and confusion, Sage felt near the point of cracking up.
“We are the agents of order among the warring supernatural factions. First thing you have to understand is that no one race is good or evil. It’s the individual that chooses how to use their gifts. Those whom you might perceive as angelic might be as slippery as that guy in the alley tonight, and those whom you consider demonic can be as sweet as candy. It is not for
us to decide who is what. We are the ones who bring back order to either side when rules are broken and the balance has been shifted. We’re neutral and must maintain that neutrality for all.”
Spoken like a well-rehearsed speech. He might as well have handed her a pamphlet.
Her thoughts suddenly shifted to Matt. He was as normal as they came. Human, like she thought she was. “And where do humans fit into this equation?”
“Humans are the most deadly of all. They must never know of our existence. That, all sides agree on.”
“Why fear them? That makes no sense. They’re not magic or cursed.”
Grey all but rolled his eyes, scoffing at her comment as if she had just told him the sky was green and the grass blue. “Humans outnumber us on every front, and are prone to extreme acts of violence when provoked by fear. They’ll eradicate their own in order to destroy a threat.”
“So we’re the balance, you say? Like a supernatural police force? While keeping the humans from knowing about us?”
“If you must dumb it down to that level, sure.”
Whoever his boss was, Sage couldn’t wait to meet them – if for nothing else, to complain about the horrible way he mocked and ridiculed her with every breath. His words were beginning to make sense, a reality scarier than any nightmare she’d ever had. But the way he was handling her during this terrifying revelation only made things worse. How could anyone be expected to just accept this alternate reality the way he presented it? Her own mother worked for ASSET and had never even hinted at anything supernatural or dangerous. Neither had Mark, for that matter. So many secrets! How was anyone to be sure what was truth or fantasy? Sage gave herself a moment to calm her nerves and slow her heart before responding. Beyond all the scary stuff, it did seem as if he or the ominous bosses he claimed to work for had things relatively under control. That meant there was order and protection, and maybe even people who could teach her with patience and understanding. “Why us?”
A Weapon Of Magical Destruction Page 9
