by D. N. Leo
A beam of light poured in from a far corner as if someone had pushed the door in for a few seconds and then slammed it closed. A male and female voice murmured something. They laughed. She giggled, and it sounded as if they were kissing. He heard the sound of fabric tearing, and then the woman moaned in pleasure.
“Are you sure it’s going to work? He was supposed to announce it now,” the man said.
“Yes, of course it’ll work. Have I ever failed in any of your plans?”
“No. You’re very resourceful.”
“Is that all?”
“And smart. And beautiful…”
The woman chuckled. “And what do I get for having all of those good qualities?”
“Anything you want. I promised you half of the company. What else do you want?”
Silence.
“Come on, honey, don’t give me that look. I’m married.”
“For money!”
“Yes, but I still need that money. Can you be a bit more patient? Richard will announce his resignation. He’ll go away with that silly actress. And the rest will be history.”
Leon wriggled his body hard to see how much movement he’d regained. He tried to clear his throat to see if he could make a sound. He could feel it—his voice was coming back to him.
Then he felt a puff of hot air blowing into his face. He turned and saw the face of the black cat right next to him. Its eyes glowed green, and its teeth were bared. Its lips rubbed right against his face. And if he wasn’t mistaken, he heard it growl in Babylonian, “Hush, or be dead.”
Leon tried harder to move, inching his body away from the cat. Silent, my backside! he thought. I’d rather be dead than feeling your disgusting breath blowing into my face!
His legs moved an inch or so.
His voice came back.
He shouted for help. But before the sound escaped his throat, the cat sank its teeth into his shoulder. He blacked out again.
Chapter 3
Mya felt a warm sensation wash over her when Zach embraced her from behind. He whispered into her ear. “You’re brooding, my deity. Don’t worry about the jar or the potion. We’ll get it and bring it to the Goddess. We’ll pay off all of your debts. You’ll never ever have to think about Ishtar again.”
She turned and looked at him. There was no natural sunlight in the room because she had closed the door and all the windows in their cabin at the campsite to avoid any unwelcome animal guests. Under the dim light of the table lamp, she could still see Zach’s soft green eyes. They always warmed a shade whenever he looked at her, even before they had been in a relationship. He didn’t even try to hide it. He must know the effect of that look on the female species. She could only hope he didn’t use it on every female he came across.
She played with a strand of his dark brown hair. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Not a hundred percent…”
She frowned. “Get more rest then. We can’t go anywhere if you’re not a hundred percent.” She silently cursed the female lynx Elanora. The nasty, sadistic woman had peered into Zach’s mind, read his fatal point, pointed the gun at her to distract Zach, and attacked him where he was most vulnerable.
Well, not right at the point below his shoulder on his back, but close enough. Mya shuddered. If Elanora had meant to kill Zach, he would have been dead.
He kissed her on the lips and then gently eased away. “Let’s go.”
“No, I’ll go find Leon. You stay here until you’re a hundred percent again.”
He chuckled. “Why would you want me to deteriorate?”
“What are you talking about, Zach?”
“I’m at a hundred and fifty percent capacity.” He grinned.
She punched his chest. “Then let’s go.” She scrambled up, but he pulled her back down into his arms.
“Calm down, my deity. You can’t do anything good in the state you’re in now.”
“What state?” she said, on the verge of switching on her deity vision to check on Leon. She had refrained from doing so because Zach wasn’t in any condition to be left alone, and if she found out Leon needed help, there would be nothing she could do. “Where’s Kirra?” She spat out the question for no particular reason. It was just there, in the middle of her thought process for some reason. Well, it wasn’t much of a process, but at least it was something.
“Your mind is clogging up again, Mya. It happens whenever you panic.”
She pushed at him. “Don’t talk like you know me so well. Not long ago, you were still calling me Professor Portman.”
“And which part of that title isn’t correct?”
“The part—”
He interrupted her speech by kissing her until she melted in his arms.
“There. You’re calm now,” he said. “I know you’re worried about Leon. But he’s fine.” He glanced at his wrist unit. “And I know you want to switch on your deity mode so you can check on him. But I don’t want you to do that—I don’t like the look on your face when you’re in deity mode. It weirds me out.” He tapped his finger on the screen of his wrist unit. “The unit suggests that Leon’s vitals are healthy. Meaning he’s alive and well. Not only that, I know his location.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“You didn’t ask. Plus, I was busy kissing you.” He grinned again.
“How can you be so sure he’s fine? How can your unit tell? Is it psychic?”
Zach chuckled. “One psychic in this room is enough. I gave him some of my eudqi and appointed him as my successor, remember? So I got a sample of his blood and entered his data into the system. They track him, of course.”
She scrambled out of the bed. “You track him because eudqi is such an important energy source to Eudaiz. If anything happens to Leon, you don’t want your adversaries to sample the substance. You’d have to kill him—or so you’ve said.”
Zach stood up. “Yes, there’s that. But I do care for Leon. He’s my successor, Mya.”
“Really? So if you find Leon, and his blood or the eudqi has been taken, would you kill him?”
“If it’s already been taken, what good would it do to kill him? If I did have to kill him, it would be before the eudqi was taken. But that’s beside the point. There are many ways to take this. Why do you have to take it the wrong way?”
Mya waved her arms in the air. “I don’t know.” She whirled around. Something wasn’t right. Something was ticking her off. Calm down, she told herself.
Zach grabbed at her shoulders. “Mya, listen to me. You’re agitated and snappish. What’s happening?”
“I don’t know. This…only happens when…” She looked at him. “Oh no… It happens when someone I’m supposed to save is on my list, but I couldn’t get to my vision to check…”
Zach blew out a breath. “Okay, then check. I really do hate to see you with those blank eyes, but I would rather see that than you whirling around not knowing what to do.”
“What if it’s Leon? What if it’s Leon that I have to save, but it’s too late because I’m here!”
“I told you he’s fine. Alive. If he’s now on your list to save, that’s great because we’re going to go and get him anyway. You, he, and I will go back to Eudaiz. Everything will be fine.” He approached and held her shoulders. “Now let’s check so that you can be sure and calm down.” He smiled at her.
She nodded and was just about to switch on her deity vision.
“Knock knock!” Kirra’s voice interrupted from outside the room.
Mya stopped and looked up at Zach. He gazed into her eyes. He knew her rather well now, and she didn’t need to explain.
“It’s Kirra. She triggered your anxiety, didn’t she?” Zach asked.
“I’m afraid so.” She hadn’t had a chance to check her vision, but as soon as the name came into her mind, her agitation eased. That was a sign that she had gotten to the right subject, the one who needed her attention. All she had to do now was to switch on the vision
to find out the cause of death.
“Trouble,” Mya muttered.
“If she’s on the list of people you must save, then we will save her. How is this any different from the thousands of other lives you have saved over the years?”
“There are two lists. I’m supposed to save those on one of the lists, but I’m not allowed to save the people on the destined-to-die list. That’s part of the fine print in the Goddess’s agreement.”
“Sadistic b—”
“Shhh, you shouldn’t curse the Goddess.”
“I don’t belong to the world she rules.”
“Still, it’s not helpful, Zach.”
He nodded and sat down on the bed. “Let’s find out which list Kirra is on then.”
Mya switched on her deity vision.
The image hit her mind like a storm from hell—a sword pierced Kirra’s heart, and her body floated and spun in a whirlwind of fire.
Mya’s knees buckled. She switched back to her human vision and found Zach holding her. Tears rolled down her face. She shuddered then regained her footing. She could feel all the muscles in Zach’s body quivering. He had somehow connected with her emotion. He released her and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead.
“It was bad, wasn’t it?”
She nodded. “I’ve never seen images before, just text. I’d get the information about the possible cause of death and the list the subject was on. But this time…all I saw was an image of Kirra. I don’t know which list she’s on.”
“What did you see?”
“She was on fire…floating. And a sword pierced her heart.”
“Anybody home?” Kirra’s voice drifted in again.
Zach opened the door to see Kirra standing outside with a smile as bright as the sunshine on her face.
SOUL MARKET - SHADOW JUSTICE - BOOK 2
Book 2 is available here
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