No. This wasn’t forever. Once her debt was paid, Juliet would leave her alone and she could go back to her life. The sooner she finished her next mission, the sooner she got to her end goal.
“Where are we going today?” she asked Juliet.
Juliet finished packing her bag and gestured for Melanie to follow her. “Let’s take a ride.”
“An herbal shop?” Melanie stared out the tinted car window some time later. Korean and English covered the windows, boasting anti-aging teas and anti-wrinkle cream. “What are we doing at an herbal shop?”
Juliet opened the car door and stepped out. “This is where our next con artist works.”
Melanie followed, a trickle of unease racing up her spine as the two men in the front of the car opened their doors.
“What’re they doing?” she whispered to Juliet. “I thought they stayed in the car.”
“It’s fine. Just play along.”
The jingle of bells cut off any further conversation. A short Korean woman looked up from behind the desk that sat in the middle of the room. The four walls of her business were covered with different bottles of every shape and size. The air stunk of burnt tea, or maybe that was incense. Melanie couldn’t quite tell.
“Good morning.” Her accent was heavy. She got up from her chair and came over to them, her face crinkling as she smiled. Up close, Melanie could make out the streaks of gray that hid in her short, black hair.
“Good morning,” Juliet returned.
“How can I help you?”
Juliet held her hand up to her heart. “Well, you see, I’ve had this terrible cough as of late, and the doctors might be worried it’s cancer, but I don’t think it is. I’m far too young, so I was wondering if you had any pills that could help my lungs.”
Melanie balked at the lie.
The old woman held her hand out, close to where Juliet’s rested on her chest. “May I?” she asked.
Juliet dropped her arm. “By all means.” Her eyes met Melanie’s and glittered with triumph.
Melanie shifted nervously.
The woman placed her hand on Juliet’s chest and closed her eyes. “Just breathe deeply,” she instructed Juliet.
Juliet went along with the farce and did as she was told.
The woman frowned after a few moments and dropped her withered hand. “I will show you something that should help.” She shuffled past Juliet to the far corner, where she pulled a bottle with a picture of lungs on the front. “Take this twice a day, it will help.”
Juliet took the bottle and turned it over in her hand. “Hmm, $72. That’s a hefty price, don’t you think?”
The woman waved away the comment and shuffled back behind her desk. “It’s good. In a few weeks your cough will be gone.”
The bell jingled and in came the two suits from their vehicle. They both stopped and stationed themselves by the door.
Melanie’s pulse spiked.
So did the old lady’s, if her face was any indication. “What’s going on here?”
Juliet slapped the pill bottle down on the desk. The sound made Melanie jump.
The old woman’s attention snapped back to Juliet, who smiled sweetly. “Is this what you tell all your customers after you heal them?”
The woman’s dark brown eyes widened fractionally. Her gaze darted to the door and back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please leave.”
This apparently wasn’t the correct answer. One of the suits locked the front door and closed the blinds. He kept his back to them, watching outside the window.
“Let me ask something different then,” Juliet said. “Did you notice that nothing was wrong with me when you touched me? Didn’t you think it odd that you couldn’t find anything to fix? I bet you tried anyway, right?” She inhaled deeply and exhaled. “My lungs have always been in perfect order. I just wanted to see what you’d do if I claimed to be ill. This is how you make your living, isn’t it? You get customers with ailments, you fix them with your powers, and sell them some expensive sugar pills, telling them it will heal them, when you’ve already cured them of their sickness.”
“Please,” the woman said, clasping her hands out in front of her. “I don’t hurt anyone.”
“I’m afraid your time has run out,” Juliet stated coldly. She turned to Melanie.
It took Melanie a moment before she understood why Juliet stared at her so intently. “Me?” She shook her head. “I—I.” She gulped and started over. “Can I talk to you?”
Juliet sighed and nodded to the man at the door. He came over and stood behind the old woman, a heavy hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place.
Melanie tried to block out how frightened the Korean woman looked, how small she appeared next to the hulking man next to her.
Melanie turned her back on them to whisper to Juliet, “What are we doing here? This old lady wouldn’t hurt a fly! She wants to keep her powers, and like she said earlier, she’s not hurting anyone. In fact, I’d say she’s helping people.”
Juliet stared her right in the eye. “Not everyone we come across is going to be willing to part with their powers. This is your last training exercise. The last type of person you will encounter—the most resistant.”
“I can’t. She’s helping people,” she hissed.
“And making money off of them by selling them sugar pills! There is no black and white, Melanie. This job operates in a whole mess of gray.”
“Well, maybe I don’t like gray,” she shot back.
“Boo-hoo. I’ve got news for you, Miss Vyntra. No one likes the gray. Sometimes the gray makes you question your actions, your morals, what’s just and what’s not, but you do it anyway because the overall good is what is at stake here.”
Pain and remorse swirled in the blue depths of Juliet’s eyes along with more secrets than Melanie could probably ever count. Could it be possible Juliet didn’t want to do this job either? Was Juliet questioning her sense of right and wrong every day like Melanie? What horrible deeds had Juliet done in her past to get to where she was?
She shook her head again. “I can’t.”
Juliet locked her jaw. “If you don’t, someone else will. There’s no other ending to this scene except the one we came for.”
Melanie’s throat tightened. “I refuse.”
“Fine.” Juliet huffed. “Samuel, call for Trina.”
Two minutes later, a knock sounded at the door. The suit opened it to let in another Asian woman who looked to be in her late thirties, early forties, with a delicate bone structure and pale skin. Her dark eyes surveyed the scene, resting on Melanie for a heartbeat. She sneered at her. “You are weak.”
Melanie jerked. “Now wait just a minute—”
“Enough,” Juliet cut in. “Trina, your target.” She dipped her head to the herbalist, who was now silently crying.
Melanie stepped forward, but a strong hand fell to her shoulder. She looked up to find a pair of pitch-black sunglasses staring back at her. “Unhand me.” She tried to squirm away. His fingers dug further into her flesh. Melanie winced. “You can’t do this.” She twirled around to face the others.
No one paid her any attention.
Trina loomed over the old woman, who now sobbed freely in Korean. Melanie’s gut wrenched and she struggled again. The hand on her shoulder turned into two hands clasped around her upper arms.
When Trina placed her hand against the woman’s forehead, Melanie wanted to turn away, but she couldn’t. It was like watching a horrible car accident.
Trina remained motionless, eyes closed, while the old woman thrashed, trying to sever the connection between them. Shouts burst from her lips, heavy with tears. “Please,” Melanie could make out in between the Korean. “Please!”
Suddenly her body bowed, like someone was sucking the heart right out of her chest.
Melanie knew it was the end.
Trina jerked back, the old woman falling into the man at her back. “It is done,” she said curtly.
“Good,” Juliet said.
Melanie twisted from her captor. He let her go.
Trina left without a word, leaving Melanie with Juliet and her two suited friends.
She stomped to Juliet and drilled her finger into the woman’s ample chest. “This is not what I signed up for,” she seethed.
Juliet knocked her hand away. Despite being a handful of inches shorter than Melanie, she stared her down. “This is exactly what you signed up for— you just failed to read the fine print.” She stormed out, leaving Melanie to either trail after her or stay in the shop with the unconscious woman the guard had placed in her chair behind the counter.
She went after Juliet.
“Fine, I resign.” Melanie dogged her every step.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Juliet said in a tight voice as they took their seats in the back of their vehicle that was parked outside the herbal shop. “You refused orders. You made me look like a fool in there.”
“I wasn’t refusing orders. I was acting human.”
Juliet scoffed. “I let you spend too much time with Joel. It was necessary, but I underestimated his ability to brainwash you.”
“You think Joel made me feel this way? Joel had nothing to do with this. This is my moral compass telling me you guys are screwy.”
“You failed your assignment.”
Melanie threw herself back into her seat. “Oh, goody.”
Juliet glared at the back of the headrest in front of her.
The rest of the ride continued in silence, giving Melanie plenty of time for her guilt to eat away at her. Twice she had to blink back the tears. She wanted out. She’d been wrong, so wrong about so many things.
When they pulled up to their building of operation, Mr. Richardson was already waiting for them.
Juliet saw him. “Great,” she mumbled.
“What the fuck happened?” he roared as they made their way inside. “What is she still doing here?” He jerked his chin at Melanie.
She was done listening to this dickhead. “You think I want to be here? Well, guess what? I don’t, so if you’re dismissing me, I’ll be on my way.” She spun on her heel, but Juliet’s words stopped her short.
“We’re not finished with her. She failed her assignment, true; she’s not for us. That means our time here is nearly over. We have one more target to hit.”
Mr. Richardson crossed his arms over his massive chest and grunted. “The Guild of Truth.”
Melanie’s blood turned to ice. “What?” She spun. In the back of her mind, she always knew this was coming. It’s what Juliet had said from the beginning, but somehow she’d convinced herself that they would leave it be—let the guild be. Juliet had dismissed Joel before when Melanie had brought him up in conversation, so why go back to him now?
Mr. Richardson spoke over her as if she didn’t exist. “What do we do about her? She knows too much; she’ll warn them.”
Juliet turned on Melanie, a feral smile tugging at her lips. “I don’t think she will. In fact, I think she’s going to help us. Call it our last payment.”
Melanie stood her ground. “No way.”
“Did you think our services were for free? We had an agreement and you voided it. But I have another payment plan in place.”
“You think I’m going to help you out of some obligation I feel?” Melanie laughed.
Juliet didn’t look perturbed in the least. “If you don’t pay up, we take back what we gave you. In this case, your brother.”
Melanie’s nails dug into the palms of her hand. “Is this how you get your cooperation? Blackmail? Is this how they got you?”
Juliet remained silent.
“What do they have on you?” she demanded.
“What’ll it be, Melanie?” Juliet cut off any further questioning. “Your brother or nothing at all?”
Melanie’s mouth snapped shut. “You can’t do this.”
Juliet rolled her eyes. “Please, we can and with our resources you know how easy it would be. We probably wouldn’t even have to resort to supernatural methods. Nathan was overjoyed when we helped him. He feels as we do and would love to come to our aid. He’d work for us in a heartbeat, but that’s not the only thing he was interested in when we visited. He had quite the gleam in his eye when he looked at me.” She grinned. Melanie ground her teeth. “I’d even go so far as to say he fancies me. Getting him to go on a date would be child’s play, and as much as I’d like to have him as an employee, sometimes sacrifices have to be made. You know better than anyone, Melanie, how horribly wrong dates can go.”
It took a second for her meaning to hit.
“It was you?” Her voice came out barely above a whisper. “You’re the ones who rammed us off the bridge in Newport?”
Juliet shrugged, neither denying nor acknowledging the act.
She thought back to her training after the accident. “You wanted me to become … full-forced or whatever.”
“You were supposed to be our newest weapon.”
Melanie cringed at the way Mr. Richardson said weapon.
Juliet nodded. “And while we would have loved to add you to our roster of employees, it appears you are unwilling to do so. In that case, I’m offering you a deal. You help us with this final mission, we tick the last big organized group of supernaturals we know about off our list, we leave the Orange County area, you have your brother just like you wanted, and everyone goes back to their normal lives.”
“You missed the part where I said ‘go to hell.’ I’m not helping you strip Joel and his entire guild. I’d never do that to him. I lo—” She cut herself short, shocked at her slip.
Juliet seized the opening. “You love him.”
Mr. Richardson gave an exaggerated sound of disgust. “Who cares?”
“What if we spared him?” Juliet bartered.
“What?” Mr. Richardson exploded. “You can’t—”
“Silence!”
Mr. Richardson clenched his jaw but refrained from speaking.
“I’m in charge here.” Juliet’s face was flushed. “Is that what it’ll take, Melanie? If you agree to turn in the rest of his guild, we’ll let him go. You can have your brother and your lover. That’s my final offer. Take it or leave it. And please take into consideration that if you leave it, you won’t be leaving here.”
Melanie’s stomach flipped. Bile rose in the back of her throat.
She opened her mouth to seal her fate.
Chapter 30
“You look horrible,” Niella said as she opened the door for Melanie a few days later.
Melanie didn’t bother with a response. She brushed past Niella and took a seat on her luxurious sofa. The soft cushions were heaven, and Melanie wanted nothing more than to drift to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes she was haunted with images of the Korean woman. Her red-rimmed eyes as she’d sobbed, the fear in her face when Trina had come for her.
Melanie didn’t even know her name. How horrible was that?
“Melanie?” Niella rolled to her and in a rare show of concern, touched her arm.
“How’re you feeling?” Melanie blatantly avoided her question.
Niella’s gaze narrowed. Clearly Melanie wasn’t fooling anyone in this room, but luckily for her, Niella dropped it. “Better,” she admitted. “Less visions, more periods of lucidity. Even the guild has noticed my increased mood.”
She swallowed back the sickness she felt rising.
“Shall we get started?” She held her hand out to Niella. She was anxious to get the Dreamer’s power. Niella had mentioned that Dreams could be focused if the user concentrated on a specific person. Melanie wanted to know if the Korean woman would be okay. She wanted to give herself some kind of peace of mind, even if she didn’t deserve it.
Niella held out her hand but drew it back fractionally when Melanie reached for it. “If you need to talk, you know I’m probably the only one in the guild who can actually keep a secret, right?”
Melanie smiled.
Her first genuine smile in what felt like ages. “I sure hope so.”
She grasped Niella’s hand.
• • •
Joel paced in the lobby.
“Cut it out,” Niella snapped. “You’re giving me a headache.”
He shot her a dark look. “Have you noticed anything odd about Melanie?”
Niella seemed to focus harder on her paperwork. “Not a thing,” she said blithely.
Joel frowned. “Then why are you avoiding my gaze?”
“I’m not. I’m working. Sydney pays me to work. I work. I don’t get paid to look at you, now do I?”
He resumed his pacing. “I don’t like this. Juliet’s little group has abandoned their building, and I bet all my Star Wars collectibles that they didn’t just get up and leave. They moved. I’ve checked every day for the past couple days and not a peep.”
“And you look like hell for it,” she conceded.
Joel grumbled under his breath. “Aren’t you the least bit afraid of them attacking us?”
“Terrified,” she said without feeling. “But there’s not much I can do about it.” She jiggled her wheelchair to emphasize her point.
Joel paced some more. He didn’t like this, and he didn’t know if his unease was rubbing off on Melanie or if something else was bothering her. The last few days he’d hardly seen her. When she wasn’t working the night shift, she was over at Niella’s. And whatever girl code they had going on between them meant he couldn’t join in on their plans.
The one time he and Melanie hung out, she’d had large circles under her eyes. She claimed she was fine, but Joel knew it was a lie. And that hurt too. Why would she lie to him?
But what really drew his curiosity was the phone call he’d received from her yesterday. She told Joel to assemble the guild, like he was Nick Fury calling forth the Avengers. Melanie wanted to speak to them and needed them all in one place. He didn’t know why, but his Spidey sense was tingling, which was ridiculous. Juliet had put his suspicions to rest. If Melanie wanted to talk to them, maybe she learned something of importance?
“You know, you didn’t have to come so early,” Niella eyed him.
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