As if the fact that he was there at all wasn't wrong enough.
“Alan!” I cried, storming down the hall to meet him. “Alan! Are you okay?” When I caught up to him and tried to look into his eyes, his would not engage mine. He simply continued on his chaperoned path to the main club area. He wouldn't answer me. “Alan? Alan, please. Say something. What's going on? Why are you here?” My questions fell on deaf ears just as my gaze fell on dead eyes.
So I turned my attention to the PC brother at his side and interrogated him instead.
“Why is he here? What did you do to him?” I snarled, walking backward before the brother, who didn't see fit to either stop or reply. “Somebody had better fucking tell me what's wrong with him and they'd better do it now!”
“Ruby,” Trey called from behind me, taking my arm and dragging me out of the way. When Alan passed by me, he still refused to so much as acknowledge my presence. The PC brother laughed.
“Asshole!” I shouted down the hall at him. It only fueled his amusement further.
“Your friend will be fine, Ruby. I promise you,” Trey said softly, drawing me gently back to the center of the hallway and toward the room that Alan had just left.
“He looks pretty fucking far from fine, Trey,” I snapped, yanking my arm out of his grasp.
“For now, but he will come around soon. This process is not easy for humans. He was quite impressive, though. Muses himself said that he had never met such a formidable mortal mind,” Trey said with what sounded like a hint of awe in his voice. Trey was far from an expressive individual from all that I had seen of him, so I took that to be high praise indeed. “Though he has not met you. I'm certain he will revise his earlier statement once he does.”
“But I'm not human,” I argued, stopping before the black door.
“No,” he said quietly, assessing me curiously. “I am not certain what you are, Ruby. A beautiful mystery to one day be solved.”
With that, he reached for the knob and opened the door for me, pushing it open to allow me entrance to the vast and exceedingly dark room. I really needed to talk to Jay about the lack of ambiance in that place. It was ominous at best.
I looked up at Trey beseechingly before entering; I sought some measure of assurance that I wouldn't leave Vain in the same state as Alan. He nodded once in encouragement and gestured toward the center of the room with a sweep of his arm. I followed his cue and entered.
Once my eyes adapted to the nearly pitch-dark room, I looked around to find a rather barren space with only a single sofa there to greet me. A sofa and a man sitting upon it. He had a nefarious elegance to him, dressed all in black leather. The effect did not make him look tough, though; it made him look like the lead singer in an indie rock band. Someone artsy in a tortured and possibly strung out sort of way. His blackened, heavily lined eyes fell instantly on me, and I froze. They weren't looking at me; they were looking into me, calling me to him. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, but it freaked me out entirely. I knew Sean could always read my expressions like an open book. But this guy was trying to pry open my mind and read the text directly from the source, and I was so not on board. Judging by the growl that echoed through my mind, Scarlet wasn't either.
“Muses,” Trey called out from close behind me. “This is the one you came to see. This is Ruby.”
Muses rose gracefully from the couch, giving me a better look at him. If Trey was easy to underestimate in a fight, then Muses would have been virtually ignorable. He was my height at best and weighed little more, his skintight apparel only accentuating that fact. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why Ares would have bred a son that seemed so weak compared to his brothers, but once he put his hands on me, I understood.
Not all weapons are born of brawn.
His touch was not threatening in the least. It was inspiring. My mind seemed to spring to life the second his fingertips made contact with my skin. Memories flashed through my mind, both good and bad—all danced to a frantic beat while they scattered through my cerebrum. I could hardly keep up with them until he let me go.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Ruby. I have heard many interesting things about you,” he said with a baiting smile.
“The first euphemism of the night!” I exclaimed sarcastically. “This should be a fun couple of hours.”
“That will depend entirely on you.”
“So I've been told,” I drawled, already irritated with the situation. I wanted to help Jay and I had to keep reminding myself of that while Muses continued to bore into my soul with his suspiciously dreamy stare. “So, where do you want me?” I mocked, looking at the couch―the only seat in the room.
“If you would be so kind,” Muses purred, indicating the sofa behind him.
I made my way over and sat on the far end, making it so that only one of the two brothers could sit beside me. I didn't want to be the filling in a PC sandwich. Muses snuggled in close beside me, still staring at me with his mesmerizing eyes. It took everything I had not to get lost in those pools of crystal clear blue.
“We need to know everything you can tell us about the men who attacked you last night,” he said, his voice still carrying a seductive tone. “No detail is too small to include. Now tell me, how many of them were there?” His hand rested on my arm and once again my mind raced with memories, though this time they were far more specific―specific to the question he had asked me.
I instinctively closed my eyes to block out external stimuli, wanting only to see what my mind's eye had to show me. Everything had happened so quickly that night that, at the time, it all seemed a blur. But with a little focus and whatever inspiration Muses was providing, it all started to become clear.
“I didn't see any of them when they first started shooting. They were trying to pen us into the storage unit,” I explained, my eyes still shut tight. “Alan laid out some cover fire for me, just long enough for me to put my head down and make a break for the fence.”
“So they did not have you fully surrounded?” Trey asked. His voice sounded distant, though I knew he was standing just inside the room.
“No. They were coming at us from an alley between two rows of units.”
“How long was it before Alan escaped?”
“He was hot on my tail after I hopped the fence.”
“And he wasn't hit?”
“No.”
“Was he shooting while he ran to join you?”
I focused hard on the question, trying to remember the distinct popping noises that his gun made in contrast to the rapid automatic fire that was being blanketed upon us.
“Yes. I think he was. I heard his gun go off one last time right before he jumped the fence. I think he had emptied the clip.”
“That's when the two of you escaped into the woods?” Muses prodded.
“Yes. Our assailants were coming from the direction of our car, so we couldn't risk going back that way. Alan was hopeful that we could escape through the wooded area and find somewhere to hide or call for help.”
“When did you first know they were following you?”
“When the bullets continued whizzing past our heads,” I answered, remembering the awful feeling I had had that eventually one of those bullets was bound to hit Alan or me. “One grazed my shoulder while we ran.”
“Were the shots all coming from behind you?”
“No,” I replied without thinking. I hadn’t realized that before. “We were taking fire from the side as well. Like they wanted to drive us in a certain direction.”
“An ambush,” Trey whispered.
“Yes, I think it was,” I said softly, the pieces of the puzzle starting to fit into place. “They wanted us to go into the woods that night, didn't they?” I asked; my eyes shot open to gauge their expressions. Neither gave anything away.
“It is possible,” Trey replied eventually, seeing that I was unwilling to continue until someone answered me. “When did you decide to stop running, Ruby?”
“A
lan was starting to fade a little. I think his energy and adrenaline levels were running low, and I felt them gaining on us. I tried to pull him along, but I knew it was futile. We were out of options.”
“So you released Scarlet?” Muses asked without judgment.
“I couldn't see another way,” I explained, shutting my eyes again to remember the desperation of the situation more vividly. I had been wounded, Alan's energy was plummeting, and more and more of our assailants seemed to be converging upon us. Reliving the memory as if it were real, my chest tightened when I stared into Alan's eyes. What I hadn't seen at the time was blazingly apparent to me now: he had accepted that we were going to die. Acknowledging that fact now made my decision to unleash Scarlet even more visceral. Nobody was going to die on my watch that night—or Scarlet’s. Not if we could help it. “It was that or death. I tucked Alan away, hoping to keep him safe and unaware of what was happening when I did let Scarlet out, but he's so stubborn. He wouldn't listen to me. He pulled me to the ground after I had unleashed her. Seeing her scared him into compliance, which gave her time to do her thing.”
“And how many did she 'do her thing' to?” Muses asked, sounding mildly amused.
Again, I slowly replayed the events that had taken place, noting all that I saw. Even then, Scarlet moved so quickly and disposed of the enemy so efficiently, I could barely get a headcount.
“Ten,” I replied, trying to run through the scene again for a recount.
“What were they wearing?”
“Camouflage...looked military.”
“Anything else?”
“Goggles―funny looking ones.”
“And their guns, describe them for me.”
“Assault rifles. High-powered, with scopes and lasers on them.”
When no questions immediately followed, I opened my eyes to find Muses and Trey looking at each other, nodding their heads at something. Whatever I had just told them either confirmed something they had thought or brought up a possibility they hadn't yet considered. Either way, the tension in the room had gone up exponentially.
“Please excuse me,” Trey said softly, exiting the room. That left me alone with Muses, and something about that reality was greatly unnerving.
“What does it mean?” I asked, hoping to focus on the matter at hand and maybe, for once, be let in on the secret.
Completely ignoring me, Muses continued on.
“And after Scarlet took care of your problem, what happened then?”
I started to get nervous, not wanting to rehash the Alan situation. I couldn't tell exactly what Muses' capabilities were and I was praying that mind-reading wasn't one of them. If it was, I was completely screwed.
“Scarlet retrieved Alan, who, being the consummate professional that he is, did what he needed to do to get out of there. He and Scarlet ran back toward the storage unit, hoping to retrieve whatever evidence they could and get the hell out of Dodge.”
“And you were not attacked along the way?”
“No. But during Scarlet and Alan's return to the storage unit, they smelled smoke. The closer they got, the more pungent it became.”
“So the building had already been set on fire?”
“Yes. It was well engulfed in flames by the time we got there. Alan wanted to salvage what little had not yet burned in the inferno, but I knew he wouldn't have survived, so I begged Scarlet to go. She complied.”
“Scarlet walked into a blazing fire?” Muses asked, sounding bewildered but simultaneously impressed.
“Yes. She's the reason we have any of the physical evidence McGurney had acquired.”
“Impressive,” he muttered under his breath.
“She can be. At times.”
For another hour, he grilled me on every tiny detail he could think of from the style and color of camouflage the attackers had on to what my shoulder wound looked like. I started to feel exhausted, and Scarlet was losing her patience with the interrogation altogether. For whatever reason, she seemed overprotective around Muses. I don't think she cared for him much.
Just as I started to become mentally fatigued, Trey returned and offered to get me some water. I accepted, and Muses backed away from me, allowing me some personal space as well as a break from his inquiries.
“So,” I started, the awkward silence in the room nearly suffocating me. “What's your deal exactly? I haven't seen you before.”
“I'm used a little differently than most of my brothers,” he replied; an air of mystery accompanied his words.
“Used. Interesting choice of words,” I countered.
He shrugged ambivalently. I couldn't help but think they all were trained in that very maneuver.
“I have my purpose within the PC. We were all bred for different abilities.”
“And yours are...?”
“Inspirational,” he replied with a wide, enchanting smile. My heart fluttered unwillingly in response. “I help to bring things out of those around me, particularly memories, though my gifts have diversified over the years.”
“So you're a muse of sorts? A male one?”
He spread his arms wide, indicating I'd just stated the obvious.
“As if the name was not enough of a tip off.”
He had me on that one.
“The other boys have relatively normal names; how come yours is so different, so suggestive of your abilities?”
He laughed at my question.
“They have assimilated over the years. I chose not to,” he informed me, moving closer yet again. “I find ladies are immediately intrigued with my given name. Are you?” He delicately wound a stray lock of my hair around his finger while his eyes pierced mine. Yes, I had underestimated his strengths indeed. He was a con man through and through, a real predator. Unlike his brothers, who you would see coming in a fight, Muses was sly, manipulative, and cunning. He would meander right up to his prey, lull it to sleep, then kill it without a second thought. Now, alone with him in the room for the second time that night, I was afraid.
“Well, if we are all done here,” I started, hopping up from my seat.
“I don't believe we are, Ruby. I have yet another question for you,” he said, gently pulling me back to rejoin him on the couch. “I want you to describe the fire to me.”
“The fire?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes. The fire.”
“Um...it was orange? Hot? Burning through the roof?”
“Of course it was,” he said patronizingly, putting both hands on my arms. “But I want you to describe it in detail for me. It will help us to know just how long it had been burning. We need to know if they went there to assassinate you and Alan or to destroy the evidence.”
“Or both,” I added.
“Yes. Perhaps both.”
Even though I was still a little freaked out to be alone with him in the room, I did as he asked, thinking it would get me my pass to leave sooner rather than later. I tried to focus on the fire I had seen through Scarlet's eyes. I felt the heat licking my face when she neared the epicenter of destruction, the hypnotic, swirling appearance of the flames in the middle of the ceiling that spread wide, then danced along the walls.
I pushed harder, trying to observe every inch of the room, following the patterns the smoke and flames created while they so beautifully destroyed all that we had gone there to claim. I clenched my eyes closed tighter still, concentrating so hard that my head started to hurt from the strain. Fire, focus on the fire, I told myself, going deeper and deeper into the memory.
Then it disappeared.
Though my mind was still engulfed by a fiery inferno, it was not the one we encountered in Virginia. It was another fire altogether. A far more menacing and threatening blaze that made me break into a sweat just thinking about it.
It was not a memory of mine.
Shadows danced off the eerily illuminated walls around me, taunting me while I strode through this place I had not known—had no recollection of—for the first time. The sounds
that accompanied the blaze were beyond comprehensible. They were not of my world. While I pushed forward, trying to see what would meet me at the end of the death march I was on, Scarlet growled, her threat echoing through the walls of the ominous cavern I walked through as well as through my mind. Memory and reality were bleeding together. She was fighting me for control.
And she easily won.
It felt like I was mentally locker-slammed, Scarlet blowing past me to take over as though her life depended on it. If I'd thought that was the truth, I would have been even more alarmed than I already was.
“Game over, Muses,” she snarled, easily pulling away from his grasp.
“Oh, how exciting. The Rouge et Blanc has come out to play.”
“A wise man would be wary, not celebratory.”
“I'm a bit of a risk taker by nature,” he shrugged, slowly approaching her.
“Come near Ruby or me again and it will be the last risk you'll ever get to take.” Her belief in her threat was undoubtedly supported by her confident demeanor, but I could feel something in her that undermined her façade. She was afraid. Muses himself was hardly a threat to her physically, which left me to believe that he may have been the one individual capable of unraveling the web of secrets she was so hellbent on keeping intact. “We're done here,” she growled, reaching casually for the door, though I could feel her desire to run. I also couldn't help but realize that she was unwilling to turn her back on him, something she was usually all too happy to do to her adversaries. Even Sean. “I'll see myself out.”
After dismissing herself, she opened the door to the hallway and stepped out of it backwards, never taking her eyes off of Muses. Closing it behind her, she leaned her back against it, still holding the knob behind her, and exhaled heavily. I could feel her heart racing.
“Time for you to run the show, Ruby,” she informed me. “I do not think the brothers that await you in the main area would appreciate my presence in your stead, do you?”
Without leaving me time to respond, she pulled herself into the background, allowing me to reemerge.
“Want to explain what all that was about?” I asked, hurriedly walking down the hall in the direction we had come from earlier.
STRAYED Page 28
