Her head tilted to the side in a serpentine motion, and a calculating gleam entered her eyes. A cold chill ran down my spine. This was what she had been driving after.
A favor. She wanted me indebted to her.
“You owe me a favor? What can you possibly have to offer?” she asked in a dismissive tone, but the gleam of anticipation never left her eyes.
She wasn't trying hard to hide it.
“Not an offspring,” I answered hastily. “Something else.”
“You have nothing of value to offer,” she informed, but I suspected she was just yanking my chain, trying to prolong the suspense so I'd cave and agree to anything she asked.
“What would you suggest?”
Ah, that's what she had been expecting. Suddenly, she looked so ferocious, like a tiger about to pounce, I took an involuntary step back.
“I find myself unable to think about something you could possibly offer me. Let's see,” she said, placing her index finger over her lower lip, sucking it once. It was such a suggestive gesture, it made me wonder if she was a lesbian. Or thought I was.
“How about we leave it an open favor?” she offered at last, clasping both hands together in an excited gesture.
I shook my head. “I have to know what I'm agreeing upon, or nothing.”
“Very well then, nothing.”
I turned in frustration to think about something I could offer this woman to return me to my world without making the biggest mistake of my life.
There was no point in surviving the Low Lands only to find myself enslaved to this woman. Perhaps I'd have been better off with Remo Drammen.
I knelt in front of the creature in the lead, holding back a wince when I found myself face to face with it. I stared directly into the shell-shaped black eyes and tried to think.
“What can you do for me?”
It didn't answer.
“What's your name?” I tried again with the same result.
It just sat there, staring at me. There were three dime-size spots that vaguely resembled a triangle right below his right eye.
After a moment of silence, I looked at Lee over my shoulder and accused angrily—and perhaps unwisely—“You lied. They don't understand me.”
Her emerald green eyes flashed with anger. “I do not lie. You should keep this in mind, for I will not tolerate impertinence and impudence from you.” She inclined her head coldly at the creature. “He does not answer because he has yet to gain permission to speak, and he does not own a name.”
I turned back to the creature and asked, “Would you like me to give you a name? Something I can call you?”
It did not answer. Frustrated, I said, “You have permission to address me freely, whenever you like.” The creature's ears flickered again, like that of an obedient puppy.
I looked back at Lee and found her watching us, a strange expression on her face. “That's good?”
She inclined her head.
“How about I call you Frizz?” I asked the little creature.
Its lips parted slowly, showcasing the two rows of sharp little teeth, and for a moment I thought it was going to strike.
Then it hissed, “Friiiizzzzzzzzz,” and began beating its small wings rapidly, stretching its legs, gaining a foot more of height, and then crouching back down, just to repeat the process over again.
“Friiizzzzz! Friiizzzzz! Friiiizzzzzz!”
I realized after a couple of seconds that it was jumping in excitement.
I exhaled in relief. Then I lost my train of thought when I noticed that eleven pair of eyes were suddenly all focused on me expectantly.
“What?” I asked, scrambling up and taking back a step. “What is it?”
“They're waiting for their turn to be named. This is interesting.” I could hear amusement in Lee's voice, but I didn't take my eyes from the little demonic creatures.
“Uh, let's see…” I focused on the creature at the edge of the semicircle and searched my mind for a name.
“How about Taz?” I said with a pointed finger at the creature on the side.
Like Frizz, his ears flickered—an antenna receiving a transmission—one of which I noticed was missing the arrow point, then it hissed “Taaazzz”, beating its wings furiously and stretching its twig-thin legs over and over.
“Taaazzz! Taaazzzz!” it hissed, and the other unnamed creatures began beating their wings in unison.
“Ok. You are Sylvester, and you Tweety, Bugs Bunny …” Now what did that say about the state of my mind? I was giving names of Warner Bros cartoons to a bunch of carnivorous creatures.
Well, I thought to myself, who would tell? But try as I might, I couldn't remember any more names. My mind had gone blank—a white canvas missing the brush—and I still had seven more to go. And they all buzzed loudly above their named fellows, waiting for their turns.
I raked my mind for a minute, but nothing came up. Then I had an idea. “Ok. You'll be Happy, and you Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Dopey and Doc.” Now I had a bunch of demonic cartoon characters jumping up and down, cheering me on.
Yeah, I was a mess.
“Frizz?” I asked, and the little thing stopped jumping and focused on me, so did the other eleven.
Alrighty, not at all freaky.
“Can all of you together do something to get me back to my world?”
“No,” it hissed. I noticed that its tongue was serpentine-like. I held my shudder back.
“I know you can't take me yourself, but what about if you owe a favor to Lee in my stead so I can go back? All of you combined?” I asked, pointing my thumb behind me to where Lee stood.
“No,” it hissed again.
“Is there anything in this land that you can get or bribe to send me back home?”
“No.”
I exhaled in frustration. “Alright then, you are no longer bound to me. You don't have anything to offer me. You're free to go your merry way.” I made a shooing motion, but I might as well have been fanning him.
It just stared at me.
“I dissolve you of your duties to me. You owe me nothing,” I told him again.
He just kept his eyes on me, not blinking, no emotion or any trace of the previous excitement anywhere. I scanned the other creatures, and they all had fallen silent too, watching.
Ah, did I just free the things to eat me at my first moment of weakness?
I glanced back at Lee, and she had a peculiar look in her eyes. I didn't like it.
“What did I just do?”
“It is fascinating,” she said. “No other being has ever dissolved them of a duty and meant it. They are confused. Anyone else would have enslaved them to an eternity of servitude.” She shook her head. “It is fascinating,” she repeated.
I didn't think it was, but again, I came from a place where freedom of choice was a right. “Well, I'm not anyone else,” I said, a little uneasy with the strange gleam in her eyes.
I took a long breath, exhaled it slowly, then prepared myself to bargain with the devil.
Chapter Fifty
“How about an open favor, but I get to do it under some terms?”
Lee inclined her head, and I noted the gleam of anticipation was still there.
“Ok. Very well. Let's see. Umm, you'll not get my offspring, and that includes as many as I will ever have.” I had no plans for children, but neither had my father. Better safe than sorry, right?
“Second,” I chewed my lower lip for a moment. “Second, you'll not have anything I love, be it a person, pet, or object,” I told her. I just watched the gleam of anticipation shine brighter in her eyes.
“And my terms include past, present and future,” I added. I wanted to cheer myself. Despite being very tired and nearly frozen to death, I thought I was doing a very good job bargaining.
“Anything else?” She asked after I fell silent for a minute or two.
There had to be. I knew I was doing well, but I also knew my brain wasn't functioning at full speed, so I
gave myself some more minutes to consider.
“You also can not ask me for something that is not in my power.”
“Is that all?” she asked and, above the anticipation, the beginnings of impatience began to show. Maybe her duty really called her.
There should be something else. What's the first thing a person should never bargain with?
“My soul!” I half shouted at her. “You do not get my soul. Ever.”
“I do not like the terms. I don't get any offspring, any beloved, I cannot ask something that is not in your power and I do not get to have your soul?” Her lips twisted in a sarcastic smile, and I could tell I had managed to insult her. “Although I suppose that's some other entity's priority and not mine. But that aside, what's left for me?” Was she mocking me?
“I'm sure you'll find something useful. You name it, and as long as my terms are held, I will do it.”
“I do not like it.”
“That's all I can give. I'm not making my father's mistake. I'd rather die here than have to choose later between my soul and a loved one.” My voice came out very firm and fierce.
She inclined her head once, agreeing, and I felt like despite her complaints, she was very pleased with the terms. Like it was all a front so I wouldn't make the demands that really mattered.
Suddenly I didn't feel so good. In fact, I felt like I had just sealed myself to a horrible fate. The biggest mistake of my life. The type I wouldn't realize the extent of until I was neck deep in the mucky water and sinking fast.
Again I wondered if Remo Drammen was the lesser evil.
I would never know.
“We have a deal. I will call upon you soon. Until then, daughter of Fosch, farewell.” Her words were barely out of her lips when there was a flash of light and I felt the binding of her words, like a cloak of warm, silky steel around me. I felt myself float and spin once, a little lightheadedness, but it was nothing like when Dr. Dean had dragged me there. There was a dizzying sensation followed by some wind, and then I was standing in a stinky alley way, somewhere on the planet Earth. Why did people keep dumping me in such places? I guess it beat finding myself in another planet though.
I only hoped I wasn't in Russia or London, or—God forbid—Zimbabwe. I could hear the base of music rumbling nearby, the sounds of traffic, a busy night in a busy city. Sirens, horns, tires screeching, people shouting and laughing. I took a step forward, determined to get out of the alley before the stink coated and clogged my pores, but my legs gave out before I managed a second step, and I found myself on my hands and knees. I knew I wasn't up to keeping hold of myself like that for long. Especially when my arms began shaking uncontrollably.
I was about to fall on my face, probably on top of a rotten squishy thing.
Yuck. With effort, I crawled painfully slowly to the urine-smelling stucco wall a few feet away. I forced myself vertical while I was still motivated not to fall and cared enough to make an effort, and leaned against the wall, then began dragging myself forward.
Ahead of me a door opened without warning, unleashing a stream of light and the wonderful aroma of food.
A stocky man walked out dressed in dark pants and a white t-shirt, covered by a clean white apron, with a garbage bag in one hand, a touch-screen cell phone in the other. His attention left the lighted screen long enough to throw the garbage in the bin, then hurriedly return to the display.
I made a garbled sound, my throat too dry for intelligible words. I had reached the bottom of my reserves.
“Hey there, what are you doing here?” the man asked, turning the lighted device in my direction to see me better.
“Missy, you alright?” He placed the phone inside a kangaroo pocket of the apron and took a step toward me.
I noticed him taking inventory of my dirty, torn-up clothes, the dried trail of blood on my cheek and hands, and the fact that I could barely stand.
“Missy, you need help?”
My throat burned as if on fire. My stomach felt glued to my spine.
I nodded jerkily. Despite the transition from the Low Lands to Earth being a hell of a lot smoother than the opposite way, I realized it was also draining.
He dusted his hands together, which was totally unnecessary considering the fact I was dirtier than the garbage he threw in the bin, then proceeded to nervously scrub them on his pants before reaching for me.
He was an ordinary man, early to mid-thirties, brown hair and brown eyes. I was taller than him by a few inches. At six feet tall, I was taller than a lot of people.
He took hold of my elbow with a rough, hot hand and placed it gently around his neck. “You're freezing,” he murmured. “Mind me putting an arm round your waist?”
I shook my head and felt dizzy again.
He led me inside the brightly-lit restaurant, into the first room we came upon, a sterile, small office. It contained only an industrial desk, a gunmetal filing cabinet, and two chairs, one behind the desk, the other in front. A cordless phone and a neatly stacked mound of papers were the only proof the office wasn't deserted. The man helped me sit on the chair in front of the desk, keeping his hold until he was sure I was stable.
“I'll call an ambulance now,” he said, and I croaked “no” to him before he could dial.
“Water?” I croaked again. It came out like “wa-aa,” and was followed by a burst of choked coughs. I don't know which did the job, the coughs or the croak, but he left the office on a half run and was back in seconds with a small plastic bottle full of the nectar of life. I drank greedily, huge gulps that made my throat ache.
“Missy, I have to call an ambulance. You don't look well.”
“No,” I croaked again. “Friend?”
After a moment of hesitation, he passed me the cordless.
I don't remember much about what happened after that, just that I had shakily dialed Logan's number and passed the phone to the man so he could talk to him. After that, I was in and out of consciousness.
* * *
I remembered when Logan had arrived, asked me questions I didn't answer, picked me up, and carried me out. I remembered him talking to Rafael, garbled words I didn't understand. I remembered being placed on the back seat of a car, the heater so high it felt like an oven. After that, I was out cold.
Chapter Fifty-One
I surfaced from the pitch-dark recesses of my subconscious in slow motion, as if treading through an ocean of molasses. I was lying on a soft bed. There were voices nearby, talking in hushed tones, and I recognized Logan's right away. It reassured me that I was safe. If I concentrated, I would be able to make the words out, but it felt like too much effort. It felt like too much effort to open my eyes or even move my head, so I just lay there and listened to the soothing timbre of Logan's murmur.
I assessed my condition, the queasiness, the light-headedness, the feeling that I had been dragged through sharp needles. Because of my fast metabolism and ability to mend, I deduced from my condition that not much time had passed.
The pitch of Logan's soothing murmur suddenly changed, gaining an angry edge, and I made the effort to open my eyes, move my head, and concentrate. The side of the bed faced an open doorway, where I could just make out Logan's silhouette at the end of a long, narrow hallway. I was unable to see anyone else, but Rafael's angry response was unmistakable. “For someone you've only known for a few days?”
Logan's affirmative grunt was followed by, “That aside, she gets in the wrong hands and it's a fucking disaster. I believe she doesn't even know what she is.”
Raphael hissed out a breath. “Then send her to the clan and stop bullshitting yourself.” A long inhale followed by, “Look, she's haunted. You can see it from the shadows in her eyes. She'll draw you in and it will be like Cara all over again. For fuck's sake, she even warranted Black Drammen's attention.”
A long silence followed, heavy with tension even from where I lay.
“Shit, Lo. Man, I say you cut her loose before it's too late.” There was a kind of
plea in Rafael's voice, and I couldn't reconcile that badass, heavy-weight guy I met a few days ago with this one. It was obvious the two weren't just partners, but very close friends. “Her guardian?” Rafael asked after a frustrated sigh.
A pause. “I took her there. It was right before the SEALs. I haven't been up to date with Internal Affairs of the clan… but shit, man, I thought Alleena…” I watched the silhouette of Logan raking a hand through his hair in the pause that ensued next. “The Society was waiting for her right inside the house. Do you know how fucked up that is? How they knew to find her there? Shit, the woman she thought all her life was her mother just stood there and watched, she did nothing. She didn't even protest.” A huff, a shake of the head. “She just stood and watched.” A baffled tone underlined his frustrated voice.
Rafael swore in Spanish at that. “What could she have done, man? Against that entire platoon? She's just one woman. Do you blame her?”
I thought back to the scene in Elizabeth's living room and agreed with Rafael. Although that indifference, that emptiness in her eyes showed me how much I had meant to her. Besides, she didn't have to fight against anyone. She could have given me some sign, some signal that we weren't alone—that I was about to be taken again.
“That's beside the point now. What matters now is that Archer was going after her when he got caught,” Logan went on, “He heard rumors about a scion being held by the Society the day before he disappeared. I'm sure he went to check on it, got caught. I called Alleena and she brushed me off. I called Vince and was sent to voicemail. I called for a council meeting and was scheduled out three weeks. Three weeks, for God's sake.”
“Three weeks isn't unreasonable.”
Logan hissed at his friend. “An emergency council meeting should take place in less than three days, a week at most. I've been out of the game for a long time, yes, but I still know the rules, Goddamnit!” He punched a fist on the palm of his other hand with a loud crack. He took a long calming breath, and when he spoke next, his raging tone was more controlled. “That's not even it. What if Archer didn't tell anyone about her because he knows to keep her away from them, for whatever reason, maybe even for her own sake —”
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