I flinched in my chair as soon as it opened, a wave of stifling, hostile power feeling like it sucked out all the oxygen in the room. My breath came in short, shallow pants as he brought the necklaces over.
“Whaddya think, baby? See something you like?”
I knew what Duke was doing. We needed a sample of these, and just marching in and demanding where Mike got them from was not going to work, but this? I shivered as the tray was pushed over, something emanating from the stones feeling like it clawed at my senses, digging great big rents in my skin the closer it got.
“How about this one?”
Duke picked up the biggest one, a huge power stone cut into a faceted heart.
“Ladies love that one, but shit, D. I hope you got deep pockets.”
“How much?”
“For you? Twenty K.”
Duke put his hand in his jacket and pulled out a massive wad of cash, something that had Mike’s eyes lighting up. Duke tossed it onto the desk.
“That should cover it.”
“Fuck, man, what you doing, carrying that kinda green around? Being in the music biz working that well for you?” Mike removed the money and the necklaces, leaving ‘mine’ behind. “You got some kinda game you running, because you should cut me in. The dude who’s fixing me up with all of the stones? He’s got it all. We’re just feeling out our relationship, but bling, guns, drugs… You name it, I got you.”
“I may take you up on that. Ty and Rey are getting restless and need a new venture to keep them busy.”
“Gotta keep your boys satisfied, otherwise they start getting ideas. Yeah, I hear ya. Well, let’s see that stone shine on the pretty lady.”
No, no, no, let’s not, a voice shrieked inside me, but my lips stayed closed as Duke reached over, sliding the slim gold chain around my neck and leaning in to fasten it.
They talked some crap afterwards, Mike, Duke, and even Marlow. I heard their voice as low buzzes, my mind unable to reconcile the muffled sounds with words. It just seemed to go on and on and on. I ended up falling onto Duke’s shoulder, unable to support myself, my eyes at half-mast. He tugged me in closer, stroking a hand through my hair as the conversation continued, time feeling like it stopped until I felt him move.
I know what he wants to achieve with this, Lilith said, but you need this stone off you as soon as possible.
“Your girl ain’t looking so hot, though damn if that stone don’t look good.”
“I gave her something to take the edge off,” Duke replied. “She’s faded. Time to seal the fucking deal.”
Mike’s laugh was low and dirty.
“Well, if that’s your bag, take some of this.” I forced my eyes open a crack to see a plastic baggie filled with red powder pushed across the board. “Keeps a girl compliant like roofies, but gets her horny as fuck, so you can do whatever you fucking like to her. It’s one of the lines I think your boys might want to look at.”
“I’ll give it a try, let you know. Mar, get the girl outside. I’ll be there in a minute.”
I whimpered something incoherent as I was dragged through the bar, chuckles and catcalls coming in thick as I passed. We lurched down the side of the bar where Marlow ripped the fucking necklace off, shoving it into his pocket. I took one long breath, then another as the dizzy feeling started to wane. It didn’t stop my breakfast from coming up though. I staggered over to the side of the alley, my hand on a dumpster as I vomited.
“C’mon,” Duke said, seeming to appear from nowhere.
Do not bring that stone back with you, Lilith said, but I watched dimly as Duke opened a portal, ready to drag us through.
“Aramka…” My lips made the sound, even though I couldn’t, nausea still swirling in my guts.
“What did you say?”
Duke’s eyes sharpened, his face setting into a terribly intense expression. Those dark eyes saw into me, through me, right down to the interloper inside.
“Aramka, please. We can’t take the stone into Aragide. The avatar is already weakened.”
He just stared for a moment, the sounds from inside the bar the only soundtrack to his thoughts. He waved a hand, changing what we could see within the portal.
“Amanirenas, OK?”
We nodded, getting only a second before he tugged us through.
“Kira!” Marlow cried as I collapsed onto the ground. The world went dark, then flared bright red, explosions going off behind my eyes before I lost sight of all of it.
Chapter 26
“Get it away from me,” Luc grit out, backing away from the table. The stone was now under a spelled dome of glass, dulling its influence, but I knew what he meant. I felt the same wash of revulsion when I walked into the room, though my eyes didn’t burn bright red like his did, I was willing to bet.
We all stood together, my guys, Bea, Duke, looking over the crystal we’d brought back. The red powder Big Mike had slid over the table to us appeared to be a ground up version of the stone, which sounded painful to snort, but when the guys started playing with it a little, it dissolved in water like sugar.
“So we’ve confirmed it. This is the sky father’s power crystallised. Has he ever allowed anything like this before, Bea?” Duke said.
“There are no records of it,” she replied. “He was always judicious in what he shared with others, keeping them hanging on the hook was a means to keep his people in line. To give so much of it away in such a wanton display…”
“Means he’s scared,” Liam said, reaching out to touch the glass. His eyes remained reassuringly blue when they met mine. “We’ve got him scared.”
“Scared isn’t to be underestimated. There’s a lot of things you don’t want with their backs against the wall,” Duke said. “Today went well, but training needs to start for real now. Quinn’s identifying which women want to move into Aragide’s DV shelter, so you’ll be hauling people’s stuff all day tomorrow, but that ain’t getting you out of training.”
“You’ll be with me in the morning,” Mark said. “Five am.”
“You promised!” I said.
“I promised nothing of the sort.”
“What if I promised to—” I was working my way towards the sentinel, sliding my hand under his shirt, when Ashanti breezed in the door.
“The Sisterhood delegates have gathered. It’s time to present our preliminary findings,” she said. “Bea, you’ll take point on this?”
She did, standing before the room full of women, an image of the necklace hovering in the space between us.
“So from our most recent field trip, this and this,” the image switched to the bag of powder, “were retrieved. We have verified our findings by testing one of the sky father’s avatars…” That got a response, a bunch of nervous murmuring starting up within the crowd, their eyes on us, trying to work out which was the culprit. “It appears to be a power stone made from the sky father’s power and so much purer than anything created by the fae.”
“They’re circulating them in areas where we’ve pulled back from,” Duke said, stepping forward. “Or at least that’s the reports we’re getting. We need to do a wider analysis—”