Ramsey raised his hands as though trying to get me to calm down. “That kid barely has enough power to light a candle. Even the spell to get me out of jail took everything he had. I should know. I taught him myself. Besides, I sent him back to the mainland. As you said, things have been strange around here. I figured it was no place for a kid.”
“Then why are you here?” Abram asked.
“That’s a stupid question.” Ramsey clenched his jaw. “My wife is here.”
“The wife you nearly killed?” I spit out.
“No,” Abram said. “He couldn’t have. The codes would have prevented it.”
“Please.” I scoffed. “I know you’re old school, and that back in the day somebody’s word was worth something. But nowadays, anybody’ll just break a code.”
Ramsey shot a look to Abram and then back at me. “You are green, aren’t you?”
He reared back and, before I could react, he leveled his fist at me. I flinched, but instead of being hit, I heard a yell. My eyes flew open. Ramsey had stopped mid-punch, pain etched into his expression. His hand lowered, and he keeled over, resting his hands on his knees and sucking in deep gulps of air. The hand he’d used to try to punch me was shaking.
“He can’t break the code, Charisse,” Abram said. “He physically can’t. Which means someone else is responsible for what happened to Briar.”
“Not that I would’ve done anything to her even if I could have,” Ramsey said. “I adore that woman. Always have. God knows I’ve proved it more than a few times.”
“What does that mean?” Abram and I said at once.
Ramsey sighed, brushing his copper-brown hair out of his eyes. “Things weren’t always good between Briar and I. Even before we came here, the modeling jobs started to dry up.”
“No way,” I murmured.
Briar had always been the top model at our company. It was part of the reason I hated her so much. She could (and often did) book any and everything, even to the extent of stealing gigs right out from under me—even after contracts had been signed.
“It’s true,” Ramsey answered. “She was getting older, I suppose. But I could feel her growing dissatisfied with her life and, as a result, she started to pull away from me. She started talking about taking some time apart, said she needed to find herself. So I did the finding for her.”
“What did you do?” Abram asked, his voice dropping an entire octave.
“Another Conduit, another favor. I had them place a light enchantment on her. Persuasion. It made her endearing. People couldn’t stop looking at her. It was harmless—just made it so everyone saw her the way I did.”
“Everyone but me,” I answered.
“Well, there are reasons for that, aren’t there?” he said, looking at me intently.
Abram stepped in front of me, blocking me from Ramsey’s view. “What does that have to do with what’s happened to her now?”
“I don’t know,” Ramsey said, his voice quiet.
“Is it the Conduit you bargained with? Is that who’s doing this?”
Ramsey shook his head.
“How can you be sure?” Abram asked.
“Because your girlfriend took his head off,” he answered.
“You knew Dalton?” I asked breathlessly, my heart dropping.
“He was desperate. He wasn’t true born. He had come by his powers illegitimately, and he didn’t know anything. He promised that, if I taught him, he would give me whatever I wanted.” Ramsey licked his lips quickly. “I swear, on my name as a mage, I had no idea what he was up to.”
“And you didn’t bother to ask!” Abram yelled. “You didn’t care! So long as you got what you wanted! And where did it get you?”
“Nowhere!” Ramsey screamed, tears welling up in his pale blue eyes. “She still pulled away. After everything, after all I had done for her, she still started spending the night with that woman. But I still loved her. God help me, I still do.”
“Come on, Charisse,” Abram said, taking my arm and leading me toward the door. “We’re leaving.”
“No, wait.” I pulled my arm free and crossed the room back toward Ramsey. “What woman?”
“Charisse, I said let’s go.”
I put my hand up, not even bothering to turn back toward Abram. To Ramsey, I said, “Well?”
“Briar was having an affair. Look, I knew she was bisexual. We’ve had an open relationship for years—for her, not me. I was happy with only her, but she wanted…more…”
“And you think this has something to do with what happened to her?”
Ramsey frowned. “She was hiding it from me. This other woman. Why would she hide it from me?”
I pressed my lips together and shook my head sadly. “I don’t know. But that doesn’t mean that woman is responsible. Not for that.”
“Maybe not. But she was with her when it happened. For hours I couldn’t reach her, then next thing I knew, I got a call from the hospital that they found Briar in a rose bush near the hotel. She’s deathly allergic.”
My eyes widened. “And they think you did it. Because who else would know that.”
“That’s how she ended up in a coma…but to still be in one?” Ramsey asked, spreading his hands. “Someone very close to her at the time it happened must have done something to make sure she stayed that way. And now the police want to pin it on me.”
I felt Abram’s presence at my side. He was nearly growling. “You got framed, probably to get you out of the way of whatever that Conduit has planned. But you know what? They got one thing right. You deserve to rot in jail.”
“Abram,” I hissed sharply.
His gaze bore down into mine. “It’s time to go, Charisse. For all we know, he created this problem. Given his history with Dalton, my guess is he’s not the person to help fix it. If this is Briar’s fate because of his actions, he’s gotten what he deserves for helping a Conduit.”
I pivoted toward him. “It’s not Briar’s fault or anyone else’s who is dying.”
Abram’s jaw clenched. “And we will help those people. We’re just not going to help him.”
With that, Abram led me back toward the door, and this time, I let him. Not because I agreed with him, but because I thought Ramsey had heard enough. I would have to have a talk with Abram about this later.
As we left, Ramsey yelled after us. “You’d really run away from this just because I had a few conversations with a dead man? Do you have any idea what’s going on out there? Have you even seen the news?”
My feet stopped moving, and I turned around. I needed to know. I needed to know because I was next.
Ramsey scrambled for a remote control that sat tackily close to the Waterford. When he flipped on the television, my breath caught as I saw what was on the news. A man lay disfigured and bloody on the ground. Familiar words were carved into his forehead.
“It’s happening more frequently now. I’ve done the math,” Ramsey said. “Even now someone else is in waiting. Today and two more, that’s how long we have until whoever that poor bastard is throws himself off the cliff, too.”
Abram didn’t let him say another word. He pulled me outside and slammed the door shut. I followed after him blindly, the vision from the television still playing in my mind.
My chest tightened. I was looking at my own future. In two days, I would be where that man on the news was.
Poor bastard, party of one.
Chapter 16
I should have anticipated having another dream that night. After all, that was what happened to people after they saw Briar around here. Perhaps some part of me had hoped that first dream was a fluke. Maybe another part of me would hold onto that idea until I was plummeting to my death. Still, that night—when my dreams landed me even closer to that horrible cliff with Briar folding her arms in front of me—I was just as shaken as I had been the night before.
“Do try to hold it together.” Briar rolled her eyes. “For some reason, I expected more from you.”
“I guess we can agree on that.” She scoffed, digging a jeweled heel into the ground.
She was so angry, so dismissive. And the thing was, I couldn’t really blame her. What she was going through—be forced to murder by proxy—was insane and, even if we did hate each other, fate and magic had tied us too tightly together for me to overlook that now. Though it churned my stomach, I found myself actually relating to Briar…and feeling for her.
“Do you know what’s happening to you?” I asked, moving closer to her and, as such, closer to the cliff.
“I know what’s happening to you,” she said. “In two days, you’re going to take a header off this cliff. I’ll never see you again, and you’ll be reduced to a tacky overcompensating splat on the ground. Does that answer your question?”
Her words stung, but I couldn’t let them derail me.
“You’re being used, Briar,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “I don’t know by who, or why, or even to what end. But it’s the truth. And I’m going to need your help if I’m gonna have even a little bit of a chance of getting either one of us out of this. So could you pretend your attitude is one of your ratty old coats and check it at the door?”
“What do you mean by get us out of this?” she asked, blinking hard.
“Well, I’m a couple days away from becoming the next in a string of history’s weirdest suicide victims, and you’re lying unconscious in a hospital bed. So I think my words speak for themselves.”
“I-I’m alive?” she asked almost breathlessly. “This has been going on for so long. It’s been an endless parade of death after death. The last thing I remember is falling. I figured it was some eternal punishment for—”
“Being a bitch?” I finished.
“Like you’re one to talk,” she shot back.
“Look,” I said, “I’m not here to fight with you. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but that’s over now. I met your husband, Briar. He told me everything you guys have been going through, and everything he did for you…magic-wise, I mean.”
She scrunched her nose. “What nonsense are you rambling on about now?”
“You know, how he had a Conduit spell you to be extra persuasive, to help you with your modeling career and all.”
When her eyebrows pulled together, I instantly realized I had misspoke. Not only did Briar have no idea what I was talking about, but she also was pretty disgusted that I thought it.
“Seriously?” she yelled. “I should have figured. I should have known that you’d have to resort to cheap lies and misdirection to make yourself feel better. Even now, you can’t take the fact that I was just better than you!”
“That’s not what I meant.” I sighed. “None of that’s important.”
“Which is why you brought it up, right?” She sneered. “You know, it’s my own fault. For a second, I actually thought you were on my side. I thought that you might have been brought here for a reason. But you’re just like the rest of them, with your ‘I’m so special and different’ garbage. You’re all the same.” She stomped the ground. “So have fun ending up like the rest of them, Charisse. Dead and gone.”
That was when I woke up.
My entire body shook as I floated back to consciousness. Two days, that was what I had left now. Two days and, like Briar said, I would be dead and gone.
“What’s wrong?” Abram asked from beside me. His hand brushed against my cheek. Looking over, I could only imagine what he saw in my expression. He stared at me, his dark eyes tracing my face. He was bare-chested, and his skin glistened in the morning sunlight.
Just once more. I would only see him like this one more time.
“Nothing,” I answered quickly, though unconvincingly. “I didn’t sleep well. That’s all.”
I couldn’t tell him the truth. It would weigh on his mind until nothing else was able to reside there. No. All I could do was see this through. One way or another, it would be over very soon.
“Wh-what’s on the agenda today?” I asked, switching the subject before Abram had a chance to delve into it anymore.
“I’m going to go over the list of victims again and hopefully find a common denominator that I overlooked before.”
He got out of bed. His body might as well have been a painting or a sculpture—some perfect masterpiece that only came along once every dozen or so lifetimes. A pang of hurt ran through me. It wasn’t long enough. I hadn’t known him—known this feeling—for nearly long enough yet.
“There has to be connection,” he said, standing there naked and letting the sunlight kiss every inch of his body. “There has to be something that links them.”
A thought tickled the back of my mind. Briar told me something in the dream when she was chewing me out…something about everyone being like me, about everyone thinking they were special.
My heart sank as the realization came over me. “A-Abram,” I stammered, trying to collect my thoughts. “I think I know.”
“You think you know what?” he asked, turning toward me with beautiful, narrowed eyes.
“I think I know who the Conduit is targeting.”
* * *
“Tell me again,” Satina said, twirling a curvy straw around an electric blue drink. “I just want to make sure I understand.”
After I told Abram my theory (albeit without telling him exactly how I came up with it) he thought a return trip to Satina might help clear things up. Although, given the way she was looking at me now—as if I had suggested pink was a neutral color—something told me that maybe she wasn’t going to be as helpful as we had hoped.
“I’ve told you three times already,” I answered, sitting between her and Abram under the shade of a beach style umbrella.
The sand looked unbearably dry, and the tourists were all but extinct—not too surprising, given that we were sitting on an island that was experiencing both a legendary drought and an unprecedented spike in mysterious suicides.
“Humor me,” she answered, taking a sip of the blue tonic.
“The victims.” I sighed. Repeating myself made me uncomfortable. Like Satina knew I was hiding something and was hoping I would reveal it one of these times. “I think they were Supplicants.”
“Because that’s your answer for everything?” She arched her eyebrows. “First Sleeping Beauty was a Supplicant and now all of her victims are?”
“They’re not her victims,” I answered. “She doesn’t have any ill will toward these people. She’s as much a chess piece in this as anyone. Or, I assume, at least,” I finished, covering my tracks.
“And do you have any proof of this?” Satina asked.
Yes, just none I can speak of at the moment.
“Look, what else could it be?” I asked. “The Conduit must have some, albeit warped, reason for doing all this. Based on what I know about Conduits, all they care about is power and vengeance. And since Ramsey didn’t say anything about Briar pissing off an extremely magical being, then my guess is that the Conduit is using Briar’s persuasion to get the Supplicants to kill themselves as a means to collect their blood for magic.”
“And it’s just a coincidence that all of them showed up here?” Satina asked, shaking her head. “That’s a bit of a stretch.”
“Unless the Conduit is also drawing them here somehow,” Abram chimed in. “It would explain what we’re doing here.”
“What?” I asked, turning to him. “I came here because you said it was beautiful.”
He narrowed his gaze. “This place is a hole,” he answered. “I hadn’t been here in over seventy years and even then it was a hole. You pointed this place out to me on a map and said it looked like fun. You told me you saw a television special about it.”
“No, I didn’t!” I said, leaning back in my chair. Why was he doing this? We didn’t have time for games! “C
oming here was your idea.”
“They’re drawing Supplicants here,” Abram answered. Looking at me, he added, “They drew you here, Charisse. I swear to you, I never suggested this place.”
My heart sunk to my stomach. I thought for sure it might drown in the acid sloshing around down there. I certainly felt like I was drowning. Unfortunately, history dictated that wasn’t quite how I would go.
I wanted to tell him everything right then, but we were finally getting somewhere. I needed him to be clearheaded, not worried about me dying. If he thought I was in danger, he would have me off this island in the blink of an eye—which for all we knew would not be enough to save me and certainly wouldn’t be enough to save anyone else.
“Well,” Satina said, taking another sip. “Looks like your girlfriend’s hypothesis just gained a little credence. Maybe it’s that beacon I was telling you guys about.”
I shook my head. “I already found it, remember?”
Satina rolled her eyes. “You found a magical letter in a castle. That hardly counts.”
I gritted my teeth. “That’s where you told me to look.”
“For a clue, not for the beacon.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Char, you do realize you aren’t even close to solving this one, don’t you? That’s why I said we needed you to work on your abilities. And now that we have an idea what’s going on, finding that talisman seems more important than ever, wouldn’t you say?”
My mind started swimming…or more like drowning. I’d been wasting precious time—time I couldn’t get back, and with only two days left to live, time that I didn’t have to spare.
Abram, scowl firmly in place, stood and started to walk off.
“Where are you going?” I called after him.
“To the morgue,” he answered. He stopped to turn back and face me. “I need to test the bodies of the victims. If they are Supplicants, then their blood will confirm.”
I stood to meet him. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“You’re damn right,” he replied. “From this moment on, I’m not letting you out of my sight.
Sleeping with the Beast: an Adult Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Conduit Series Book 2) Page 11