by Amy Sumida
“Amara, there have been some rumors circulating the Market,” Ted said. “I saw you over here and thought that perhaps you could verify or deny them. I know you're not on the best of terms with Mayor Grundage.”
“And you think that we are on good terms?” I asked with a surprised lilt.
Ted cleared his throat. “That was years ago, Amara. I would have thought that you'd moved past it by now.”
“Oh, I have.” I glanced pointedly at Malik. “No hard feelings at all. Frankly, I was relieved at the time. It saved me the hassle of giving you the let's-be-friends speech. But there was still the rudeness of it. And I don't forget rudeness.”
“This man was rude to you?” Malik growled.
“It's not important,” I said to Mal. “A minor thing.”
“Amara, you were obviously uninterested in me,” Ted huffed. “Every time I took you out, you'd stare at the face of your watch more than at mine. Honestly, I didn't think you'd even notice when I stopped calling.”
“You went out with him?” Kyrian asked with a tone of shock. “On dates?”
“It was a blind date,” I explained. Then I gave Ted a thoughtful look. “Fair enough, Ted. You may be right. Bygones and all that. What rumors are you worried about?”
“That you are risking war with the Bleiten by dating their prince,” Ted whispered as he glanced at Malik. “Because you are a Triari princess.”
That was not at all what I'd been expecting. First off, I assumed that Grundage knew for a fact that I was Triari royalty; she shouldn't need me to confirm it. Grundage had been slightly involved in the Ghoul Incident and that was when my parentage had been revealed. As far as Malik went, I didn't think my personal relationships would concern her. They shouldn't, and it was unnerving that not only did it concern her but it had come to her attention through rumor. Which meant the Market was talking about Malik and me. Lastly, I thought that surely one of the supes had seen the quarantined neighborhood outside the Market and that was what the rumors were about. Those rumors would have been worth spreading. I would have been interested in hearing them myself if I hadn't already have known the truth. But this... this was just annoying.
“Turn around an walk away, little man,” Malik snarled. “Right now it's you who is risking a war with the Bleiten.”
Ted paled and held up a hand. “Okay fine; I'll leave. But if it's true, we need to know. It may affect the Market.”
“The Bleiten will never attack Earth as long as I am with Amara,” Malik declared. “And I intend to be with Amara for a very long time.”
A shiver of pleasure surged down my spine at his words.
“Be that as it may, it doesn't prevent the Triari from attacking us to get revenge for you associating with one of their princesses,” Ted pointed out.
“The Triari won't attack either. They already known about my relationship with Malik, and they've accepted it,” I said. “Tell Grundage that she's worried over nothing. If anything, my connection to the Bleiten and kinship with the Triari have made Earth safer. And then tell her to keep her pointed nose out of my business.”
Ted looked relieved despite my irate response. “Okay, thank you for sharing that. I'll let her know.” He turned away.
“And Ted?”
He stopped and looked back over his shoulder.
“Even uninterested dates deserve to know when things are over,” I said. “Be a better man and don't do that dishonorable crap again.”
“Fair enough.” He nodded and went back to his booth.
“I accept that you didn't know what you were getting into at first, but I can't believe you deigned to go out with that idiot more than once.” Malik looked baffled.
“He's not that bad,” I said with a shrug.
It's funny how charitable I could be once I knew that I hadn't been the one found lacking. Ted should have told me all of that at the time; it would have been a perfectly reasonable excuse that I would have taken quite well. But then men lose most of their reason when it comes to women. I glanced at Malik and smiled. Sometimes, that was a good thing.
Chapter Nine
The next morning, Connolly came by to pick up the flower and give us an update.
Connolly stared at the flower for a few minutes before he spoke. It hadn't faded or wilted a bit since I'd pulled it from the ground. It had even started to regrow the petal that Kyrian had plucked for his research. Kyrian didn't share his findings with Connolly. Instead, he offered to conduct some research once DHS was through with the bloom; as if he hadn't done anything at all.
“I'm sorry; what did you say?” Connolly asked distractedly as he pulled his gaze away from the flower.
We all shared concerned looks.
“I said that I'd like to conduct my own research on the flower when your people are through with it,” Kyrian repeated. “I have machines on my ship that are more advanced than anything your scientists will use.”
“Oh.” Connolly blinked. “Yes, of course. I'll have it returned to you when we're finished.”
“Mr. Connolly?” I leaned forward and searched his glazed gaze. “Are you all right?”
Connolly shook his head like a dog shakes off water. “Yes. Quite.” He took a deep breath. “There's something about the fragrance.” He glanced back at the blossom. “Can't you smell that?”
“It has a lovely scent,” I agreed.
“It smells like my mother's apple pie,” Connolly whispered.
A shiver coasted over me, and I drew the flower away from Connolly. “Landry, do you have a plastic container that this will fit in?” I called over my shoulder.
Landry glanced over and nodded before he disappeared into the storeroom.
“What are you doing?” Connolly asked in confusion.
“This flower is affecting you, Mr. Connolly,” Malik said blandly. “Amara will package it for transportation, but I think it would be best if you warn your people to treat it as if it exudes an airborne toxin.”
“Toxin?” Connolly stared at the flower. “Surely not.”
“Here.” Landry handed me a large tub with a lid. There was an inch of dried beans in the bottom. “The beans are to steady the glass.”
“Thanks.” I stuck the flower in the tub; nestling its glass into the beans so it wouldn't topple so easily. Then I pressed the lid on and looked up at Connolly. “How are you feeling now?”
Connolly gasped like a man surfacing from deep water. “Dear God! That flower... it...”
“Intoxicated you,” I finished for him. “You said you smelled apple pie. That is definitely not what I smelled.”
“It was nice, but it just smelled like a flower to me,” Lily said. “Kind of a cross between jasmine and rose.”
I nodded. “That's what I got too. So, why was it different for Mr. Connolly?”
“Obviously because he's human,” Davorin said. “I mean, technically, we are too, but we're advanced humans. Supes must be immune to whatever that flower is putting out.”
“Fascinating,” Connolly murmured as he drew the tub closer.
“Fascinating?” I lifted a brow. “That's not the reaction I expected.”
“Yes, well.” Connolly cleared his throat. “This is potentially harmful and we'll need you to do daily sweeps of the gray area to keep it clear of threats of this nature, Ms. Madison. But I can't help being intrigued by this.”
“Daily sweeps?” I huffed. “You need to evacuate the area.”
“Already done,” he said crisply.
“What?” Jason asked.
“We evacuated the gray area and the surrounding neighborhood this morning under the cover story of a gas leak,” Connolly explained. “The residents of the gray area were taken to special medical facilities for treatment.”
“The woman,” I murmured. “The driver that went into the gray area yesterday. You found something wrong with her.”
“We did,” he said grimly. “She was suffering damage on a cellular level. She's recovering, but it was bad enoug
h to force us to act. The residents of the gray area are far worse; most of them are”—he swallowed roughly—“being altered.”
“Being altered?” Jason asked. “What's that mean?”
“We don't know yet,” Connolly admitted. “Nothing is showing on the surface. It's their blood that's strange. We're doing DNA tests next.”
“Did you find everyone who lives there?” I asked.
Connolly looked away. “We entered every home and took in those we found. Most of the missing were tracked down at their jobs, but a few are unaccounted for.”
“Unaccounted for,” I murmured as I stared at the flower.
“You need to come in with me, Ms. Madison,” Connolly said. “It's more important than ever to get you that exam.”
“I have examined her with Bleiten equipment,” Malik announced. “She's perfectly healthy.”
“Oh,” Connolly whispered. “But—”
“What would you do if I wasn't?” I cut him off. “What are you doing for the residents of the gray area?”
“Well, we're conducting research as to how to help them,” he stammered.
“Perhaps you should bring one of them to us,” Malik suggested. “Sedate them, and I'll take them to my med-bay and examine them.”
“I'll have to run it by the Secretary.” Connolly frowned.
“You do that,” I said crisply. I've was getting tired of that response. “We'll monitor the gray area and let you know if we find any other abnormalities.”
“We?” He asked. “I don't think the others should—”
“The others weren't affected by the scent of the flower,” I cut him off to point out. “I think it's safe to assume that the gray area won't hurt them.”
“Fair enough.” Connolly sighed. “I'll contact you if the tests yield any results.”
Connolly carefully carried the flower out of the Wilds.
The members of FEAR looked at each other with matching grimaces.
“This time, we all go in,” Davorin declared.
Chapter Ten
We took separate cars to the gray area. We had just reconvened when a man passed by and caught my attention. I couldn't tell much about him under his puffy, blue jacket, knit beanie, and thick scarf, but it wasn't his face that had startled me.
It was his aura.
The man had an aura that reminded me of the flower except it was far more powerful. His aura was potent and massive; extending out from his body for several feet in all directions. People reacted to its mere proximity and when it touched them, they would stop; completely stunned. Lily had only come with four feet of him and yet, she stared after him longingly. The men in our group blinked in confusion and then narrowed their eyes. But the humans—both male and female—leaned toward him as he passed by. I would have called it charisma if he'd been interacting with people at all. But this wasn't a personality trait; this was something innate. It was magnetism; a physical pull. He radiated waves of color. Sparkling color. I've never seen such a beautiful aura. Poppy red bursts of energy seeped into an azure focus, and apricot swaths of ambition ringed the inner edges of dark gray power. The man had a lot going on.
“You guys look through the Gray.” I continued to watch the man's progress. “Malik and I are going to follow that man.”
“Which man?” Lily asked.
“You know which man.” I gave her a don't-try-and-deny-it look. “It's not just you; everyone can feel it. His aura is off the charts.”
“He has a strong aura. So what?” Davorin asked flippantly.
“It reminds me of the flower.” I grabbed Malik's hand. “Hurry up or we'll lose him.”
“I'm going too.” Davorin chased after us.
“I guess I'll just take the kiddies on their field trip,” Kyrian muttered.
“Don't take out your sexual frustration on us, Arc,” Leo shot back.
I didn't hear the rest. I was too busy chasing the Aura Man while trying to be sly about it. Actually, I didn't have to get too close; I could see his aura billowing up above the crowd. I easily trailed him from forty feet away. After a few blocks, he walked up to a beautiful old building. The architecture was splendid; three stories of meticulously detailed stonework and tall windows, most of which were covered by heavy drapes. The top floor was the only one whose windows were unguarded but the glare of light off the glass, as well as the distance between us, made it impossible to see in. Back at the ground floor, a grand set of stairs led to a solid wood door with a stained glass transom above it. A man in a suit stood watch at the door; he nodded to Aura Man and let him in.
I walked up and tried to look confident. Half the time, that's all that was needed. Having two buff men with me shouldn't hurt either.
“Sorry, Miss, I don't believe we've met,” the man in the suit said respectfully. “Do you have your membership card?”
“Membership card?” I blinked at him. “Perhaps I'm at the wrong place. This isn't where Mr. Connolly is having his luncheon?”
Davorin cleared his throat to cover his laugh; no doubt imagining Connolly serving tea.
“No, Miss,” the suit said. “This is a private club.”
“What kind of club?” I gave him a flirtatious look.
“It's called Dirty Nothings,” he leaned in to murmur. “I'll let you figure it out.”
My eyes widened. “S&M or straight sex?”
“Dirty Nothings caters to all sorts of tastes,” he said. “The only limits are what the law prohibits; bestiality, rape, murder, or anything involving children. But the rest is fair game.”
“How fascinating,” I purred. “How does someone become a member?”
He smiled at me slowly; looking me up and down with enough interest to start Malik growling. That made him swivel his head toward Mal; who he looked over just as thoroughly and then Davorin was inspected as well.
“Let me see if someone's available for a tour,” he finally came to a decision.
“Wonderful, thank you.”
He pulled out a small walkie talkie and spoke into it. “I have some interested parties out front.”
“Mimi will be right with them,” a man's voice came through.
“Thanks, Adam.” He nodded at me. “Just a few minutes, Miss.”
“I appreciate it.” Then I took Malik's arm. “This will be so much more fun than Connolly's luncheon. Don't you think, darling?”
“Indeed,” Malik murmured as he eyed the doorman.
The door was opened by a gorgeous woman—possibly Asian, though her race was indeterminate—in a tight, red dress. She looked over the men and me with widening, appreciative eyes and then smiled like a snake who'd just spotted a wounded bird.
“I'm Mimi.” She extended her hand as she came through the door.
The woman was smart enough to approach me first.
I gave her a radiant smile. “Mara Anderson. This is my boyfriend, Mal, and this is Dav.”
I didn't want to give her our real names, but I didn't want any of us to slip up either. The nicknames were close enough to do the trick.
“Nice to meet you.” Mimi nodded to the men; her eyes lingering on their biceps, chests, and—shockingly bold of her—their crotches. “Please, come in; I'd be delighted to give you a tour.”
Mimi sashayed back into the building; her little butt swinging as if it were far larger. She was definitely making use of what Nature had given her. We filed into a tasteful foyer. Silk rugs over hardwood, a glittering chandelier above, and a hostess station as you'd find in a restaurant. Except there wasn't a dining room behind her; only a wood-paneled wall hung with a few paintings of muted landscapes. Everything was very tasteful. A woman stood at the hostess station; impeccably dressed in a black pencil skirt and red blouse. She eyed us as thoroughly as Mimi had.
“Let Cyprian know that I'm giving a tour,” Mimi said to the woman.
“Yes, Mistress.” The woman bowed her head respectfully.
I gave Malik wide-eyes and a gleeful grin. Malik frowned; obv
iously unsure of what we'd just gotten ourselves into.
“This way.” Mimi waved us through a set of double doors on the right. “We'll start in the lounge. It's the club entrance. There are separate lounges for women and men. If you become members, you won't need to stop at reception unless you're interested in using specific rooms and would like to check their availability or if you're checking in for a training session.”