I had no honor left when it came to the senator. I wouldn't handicap myself to rules I doubted he'd adhere to. What did I care if I said yes now and then backed out on the deal? But the senator would expect this, so instead of jumping the gun, I waited for the other shoe to drop.
"And?"
Oslo smiled slightly, reminding me of the person I used to know before the world had turned on its ear. Once he'd declared himself as the senator's man, it was startling how quickly he'd changed in my eyes, evidenced by this slight reminder of who he used to be.
"We will need reassurances, of course," he finally said.
"Of course," Dodd said in the background.
"Which are?" I asked. Cormac remained silent. Oslo might not know it, but that was worse than threats.
"I have a list of people I am to return with, if you agree."
That would never happen, but I held my cards close to my chest. My entire life had become a poker metaphor. I really needed to stop gambling. Good thing the casino floor was filled with refugees instead of gamblers. "So, what do we get?"
"You get peace."
I stood on the opposite side of the table and waited for the rest of it, but got nothing. "You've told us the stick, no carrot? You can't expect us to take an offer of peace with nothing to back up the gesture." No one in the room would accept the deal anyway, but it would be good to know what they had to offer.
"We can also tell you how to kill the things you call rippers."
And that was their ace in the hole. How to neutralize the rippers was a game changer. We could send out scouts without the threat of death or simply being able to walk outside the casino at night without constant fear.
I stepped back and looked at Cormac, Dodd and Buzz to see their reactions. It was pointless. Even Buzz was unreadable today. Must have been those secret practices.
"If you would be inclined to offer me lodgings, I've got two days before I need to return with your answer."
"Leave your list and we'll think it over. Buzz will get you a room," Cormac said.
Oslo reached into his back pants pocket and laid a folded sheet of paper on the table.
I watched his cold manner. I knew he'd come up rough, much like me, but it didn't squash the anger I felt. "Is it worth it? Whatever you are getting to work with a killer?" I asked, having a hard time not viewing this as a betrayal to the human race.
"I don't know. Is it?" he asked, then looked at Cormac.
"Not even close to the same."
"We all have our lies that let help us go on," Oslo replied.
"Out," Cormac said in a barely restrained voice. "My promise was to let you leave here alive. I didn't promise how long you'd make it after you left."
Oslo didn't utter another word and turned toward the door.
I finally sat down as I watched Buzz escort him out. The sound proofed door slid shut with a click, leaving Cormac, Dodd and me alone in the room.
"The senator has at least one person inside here," Dodd said, speaking first.
"I agree. He's got spies," I said. "That's not surprising, with the amount of people we've taken in. That'll be handled. Right now, I want to know who's on the list."
I grabbed a pencil from the sideboard and used the eraser to drag it over, skeptical of touching it.
The only thing on the sheet was a list of ten names. I recognized most of them as humans that I'd had limited contact with, but my heart gave an extra beat when I saw the name on the bottom. As soon as I felt my reaction to seeing Sabrina on the list, I realized a tiny part of me had been considering the deal.
"We can't do it." I pushed the paper away, annoyed with myself. Realizing who I was starting to become made me that much more opposed, as my conscience needed the salve to my guilt.
Cormac leaned over the table and looked down at the sheet. He stood back and didn't say a word.
"What is it?" Dodd asked and then looked at the sheet himself. "Absolutely not. Why the hell would they even want her?"
"Relax, it's not happening," Cormac said.
The door swung open and we all turned to see Buzz walking in with Sabrina herself behind him.
"Kever is showing Oslo to his room," Buzz said.
I looked at her and couldn't help wondering why the senator would've wanted her. It didn't make any sense to me. Nothing about the list was clicking into place.
"Why are you all looking at me oddly?" Sabrina asked.
I looked away quickly, with everyone else. I guess we were all wondering the same thing.
"What is it?" she asked again.
One of us must have looked to the sheet on the table, or maybe the single sheet just lying there by itself was tip off enough, because she made a grab for it. Dodd lunged at it too, but a split second too late.
"What is this and why is my name on it?" She looked at each of us and I felt even worse as her eyes came to rest on me, like she expected me to be the one to be honest with her.
"That came from the senator. I'm not sure you should touch it," I finally said.
"What is it? Why is my name on a list from the senator?" she asked, ignoring my advice, still gripping the sheet.
Dodd spoke then and told her of Oslo's demands from the senator.
As he spoke, I watched her reaction go from outrage, to anger and finally defeat within the course of a few minutes. She sank into the conference chair, her normally perfect posture abandoned for the slouch of resignation.
"I should go," she said.
"You are not going!" Dodd exploded as he watched her whole demeanor become resigned.
She ignored him, looking completely dejected.
"You aren't going," Cormac said, backing up Dodd.
"Maybe I should," she said.
"What are you saying?" Dodd demanded. "Absolutely not!"
"Why these people?" I asked, looking at the list again.
"I think I might know," Sabrina answered. "Remember what we were talking about the other day?" she asked as she turned to me.
"Yes," I said, thinking back to the humans who were mutating and the story she told me about the baby with the tail.
Sabrina caught Cormac, Dodd and Buzz up to speed on what she had witnessed with the humans.
"Every name on this list is a human that's changing," she explained to us.
"But why are you on it?" I asked.
She stood up and raised her shirt, baring her stomach where patches of blue scales were forming in an irregular pattern that was about two inches wide.
"Why didn't you say anything?" I was stunned by the sight of the scales forming on her skin.
"I'd been running so crazy I hadn't even noticed. I thought it was rough skin at first and it's not like I've had time to preen in the mirror. I didn't notice it was actually scales forming until today, when one of them actually flaked off into my hand." She pulled her shirt down and collapsed back into the chair.
"But if you didn't know, how would the senator?" I asked. "Did you tell anyone?"
"No, I told no one. I have no idea but it's too much of a coincidence to be anything else. Every name on that list has something going on."
I leaned back, agreeing with her. Whoever the senator planted here knew things about us that we didn't even know ourselves. The thought of someone I didn't know aware of what was going on with me, and worse, maybe how to control it, was beyond frightening. Maybe it wouldn't be as alarming if I wasn't leaking smoke out my body like someone with a pack a day habit.
I reached my hand down to where my flask was tucked into my boot but I didn't pull it out. Cormac was watching too closely and I didn't feel like hearing it. I wanted to scream at him that some people hadn't lived thousands of years and we still had emotions left. Some of us still had nerves.
"If we don't go," Sabrina continued, "it's not just about war. If we can't control the rippers, we can't farm or develop a sustainable food supply. Eventually, we'll starve to death."
"No," I said. "If he knows how to kill them then we can fi
gure it out, too." I thought I sounded pretty tough for someone whose mouth was watering for a sip of whiskey. Someone once told me to "fake it til you make it." I couldn't believe I was following that crappy advice now. Good thing I wasn't a surgeon, or I'd be faking it all the way to the morgue.
"But how long will it take before we exhaust the supplies of the area within our range?" Sabrina said.
I didn't want to answer and Cormac was suspiciously quiet.
Dodd stormed from the room, slamming the door on his way out.
I pulled my chair closer to Sabrina. "You don't need to do this. No one is asking you to."
"We don't give up our own," Cormac said from his position on the other side of the room, squashing any discussion of it. "We've got two days to figure this out. No one says or does anything for now."
I looked back to Sabrina. "I agree with Cormac. We'll figure something else out."
She nodded but her skin was pale and clammy looking. "I've got to get back downstairs."
A bad feeling was taking root as I watched her leave the room, Buzz exiting behind her.
Cormac came and stood next to me. "The senator knows you aren't ready to take him on, but he's not ready to take you on, either. Not with those silver strands that are popping up that can tear him to pieces."
"You mean the things I haven't seen since New York?" I asked.
"Come on. I want to show you something," he said, taking my hand.
"What?" I asked, looking at him.
"You'll like it."
Chapter Six
"Should we be going up there? It's getting late," I said as we climbed the steps to the rooftop. It had once been a beautiful place and I was afraid to see what had become of it.
"Trust me."
When he opened the door, I didn't know what to expect but it wasn't anything good.
"How did you do this? And is it safe? It's going to be dark soon." It wasn't perfect. The old willow tree that had taken up one corner was gone, but the bench that sat beneath it was still there. A new tree had been planted in its place. A lot of the plants had seen better days but it wasn't horrible either. There were new flowers planted here and there and the ones left would rebound eventually. With the sun setting, off in the distance, it was almost nice again. I mean, you had to force your eyes out of focus a bit to disguise the crumbling city surrounding us, but hey, we had apocalyptic standards these days. It was like walking into a house with five kids during the summertime, you had to adjust your expectations.
"It's warded. No rippers, or anything else that might show up, can get within twenty feet."
I walked around on the grass, not realizing until right now just how desperately I missed being outside. "And there's no way to do a spell on people?"
"No. The spell has to be grounded to the earth."
I wandered around the rooftop for a few minutes before I finally got up the nerve to go as close to the edge as my fear of heights would allow. I didn't want to look but I couldn't seem to help myself. Even with the light fading, the destruction of the city was startling to the senses from this vantage point.
I sensed Cormac come up behind me.
"I'm still having a hard time believing it. I keep thinking that I'm going to look out and it will all be here like it was for as long as I've been alive." I looked up at the sky, trying to focus on something pretty and not destroyed, but even that looked off. The colors were too vivid to be normal. "Our world is gone for good, isn't it?"
"Different, not gone," he said and I felt his finger trail along the length of my spine. "I've seen a lot of change in my life. Some good, some bad…but the world adapts and moves on."
"I guess I just never thought I would see so much in my…" I started to lose my concentration. I forgot what I was going to say as he moved my hair away from the back of my neck and I felt his lips caress the sensitive skin. It was like he instinctively knew all my buttons. "Cormac…"
"Yes?" he replied, his voice deep and husky. His arm circled me and pulled me flush against him as his lips worked their way along the tendon that ran to the base of my neck.
"The contract. You have to get rid of the contract."
He took my lobe into his mouth, sucking and tenderly biting. "Why?"
His breath against my ear sent a shiver through me.
"Because I'm too young to be married." But I'm so overdue for this. I needed this.
"Contract or not, you're mine." His arm pulled me a bit firmer into him as if to prove his point.
I wanted to melt into him but logic kept niggling at my brain. End of the world logic dictated I should have sex because, I mean hey, people were dropping like flies and I deserved some hot sex before I kicked it. But marry? Was there even a divorce process with a magical marriage?
I pulled out of his arms even though my libido was screaming in protest the whole time.
"I want the contract destroyed. Vitor isn't an issue, anymore. He's powerless under the circumstances." I turned to look at him. Cormac was a guy. He wouldn't care as long as he was getting sex, right?
"So let me see if I understand this, you're willing to sleep with me but commitment is out of the question?"
He took a step back and stared at me like I was an alien being. Yeah, no sex tonight. Not the way he was looking at me.
"Why is that so bad? From what I've heard, you've screwed half the employees at The Lacard and you didn't marry them. I can't walk down a hallway without seeing a pretty girl and knowing there's a fifty-fifty shot that you slept with her." Did I just sound jealous? Ugh.
He stood there, shaking his head. "Maybe because I've been around longer then you can imagine. Dated all those women and I finally find one I want and she says she's only ready for sex." He turned and walked a few more feet away from me then turned back around, rubbing his jaw. "Do you know how many women want this kind of commitment from me?"
"I'm not saying I won't want it, I just want to go slower. Why do we have to move at top speed?"
"Because when you know something is right, you don't need weeks and months to figure it out." He took a couple of steps back toward me. "That's the problem. I know. You don't."
His last words filled me with nerves but I wasn't being unreasonable. "Why does wanting to move a little slower have to be such a big deal?"
He nodded, going blank and unreadable. "Fine," he finally said, then turned and left me standing on the rooftop alone, wondering what the hell "fine" meant.
Chapter Seven
The weather was crystal clear for a change and I could see a crew bashing through the cement surrounding the casino below as I stood on the roof a day later. Even if for no other reason, it would be nice for the kids to have a playground of some sort.
Oslo had been on the floors below, circulating the casino like a visiting V.P. while Sabrina was acting stranger than ever. We had a day left to figure out what to do. Cormac had already made up his mind. To him, there was no decision. Sabrina was one of his kind, and if that hadn't been enough, it would kill Dodd. Cormac was non-negotiable in that area.
What bugged me was what if it had been a list of only humans? Then what would Cormac have done? What might I have done? Problem was, I had a pretty good idea on both counts and I wasn't feeling too good about it. But that wasn't the situation and we still had a problem.
In one day, we'd send Olso packing with no living insurance of any kind. I agreed with the decision but it didn't make me feel good about what might come. In the current state, it was very hard to try and rebuild anything. A truce, even a fake one that might not last long, did have a lure.
"Are you ready?" Burrom's deep raspy voice asked as he came up beside me. We'd agreed to meet here on the roof at dusk.
"Ready for what, exactly?" His offer of help hadn't come with many details.
"To see what you've got. Cause if we can't get that juice you have inside you cranking, I'm screwed as badly as the rest of you."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Come o
n. I'll show you," he said and turned on his heel.
"What happens when you go underground?" I asked as I followed him downstairs and then to the abandoned service stairs that most people didn't travel. I thought I was the only one that used them until now.
"I become reborn."
"But do you die?"
"I don't know what happens during that time. I go to sleep, and when I wake, I have a new body." He exited the stairwell on the casino level and headed toward the back of the casino. Walking through the kitchens, where the humans weren't allowed, we walked toward a door guarded by Fae. Burrom obviously knew the best way to not be seen leaving. They simply nodded as we passed through it and left.
The door opened out onto the back of the casino where a make shift ramp had been placed over the moat that circled the entire casino.
The door closed behind us and I looked up at the sky. Only a sliver of light was left.
"Burrom, are you sure about this?"
"I've got a hunch," he said, walking off and assuming I'd follow.
"A hunch isn't very reassuring," I said but followed anyway.
"Don't worry about it. I can keep the rippers off the both of us if I need to. I'm hoping I don't have to."
"If you can keep the rippers at bay, how come you aren't going out with the squads?"
His face looked affronted at the question. "I don't 'go out with squads'” he repeated in a disgusted tone. “Now, back to the subject at hand. If this senator helped your mother conceive with the help of magic, you should have the juice to as well. I'll show you how it's done and then you follow."
"Why can't you show everyone how to do it?"
"Because it's all about the juice, my dear, not enough or not the right kind and it won't work. The magic that is ruling now is the same magic you and I possess."
This was the first time since we'd come back from New York that I'd gone further than the moat. Somehow, the moat had become the line of demarcation between safety and everything else that went bump in the night.
The streets were a disaster. Debris was everywhere, shed from the skeleton of crumpled buildings. I thought back to pictures of war torn cities that had been bombed. Pictures didn't do justice to the reality.
Shattered (Alchemy Series Book #3) Page 4