by Jaye Wells
He ignored me and took another sip. “The only one who ever listened was the one who told me Babylon was the perfect setting for my plans.”
“Who?” Morales demanded.
“Dr. Flamel.”
I frowned. Then I remembered what Shadi had said about one of Scott’s doctors believing his story at the psychiatric hospital. “Your psychiatrist?”
He nodded dismissively and set down the glass. “Anyway, time to move this little party to a more appropriate location.” With languorous movement, he produced a gun from a hidden pocket in his toga. “If either of you tries to fight, I will shoot the other one in the head. Am I clear?”
I nodded stiffly, but my eyes were busy scanning the room for likely weapons or tools. From the corner of my eye, I saw Morales execute a curt nod. But I had a feeling that, like me, he didn’t plan on giving the asshole a chance to get a shot off when he struck.
“Rise,” the psycho demanded. The gun’s unblinking eye moved back and forth between us. “Slowly.”
I rose unsteadily. This part was not faked. Between the seasickness and the aftereffects of the knockout potion, I felt watery. Morales reached over as if to help me.
“Ah ah ah,” Dionysus said. “Hands to yourself.”
Morales glared at him and rose to his full height. Dionysus didn’t look impressed by the display, but then he was the one with the gun and the complete lack of moral compass.
Dionysus flicked the gun toward the room’s only exit—the stairs leading up to the deck. Morales moved first. I guessed this was some noble move on his part to be the one who faced whatever was waiting up there first. I didn’t argue. As it happened it worked well for my plans.
I took a couple of uneasy steps in my partner’s wake. But just as I started to pass the galley, I feigned a stumble. I sprawled sideways into the low, laminate counter.
A flurry of activity erupted behind me. Morales shouting my name. Dionysus telling him to stand back. Rough hands on my shoulders, forcing me upright.
“Watch yourself, bitch,” Dionysus snapped.
“Sorry,” I said breathlessly. “I got dizzy.”
He grabbed my arm and pushed me roughly forward. I stumbled a couple of steps, hunched over as if defeated. But really this just gave me a chance to shove the corkscrew I’d nabbed when I fell into my pocket. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to get the rope off my wrists without Dionysus seeing, but having something pointy made me feel light-years better.
We made it up the steps without further incident. But the instant Morales stepped out, he cursed. Not a good sign.
I stepped out behind him and let out a curse that made his seem like saying grace.
It had been a while since I’d seen her without her makeup, but I recognized the priestess the instant I laid my eyes on her.
“What the fuck, Shayla?” I snapped.
She stood at the back of the boat, just beyond the awning covering the wheelhouse. She used both hands to hang on to a Glock .22, as if she expected it to jump out of her grasp at any moment. The tight jeans, stilettos, and bright red boob top seemed a tad much for boating, but who was I to judge a whore’s fashion sense?
“Surprise,” she said with a serpentine grin. When Dionysus stepped up to join her, Shayla’s posture transformed into the practiced movements of a professional seductress. She slowly swiveled her aim toward me. “Let’s kill them and go have some fun,” she said, her tone kittenish now.
“Two people are definitely dying tonight, sweetheart,” Morales said, “but Kate isn’t one of them.”
Dionysus kissed her forehead. “We’ll get to that, but first we need to have our pre-party.”
Her face fell into a pouty moue. “All right.”
“You framed Aphrodite,” I said, as my mind played catch-up. We’d originally thought Dionysus worked alone, but if Shayla helped—
“She made it easy. She was dumb enough to keep a file on the mayor with pictures in case she needed to blackmail him. I stole them and showed up at the mayor’s apartment one night with a bottle of my master’s wine. The rest was easy.”
“So you started working for Dionysus after the robbery?” Morales asked.
“Ha!” the priestess mocked. “Who do you think left open the window in Aphrodite’s lab?”
The pieces clicked together. Dionysus had gotten to Shayla before he attacked the temple—just as he’d gotten to Little Man and Mary. I clearly hadn’t given her enough credit if she’d managed to fool Aphrodite and the MEA about involvement in the robbery.
“You should have followed your mom into the business,” Shayla said. “You can’t possibly suck in the sack more than you do at police work.”
I pressed my lips together in a bitch-please expression. “I wouldn’t imagine trying when you got the market on sucking dick cornered.”
“No, that was your mama.”
Another door opened by accident. Mom on her knees. Pulling back in surprise. A line of drool from the tip of a white penis to her too-red lips.
My hands tightened into a fist. “Watch your mouth.”
“You should ask your uncle.”
“Ask him what?”
“How good your mama sucked dick.”
A red haze propelled me forward. All thoughts of cool heads and strategy dissipated under the heat of my anger. But before I could launch myself at the bitch, a male fist plowed into my gut.
The air whooshed from my lungs. Pain radiated from my navel in concentric circles of agony. I fell to the deck in a heap. Preoccupied with the fire in my belly, I curled into a ball.
Rough hands grabbed my chin and suddenly I was forced to look into Dionysus’s fevered eyes. Something glowed in their depths—excitement? “Do you want your partner to die?” he asked in a reasonable tone.
I swallowed the curdled pride in my throat and managed a stiff head shake.
He patted my cheek. “If you do anything like that again, I will put a bullet in his skull and then fuck that hole while the bomb destroys your precious city. Am I clear?”
The mental image he painted made me want to scrub my brain with bleach. “Yes,” I said in a gravelly tone.
He jerked me off the ground. “Chair,” he snapped at Shayla. “Put the other one there.”
I was still too foggy from pain to track their movements, but before I knew it, I was forced to sit in a deck chair. Directly across from me, Morales received the same treatment.
Dionysus placed his hands on my shoulders. His fingers massaged the tense muscles, which only served to make them contract until it felt like he was kneading rocks under the skin. “Now,” he said, close to my ear, “we’re going to play a game.”
Across the way, a grinning Shayla produced a syringe with a long, gleaming needle. Inside the syringe’s barrel was iridescent green liquid. Movement behind me indicated that Dionysus was mirroring her. I jerked my neck away from him, but it was too late.
The sting of metal through the skin, the burn of magic seeping into tissue. My heart skipped and then took off galloping like a spooked horse.
On some level I was aware of Morales fighting a similar battle not six feet from me, but I was too busy gulping in air and willing my heart not to burst to pay it much mind. Magic sizzled through my neck and down into my chest. Sweat bloomed on my forehead, and my vision went all hazy.
“Now,” our captor said in an underwater voice, “if you tell the truth, you’ll feel pleasure.” He leaned down and licked up my neck over the puncture wound. “But if you lie, you will suffer.” His teeth sank into the tender skin below my ear.
My limbs were weighed down and useless. My head lolled to the side, and I was panting from fear and pain. Inside, the potion ricocheted around my insides like lightning.
Across from me, sweat coated Morales’s face and his cheeks were flushed. His biceps strained as he fought magic’s claws. His wide eyes met mine. The lack of hope I saw in those dark irises worried me. Normally he was the one to crack a joke to ease the te
nsion. But now he looked like a man who’d run out of options.
I swallowed hard against the bile surging in my throat. Until I took my last breath, I’d never believe there were no more options.
“Now.” Dionysus stepped back and tapped a finger on his full lips. “Who wants to share first?”
Morales and I looked at each other across the space. I could feel my secrets crowding on the back of my tongue like tiny daggers. Morales looked as worried as I felt, so I assumed he was experiencing the same urges. That being the case, neither of us said a word, worried we’d spill our secrets without any further prompting.
“No one wants to volunteer?” Dionysus said. “Well, I guess we’ll have to just do this the old-fashioned way.”
From inside his toga, he held up my anniversary token necklace. A shock passed through me. I hadn’t noticed it was missing. “Arcane Anonymous, huh? Bet that means you have lots of juicy secrets, Detective Prospero.”
I didn’t rise to the bait. Instead I zeroed in on the necklace, which, in addition to the token still bore the tiny vial Baba had given me.
“Ohh, you look mad,” he said in a taunting tone. “Do you want it back?”
Until that moment, I hadn’t appreciated how precious both items were. And now they were in the hands of a man who’d likely kill me in the immediate future. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of having something to hold over me. “I couldn’t care less.”
He raised a single brow in challenge. Then, without a word, he tossed the necklace over the back of the boat.
I clenched my teeth and promised myself that no matter what this asshole threw at me, I would fight him with every last ounce of strength in my body. Unfortunately, with the truth potion surging through me like a high-speed train, my strength was quickly waning.
“Where was I?” Dionysus said, tapping his lips. “Oh yes, a coin flip. Shayla, my dear, would you do the honors?”
The priestess pulled a coin from the pocket of her skintight jeans. “Heads or tails?” she asked Morales.
“Fuck you.”
“Tails it is, then,” she said on a giggle. She tossed the coin into the air with a graceful flick of her wrist.
In what seemed like slow motion, it flipped end-over-end. In my head, I willed the coin to land on tails. It’s not that I wanted Morales to suffer, but he was the last guy I wanted to admit my secrets in front of. If we survived this, I was worried he’d go straight to Gardner and it would be game over for my career.
Shayla snatched the quarter from the air and slapped it on the back of her right hand. She waited just long enough for the suspense to become agonizing. Her narrowed eyes ping-ponged back and forth between Morales and me. A bead of sweat rolled down Morales’s temple. His jaw was rock-hard and his eyes were focused on that fist like it was a time bomb.
Finally, Dionysus went to join her. She lifted her hand to allow him to peek.
“Oh my,” he whispered. Stealing glances at both of us, he chuckled. “We have a winner, kids.”
He moved toward me with deliberate slowness. When he stood directly in front of me, he leaned down into my face.
“Tell me, Kate, what’s your secret?” he whispered. He ran a finger down my cheek. “Won’t it be such a relief not to carry the burden alone?”
He was the snake in the garden and I suddenly felt as naked as Eve. “I can’t.” My eyes shot toward Morales. His expression was grave, and I saw sadness and pity in his eyes. Like he knew before this was all over he’d know things about me neither of us was ready for him to know. Like he knew this would change everything—if we survived.
Words gathered at the back of my tongue, like eager lemmings ready to dive off the cliff. I ground my teeth together to keep the truth inside.
“I can see you fighting it,” he said. “Means the secrets are extra juicy.”
The longer I resisted, the more excruciating the effort. My heart struggled to keep up with the rising blood pressure. My temples pounded, my stomach churned, my tongue swelled. I squeezed my eyes and focused on trying to ride out the pain.
“Oh yes, I can see this will be a good one. What is it, Kate? Did you fuck someone you shouldn’t have? Or no—you’re a cop. Cops have the best secrets. Some kind of crime you covered up, maybe? A secret addiction?”
I tried to keep my eyes shut, I really did. But the instant he mentioned a cover-up and addiction, my eyes popped open.
“Ah ha!” he said, laughing. “Hit a nerve there, did I, love?” He caressed my cheek. His palm was hot and sweaty and made revulsion creep across my skin.
“I’m not hiding anything,” I gritted from between clenched teeth. Pain was a boot heel to my gut. Doubling over, I struggled not to vomit.
His face pressed close to mine, those blazing eyes like twin flames in my pain-dimmed vision. “Your secrets will kill you,” he whispered. “Literally.”
I looked up quickly, hoping he was the one lying now. He pulled back a little, but smiled. “Didn’t I mention that part?” He shrugged. “The more you resist telling the truth, the more the potion will attack your vital organs. Tell one too many lies and—” He slashed a hand across his throat.
I glanced at Morales. His normally olive complexion was now bone-white except for the blood streaking down his cheek.
“All right,” I said, panting. “I’ll tell you a secret.”
Dionysus’s eyes widened like a kid given free rein at an ice cream shop. He leaned forward so he wouldn’t miss one sweet drop.
I licked my dry lips and swallowed before speaking. My breaths were coming in short bursts as I fought the pain and adrenaline. “I haven’t had sex in eighteen months.”
“Ha!” Shayla laughed. “That’s a shocker.”
Almost immediately the pain in my stomach eased. I let out a relieved breath. But before I could get too used to the less shitty sensation, Dionysus’s palm cracked across my cheek. My head snapped back.
“Don’t fucking patronize me, bitch!”
“I tore the label off my mattress,” Morales called. “And when I was a kid I stole a piece of gum from a gas station.”
Dionysus rounded on my partner but not before I caught a glimpse at the pure rage on the psycho’s face. He marched over to Morales and placed the gun’s muzzle between his eyes.
Fear crawled up my throat on spidery legs.
Morales’s face morphed into an expression of bored contempt. A look that proved this wasn’t the first time someone had pointed a gun at my partner. A look that dared the asshole to back down just like all the others had done.
“Don’t tell him, Kate.” He kept his eyes on Dionysus.
Instead of responding, the man with the gun lowered the barrel. The gun exploded. Shayla screamed. Morales groaned in pain. I reared up and was hit upside the head with vertigo. Through blurry vision I tried to assess the damage to Morales.
His body was slumped over, but he was moving. “Drew!” I shouted, blinking rapidly.
“I’m okay,” he growled.
Dionysus moved toward Morales. A split second later my partner hissed. My vision cleared enough to see Dionysus pressing a thumb into a bullet wound on Morales’s left leg. “Next time I will shoot him someplace vital.” He turned wild eyes toward me. “Tell me, Detective.” He pressed harder, and Morales clenched his teeth to trap a scream.
“Don’t, Kate,” he panted. “Don’t.”
But blood was spreading over the left side of Morales’s body. And the pain in my midsection was creeping like poison vines. And telling the truth wasn’t just a compulsion but a requirement, like breathing.
“I lied!” I shouted.
Dionysus went still. A devilish smile emerged from the beard. “About what?” he asked in a seductive tone.
I swallowed to wet my dry throat. “About the Bane case.”
Morales stilled, and his eyes rose to look at me with an expression filled with fear. For some reason I knew this fear wasn’t for him or us, but for me and what this admissio
n would mean.
“I cooked magic for John Volos.” I barreled ahead now because with each word the agony in my middle lessened. “I read the Gray Wolf potion, I used what I discovered to complete the antipotion, and then I promised Volos I would keep the identity of Bane’s accomplice a secret so John could go after the guilty party himself.”
Dionysus made a smacking noise with his lips, like he was savoring the admission. “My, my, that is juicy.” He turned toward me. With his free hand, he jerked my face up by the chin. His fingers dug into the skin and his gaze bore into me. “But you only told part of the truth.” He leaned in. “Who was behind the potion, Kate?”
Behind the madman, Morales was shaking his head, willing me to resist. But I was so tired. Tired of the pain, yes, and the fear. But more than that, I was fucking exhausted from carrying the weight of this secret around on my shoulders. Tired from pretending I was the kind of cop who could collude with criminals because the ends would justify the means. Tired of not getting credit for saving my brother’s life. Tired of being in debt to John Volos and at the same time wishing he’d make good on his threats against Uncle Abe. Of knowing I needed him to exact the vengeance I couldn’t legally pull off.
“Who was it, Kate?” Dionysus yelled.
I opened my lips to complete my confession. But before I could form the words, Morales shouted his own confession. “When I was undercover, the coven I’d infiltrated killed a dirty cop. I helped them hide the evidence.”
All sound evaporated. Air became an endangered resource. A chill passed through me like a ghost.
Morales’s eyes were hot and focused on me. Waiting to see my reaction. But the muscles in my face weren’t cooperating and all I could do was stare, slack-jawed.
There are moments set apart from reality. Like stepping off a treadmill and tripping into stillness. This was one of those times. I felt removed from my body, staring down at smug Dionysus, nervous Shayla, defiant Morales, and a pale, shell-shocked woman.
Dionysus spoke from far away. “Now we’re really having fun!”
Time suddenly caught up with me and my conscience fell back into my body with the impact of a meteor.