by K. F. Breene
“Hello, Miss Price,” the new guy said, his hands behind his back and his smile oily. “I’m Rob Stevens.”
“Hi, Rob,” I said.
“I am an Authenticator. Do you know what that is?”
My heart sank and a bead of sweat ran down my back.
His smile spread. “I can see that you do. Yes, I can read the shades of truth within lies, and vice versa.”
I hadn’t reacted because of what he could do. He could figure out the problem all day long, but that didn’t mean they could get any closer to discerning the level of my magic. Not unless shock treatment had returned to medical practice (they never had given me an answer on that).
No, my problem was that magic like his was rare and prized. He could demand a good price for his work. The fact that they’d brought him in with me, paying him an arm and a leg for his services, meant Kieran was not messing around. He wanted proof of what I could do, and I was scared by the lengths he was willing to go to get it.
“I’ve heard Mountebank Iams is having some problems matching up your account of your magic with the readings of the machine.”
“I’ve been hearing the same thing,” I replied.
“Her connections are all correct, and when we—”
“It’s okay, Mountebank Iams, I’ll take it from here.” Rob glanced around the room, choosing the chair in front of the yellow wall. Once seated, he leaned back and crossed an ankle over a knee before entwining his fingers, getting comfortable. “I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
The mountebank stiffened and his jaw clenched. He’d just been chucked out of his own assessment room, and it galled. Despite the situation, it tickled me.
“Now,” Rob said when he were alone. “Let’s start from the beginning.”
I started with my impression of the bland waiting room, the spirit I’d seen in the office, and why and how I’d chosen my seat in this very room. Throughout our preliminary chat, I peppered in some white lies about arbitrary things, like the number I’d added onto eeny, meeny and how much I liked the nurse’s attitude. Talking about my magic came next, and there I didn’t lie at all. My mother always said that choosing to keep information to myself was okay, but outright lying would just land me in the stink.
By then, his smile had vanished and his body had tensed somewhat. He looked over at the machine in confusion. “Did they try another machine besides this one?”
“They tried all three.”
“Of course,” he said, blinking slowly. “Do you want to know my assessment?”
“No.”
He shook his head, looking confused. I’d been confusing a lot of people lately.
“Which means,” he said, as if the words had been drawn from him with a string, “you know vaguely what it is.”
It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t give him an answer.
“You think that machine works just fine, don’t you, Miss Price?”
“Yes. I love your tone when you call me Miss Price, by the way. It’s soothing.”
The silence between us lingered. I could really get used to having a guy like him around. I sounded as sweet as can be, but we both knew I was being sarcastic.
Because I did not like his tone at all. It made me want to throttle him.
“Why can’t the machines get accurate readings, Alexis?” he asked.
“Why, indeed? Tell me, what’s the status with shock treatment? Or torture?”
His crossed ankle swung to the ground. I was getting under his skin.
“That’s the thing about your magic,” I said, fighting for the upper hand. “It’s only useful when you have information to pore over.”
I would not let them get control over me. The power to choose my own fate was the only power I had. The one thing I couldn’t bear to give up. The day I let someone else rule me was the day I lost my will to keep fighting. It was the day my mother would not know the daughter she had raised.
“I don’t frighten you, do I?” he asked.
“Why would you frighten me?” It dawned on me. “Ah. Because liars are frightened of people discovering the truth. And those are the type of people you usually deal with.”
“You’re a clever girl.”
“I have my moments.”
“Though I knew that earlier, from the way you inserted silly lies to point at the utter truth of everything you said regarding your magic.” He stood. “You are not what you seem, Miss—Alexis. You think you know what you are. I believe that. But in this situation, it’s not just your power level that isn’t adding up. You are as ignorant as the mountebanks at this office have been.”
“Oh…kay…”
He paused with his hand on the door. “I’ve done all I can here, since no, I am not permitted, nor do I care to, torture you. Someone else can handle that.”
“Oh, goodie. You know, I’ve really enjoyed our time together. This place is great.”
“You’re laying it on a little thick, Miss Price,” he said, before shutting the door between us.
I sighed. Two down, how many more to go?
Later I would learn that it was only one. One more. The worst one of all.
29
Kieran
“The Encourager is up next, sir,” Zorn said, standing by Kieran’s side in the large medical monitoring room.
The staff in this room sat at their computer terminals in their white coats and analyzed stats on various subjects from a multitude of departments. Only two staffers were working on Kieran’s case, in addition to the personnel who actually went into the assessment room, but it still felt like too many. He wanted the least amount of people to know his business as possible. But he also needed to be thorough. He wanted this done properly. There was no more hiding for Alexis Price, not from him.
“He’s a class five, like you requested,” Zorn went on.
An Encourager could influence another person’s thoughts and actions. A class five was on par with mind control.
Without warning, rage flared up from deep inside of Kieran, hot and possessive. His body tightened up of its own accord, ready to fight. Something about the idea of another man entering Alexis’s mind, able to access her most intimate information, turned his stomach. The thought of that man being able to control her fanned his rage higher until red tinted his vision. If she would give control up to anyone, it would be Kieran, and it would be done willingly.
“No,” he said, leaning over the desk, watching the monitors. Four in all, capturing every angle of the room. Alexis sat with a loose posture in her chair, her fingers entwined in her lap and her confidence supreme. She thought she’d come out on top of this situation, hiding her magic like a thief, just as she had in the past.
One thing was certain: Alexis Price would not go down without a fight, no matter what he threw at her.
“I doubt an Enforcer could crack her,” he said quietly, not wanting anyone else in the large medical monitoring room to hear. It wasn’t just a good excuse not to use the Enforcer; it was the truth. A truth that would raise eyebrows—even more so than she already had. “Turn off the recording. I’ll handle it.”
The door at the far end of the room swung open and Rob entered, his brow furrowed and his expression contemplative. He made a beeline for Kieran.
“She’s unique,” he said without preamble, clearly forgetting his position. “She’s hiding something. She knows I know it—she knows you know it—but she isn’t anxious about it. She’s downright confident. And she should be. She handled me more than I handled her. Only the best-trained industry professionals sit through an interrogation with that much detachment. No…” He put a finger to his lips and looked down. “Detachment isn’t the right word. With that amount of…insouciance. She artfully tucked lies within the truth like it was a game, and she was assured of winning.” His look held suspicion, but he wasn’t acting disrespectful, which was the only reason Kieran didn’t call him down. “Are you testing me, sir? Have there been any complaints regarding my abilities?�
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Kieran barely checked his surprise. He’d expected something unusual—Alexis always kept him guessing—but he hadn’t thought she’d be able to twist the Authenticator into so many knots that he was doubting his own ability. Rob thought she’d been highly trained. That she was assessing him, and not the other way around.
“We’ll be in touch,” Kieran said, forcing a flat expression. It was not the right time to smile at the absurdity of the situation. “Zorn…”
Zorn stepped forward, his arms out to herd the suddenly imbalanced Authenticator. A half-hour ago, Rob had thought he was at the top of his trade. Now he wondered if he’d be sacked. What a strange twist of events.
Jack drifted to his side from behind one of the staff monitoring Alexis’s vitals. “If you hope to keep her under wraps, you should probably cut this short. Get the assessment and get out, know what I’m saying?”
Kieran barely nodded, already stepping forward. Scientist types spent their life explaining the unknown—they’d want to dig into the weird that was Alexis and her undocumented talents. Unless Kieran ushered her out of here as quickly as possible.
He let himself out of the monitoring room and walked down the hall, briefly thinking about how he wanted to approach this situation. She already mistrusted him, and for good reason. He’d been shadowing her for days. Even the completely untrained would have a problem with that, and the trained would be thinking of ways to kill him, Demigod or no. Forcing her to cooperate with the testing would only make matters worse. He needed to drive her to the brink…and then pull back and let her make her own decision.
If that decision was to continue messing with his testers and their machines, he wasn’t sure what he’d do.
He stopped at the assessment room door with his hand on the handle and took a deep breath. He had no idea why he still wanted to smile, and even less of an idea why he felt nervous. Kieran never felt nervous.
“Hello, Alexis,” he said as he opened the door.
A look of blind fear washed over her face and she licked her lips before glancing at the green wall, then the machine.
She would’ve picked the green wall if she’d made a personal choice instead of trying to mess with the mountebanks, and she knew he could force her to give up the goods and let that machine properly assess her.
When had she become so easy to read?
“How are we?” he asked, pausing in the doorway, wondering if a fleeting hope of escape would cross her face.
As if she’d slipped into a coat, a new wave of confidence washed over her. She didn’t so much as glance out of the room. If he hadn’t seen her handle those beast handlers at the magical fair, he would’ve bought it all. But she’d been terrified then, and she was terrified now.
He would soon find out why—what she was hiding.
“We?” she said, her voice strong and even. She did excellently under pressure. “Well, you seem to be fabulous, and I am rather humdrum. Thanks for asking.”
He smiled and stepped into the room before closing the door behind him. He eyed the wall colors. “I think I’ll choose green.”
“Great to know. Should I jot that down?”
“You don’t have any paper. Make a mental note. I like when my women know every minute detail about me. It makes my life easier.”
Her lips tightened, and he barely kept from laughing. The mountebanks found her deflective, dry humor exasperating. He had no idea why. He found it refreshing that someone didn’t agree with his every word. It kept things interesting.
“My name is Kieran. Demigod Kieran, Valens Drusus’s son.” Her eyes narrowed instead of widening. “Or did you finally figure out who I was?”
“Your people have the gift of gab. Cindy at the bar filled me in.”
“My people?”
“Yeah. Irish. Awful gossips.”
He did smile this time before leaning back in his chair, getting comfortable. “Cindy, yes. She pours a good pint.” He let his gaze roam her face, snagging on that inviting, heart-shaped mouth. “Do you know why I’m here?”
“In this room, or in this city?”
“The room. You know…in part, why I’m in this city.”
She glanced around at the walls. “These rooms are usually bugged, right? Do you want the whole world hearing what I know? Because I have no problem with snitching.”
“These rooms are usually monitored, yes. But not right now.” He hoped Zorn knew to plug in some earphones if he wanted to keep listening. “I hoped you’d consent to a proper assessment test.”
“I have. They’ve tested me three times.”
“With varying results.”
“The machines are clearly buggy.”
“Just so we’re clear, the room was monitored before I came in.”
Her jaw set stubbornly, but she didn’t say anything.
“I have the ability to bend an individual’s mind to my will, Alexis.” He kept his tone light, but fear flashed within her eyes. No, she did not want to be controlled. She’d given up much in her life—she did not want to give up her power over her mind. He respected that. Only a weak person would. “I’d rather not do that to you.”
“I would rather you not do that, too. Look at us—something in common.”
“But I need that assessment, Alexis.”
“Conundrum.” So, she was digging in her heels. He’d expected no less.
“That’s how it’s going to be, then?”
“Do your worst,” she said, using a different voice. He wondered if it was a reference from a movie he wasn’t getting. Regardless, he grinned and gave in to her command.
30
Alexis
I wondered what Kieran would do. How far he would go. He was a Demigod, and with the magnitude of his power, he could make me grovel at his feet like a starving, begging child.
Please don’t make me grovel.
He half rose and scooted his chair closer, stopping in the center of the room.
“I’d stay out of kicking distance, if I were you,” I warned.
That sexy grin twisted his lips again. “Noted. So…” He entwined his fingers, as calm as they came.
“So,” I said, trying to mimic it. I did a horrible job. It came out like I wanted to put a spike through his heart.
“It seems you are somehow preventing the machine from getting accurate readings. Because this facility has not had experience with that before…” They had, because my mother had been the master at it. She’d always hit her target within a few points, a talent I couldn’t seem to duplicate. These guys just hadn’t caught anyone doing it before. “…they don’t know how to get what we need.”
“So they called in the big guns.”
He bent his head, and that damn grin stretched a little wider. He thought all this was hilarious, the dog.
“I’ll give you one more chance to—”
“No,” I said. I could withstand his magic in the bar; I might as well try to withstand it here. Maybe he couldn’t—
The thought cut off as a wave of unadulterated bliss swept over me, promising unbearably sweet rewards. My core tightened to pounding, desperate for fulfillment. My nipples budded in anticipation of being suckled by his luscious lips.
I moaned—I couldn’t help it—before dropping my head forward and riding the wave of pleasure, revving up to orgasm right here in the assessment room.
I hoped he really had switched off the monitoring equipment, because I was about to make a fool of myself.
Then again…Kieran wanted me sexually. He’d said as much, and proven it in the bar. If I showed how much pleasure his magic caused me, it would drive him crazy because he couldn’t touch me.
Or, at least, I hoped so. This tactic would be ruined if he decided to ignore the law.
Heat pounded through my middle. I raked my teeth across my bottom lip before spreading my legs and leaning back. “Yes,” I sighed, not having to pretend. Pleasure coursed through me, throbbing and aching. I arched my back, soaking into
it. Feeling the build. Right on the edge.
“Cut off the cameras,” Kieran said with what sounded like a clenched jaw, his voice hard and tight. Hard like his cock, I was certain.
But I didn’t have time to reach that big O, or be embarrassed about who else might’ve seen my little display. Hot spikes of agony ripped across my skin before digging in hard. I was dunked, headfirst, into more pain than I’d experienced in a very long time.
“Dick move…” I ground out, taking it. This was a battle of wills, and I would not give in. I only wished I had better magic so I could fight back. “Not letting me orgasm.”
“You’ll orgasm with me, or not at all,” came the reply, his voice still tight.
I laughed despite the pain. “My big pink vibrator begs to differ. You can suck it.”
“I will suck it. And lick it. And make you writhe in pleasure before screaming my name.”
It felt like daggers had been punched through my eyes. Fire burned across my scalp. I opened myself up to the pain, letting it consume me. Letting it drag me where it would.
“There you go,” I said, trying to stay loose and absorb the sensations. It made the magic bearable, somehow. Tolerable. I could handle this. “You’ve just proven yourself a liar, unless you’ll be jacking off while you eat me out?”
The magic switched on a dime, and I knew in a flash he was alternating between his mother’s and father’s magic. Sweet and sensual, then vicious and dominating, both utterly consuming. I wondered if he was even in control, or if his magic was instinctively reacting to my verbal pokes and prods.
Passion flared, erasing the sharp bite of pain from the moment before.
“You’re so fucking sexy, Alexis, you drive me to distraction,” he said in a low growl. I peeled my eyes open, hot and aching and needing his cock buried deeply inside of me.
The same heat burned in his eyes, as though he was using the magic on himself. As though I had the same effect on him as he was having on me.
Suddenly, I wondered how much of this was actually his magic, and how much was my reaction to him. I was scared of the answer.