The Harder I Work, the Luckier I Get

by Amber Lynn

I woke up in the bed I slept in while visiting the Chicago house, but I didn’t have a cuddle buddy. I looked around the room and saw that there was no one else around. That was kind of odd.

  If I’d ended up in some parallel universe, where I was the only person in it, forced to wander around all day, someone was going to die. I knew I didn’t make good company, so the thought of keeping myself entertained wasn’t a welcomed one.

  I got out of bed and saw that I wasn’t wearing anywhere near enough clothing. I headed to the closet and grabbed my Karma takes too long I would rather just beat the crap out of you now shirt and some jeans. I was going to have to discuss allowing me to sleep in just my bra and underwear later with Nate.

  I’d been trying to hide my brain waves so far, to see if I could get a handle on the situation before making myself known. It wasn’t something I was sure could be done, but there was no harm in me trying. I left the bedroom and made my way downstairs. I figured if anyone was in the house, they’d either be in the kitchen or dining room.

  First stop was the kitchen, and shockingly there isn’t a soul in it. It was thankfully clean though, so I knew the guys hadn’t been slacking during my nap. I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, and then quietly made my way to the dining room. At the door, I could hear voices inside, so I cracked it open just a little and stopped to listen.

  “He says he doesn’t want to give us anymore time. We’ve stalled him every way I can think of, but I think they’re on to the fact that Charlie was using his special voice on them. It’s pretty obvious he wants to make an exchange while she’s still unconscious, and I’m at a crossroads on what we should do,” Nate said.

  I could’ve cut through the frustration in his voice with a knife. It was too early in the discussion for me to know what was going on, but Nate sounded like he was ready to kill someone.

  “We all know that isn’t going to happen, so I don’t think the decision is that difficult. I like the girl and all, but I’m not giving my sister over when she can’t defend herself. The pansy of a warlock needs to buck up and fight her, and us, like a man. We should’ve found him and had this taken care of weeks ago. Avery doesn’t need to wake up and have to deal with this,” Rick said, madder than I’d ever heard him.

  He gave me my first indication about how much time had passed. I really wished he would’ve said days and not weeks. I was curious what “girl” the warlock had and what exactly he’d been doing with her. I couldn’t think of anyone who Rick knew who he’d be so blasé about rescuing.

  “I’m with Rick,” I heard Elan’s deep voice say. “We have to do everything to protect Avery. She’s the only one who can truly lead us into the coming battle. I like you, Nate, but I don’t think you could’ve drawn us all together like this alone. She’s the glue and we can’t just hand her over for them to stake.”

  “Maybe it’s because I’ve been around awhile, but shouldn’t we consider what dollface would actually want to do in this situation? I know it isn’t a popular choice, but she’ll probably kill all of us if she comes to and someone else has taken her place as a sacrifice,” Kyle said.

  I really liked his way of thinking. He’d been paying more attention to me than I thought. I was sure everyone else in the room knew Kyle spoke the truth, but their connections to me made whatever decision they were making difficult.

  “You really think she’d be happy to be dead?” Rick bellowed. “I don’t give a rat’s behind about what she’d want at this moment. We’ve had to live with the idea she was dead before and that’s not something I’m living through again. My threats of shackling her to her bed are not idle. She lives, no matter what, or I’ll personally burn this planet to the ground.”

  “I think you’re overreacting just a bit there, Rick,” Alana stated. “You might need to go sit in an ice water bath for a little while. Other than the fact that she’s supposed to be our leader, I don’t really have a preference on sacrifices. Avery is nice enough, but I don’t tend to usually get along with other females, so we haven’t bonded as much as the rest of you.

  “I don’t really think she’s that important to our side. I think we can take the knife and use it ourselves to defeat Malphas. I believe it’d be a mistake to let a human get killed over this. That’d be a bigger story in the news, and potentially turn the humans towards that little cult against uniques.”

  Wow, Alana, tell us how you really feel, I thought to myself as I heard a chorus of growls around the table. I thought Alana and I were a little bit closer than we evidently were. I guess it was kind of nice to hear what people really thought about you. It made it easier to give them a cold shoulder in the future.

  “You better bite your tongue,” Nate roared at her. “We brought you into our inner circle because we thought you shared our beliefs, but from what you just said, I believe you better leave. If the rest of your people follow your lead and are behind what you just said, I’d make sure they don’t come around here. Whether you or anyone else likes it, Avery is our leader and always will be.”

  Alana stood and practically slithered to the door opposite of me. I was kind of glad I chose the back way in. Coming in my direction would’ve caused her pain, and I wanted to stay hidden for a little while longer.

  “Just so it’s clear, you won’t win this war. Malphas is way too powerful for any of you, including that wretched queen you all hide behind.”

  Liam and Kyle moved in to hold Rick down. “And just so you understand, if the snakes don’t find another leader, they’ll be on their own when any warlock comes knocking at their door,” Nate replied. “This battle endangers us all, whether you believe that or not.”

  Just for the fun of it, and because she turned out to be such a female dog, I telepathically kicked Alana, causing her to tumble out the door. The guys didn’t notice because they’d turned back to their own conversation, but the action made me feel better.

  “I never had a very good feeling about her,” Joseph said.

  “I wish I could say she was being taken over by a witch, like we saw with Elizabeth back in Alaska, but I’d met Alana before and nothing feels different about her,” Rick said, still scowling. He needed to be told his face would freeze like that if he kept it up.

  “How can she dislike the queen?” Brad asked, sincerity rich in his voice. “Avery is the nicest person in the whole world. She’s practically a saint.”

  Sorry, Brad, but saint is a little bit of a stretch. I did try to be nice and fair to everyone, though. Most of the time that came back to bite me, but I didn’t let that change who I was.

  “It’s got to be jealousy,” Liam said. “It’s why you don’t find a lot of women leaders among uniques. If anyone outshines them a little, it turns into a catfight. I’m a little surprised she hung out this long. We’ve made it clear we’ll only follow Avery.”

  “Well, her little tantrum hasn’t helped solve the problem we’re facing,” Nate said, rubbing his face.

  I could tell whatever time had passed hadn’t been full of sunshine and rainbows for him. If he’d taken a shower, it was probably only because someone dumped water on his head.

  “Are we absolutely sure using Elan as a decoy won’t work?” Seth asked.

  “It was one of the first things we tried. The warlock probably didn’t know for sure, but he couldn’t believe she’d been revived that soon. If we tried it again now, he’d probably be able to sense Elan,” Nate replied. “We’ve also tried to send in uniques who can go invisible, but they activated a shield that alerted the warlock. We really have tried everything. We’re down to the point where we have to decide who dies.”

  “Okay, let’s go around the table. Say aye if you think we should do the exchange and nay if you want to keep Avery alive,” Rick said. His wording didn’t seem very diplomatically, no one left around the table wanted me to die. “I’ll start, nay.”

  “Nay,” Brad echoed.

  “Nay,” Seth said.

  “Nay,” Joseph agreed. “We
don’t know that he’ll really kill her. She isn’t much of a bargaining chip dead.”

  The group took a second to ponder that thought, and then moved on. There were three more nays in a row. They were getting close to the point where they didn’t have to finish, because the majority would already be met.

  “Aye,” Kyle said, breaking up the broken record. “I don’t want her to die, but someone has to speak for her.” He received some glares from around the table, but he ignored them. I saw a double fudge cake in his future for trying to be the voice of reason.

  The voting went on as everyone else said nay, leaving Nate last. I didn’t know who they were voting to condemn for death, but I didn’t like the idea. I was sure they’d be shocked that they went through the vote for nothing. About as shocked as I was that no one had picked up my presence. Between the various connections I had with the group, and the mind readers among it, someone should’ve realized I was up.

  “As everyone knows my answer will always be Avery lives no matter what. I’m happy that I don’t have to decide this myself. I have a feeling that the vote isn’t going to be accurate, since we’re missing a few people.”

  “So what?” Elan asked, sounding irritated that Nate implied a decision wouldn’t be reached until everyone had a chance to vote. “Even with the missing members the nays overwhelmingly win.”

  “True, but one member’s vote counts a little bit more than the rest of ours,” Nate informed them. I didn’t know why he’d taken so long to make my presence known, but I knew the member he referred to was me.

  “She’s up, isn’t she?” Rick asked. “How in the world is she blocking me? It feels like she’s still in her sleepy coma.”

  “I don’t know. She thinks she’s pretty slick, though, which doesn’t come as a surprise” Nate replied. “Kicking Alana was a nice touch, my little butterfly. She deserved it and none of us could’ve gotten away with it.”

  My cover blown, I went ahead and opened the door, putting a stop to my spying. “There were a lot of other things I would’ve liked to do, but I was trying to be subtle, so I could listen in a little longer without you guys noticing.”

  I walked over and sat on his lap. His arms instantly wrapped around me and I felt safe and warm. It was amazing how small actions from Nate made everything else in the world seem unimportant.

  “I didn’t know you were there until that moment. It was probably you using your powers that alerted me. Did you learn to become a ninja while you were away?” he asked.

  “Not that I know of, but it was an interesting trip. I decided when I got up and found no one watching over me that I didn’t want to be noticed, and somehow I went into stealth mode. You guys know how much I hate beating around the bush, which means I have two questions. What day is it and who’s been kidnapped and held for ransom?”

  Everyone around the table instantly looked down, and no one spoke up to fill me in, not even Brad. That couldn’t be a good sign. It would’ve probably been best if I could take back the questions, but they were details I needed to know.