“Baby sis, I knew you’d eventually come around and see the error of your ways. We’re the chosen ones. Not them.”
A snigger came from the burly man. “Loony tunes. Every last one of them.”
Avily recalled his previous statement where he’d said the same thing. He’d also referenced a camp, brainwashing and words of a holy war.
Oh gods. What had Leena gotten herself involved in? Avily gripped her sister’s hands, squeezing them as she leaned close. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to leave. This is my family.”
“No, Leena. I’m your family. Mother too. These people have brainwashed you. Turned you into something abhorrent to suit their vile purposes.”
“The only vileness is the blood that runs through every fae on this planet. But soon that very blood will stain the ground they walk when we smite them out.”
The vehemence of Leena’s declaration chilled Avily to the bone. It sickened her to ask, but if she held any prayer of getting them out of here, she needed to know the enemy she was up against. “How do you plan to do that?”
“We’re the chosen ones.”
Frustrated by the continued cryptic ramblings, she shook her sister’s arms. “What does that mean?”
“You’ll soon see.”
“I don’t want to see, Leena. I want you to tell me.”
Before she could get anything more out of her sister, the door opened and a tall man dressed completely in sinister black strode into the room. Leena jumped up from the floor and rushed to his side. Flinging her arms around him, she kissed him with an intensity that made Avily’s eyebrows arch and her stomach lurch. The disgusting son of a bitch had brainwashed her sister and was using her sexually to boot.
The man broke away from Leena and glanced at Kiantu. “Do you have the formula?”
“The more important question is do you have my money?”
“It’s ready to be transferred into the account of your choosing as we speak.”
Greed sparkled in Kiantu’s eyes. “Excellent.” He snapped his fingers to his partner. “Grab the box out of the hover jet, Elrick.”
Giving a nod, the burly man—Elrick—exited the room. Kiantu and the man Avily assumed to be Rodale stood facing off against each other. Adversaries, except when it came to corruption and avarice, apparently.
The door banged open, and Elrick entered, carrying a cardboard box overflowing with file folders. Kiantu sneered at the man. “I meant the black box. Not the entire thing.”
Looking not the least contrite, Elrick shrugged. “Sorry, boss. Guess that’s why it pays to be specific.”
“No, my problem is paying you at all when clearly my money is better spent elsewhere.” His expression snippy, Kiantu snatched a small case resting on top of the pile. He unhooked the hinged lid and showed it to Rodale. “Your formula.”
“You expect me to pay five million merca for four vials?”
“Consider it down payment. Once my new lab is operational, you’ll get your full supply. Enough to support an army and upwards.”
Rodale’s features were rigid. “This isn’t what we agreed to.”
Sighing, Kiantu snapped the lid shut. “Then I’ll take my product elsewhere.”
“I didn’t say I don’t want it.” His face awash with unmistakable coveting, Rodale stroked his chin. “But I’ll want a demonstration.”
Kiantu’s snake-charmer smile faltered before reappearing with slightly less enthusiasm. “Of course.”
Rodale seized one of the syringes and studied it closely. The zealous light in his eyes provoked a shiver from Avily. Palming the substance, he snatched an additional syringe and handed it to Kiantu.
Her captor stared at the offering. His smile losing one more layer of its phoniness, he held up a hand. “Honored as I am to be invited into your ranks, I’m afraid I must refuse. My stockholders wouldn’t think kindly of me partaking in bribes and political pandering.”
Rodale grunted before swinging the vial to Elrick. “I’m assuming your stockholders won’t have a problem with him taking it.”
“Not in the least.”
Elrick glared at Kiantu. After a fierce stare down, he grudgingly accepted the syringe.
Avi’s heart knocked, her tensions a mirror of the leery atmosphere of the room. The two men injected themselves with the substance, and everyone went deathly still waiting to see what would happen next.
“I don’t feel anything,” Elrick said, breaking the silence.
“Goddamn it, Kiantu,” Rodale growled. “If you’ve swindled me—”
Avily’s captor held up his hands again. “You’ve only just injected it. Give it a damn moment.”
“You’re wasting my time.” With a thunderous shove, Rodale propelled Kiantu into the wall with a force that was eye-popping. Literally. Kiantu’s eyes threatening to bug from their sockets, he struggled to pick himself off the floor.
All occupants in the room once again froze in anticipation. Excitement lighting his face, Elrick slammed his fist down on the table, effortlessly splintering the edge in two. Blinking, he held up his uninjured hand and grinned. “Whaddya know, boss, it does work.”
She’d been dropped into a pit of insanity. Rodale and Elrick, equally hopped-up on their strange excitement rush and newfound superhuman strength, were competing against each other to see who could create the most damage in the room. Wincing when Rodale smashed his fist through a steel cabinet across the way, she inched closer to the doorway.
Looking bored, Kiantu checked his timepiece. “If you gentlemen wouldn’t mind wrapping this up, I have other business to attend.” He glanced at Rodale. “My money transfer, if you will.”
Rodale pulled his hand from the cabinet and fished his micro com from his pants pocket. He clicked a few keys and returned the device to his trousers. “Done.”
“Excellent.”
With a calm flick of his wrist, Kiantu extracted the electrolizer gun from the interior of his suit jacket and fired it at Rodale. The man staggered for a moment before righting himself and knocking the gun from Kiantu as if it were an ineffectual toy. Picking up the smaller man, Rodale flung Kiantu at the wall again with a hysterical laugh.
We’re never going to get out of here alive. The instant the thought popped into her mind, Avily shoved it aside. She needed to keep her wits. Falling victim to panic and fear wouldn’t help her or her sister out of this situation.
As if she’d plugged into Avily’s brainwaves, Leena dashed to her side, her cheeks flushed. “Isn’t it something, baby sis? Told you we’re the chosen ones. The oppression and tyranny. It all stops here with us.”
She grasped Leena’s arm. “We need to get out of here. Now.” Before they ended up the next test of strength. Shoving aside a trickle of fear, she pulled at Leena. Her sister stubbornly refused to budge.
“Damn it, Leena. This isn’t the time to go cuckoo for crazy puffs. Let’s go.”
A hand snagged her by the hair, and she bit back a scream as she was whirled around. Tear ducts stinging, she stared into Kiantu’s eyes. Her relief at not being the new punching bag for Rodale or Elrick fizzled an instant death when her captor dragged her away from the door.
“You’re going nowhere.”
“I’m not the only one.” Shaking, she slid her gaze in Rodale’s direction. “You honestly think he’s going to let any of us out of here? Whatever that was you gave him has disintegrated what little sanity he barely possessed in the first place.”