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“Understood.”
Bold red appliances stood out against the white counters and cabinets.Cellophane wraps littered one table, and dirty pots filled the sink.Nothing sexy to see here.
“The monitor for our surveillance.”Petra pointed to a small bank of video screens in the corner.A grainy feed showed five treatment rooms, each play space staged with kink equipment ranging from swings to crosses to cages.
Vori skimmed the scenes, stopping to note an ornate gilded throne that both tantalized and tortured given her family history.Now wasn’t the time to dwell.She had to concentrate on finding that amethyst.
She didn’t need to wait long.The screens flashed, and there was the mogul.
He sat at a miniature table at a child’s tea set, extending his pinky over a tiny cup’s handle.The innocent pose didn’t match the tattoos on his hand that marked the violent crimes he’d committed.The amethyst set in his ring sparkled in the low light.
She wanted to reach through the screen and grab it.“Any chance I can ask to join in the current scene?”
Petra crowded close.“Normally, I would say no.We stagger arrival and departure times to protect anonymity as much as the fantasy.But that client might make an exception for you.Perhaps next time?”
Vori needed that stone now.She had only three weeks until the blood vows came due on her twenty-sixth birthday.The day she’d dreaded since she’d made those promises to Baba Yaga.
Find the stones.Return home.Kill the beast.
The looming deadline made her sick.There could be no more pretending and procrastinating.Vori had two of the stones, several reasons she would prefer to stay in the human world, and no wish to confront any beast other than the one in the mirror when she slipped skins.“I can’t join him tonight?”
“No.”Petra’s answer came quickly, definite and bitter.“That client doesn’t tolerate delays.”Her words tumbled out like a whip’s snap before a crack that would split skin, as if a lesson of pain raced beneath.
“I see.”Vori would need to be extra rough in removing the goblin stone from a power-hungry, greed-fueled man who’d provoked that kind of fear.
“But you’ll come back?”Petra’s pitch climbed, the earlier sweetness and uncertainty returning.“Ask for me?”
“Next time.”Time was ticking.The mogul left the creepy play area with the amethyst.She needed to go after him.
“I’ll hold you to it.”
“I promise.”Vori ducked out the back door and hurried after the mogul.
His bright-orange car rumbled down the street, its brake lights blinking a brilliant scarlet in the darkness.This was her chance.Collect the third amethyst, and she would have half of the stones in this realm.But she’d have to catch up with him now or risk losing him in the tangled twist of roads.
She hung a U-turn so fast her Ducati almost touched the asphalt, but a streak of orange ahead was her reward.The mogul rounded a hairpin curve.
Movement flashed in her peripheral vision.A massive creature aimed for the mogul’s car like a missile.The blaring screech of tires had Vori braking her motorcycle to a sudden stop.
Her heart raced, her mouth went dry, and time seemed to slow as if the moment had been trapped in a horror-induced fog.
No, no, no.
The car jerked to the right, its fender clipping a guardrail and sending it spinning.Sparks flew yellow and orange.Its hood slammed into a concrete wall in a bang of crumpled metal and shattered glass.
What kind of creature had attacked?And where had it gone?The stink of smoke and rubber stung her nose.She needed to call for help, to dosomething.
She voice dialed Alexei.Her adopted cousin would know what to do.Her gasps for air almost drowned out the phone’s ringing in the helmet’s speakers.
“Vorishka?”Alexei’s deep voice made the endearment gruff.
“I…” She swallowed past the panic knots tightening her throat.
“What’s wrong?”He clipped the question machine-gun fast.
The grate of claws on steel had those knots in her throat tangling.The mogul’s high-pitched shriek rivaled an operatic screech owl.
Vori rolled the Ducati a little closer, doubting the outline in the darkness.“It can’t be.Another goblin?”
