Shattered (Alchemy Series Book #3) (22 page)

"Now that your internal matters are under control, can we move on to the other issue at hand?" Crash said.

Cormac stepped forward. "Buzz?"

Buzz moved to the table and laid a large sheet of what looked like architectural plans on the table.

"We managed to find
these where the company that owned the plant used to have offices," Cormac explained. "We've got to assume that however many Colleen saw and what we viewed that night is only a fraction of what is really there."

"So we use stealth," I said and looked up from the plans.

"Yes," Cormac said.

"Agreed," Crash said.

"We get our people out, then we go back and obliterate them." I felt his hand on my shoulder and I saw him look directly at Crash. "They knew they were taking something that was mine. People don't cross me and get away with it."

"If we come at them
from the southeast, we'll get a better advantage I think," I said trying to move the topic along from Cormac's cave man claiming of me.

Cormac moved into a different war mode and switched gears.
"There were three lookouts on the tops of these towers." He leaned over where I stood to point to the locations on the plans. Feeling him behind me made it hard to concentrate and I could've sworn he was messing with me.

"
We get snipers to take those out simultaneously. My best guess is that they'll be holding our people in the most inner building, the one surrounded by the rippers."

"I'll handle the rippers," I said. The entire room stared at me
, except Cormac.

"They're controlling them
. Are you sure you can handle it?" Crash asked.

"Yes."
No, not really, but I had the best shot.

"Jo," Crash said, "there were more than fifty of them in this area." He pointed to another building. "And there might have been even more behind here. How are you going to possibly keep them contained?"

No one spoke; I'm sure they were waiting for me to explain. Anyone that hadn't seen me keep them at bay by this point had still heard the whispers that I had some sort of strange connection with them, everyone but Crash, that is.

"
I've got it. I'll take one other with me, but I can handle this," I reaffirmed. I looked to the rest of the group, wondering if I was going to experience any more opposition, but no one looked directly at me, not even Rogo.

"What is going on here?" Crash asked.

"Leave it alone," Cormac said.

"You're going to let her go in there alone?"

"If she says she can handle this, I believe her."

"What is wrong with you people? Especially you! No one can handle that many rippers."

"I said to drop it."

Crash just shook his head in disgust. He thought they were feeding me to the lions as a diversion. He didn't get it, I was the lion. It's why when the subject came up, no one wanted to look at me. They'd prefer to pretend whatever I had going on didn't exist. If they acknowledged it, they might not be able to walk the halls of this place with me.

"We need Katie." I looked at Adam
, to see how willing he was going to be to offer up his people. "You're either on the team or you're not. There's no half measures," I said when he took a minute too long to reply.

"I'll ask her. Ultimately
, it's her call."

"Agreed," I said.

"I'm going," Colleen said. "Don't even think to argue. I can take down a man three times my size with no noise. Well unless they scream."

To know that, she's had some practice. I wanted to laugh but didn't want to steal her thunder.

"How is that possible?" Dodd asked.

"She uses it like a taser
gun," I said, guessing. Colleen's smile confirmed I was correct.

"I'm mo
re than willing to offer a demo," she said, looking around the room.

Not surprisingly, no one accepted to be the crash
test dummy.

"I'm in," Dark said.

"Are your guys any good with a sniper?" Cormac asked Crash.

"Half my men were Green Beret
s before this. They're good at everything."

"You and your guys will hang back over here and take out the watchmen. Jo, who do you want to take with you to handle the rippers?"

"I'll take Colleen." I knew bullets wouldn't take out a ripper but Colleen's lightning might work.

"Done. You two ke
ep the rippers in check. If our people aren't in this building, it could be any of these. I'll take this one with Katie, as long as she agrees. We still need more bodies. I want Dark to take this one with somebody and then we need people to cover this one."

"I'll cover one of them," Rogo said.

"Really?" Dark asked.

"Yes," Rogo snapped.

What's this guy's angle? Was it Colleen? Did he think if he could manipulate her and gain some control of the
changed
? Could we even trust him? And the most important question, did it matter? We didn't have the luxury of turning anyone down. He was among the wolves that the rippers wouldn't bother. It wasn't just about getting our people back, it was also about keeping everyone alive.

"We're still short two. And n
o," Cormac said as Dodd was about to argue why he should be going. "I'm sorry; Dodd, but you'd be a liability."

"Vitor? Kirk
?" I asked, looking at both factions of the Fae.

"Wi
th all due respect," Kirk said, "this isn't our fight."

"You guys make me ashamed of my heritage," I said to the two of them.

"They aren't wrong," Cormac said. "It's not."

"What about the fact that they live here?"

"And they carry their weight."

I knew the Fae worked daily at reinforcing the wards around the Lacard
, but the fact that they never put any skin in the game was getting old.

"They'
re our people. I'll get the two we're short," Adam said.

"Make sure
they understand all the details," I stressed. "Make sure they know they might not be coming back."

There she was. I'd been searching for Katie for over an hour.

"Katie,
" I yelled when I saw her blond head bopping around. She turned and smiled when she saw me running down the hall of the main floor of the casino to catch up to her.

"I'm in," she said as I neared
, still smiling. "Do you know when we're leaving?"

"Not yet
. Colleen and Adam are getting more recruits." I looked at her and couldn't help but be jealous at the way, even after everything that had happened, she could still smile and seem happy. How could anyone roll with these kinds of punches and still smile all the time? I looked at her a little closer and thought maybe she was just crazy. Yeah, that made more sense. Nobody in their right mind could be this happy, with everything that was happening.

"I'm not
actually here for that," I explained.

"Oh? What's up?"

I paused for a minute, embarrassed at the question I was about to ask. "You said there was a seer in the Lacard. Do you know where I could find her?"

"
Yeah, usually she's on the main floor but I haven't seen her down here today. I'd try her room. She's in four twenty-two."

"Thanks." I smiled back at her even though I wanted to grimace. She was located in the heart o
f the humans, and not even the
changed
, who didn't harbor the same animosity towards me, but plain old Mary Jane and Dick. Oh well, it is what it is.

I took the stairs up to the fourth floor, put my hand on the doorknob and tried to settle my nerves. It was the middle of the afternoon
, so it shouldn't be too crazy, with most people doing their socializing and duties elsewhere. That was just an assumption, because I hadn't been to this floor once since before the shattering.

Like I'd expected, there weren't too many people out and ab
out. A group of teens loitered at the end of the hall and a few adults walked from one room to the next. It was a good thing because they all stopped and stared in my direction. Their faces all displayed the same sentiment.
What the fuck do you think you're doing here?

I did the same thing I did dow
nstairs. I lifted my chin and replied in a physical demeanor that said "I'm here and I don't give a shit if you like it or not." It was the farthest thing from the truth, but they'd never know that.

I walked down the hallway
, getting closer and closer to the group of teens. Still so young and stupid, they were more of a problem than the adults, who actually thought of the consequences of their actions.

The six of them, four bo
ys and two girls, spread out now and actually blocked the hallway. The adults suddenly disappeared into their rooms, not wanting to stop the trouble but making sure they didn't witness anything that could get them booted from the safety of the casino.

D
umb kids, didn't they listen to the gossip? I might take a couple of hits but they would be the ones recouping for weeks. Me getting hurt wasn't my fear. What if I accidentally killed one of them?

"You don't want to do this,
" I said when I was close enough for them to hear me in a quiet voice.

"She's scared," the largest boy said and they all started to laugh.

"Yes, I am. But not for me." I saw a flicker of panic run through their eyes and hope sprung up in me. Then one of the girls stepped forward.

"You think you're so hot because your Cormac's whore
, but you're nothing. I could have him in a heartbeat but I wouldn't debase myself with a nonhuman."

Oh, silly little girl, Cormac would eat you for breakfast.

Wait, even the kids knew I'd slept with him already? The casino was becoming small town gossip purgatory.

"Let her through,
" an adult female voice said.

I looked down the ha
llway and there stood a woman with a turban wrapped around her head and a flowing floral print dress. Bingo. I'd found the seer.

The kids disbanded quickly, running down the hall in the oppos
ite direction to the woman. The way they took off made me want to join them. These kids weren't scared of anybody. What freaked them out so badly about this woman?

"Come," she said
. She turned and walked back down the hallway, her curvaceous figure sashaying as she moved. She disappeared into a room on the right.

I was too intrigued to leave
, so I followed. This was what I came for, after all. I followed her into the room and she closed the door that I would've left open.

"I've been wait
ing for you," she said. "I'm Liza."

"You knew I was coming?"

"Still skeptical after everything that has happened. I'm not surprised. You're stubborn to the core." She sat down at the table in the corner. It had a colorful fabric thrown over it but I guessed it was the standard hotel table underneath. "Sit down." She pointed to the chair opposite her.

I settled in with n
othing to lose now.

"Why did you come
, if you don't believe?"

"I don't
not
believe."

"You are here for a reading, correct?"
She lit the few candles in between us.

"It depends on the cost."

"Normally, it would be two days’ rations, but for you this is free."

Two days
’ rations were steep for most people. I couldn't believe she was able to con them out of so much or perhaps that was just my price.

"I don't want free. If you're legit, I'll pay you." I didn'
t want to be indebted to anyone and certainly not a con artist.

"If you insist. Don't be alarmed."

She started to unwrap the turban on her head.

"Nothing you say will alarm me." This woman was seriously overestimated
her spookiness. She was probably used to scaring all the little teens in the hallway. She didn't know what I'd seen in my life.

I looked out the window, wondering how long it was going to take this w
oman to finish grooming herself and get started. I had plenty of other things I wanted to do today.

"That's not why
I warned you," Liza said. I turned back toward her, wondering if she was ready to get this sideshow going.

I caught myself from screaming but I didn't manage to stop myself from falling off my chair. There was an eyeball in the middle of her freaking forehead!
Her black hair only accentuated the black colored eye even more, like it needed it. It was about the same size as her normal brown eyes, but darker with the pupil and iris indistinguishable from each other. It had eyelashes, but thankfully, no eyebrow. That might have pushed me over the edge.