The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) (10 page)

“We thought you were a human.
There is a binding agreement between our races that all human witnesses are eliminated. When you saw Tracker change that night, you were in a private area of the casino, a safe zone. Your life was forfeit. If we didn’t kill you, he’d have tracked you down and done it himself. A quick death at our hand was a kindness.”

A shiver passed through me. “Spare me your kindness in the
future. I’d rather take my chances.”

He ignored my sarcasm and continued. “Once your body fo
rced the bullets out, we knew you were one of us. Now that we know what you are, it’s different. You’re a Keeper, and as such, you fall under my domain. They would have to get clearance from me to touch you.”

“And who keeps me safe from you?” I nailed him with the frostie
st stare I had. He talked to me and explained things as if we were on good terms, but I wouldn’t be lulled by his relaxed demeanor. “You didn’t think bygones would be bygones after you had me shot in the head five times, did you? We’d start singing Kumbaya?”

He shrugged his shoulders and walked across the room and I found myself admiring his grace as he moved.
I was annoyed at myself. If my subconscious supposedly had some reasoning ability of its own, it was a real masochist. I thought hard, trying to send it the message that it was a complete idiot. He was the enemy. You don’t find the enemy attractive, it didn’t matter how hot he was, you moron.

“I get that you’re pissed, but I had to do it. Now I don’t.”

“And when that changes?”

“It won’t.”

“Great. That’s very reassuring. Cause things never change in life, right?”

“Why did you try to run
?”

“
Why wouldn’t I? I’ve no desire to get messed up in whatever you have going on.”

“It’s a little late for that. This day
’s been coming since the day you were born. For a half-breed, you have way too much power flowing through your veins. Strolling around, untrained as you are, it was only a matter of time before you started to cause a problem for us. I can’t fathom how you managed to avoid detection for this long.”

“I’ve managed
. When freaky stuff starts happening around you all the time, you’d be amazed at how easy it is to remain alone.” I didn’t add how lonely I’d been, but I’d gotten by. People had much worse lives then I had. I wasn’t going to cry in my sleep over being alone.

He was watching me with all too knowing eyes, and I didn’t like the pity I thought I read in them.

“Stop,” I snapped.

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to pity me, you’re the murderer,” I accused him, trying anything to shut down the entire exchange that was hitting me way too hard. I looked at him, hoping to see anger. Even violence was preferable to this. I could handle anger and violence. I was used to those things. “Are you letting me leave or not?” My voice was starting to rise. I never raised my voice. It declared how upset you were, a satisfaction I didn’t like to give to anyone.

He reached down on the table near me, toying with a few papers and I jumped up and moved across the room.

“I was hoping to give you a little time to acclimate, bring you into the fold slowly, but it’s not working out like that.”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means that I need you to be on the grounds here at the casino full time. You can still go wherever you choose, but you’ll need to take an escort.”

“No, absolutely not.”

“I don’t have a choice. Vitor, and whoever else is involved, is determined to destroy the portal. It’s bad now. If they were to get their hands on you, it could be much worse. I’m trying to make this as easy for you as I can.”

“So what if they took me? What if they took you or one of your guys?”

“Not all my men are Keepers. The ones who are, they wouldn’t be able to take alive.”

“So we can die?”

“Yes.”

“What if I were trained?”

“You’d have to swear loyalty to me. Are you ready to do that?”

“Sure
!” I said with the most enthusiasm I could muster. All this, without ever taking a single acting class. I thought I sounded pretty believable.

He laughed and walked closer to me. “It would have to be sincere.”

“How about you train me, and we’ll see how the loyalty thing works out?”

“I can’t turn you into a weapon that could be used against me.”

“So then, what? I live in your casino indefinitely?”

I watched him closely, and saw his façade cracking just slightly to reveal what looked like uncertainty. “I don’t know,” he said finally.
We’d hit a stalemate.

As we left the room, we fell into silence as I followed him back upstairs.
My mind ran wild thinking of the implications. Alternate universes were straight out of my scifi shows, and knowing that perhaps I could control the opening to such a thing made me heady with possibilities. Having that power was almost enough to make me want to swear loyalty. But not quite.

As we stood in the elevator together, I knew we were heading to his penthouse, and I remembered I had a shift tonight.

“I need to go get a few things from my place. I need my uniform for tonight. Lucky for me, my job is in the casino. Maybe my goons can just blend in with the regular ol’ casino goons.” I said this with fake optimism.

“You do realize that an alchemist can change base metals into gold. If you swore allegiance, you’d never have to work another day in your life.” He looked at me with eyebrows raised.

I stared at the walls and crossed my arms over my chest. I hated being alone in close quarters with him. He smelled too good, he looked too good and it was just completely unfair. Villains were supposed to be ugly. Just another way I was getting screwed in this deal. My villain didn’t even look like he was supposed to. “I’m sure I’d just get bored.”

“There are also other ways to be entertained.” The look on Cormac’s
face left little doubt as to what he was referring.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve got enough entertaining to do.”

“I can always make time.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose. I’ll just stick to the waitressing for now so I don’t clutter up your schedule.”

He looked back at the elevator doors and sighed. “If that’s what you prefer, but you don’t know what you’re missing out on.”

We walked down his long hallway and I admired the paintings
, like I did every time I saw them. If nothing else, I was starting to like the hallway.

We stepped in as Ben held the door.

“Ben, our little porcupine here will be staying in the spare bedroom.”

“I’ve already put the contents of her bag away.”

I said thank you, but I was annoyed someone had gone through my personal belongings. I puttered around my new suite of rooms for a while, digging through the closet and the drawers finding all of my things. I was sure Ben made a good salary, so it was ridiculous to think he’d take some of my things, plus what would a middle aged man do with my stuff, anyway? But having to fight for years and years to keep anything had ingrained a distrust in me that didn’t easily let go. Even as I fought the feelings with logic, I still had to locate every last item.

I found my book of Monet
prints still in my knapsack. I guess he hadn’t been sure what to do with that as it looked out of place here with its binding held together with duck tape. I knew it was foolish to pack it, but I couldn’t seem to leave it behind.

I’d just finished counting my bras, Ben could turn out to be a pervert after all, when Cormac called me into the foyer to tell me lunch was coming up. Ben had left to go get us food from the casino kitchens, so it was just me and Cormac in the room and it felt beyond awkward.

I was just about to make some excuse that I hadn’t thought of yet, to go back in my room, when Dodd barged in. He paused inside the door breathing heavily, his eyes looking frantic.

“What is it?” Cormac asked immediately.

Dodd’s eyes darted to me for a second, then back to Cormac. “We have a problem.”

“How bad?”

Dodd didn’t speak, just shook his head.

“Come on,” Cormac said, as he walked out the door and Dodd followed him immediately. I stood watching them leave and wondered what had happened to make Dodd look so bad. These weren’t the type of men that became rattled. “Come on!” Cormac said again, and looked straight at me.

“A simple please would suffice.”

He rolled his eyes and didn’t say please, but I went with them
, anyway. As much as I wanted to be left alone, and I didn’t mind going with them. I wanted to see what would affect them this much.

I followed quickly behind, glad that I was a runner and could keep up with their larger frames. We climbed into the private elevator, and plummeted an unknown
number of floors, until I found myself in the hallways we had just left not more than a couple hours before. But, where the area had felt abandoned then, now it bustled with people. They all gave Cormac a wide berth, and a few threw a passing glance at my presence, but no one spoke a word. I wouldn’t have either, with the energy Cormac was throwing off.

He stormed into the room with the portal, and as I entered behind him, I saw a crowd in the center. Everyone was gathered around something I couldn’t see, but they parted quickly as Cormac approached.

Once I saw, I wished I hadn’t. A man was lying in the center, his clothes in tatters and his flesh was raw. On the skin that was bare, blisters oozed and wept. Any area that wasn’t blistered was a raw and angry red. He didn’t appear to be conscious, and I was glad. The pain would’ve been unbearable.

Cormac kneeled by the man’s side.
“What happened?” Cormac barked into the room. No one spoke, and the room became deathly quiet. I realized people weren’t even moving, afraid to draw attention to themselves. “What happened!” Cormac repeated as he stood to his full height.

A young, small
, brunette stepped forward. “We don’t know sir. We had started everything as planned, all seemed to be going well. We didn’t know anything was wrong until he stepped out.”

“Who was on point?” Cormac asked.

A blond man in his thirties raised his hand.

“Kever, do you have any idea what went wrong?”

The man just shook his head. He looked close to tears.

“Were you taking in the radiation?”

“I was pulling at it, the same way I always do. I’m so sorry Cormac, I don’t know what happened.”

The man was clearly beyond distraught at what had happened, and I could physically see the aggression leaving Cormac as his limbs relaxed slightly. I, on the other hand, was glad
we hadn’t had our lunch yet. I found myself looking for a trash can nearby in case I got sick.

“Get him set up in a bed. Give him as much morphine as y
ou need to keep him comfortable, if it’s even possible. Dodd, call Tracker right away, tell him to get here. Send him up to me when he arrives.” Cormac stormed out of the room.

Looking around the room, I decided to follow Cormac
rather than stay here. The tension hung thick in the room, and I was better off waiting it out in my room, in solitude, while tempers calmed. Plus, I’d already seen more than I’d wanted.

I kept my distance, as I follow
ed Cormac back. A fleeting thought ran through my head of trying another break out, but a quick glance at Cormac’s stoic face, and still quite tense frame, made me think this wasn’t the best time to push the issue. My confidence in making it out unseen had fallen to an all time low.

It wasn’t until we walked into his penthouse that he finally spoke.

“Come into the living room for a minute. I would like to talk to you.”

I paused. I didn’t want to be near him right now
with how volatile he seemed, and I tried to decide which way to turn; my new room, or follow him into the living room. I considered ignoring his request. I didn’t owe him anything, he owed me.

“Please.”

That word told me one thing. He was desperate, really desperate. I walked into the living room. I could tell he was upset about the man but I wouldn’t feel bad for him. I refused to. He wasn’t my friend, ally or anything else. He was my enemy, or a nuisance if I felt like being generous. I followed him because, as I might have mentioned before, I don’t like desperate people. They tend to do desperate things. Desperate people should be placated until you can get as far away from them as humanly possible, because desperate people had a bad tendency of blowing up and taking you with them.

I sat down on one of the now pristine matching couches, while he remained standing by the bar, and wondered if they kept spares in a wareho
use somewhere. A quick glance showed the glass had also been repaired, not a scratch remained. It was as if the night had never happened, and it made me mad. As easily as that, nothing was left. If I had died that night, not even a stain would be there as proof of my slaughter.

“I need a favor.”