Chapter Two
“Ma’am, pardon my French, but you’re full of shit.
There are no fucking deposits here. No Taaffeite has ever been found in
Madagascar. This is a waste of time and a waste of a fuckton
of money. I don’t care about your credentials. Like I said, you’re full of
shit.”
Jedda Brighton resisted the urge to punch the man in his
unshaven, saggy face the way she’d been wanting to do for the last two weeks.
Two weeks of putting up with the mining engineer’s alcohol-fueled crude talk
and casual sexism, which he blew off as her being an oversensitive snowflake
when she called him on it. Two weeks of watching him treat the local diggers
like slaves. Two weeks of listening to him bitch about his “whore of an
ex-wife” and “outrageous” child support. He was the type of asshole who, if a
woman turned down his advances, would accuse her of being a lesbian.
Because sure, didn’t all women love an overweight, abusive
slob who looked and smelled like a walking hangover and who thought he was
God’s gift to women? If not for his considerable wealth, no woman would put up
with him, and he either didn’t know that, or he didn’t care, which made him
either stupid, or scum, or both.
Jedda was going to go with both. Hell, she wouldn’t put up
with him for even this job if it weren’t for the fact that she needed him to
dig for gems she couldn’t otherwise reach on her own.
“First of all,” she said in her
snootiest voice, “I’m fluent in a dozen languages, including French, and what
you just said wasn’t even close. Second, I’m the best damned gemologist and
mineralogist in the world, and if I say there’s a bloody fortune in Taaffeite
here, you can rest assured that there is.” She smiled sweetly. “And after you
find it, you can shove it up your ass.”
He waggled sandy brows that glistened with sweat from the
oppressive heat in this godforsaken jungle. “How about you do it for me?”
Sweet Satie One-Eye, he was disgusting. Even Satie, an elf
hero of lore who had fought giant demonic maggots, would agree. This guy was a
whisky dick personified. Adjusting her hard hat, Jedda stepped around him and
headed inside the mine. “You really don’t want to taunt me.”
“Taunt...or tempt?”
Ugh. Gross. In the last two weeks, had this idiot not
figured out that she didn’t play well with others? Especially not human
others? She supposed she should at least be grateful he wasn’t aware that she
wasn’t human, but then, maybe if he knew she was an immortal being he’d leave
her alone.
She might have to reveal her secret just to freak him out.
He followed her down the relatively cool shaft, past workers
who were busy extracting gemstones that, while less valuable than Taaffeite,
would still net Tom’s mining company a nice profit. But he still played the
injured party, insisting that this venture was a waste of time and resources.
She knew better. As a gem elf, she could sense minerals that
gave off energy undetectable to humans, energy that she survived on. Enchanted
stones, gems that had been blessed or cursed or used in powerful rituals, were
the most life-enhancing, especially when absorbed into a gem elf’s body, but
there was always a risk involved when using them, as she knew very well.
Her boots crunched down on uneven ground, but she kept her
footing, her enhanced reflexes and night vision giving her a distinct advantage
over humans and most demons. Tom followed her much more slowly, cursing now and
then, muttering his displeasure at being bested by a woman. She had no doubt he
was generally capable in situations like this as long as
he kept to a safe human pace, but his macho attitude wouldn’t let him lag behind, and he had no idea she was genetically suited
for this exact situation.
She laughed when she heard him trip and fall. “You okay?” she called back. “I can slow down if you need me
to.”
“I’m fine,” he barked, and she laughed again at his volley
of obscenities. What an asshole.
She kept going, reaching out with her senses as she
navigated the dark tunnels. She could feel the elemental vibrations change as
she passed each new mineral, some of them leaving no more impression on her
than common gravel, others whispering to her like potential lovers.
But none of them possessed the special signature of the
Taaffeite. Still, she was close. She couldn’t quite feel the deposit yet, but
she could smell it, a faint anise and berry tang in the musty earth that made
her mouth water. Every gemstone had its own unique scent, some spicy, some
sweet, and Taafeite was a delectable combination of
both.
What felt like a cool breeze tickled her skin from an
unexplored tunnel on the right. It was narrow, with jagged stones jutting from
the sides like a giant cheese grater. Carefully, she went to her hands and
knees and started to crawl.
“Hold up there, sweetheart,” Tom called out. “My men haven’t
reinforced this yet, and I’m not about to—”
“Quiet!” She paused, inhaled, tasting the sharp bite of
beryllium and aluminum on the back of her tongue. “It’s here,” she breathed
excitedly.
Giddy with anticipation, she turned up the intensity of the
light on her helmet, and there, just ahead in a space big enough to stand, was
a glint of violet peeking out of the boring gray and brown stone all around it.
Grinning, she scrambled the remaining distance in the
crawlspace, and when she stood, she marveled at the sight of a thick vein of
one of the rarest gemstones in the world. There was another vein near the
ceiling, and she could sense even more Taaffeite deep in the walls. She doubted
there was more than about seven hundred carats’ worth of the precious gemstone
here, but at around three to four thousand dollars per carat
on the human market and double that on the demon one, the stones would net a
respectable haul. And because it was so rare, adding even a hundred carats to
the market would increase the value and the demand since right now few knew
about it, and those who did were collectors.
Very carefully, she plucked a chisel from her gear belt and
dug a jagged hunk of stone from the surrounding rock. Under the light from her
helmet, the purple gem glittered, even with all the rough material coating it.
Its aura glowed with stunning intensity, something the obnoxious human crawling
toward her wouldn’t be able to see.
She closed her fist around the gem and inhaled, letting its
vibrations absorb into her body. Power pounded through her, making her flesh throb and her blood surge. This was a natural
stone, untouched by anyone, so its energy was pure, neutral, and unenhanced. It
would give her added strength and stamina, but it wouldn’t add or subtract from any of her special abilities.
It was, in the simplest of terms, life.
Tom emerged from the tunnel like a grumpy bear awakened from
hibernation. “What are you doing?” As he stood, dirt cascaded off him in a
choking cloud of dust.
She opened her fist. The gem was gone, the earth and rock
that had surrounded it nothing but crumbs in her palm.
“I’m admiring my find,” she said, letting the remains fall
to the floor of the cave.
As he studied a vein of Taaffeite, she dug another, about
the size of her thumb, from a crevice nearby.
“Nice work, honey,” he said, talking directly at her
breasts. “I’m impressed. Everyone said you’re the best. Should have listened.”
“Yes, you should have.” She turned toward the tunnel to
escape this cretin, and as she did, he slapped her on the ass. Instant, searing
rage welled in her chest, and fuck it, she was done with his shit. Her anger
destroyed the tight control she kept on herself, and suddenly the cave lit up
with the soft, iridescent glow emanating from her skin. She knew her eyes,
normally ice blue, were glowing as well, still blue, but more intense.
“What the fuck?” Tom leaped backward in fear, but the fear
turned to terror when she smiled and held up the gem she’d just dug out of the
earth.
“Remember what I said you could do with the Taaffeite when
we found it?”
She grinned, and he went pale.
Later, she wondered if the other miners heard his shouts for
help. She also wondered how long it had taken for that stone to dislodge itself
from his ass—and if he’d sifted through his shit to find it.