Chapter 32 #2
“Okay, so I find myself in the empty hotel lobby,” Jesmine continued.
“And before I could reach the stairs, I was stopped by this uppity bitch who appeared out of nowhere—and I mean out of nowhere.” Jesmine’s upper lip twitched.
“She started asking weird questions, and then she started calling me a ‘halfbreed’—the fucking racist—and a, a—”
Jasmine snapped her fingers rapidly as she tried to recall the word.
Then snapped her fingers with finality and pointed at Soraya.
“A ‘spec.’ No clue what that meant, so I laughed in her face and told her she was failing her fellow racists with that weak-ass slur, and then, get this—” She leaned forward, eyes blazing.
“This half-dressed hoe called me an ‘impure human filth!’”
Soraya winced. She knew exactly where this story was going. Jesmine’s parents used to abuse her a lot when she was a kid. Called her names, but they’d especially liked to call her ‘filthy kid’ or ‘filthy child.’ It left a mark, among other things.
“So, you know what this filthy human did?” Jesmine smiled wickedly.
Soraya smirked. “You punched her.”
Jesmine smacked her fist into her palm. “Right on her perfect nose. But damn, I have to admit, it felt like I was punching a brick wall—and then she screamed, causing a whole scene. And I may have cursed at her, I don’t know, it was all a blur.” She chuckled before sobering.
“Then these two big guys showed up. I think they were hotel security, which, you know, I was expecting because, by the looks of her and the hotel, she must’ve been loaded and you know how the rich are well protected.
” She picked up a small stick near her leg, jabbing it into the dirt with a shrug.
“I was prepared to go to jail.” She gestured to Soraya with the stick.
“Didn’t even see them coming, mind you. I would have tried to run away so I wouldn’t have to call you down to the station. ”
“Appreciate the sentiment,” Soraya acknowledged as she noticed tension beginning to bracket her friend’s shoulders.
Jesmine gave her a slick smile, but it faded before it got the chance to bloom. “Then…well, before I could even take a step back to the door, they threw me to the ground, and I was out.”
Soraya spat a curse as anger flooded her system, but held back from saying anything to allow Jesmine to finish. She pulled in a rose-scented breath and let it fill her lungs before slowly letting it trickle out.
Jesmine tucked her legs in close; her eyes trained on the stick she was poking over and over again into the grass. “When I came too, I…I was in this really dark room. Laid out on a stone table. My clothes were gone, but I still had my bra and undies—and I could hear people talking.”
The sound of a light wind rustling through the rose bushes was the only thing registering in Soraya’s head as every thought eddied out of her.
“I tried not to make a sound, because whoever these guys were, they sure as shit weren’t cops.
Or if they were, they were fucking dirty pigs.
” Jesmine stabbed the stick deeper into the grass.
“But one of them must have noticed I was awake because the next thing I know, they were grabbing me. I tried to fight them off, but they were strong—too strong.”
Soraya’s stomach clenched as nausea rolled through her.
“They forced something down my throat—laughing like a bunch of psychos while they were doing it—and before I realized it… I’m hallucinating.
At least I thought I was. The first thing I noticed about these scumbags was how odd looking they were.
They… didn’t look human.” Jesmine shook her head.
“They were too perfect, too…pretty. Their hair…their eyes—it was weird. And then the second thing I noticed was their ears…” Her eyes flicked to the side of Soraya’s head. “Pointed ears. Like yours.”
Soraya absorbed every word.
“They were saying shit, but I wasn’t really understanding anything they were saying.
I was looking for a way to escape—officially freaked out, you know.
That’s when someone kicked the door down.
And then they were there.” Jesmine smiled darkly.
“The two men I’d been seeing. They outright just killed the bastards, cutting them down with swords like it was nothing.
It was—” She blew out a breath. “It was pretty hot, but I realized…they weren’t humans either.
Pointed ears, glowing eyes…” Her brow furrowed. “They were…predators in human skin.”
Soraya swallowed.
“But they saved me and pulled one of their shirts over my head. And when we stepped outside…” Jesmine clutched the stick.
“I knew we weren’t in L.A. anymore. And their hotel was a fucking stone palace cut into the side of a mountain.
That place…it felt different. I think…I think I was in a different world.
” Jesmine jammed her stick into the ground and met Soraya’s gaze.
“When they brought me back to the lobby, I saw Ahvi there, and she was Ahvi but…not… and that’s when I realized she had pointed ears too.
There was some shouting—on my end—and I rightfully didn’t trust anything she had to say about some organization she was a part of, and that she was here to help you.
I was too freaked out to think clearly, and I guess they knocked me out.
” She shrugged. “By the time I woke up, Ahvi was carrying me to my room. I tried calling out to you, but she knocked me out again—don’t know how she did it, but I know it was her doing. ” Jesmine shook her head at the memory.
Soraya recalled waking up to Jesmine screaming for her. The image of Ahvi flashed through her mind from that night, and she understood exactly what Jesmine was talking about.
Ahvi had looked different. It was clear that Jesmine was able to see them for what they were because of the liquid the creeps had made her swallow.
But for Soraya…nobody had forced her to drink any strange liquid the night she saw Makoto in all his savage beauty—like a predator, as Jesmine had said. So why was she able to see him for what he truly was?
Jesmine’s words came back to haunt her:
I think you’re fae.
Soraya was no longer laughing.