Chapter 25 #2
“Thank you for seeing me,” Salem said before sitting. The sofa was basically cushions on the ground with backing—a perfect place to lounge but not to have an important meeting. His knees came up too high and made him feel like he was sitting in a child-size chair.
Pyro offered both men a glass of white wine and stared at Krys, who towered over her. “Sit.”
“I prefer to stand.”
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
He cocked his head to the side. “No, it’s not.” When she stared at him blank faced, he added, “I don’t need a kid telling me where I should sit.”
“Kid?” In a blink, she vanished.
Both men briefly looked around before spotting her sitting on top of the tall black chest of drawers, her legs crossed while she casually sipped her wine.
When she turned her attention back to Krys, light sparked in her eyes.
Ancient light. “I’m over three thousand years old. ” She disappeared again.
Unnerved by the fact that one of those drawers was open, Salem leaned forward.
Pyro was a Jumper, a rare Mage gift that allowed her to move short distances in any direction.
It was similar to flashing, only she didn’t have to run.
She simply moved as if teleporting, which made them exceptional fighters.
Krys winced and raised his hands, and Salem could see that Pyro was standing directly behind him.
“I was born in the Shang Dynasty and lived as a human until my Creator found me,” she said from behind Krys. “In those days, immortals had our own rulers. I led a rebellion. I’ve watched cities crumble to the ground. What have you seen, boy?”
“I’ve seen a blue-haired chick pinball herself around a room before poking me in the back with her shiny sword.”
She chuckled at that. “Sit.”
When Krys walked toward the sofa, Pyro lowered the sword from where it had pricked Krys’s back. She placed it carefully into the drawer, closed it, then stood on her tiptoes and collected her wineglass from the top of the chest.
Krys plopped down on Salem’s right and gulped his wine down in one go.
Salem set his wineglass on the low rectangular table in front of him. “I’m looking for an Infuser. I didn’t realize you were also a Jumper.”
She smiled surreptitiously before sitting on the connecting sofa to their right.
“I’m a great many things.” She curled her legs beneath her and adjusted her bangs, which had parted in the middle.
“Being invited into someone’s home was once a great honor.
They offered you food, drink, and shelter before you continued your journey.
I don’t like people anymore. No respect.
” Her eyes lit up, and she laughed. “And no sense of humor!”
Salem and Krys laughed just as a bird landed on the outside deck of the realistic screens in front of them. It hopped around, pecking aimlessly at the wood. Uncertain of Pyro’s expectations, Salem waited for her to initiate the conversation.
Pyro clicked a remote, and the outside scenario changed to a rainy jungle. After another sip of her wine, she swirled it in the glass while scrutinizing them. “Do you know why I agreed to this?”
“I assume your friendship with Lucian.”
She pealed out a laugh and slapped her knee. “Funny man. I don’t do things for people out of the kindness of my heart. People will always fuck you over. If I give something, I want something.”
He twisted around to face her. “I spoke to the Relic who conducted the experiment. He said the Infuser was a man.”
She smiled. “Anyone can rewrite history to fit their agenda. Some men don’t want to give women the credit they rightfully deserve.
Some Relics are frightened of truth because they’re not supposed to be writing our secrets at all.
Lucian mentioned you acquired this information from a book.
I’ve been looking for such a book. It was forbidden for the Relic to write about me. That was our agreement.”
“It doesn’t show your name.”
“It does not have to.” She shifted her position and sat cross-legged.
“I made that Relic promise he would never mention or write about me. He confessed to having written the book but sold it many years ago. When I tracked down the buyer, I found he’d died and his belongings were scattered to different pawnshops. What did the Relic say about me?”
“Nothing. He didn’t mention anything about you.”
She tapped her fingernail against her glass. “But he confirmed what you read was true.”
“I didn’t come here to bring death to someone. He didn’t divulge any information; I only asked him if the story actually happened. He seemed bothered by the conversation but confirmed the facts when I threatened to bring the Council into it.”
Pyro appeared on the table in front of him. “And would you? Bring the Council into it?”
“No. It was an empty threat.” He searched her eyes. “So it’s true. It works?”
“Lucian said you want to save your mate. Is that true?”
Salem felt an unexpected pang in his heart. The logical side of his brain warred with his emotions. “Yes. I’ll do anything for her. I’ll pay you anything if you can help her with your blood.”
Her eyebrows quirked. “Clearly that book was missing information, but I’d like it all the same. There is only one in existence, and I’ve been searching for so long.”
“Why? That knowledge could help people.”
“It’s better if people don’t know what’s possible.”
“Then I wouldn’t have hope for my mate.”
Pyro scoffed before standing. After collecting her glass, she approached the digital windows in front of them as if staring out.
“I’m not here to save the world, Mr. Lockwood.
Did the Relic mention what happened to the patient we saved?
Of course not! He prefers to imagine his own version of history.
That asshole I saved slaughtered a higher authority member.
He’s in Breed jail now, serving a five-hundred-year sentence.
The only reason they didn’t execute him was at the behest of the victim’s wife. She wanted him to suffer.”
“You can’t predict the future. You can’t decide not to help someone because of what they might do,” Salem said, repeating words that Quinn had once told him. “That official’s death wasn’t your fault.”
Pyro spun on her heel with an incredulous look.
“I don’t care who he killed. But now he rots in a cell.
That’s an insult! I gave him a second life, and look what he does.
” As her arm swung, the wine splashed onto the floor.
Pyro reeled back her arm as if to pitch the glass into the other room before she stopped herself and calmly set it on the table.
“What might he talk about to pass time while in there?”
“If he wanted to talk, he would’ve done it by now.”
“No, that’s where you’re wrong. He knew I would come for him. But now, behind bars, he’s protected. Prisoners swap stories. Or maybe he’ll bargain for his own freedom.”
“You didn’t do anything illegal,” he pointed out. “Why does it matter?”
“Silly boy. The higher authority doesn’t know about all my gifts. Someone like me is a threat. Why do you think I live here? This is the only place I can defend myself. Laws don’t exist here.”
Salem wrapped his arms around his knees and lowered his head.
Pyro was his last hope, and he felt it slipping through his fingers.
“I’ll do anything. Her life won’t be wasted, and she’ll never speak of it or you.
None of us will. A Vampire lives in our pack, and I’ll have him scrub their memories of the details. ”
She cocked her head to the side. “A Vampire in a wolf pack?” A bright smile spread across her face, and she laughed hysterically.
Krys finally relaxed and scooted all the way back before stretching his arms across the cushion. “Got any more of that wine left?”
“I bet you think it’s ancient, pressed beneath the feet of virgins and bottled in the Middle Ages. Old wine tastes like shit. I bought that at the gas station for twenty bucks.”
Salem released a mirthless laugh in case she expected that reaction.
Pyro lifted the bottle and filled Krys’s empty glass.
“Salem Lockwood is a man who hides his emotions. Women fall for Casanovas and tyrants. They’re drawn to emotions like a moth to a flame, good or bad.
” After handing Krys the wine, she sat on the table in front of Salem and met his eyes.
“What makes a woman love such a reticent man who expresses nothing genuine?”
“She’s part Sensor,” Krys answered.
Pyro tilted her head back as if understanding. “Tell me why I should save this woman. Why does her life matter so much that you would trust a stranger to give you wine that might be poisoned? A Mage who does not want anyone knowing her gifts?”
Krys coughed and shoved his glass onto the table.
Salem wasn’t sure what she wanted to hear or if this was a test. Maybe she really had poisoned the wine. Poison wouldn’t affect a Mage, but it could certainly kill a Shifter.
He laced his fingers together. “I’ve spent years valuing everyone’s life more than my own.
Every time I ever did something to serve myself, I only wound up hurting people.
I spent years educating myself and helping others because that’s my only purpose.
But she taught me something I’ve never been able to do. ”
After a long pause, Pyro leaned in. “Don’t leave me hanging in suspense.”
“You’ll laugh. It’s cliché.”
“Ah. I love cliché.”
“She taught me how to love myself.” Saying it out loud made his face flush.
Pyro leaned back and sighed with her eyes closed, a warm smile on her face. “We have a tortured poet in our midst.”
“We’re different. She’s full of life and joy and all the things I’m not. And it kills me to heal people who don’t matter, but the one person that does, I can’t fix. If you met her, you’d understand.” Tears stung his eyes, and he looked away.
Pyro reached out and tilted his chin up. Then she swiped a tear from his cheek, put her finger into her mouth, and noisily sucked off the teardrop. After licking her lips, eyes turned upward, she said, “I’ll help. But only on one condition: I get my book.”
“You’ll have it. Anything you want.” Relief washed over him.
Pyro stood and flipped back her colorful hair as she circled the table.
“I trust you won’t talk. I’m less concerned about idle gossip, but when a Relic puts words to paper, people listen.
Archivists collect those books and research the contents.
I don’t want to be found. So I’m asking you, Salem Lockwood, to never write about this in any medical book or memoir or even in a poem. Promise me.”
“On my word, I will never speak of this or write about it.”
“Even if it means saving others. Tortured heroes always want to save the world.”
“You have my promise. If you don’t mind, can I make a small request?”
“You can ask for anything you like. It does not mean I’ll comply.”
“Can I have my wallet back?”
She giggled and pulled his wallet from her pocket. He’d noticed it missing before he sat but chose not to mention it. Krys shot up and patted his rear pockets, which made Pyro laugh even harder.
“Looking for this?” She waved his leather wallet in the air before tossing it at him.
Krys stood and shoved it back into his pocket, then hiked up his pants. “How the hell?”
She strutted back to the sofa and sat down.
“Jumpers make the best pickpockets. I am a master of my craft. I’m gone and back before you know it.
” She reached beneath her and flashed his wallet again, holding it between two fingers.
“I need you to buy my plane tickets. And I won’t go unless you have a Healer. ”
Salem stood. “A Healer? That wasn’t in the book.”
“Well, as I said before, not everything was in the book.”
“Why would the Relic only write a half-truth in his documents?”
“Because he did not know the whole truth. He thought he failed. When he gave up and left the room, my friend used his gift to heal him. Maybe that was the cure and not my blood.”
“Can you ask your friend to help?”
“He was sucked into a jet engine. Long story.” Pyro flipped onto her back and propped her feet up on the pillows. “I haven’t been on a plane in so many years. This will be a fun time.” She frowned when she opened Krys’s wallet and then turned it upside down.
He crossed his arms. “Women don’t want me for my money.”
“I didn’t think women wanted you for anything.
” She tossed him the wallet. “If you find a Healer, do not tell them about me. The less they know, the better. Otherwise, I might have to throw them into a jet engine.” After an abrupt silence, she looked at them and erupted with laughter.
“So serious! Better hurry and find a Healer. Oh, and I only travel first-class. Make sure I get a window seat.”