Vameer
“Don’t forget this.” Dread hands me the gun.
“Right.” I take it and tuck it into my waistband. “You up for a demonstration, brother?”
Volik sighs. “I am going to say yes. And I already regret it.”
I slap him on the back. “The girls will love the story.”
“I somehow doubt it.” My brother narrows his eyes. “Have you ever shot a handgun?”
“Sí. Yesterday.”
“Sixty seconds to game time.” Dread warns us.
I grab my robe off Dread’s workbench and pull it on over what has become my usual outfit.
Sword, red shirt half buttoned, and bare feet.
Volik is in his usual as well. Black shirt, black pants, black shoes. No sword. No bulletproof robe.
He’s the civilized-looking one.
Keeping my right hand empty, I use my left to pick up the last item, wrapped tightly in black gravito, and suppress a grin.
I am definitely not the brother made for polite society.
We watch the clock.
Volik nods down to my hand. “It has been thirty-six hours. Is that going to be extra disgusting?”
I lift it. “Probably.”
My eyes focus on the pink bracelet on my wrist. It’s another one of Rune’s. The beads are spheres and in different shades of pink, rather than rainbow. But it’s stretchy like the last one, so it feels like my bracelet, even if it looks different.
And these assholes are accomplices to the fucker who broke my bracelet.
The people we’re about to see had the ability to stop Johnson. They had the means to intervene and cut off his resources. But they chose to do nothing.
And they think that by not participating, they are keeping their hands clean.
They are not.
And we are about to tell them.
“Five.” Dread counts the rest of the seconds in his head. And I’m already stepping forward when the portal appears.
I walk through, and keep walking, Volik immediately behind me.
We take the five strides down the empty hallway to a door.
I grip the handle and break the lock as I turn it and swing the door open.
Without pausing, I enter the conference room and take a step to the right, giving Volik space to follow and close the door.
The fourteen people seated around the table stare at us, varying emotions on their faces.
“Hello, gentlemen.” I tip my head to the woman across the table. “And lady.”
“Th-this is a secure building!” someone shouts.
“Is it?” I lift my brows, then drop them. “Anyway, we have a couple of things we’d like to talk to you about.”
A man in a navy business suit reaches below the table, toward his hip.
“Hands on the table, please.” I turn to face him directly. “For our first topic. Please quit wasting our planet’s resources on the asinine cobalt bullets. They are not the secret to killing vampires or shifters. A rotten soul told you a falsehood. You should know better.”
“And we’re just supposed to believe you?” Navy Suit scoffs.
“Yes.” I pull the gun from my waistband, and the humans recoil. “But if you need a demonstration.”
I reach across my body, aim at Volik’s shoulder, and shoot.
People scream.
Volik clenches his jaw. And I turn the gun on myself, placing the muzzle against my bare chest where my shirt is open.
I pull the trigger.
The cobalt bullet buries itself in my chest muscle.
The people closest to us use their feet to push their chairs away.
I cheated a little with my gravito catching the bullet before it went too deep. My heart would push the bullet out, but we’re on a schedule.
Volik slowly turns his head to look at me. But I keep my attention on the room of humans.
My left hand is still holding the other item, so with the hand holding the gun, I use my fingertips to dig into the bullet hole.
The barrel of the weapon bounces some as I work. And people at the other end of the room duck, like that will help them if I accidentally fire the gun while doing this.
A few are still trying to push their chairs farther away. But the man sitting next to Navy Suit has been frozen since we walked in, his pen hovering an inch over a notepad.
He can’t tell where I’m looking. But I hold eye contact with him as I dig for the bullet.
There’s a bit of a squelching sound, which hurts like hells, but I keep my face blank.
Volik’s bullet pushes out of his arm and drops to the floor, as mine finally pops out of my chest. The wounds instantly seal themselves.
Still gripping the gun, I pinch my bullet between bloody fingers. “Understand?” I tap the barrel of the gun to my temple. “This doesn’t hurt us.”
Reaching out, I drop the gun and bloody bullet onto the table.
“This is an outrage!” The oldest man balls his fists on the table.
I turn my head to him and mimic his voice perfectly. “You have not seen outrage.” I switch back to my own voice. “This is more than a reminder. This is a warning.” I lift my left hand and hold it out over the table.
Then I release my hold and my gravito.
We all watch as Johnson’s head thumps onto the conference table.
“Oh my god.” Someone gags.
“We are many. And we have only ever retaliated.” I push power into my voice, trembling the walls. “We may seem separate. Divided by your invisible lines in the dirt. But we are not.”
Volik starts to list coordinates. Several coordinates. From all around the world.
“Those are secret locations,” Navy Suit grits out.
“Are they?” Volik keeps his tone even. “Many of you were not alive for The Trials, but there was a lot of information left behind. And I would share it with you. But it is highly classified.”
Tension builds as Volik and I slowly let our gravito fill the room.
The air becomes heavy with power.
“Remember how you feel in this moment,” I rumble.
Volik’s gravito starts to seep from his eyes in black tendrils down his cheeks.
“Remember how we feel in this moment.” My brother’s voice is low.
My gravito thickens into red smoke around my feet, crawling onto the table. And the humans finally have the correct expression on their faces.
“Do not fuck with us,” I growl. “This is the final warning. For all of you.”
The clock on the wall ticks. And we turn to the door.
Volik grips the broken door handle. “You will want to turn on the TV. Any channel.”
He pulls the door open, revealing a solid black surface.
The glowing edges of the portal are hidden behind the doorframe.
Volik ducks through.
I pause. “And answer your phones.”
Then I step through the portal, pulling the door shut behind me.