“It’s okay,” Trisk rasped, her eyes wide in pain when she looked up. “I can do this,” she added, her attention going to Daniel’s hand on her shoulder. “It’s the payment for putting reality out of balance,” she added, confusing Daniel more. “It’s more than I expected.” Her eyes rose to Gally. “I didn’t know you could do that. Shift the smut from one to another.”
“Of course we can, silly elf,” Gally said imperiously. “That’s what a familiar is for.” Then he smiled, seeing the glint of awareness behind her horror. “You saw how I did it, didn’t you,” he accused, and she flushed. “Learning at my knee already? What a splendid familiar you will be.”
“I’ll take the smut for Plank’s curse,” Quen said suddenly, and Daniel stood.
“It’s my curse. I’ll take it,” Daniel said, and Gally burst out laughing. Quen looked at Daniel as if he was a fool, and he flushed. It’s my curse, I’ll take it echoed in his thoughts, making him feel like an idiot.
“The bitch has it, and will keep it,” Gally said, wiping tears from under his blue-smoked glasses. “Chivalry is not dead, but as usual, you have misplaced it.” Still chuckling, he wiped his glasses clean and set them again on his nose. “Ahhh, men are morons.”
“Where is it?” Trisk asked, looking at her hands, then shoving her sleeves up to see what she could of her arms. “Where did you put your mark?”
Gally simpered at her. “The bottom of your foot,” he said, and Daniel could tell it was all she could do not to look right this moment. “I’d advise you to get Dr. Daniel Plank back in his bed before he wakes or the curse will be in danger of being picked apart. If not handled correctly, even my memory curses are susceptible to corruption, and after two thousand years of cursing Newt, I’ve gotten to be quite good at them.”
Daniel’s shoulders tensed. He didn’t want to forget, and he looked at the door, knowing he’d never make it.
“Giving away information for free?” Quen mocked, and Gally’s gaze flicked up and back down.
“Oh, it’s not free.” Gally watched him over his glasses. “She’s a third of the way to being mine, and I take care of those who are mine. It’s in my best interests. Is it not, little bird?”
The demon turned his attention to Daniel, and he paled. “I won’t tell anyone,” Daniel said, backing away. “Trisk, I promise. Please. Don’t. I want to help you. Let me help.”
She took his hands, the pain in her obvious. “I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes spilling over. “Daniel, I’m so sorry.”
“Oh my God. I think I’m going to puke,” Gally moaned. “Obscurum per obscurius!”
“No!” Daniel exclaimed, sucking in his breath as the demon’s voice seemed to shift from a sound to a feeling, coating him in a muzzy black blanket that tangled and weaved through his thoughts. No! he silently raged, feeling his body shut down and the ground rush up.
Daniel hit the floor with a shocking thud, the curse a split second behind. He could feel it slither over his skin, and slowly it began soaking in like black fire. He fought it, but the more he struggled, the more he opened himself to its touch, and eventually he forgot what he was fighting . . . and finally, he slept.
13
Kal wove through Global Genetics’ parking lot, his Mustang easing into one of the back spots where the pine trees wouldn’t drop needles or sap on it. The top was down as usual, and the wind making his hair bump around his ears had a decidedly damp feel for so early in the morning. Putting the car in park, he looked past the sprawling white building to the horizon. It was dark with clouds, and he paused, trying to decide if it was worth putting the top up now. If he didn’t, he’d risk not being able to find Trisk’s assistant and having to run out and close it himself if it should rain.
Sighing, he fell on the side of prudence, and after making sure the windows were down he found the right button and pushed it. Pleased, he sat where he was as the state-of-the-art car put its own top up. Things were progressing well. After yesterday’s fallout at the TV station, Daniel was disenchanted and Trisk was his to sway. He might be home as early as next month.
His smile still held the pleasure of that as he glanced at the orange-and-gold orchid flower on the seat beside him. He’d harvested it this morning from his tissue-grafted stock to give to Trisk. Women liked flowers, and Trisk would appreciate that this one was unique in all the world, oblivious to the fact that his attraction to her was as fabricated and engineered as the blossom itself.
“Kal!” someone called, and he looked to see Rick waiting for him on the walk. The living vampire pretending to be a British rock star with his tight suits and long wavy hair gave him the creeps, but Kal could always pin him in a circle if he got blood-amorous.
Still in the car, Kal gave him a wave before putting up the windows. Grabbing his hat and the orchid bloom, he got out, moving slowly in the hopes that Rick would just go in. Eyes on the line the white building cut against the dark clouds, Kal buttoned his suit coat and adjusted his tie. He couldn’t wait until this would be done and the funding for Trisk’s dangerous virus would be reappropriated into his safer theories and he could get to work on what truly mattered. Trisk would be cleaning his flasks and autoclaving petri dishes in a week, her techniques useful in moving his own research forward.
“Morning, Rick,” he said, his pace slow as he tucked the flower into his lapel and wove between the cars. “How was lunch with Heather?”
The tall man hesitated, clearly searching his thoughts for her. “Ah, fine.” Kal could almost see him dismiss the memory of her. “Do you have time this morning for a meeting?”
“Sure. What’s up?” Kal smiled, but his expression stiffened at the barest clatter of pixy wings. Orchid? He’d sent her to watch Trisk, wanting to be sure the woman hadn’t hidden any of her work at home. The pixy waiting for him in the parking lot didn’t bode well.
Rick rocked forward, then back. “Wolfe wants to try out Daniel’s virus in Vietnam, and we’ve got some number-crunching to do. Amounts of, dispersal of, that kind of thing. I don’t have a clue if what Dr. Plank is telling me is right or not. I could use your input.” He smiled a toothy smile. “A courtesy to the visiting doctor.”
Kal slowed to a stop, a row of cars yet between him and Rick. “I’d love to. Why don’t you go on ahead. My shoe unlaced, and I think I left my back windows down. It looks like rain.”
“Will do,” Rick said as he began to walk away. “Doughnuts. My office. Ten minutes.”
“Be right there.” Jaw clenched, Kal dropped down between the cars, hoping Rick didn’t see him pull his lace free before he made a show of tying it up. “Orchid . . .” he whispered, relief spilling through him when the tiny woman flitted to him from under the cars. She was fine, her dust a little thin with hunger, but fine.
“Kal, she’s got a demon!” the pixy said, her eyes so wide he could tell they were green.
“I know,” he said, shifting so she could alight on his knee. “That’s what that ring of fat is on my office ceiling.” He didn’t like that Trisk had not only found a demon name, but had the courage to summon one. By the looks of it, she’d almost been snagged. “Jeez, Orchid. Get under my hat before someone sees you. Are you hungry? I’ve got crackers in my desk.”
But Orchid didn’t move from his knee, her dust shifting suddenly to a bright red. “She’s playing you for a fool,” she said, wings blurring. “I heard them talking. She and some elf named Quen made her demon curse Daniel into not remembering what they said, but they didn’t see me.”
“Daniel?” he asked, then froze. Quen is here?
Alarm coursed through him, washing to a tiny pit in his middle. Feeling like a ghost, he stood and scanned the outskirts of the parking lot as if the man was lurking in the trees.
“She doesn’t like you,” Orchid said, hovering in the shelter of the cars. “She likes Quen, even if she doesn’t know it yet. Daniel overheard them talking, they broke the silence, and they made him forget so they wouldn’t have to kill him. Ka
l, she’s only pretending to like you until you sign off on her tomato patent. She’s not going to go to NASA with you. Ever. You have to do something or you’ll never be able to prove her theories are unsafe. Never ever.”
He looked down at Orchid’s last, plaintive words, and he knelt again, his shocked alarm shifting to an enduring anger. Quen was here. Daniel must have seen something bad if they had to ask a demon for a forget curse. I wonder what a curse like that costs, he thought as he took off his hat, wanting to ask Trisk if she had bought the demon’s favors outright or if the demon had left a mark on her as a promise of payment. And would she lie if he saw it and asked what it was?
“Under the hat, Orchid,” he said, and the pixy pouted as she obediently flitted to nestle in his hair. “We have to find you something to eat first.”
He rose, feeling unreal and wanting to crush the flower he’d brought Trisk. He’d been convinced she was infatuated with him. She acted like every other woman he’d pursued and bedded. Perhaps they’ve all used me, he thought, anger tightening his chest. The bitches trying to find their way into the Kalamack family through his bed. Back stiff, he strode forward.
“She thinks you’re trying to steal her work,” Orchid said, her tiny whisper clear as she huddled under his hat. “Not prove how dangerous it is.”
“The end result is the same, though, isn’t it,” he muttered, liking the new idea.
“Uh, Kal? Your aura is kind of nasty,” Orchid said, and Kal hesitated in his reach for the door to the imposing building. He hadn’t known pixies could see auras.
Exhaling, he calmed himself. He could keep the game alive. See how far she’d go. No one played him. No one. “Better?”
“Better,” Orchid said, and he pulled the glass door open, his skin crawling in the ozone-scented air that leaked up from the lower floors where the computers lurked. His fake smile turned real—if somewhat mocking—as he saw Trisk and Daniel in the expansive lobby, arguing beside the elevators. At least Daniel was arguing. Trisk looked unusually awkward and submissive as she slowly rock-stepped away from him, trying to escape.
Curious, he drew upon his second sight and their auras wavered into existence. Daniel, he mused, had a bright gold aura, rare for a human, but Trisk’s was a pale green, streaked with gold and black. She’d been summoning. Not only that, but she’d taken payment for something.
He dropped his second sight, steps slowing as he tried to piece it together. Forget curses were unreliable, even demon-crafted ones. If Daniel had seen something that broke the silence in a real way, she’d have to leave or risk eventually triggering his memory. A smile, wicked and devious, curved his lips up as a feeling of power dove to his groin. She had to leave Global Genetics to preserve the curse. If her tomato failed—and he’d make sure it would—Trisk’s potential funding would shift to his work instead of her fast, chancy theories that had fallen short once already. He would save their species; Trisk would have nothing. No career, no prospects. Nothing. He had won.
“Alone?” Daniel said, one hand in his pocket, the other absently patting his lab coat to find his glasses in a front breast pocket. “You really expect me to believe that?”
Trisk’s eyes were averted from Daniel. She hadn’t seen Kal yet, either, his steps soft on the marble floor. He felt as if he were dancing. How dare she try to con me. He would hurt her, and hurt her bad. “I don’t care if you believe it or not,” she said. “Daniel, I have to go.”
“I’m not blind, or a fool,” Daniel said, his voice hushed but intent as he pointed his glasses at her. “If you leave with Kal, he will use you!”
She took another step back, her eyes pinched with heartache. “I have to go. Daniel, I’m sorry.” But she froze when her attention flicked past Daniel and found Kal. Slowly she lost her hunch, shoulders dropping as the mask fell back into place.
Excitement spilled through him at the lost look she hid. She was his. “Daniel!” he called out, pretending ignorance. “Congratulations! Rick asked me to come up and help you calculate a drop. How exciting for you.”
Trisk’s brow smoothed as she made room for him before the elevator, her smile looking real as she adjusted Kal’s tie. How far, little whore, will you go in your lies? “Morning, Trisk,” he said, breathing deep to look for the scent of Quen on her. There was nothing but the tang of cinnamon and wine, another tell that she’d been spelling. “Have a nice night?”
“A little stressful, but okay,” she said softly. “I have to talk to you. Do you have a sec?”
“Rick asked me to come up, but sure.” She had a demon mark on her somewhere. He could sense a shadow of smut in her aura. My little demon summoner. What did Daniel see?
Daniel jabbed the call button again, his jaw clenched and his neck red.
“Mmmm. I wanted to ask you if you liked that wine we had at lunch yesterday,” Kal said, smoothly taking the orchid from his lapel and handing it to her. “Bergen says he can get us a case for half price if we want it.”
“Ooooh, that would be nice,” she said as the elevator opened and Daniel took two steps into it, extending a long arm to hold the door for them. “But do you think we can get through an entire case before we leave?” she asked, waiting until Kal rocked forward and they entered the elevator together. “The last thing I need is more stuff to move.”
Her hand was cold, and he brought her fingers to his lips and gave them a kiss, thrilling when, for the first time, she didn’t pull away. “Maybe I can convince him to sell us half a crate,” he said as the doors shut. “I told Rick I’d help Daniel prep his drop. It might take two weeks.” He turned to Daniel. “How much mother virus do you think you’ll need to expend?”
“Enough,” Daniel said, and Trisk’s head dropped, a slim finger tracing the outlines of the orchid he’d given her. “It grows fast in the lab. Unless they want to infect the entire city, we can have whatever we need by Friday.”
“Half a case it is.” Kal beamed, confidence buoying him up.
The doors opened, and Daniel held them, waiting for Trisk to get out first.
“I’m on my way down to talk to Angie, actually,” Trisk said as she hit a lower button. “I only rode up to talk to Kal.”
“I have to go down to the labs to get something for the meeting,” Kal said, hitting a second button. Orchid was hungry. She came first. “Tell Rick I’ll be right there.”
Daniel stepped out, motions stiff. “Will do. I’ll see you in a few, then.”
Kal watched the pain cross Trisk’s face as Daniel turned and paced quickly down the white and glass hall. She liked him, liked him enough to sell a part of her soul to keep him alive when he saw something he shouldn’t, and now she was forced to leave lest she trigger it back into his memory. What did he see, Trisk? Did you do something you shouldn’t have?
As if pulled by his thoughts, she turned to him, the pain hidden. “Thanks for the flower,” she said, eyes fixed on it. “It’s beautiful.”
“You’re welcome.” The lift slowly descended, and his thoughts spun. She was hurting and vulnerable, unable to stay and forced to make good on her promise to go to Kennedy with her research. He’d make sure she got there with no credibility. All that funding would go to him and his safer, more viable research.
It’s going to be an interesting end to the week, he thought, glancing at the numbers counting down. “Trisk,” he said suddenly, taking her cold hands in his, “I can tell you’re unhappy.” He shook his head for her to be quiet when she took a breath to protest. “It must be hard to leave,” he insisted, giving her fingers a squeeze. “You’ve made a place for yourself. You’re respected. Your voice is heard. But I’m giving you the chance to push your research into the fast track. You can make a real difference. I promise,” he said, almost believing the lie himself. “Just give it a chance, okay?”
Her head dropped, but she was nodding, and he let go when the elevator chimed and the doors slid open onto the ground floor again. “I want this to work,” she said softly, and his b
reath caught. Gullible to the end.
“That’s my girl,” he said as she left the elevator, her shoes clicking. “Do you mind if I cancel on you for lunch? I have something special planned tonight. Just you and me.”
Trisk lingered before the elevator, but he could see the lie in her tentative smile. “Sure,” she said, hands clasped before her middle. “I’ll see you later today, though, right?”
“It would be hard not to,” he said. “Right after Rick’s meeting. How do you get out of them?” he asked, shaking his head in mock dismay.
“It’s in my contract. Bring me a doughnut?” Trisk said loudly as the doors began to shut.
“You got it!” Kal shot back. The doors closed, and he lost his smile.
“Thanks for taking me downstairs,” Orchid said meekly from under his hat. “I’m starved, and it takes me forever to get there through the ductwork.”
Kal loathed doughnuts, and he put his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth. “She’ll be at least ten minutes, knowing Angie,” he said, adrenaline a slow burn as he felt the pinch of time. “You could forage in the field. That’s better than crackers.”
“Thanks.” Orchid sounded subdued. “What are you going to do? Your aura is ugly again.”
Kal’s eye twitched as the door opened onto the flat white of the lower floors. “Something I should’ve done last week.” He affected his usual pace as he walked to his and Trisk’s twin offices. The thought kept surfacing: Had Trisk and Quen had sex? She and Daniel clearly hadn’t, and he wondered just how far Trisk would play this game of girlfriend in her desire to salvage her career. The need to make her feel ugly was growing. She would feel shame. No—she would feel used when she found out he had known all along.
“Hi, George,” Kal said lightly, and George absently waved him through, bent close over the hissing and popping radio, the connection weak at best down here as it faded in and out of the two-chord, long-running, psychedelic sounds of “Season of the Witch.”