“The people aren’t being forced. They’re willing adults. As long as they’re not hurting anyone, then I’m not getting involved, especially when I don’t have backup.” Elle glanced at her and looked her up and down. “No offense, but you don’t exactly look intimidating.”
Anna didn’t bother to conjure any magic in her hand. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself. “Even better. People always underestimate me.”
Elle seemed to consider this for a moment and then nodded. “That’s true. But I’m still not engaging with those vamps. There’s too many other supernaturals here that would defend them, even if they don’t like them, simply because of the ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ rule.”
“So what are we going to do?” Anna continued to watch the surrounding activities, some of which she quickly glanced away from.
“Wait.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not very helpful.”
Elle leaned back in the booth, looking much too comfortable in such a seedy place. “I never claimed to be very helpful.”
“Then why’d you offer to help?” Anna’s frustration with the pink-haired female was growing.
“Because I’m curious,” Elle said nonchalantly.
“Jewel is just a curiosity to you?” Anna didn’t understand why she was getting so mad, but she could feel heat rising up her neck as she balled her hands into fists.
“There’s never been a healer with witch blood until you five, and Jewel had the most exposure.” Elle shrugged. “So, yeah, I’m curious about her.”
“Do you even want to actually help her, or are you just here to quench your interest?” There was a sharp bite in Anna’s tone. She rarely went straight from zero to a hundred in a blink, but she was there now.
“Anastasia.”Gustavo’s voice caressed her mind.“Calm yourself and tell me what has you so upset. Has something happened to you?”
“No.”Her tone was still sharp.“I mean, other than being in the cesspool of an establishment, and the fact that Elle is simply here because she thinks Jewel and I, and the other healers, are oddities to study.”
She felt his stillness at her words and wondered if he was going to figure out a way to get through the wards keeping him out. Instead, he continued to speak to her in that calm tone of his.
“Think about what you’re saying,Amor. You’ve known Elle for a little while now. Do you really think she would come here, go into such a place, just because she was curious?”
Anna forced herself to pause at his words. She took several deep breaths and reminded herself of what she knew to be true. Jewel had often said that when it was hard to see what was real, you could combat lies with the truth. Anna knew Elle caredabout everyone in their pack, Romanian and extended. She’d proven that over and over as she’d fought alongside them. She was mated to Sorin, and he would know her heart because he was her mate. Sorin didn’t seem like a man to put up with a female who did not have good intentions. Elle was also comrades and friends with Peri. Peri might be many things, but she wasn’t a person who chose assholes as friends. So all that meant that Elle wasn’t really what she was portraying.
“Okay, so what gives?” Anna sighed and her body deflated. “Why are you intentionally pushing my buttons?” Because now that she thought about it, Anna realized that’s what the fae had been doing.
“I needed to see how much the darkness in here affected you,” Elle explained. “You’re a healer, Anna. Same as Jewel. You are pure and good and light. But you’ve been touched by darkness, and that will never go away. I needed to see how much of that darkness in you still responds to other darkness around you.”
Anna’s eyes widened. “Holy crap, I failed.”
Elle shook her head. “It wasn’t a test.”
“But it sort of was,” Anna argued. “I should have been able to feel it. I should have known that in a place like this it would call to that shadow in me that Volcan put there.” Then a thought occurred to her. “Gustavo pulled me out of it. Was Dalton not able to do the same?”
“I don’t know. But if he wasn’t, then why not?”
Though the healers talked and shared things about themselves to each other, that didn’t mean they just openly gave a deep insight into their relationships. Jewel had never indicated that she and Dalton were having any problems.
After sitting there for another twenty minutes, Anna finally pressed her hand to her stomach and nudged Elle. “I’m getting nauseous. I need to get out of here.”
The female fae nodded. “That means you’re fighting the evil in here. Your witch blood isn’t as strong as the healer magic in you. And you haven’t been feeding it like the hungry, little monster the darkness is. It lives in each of us, just like the light. The question is which one are we feeding and allowing to grow?”
That made Anna mad, because it made it sound like Jewel wasn’t strong. That she was weak because she’d come into this place, and apparently many others like it, and been unable to keep from giving into the dark magic inside of her.
“Let’s go.” Elle grabbed Anna’s hand. “Before you blow up at me. You’ve been tainted enough for one evening.”
