I shook my head, confused. “You want me to dowhatnow?”
He stared at me. A muscle in his jaw ticked. Give that man an Oscar. “Extend it. We are wasting time.”
I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t blazed my way through the corporate jungle that was the San Francisco finance industry by rolling over every time an arrogant manordered me to do something. “No, honey.You’rewasting time. Don’t get me wrong; if you haven't agreed on a billable set of hours for this job, feel free to milk that slimy bastard for whatever you can get. Otherwise, just get on with whatever speech you’ve got prepared, put my door back, and go home.”
The leader’s dark emerald eyes flashed; a deep, furious rage snarled at me from the depths of his iris. If I hadn't already danced on the edge of total oblivion, I would probably be quite scared right now.
When you laugh in the face of madness, you’re not easily intimidated. Richie Curran didn’t know who he was dealing with.
“Your Highness.” The dark, overly muscly one in the hallway called out. “I will do it.”
“Ooh.” I winked up at him as he maneuvered his broad shoulders inside. “Your Highness. A prince, is he? That’s a nice touch.”
The muscled man faced my wall and clapped his hands once. Blue flames erupted from his palms.
I stumbled back as adrenaline surged through me. I couldn’t even force out a scream. Speechless, I watched as he pushed the blue flames out from his palms, directing a surge of energy towards the wall closest to him. It shrank back. He pushed again, and it retreated with a subsonic rumble.
This isn’t real. This isnotreal.
He pushed one more time; the flames pushed my apartment wall three more feet back. My whole living space was now double what it had been. Finally, he clapped his hands together and pulled them apart, creating a circle of flames in mid-air. The blond one strode in and reached inside the circle.
His hand disappeared. I gasped.
He pulled it out and tossed a little brown stick behind him. The stick stretched out as it flew through the air, expanding into my front door with a loudpop.
Both men arranged themselves behind the leader, armored muscular arms crossed over their chests, staring at me, while the beautiful girl lounged in the background, bright-green eyes flashing in the dim light of the room.
“Susan Moore,” the leader rumbled, pulling my focus back to his perfect lips. “You are the Chosen One.”
“Oh, no,” I mumbled. My lips felt numb. “It’s happening again.”
Chapter
Five
Isat down in the armchair by the window, thumbing at my phone. Who should I call first? Not my psychiatrist; Dr. Byron was hard to get hold of even when I had an appointment. All he ever did was prescribe me pills, anyway, and judging by the hallucinations filling my apartment right now, the pills weren’t working.
My therapist? I liked her a whole lot more. I had Bronwyn on speed-dial, but it was eleven at night, and she had a jiu jitsu tournament this weekend; she needed her rest. For a wild moment, I considered calling my parole officer.
No. Maybe I could just ride this out. Maybe it was just an episode brought on by a quick drop in estrogen. Maybe this time I really was going through menopause. That’s what the official diagnosis had been two years ago, even though I continued to get my period like clockwork every month.
The leader loomed over me. The fury vibrating off him was almost visible, like a radioactive corona. “Woman. What are you doing?”
It’s just an episode, I told myself. Just little hallucinations.You can ride it out. At least I hadn’t tried to kill anyone yet.
A cold fear clutched me. Or had I?
I dialed Bart’s number hastily and exhaled with relief when he answered. “Hello, Susan,” he said. “Did you miss me already?”
“I was just making sure you got home okay.”
He chuckled. “Yes, I managed to traverse the twelve steps downstairs safely. Thank you for a wonderful dinner.”
“You’re welcome,” I managed.
“It was much nicer than sitting in a too-dark room eating dehydrated mushroom chips and listening to someone bitch about how hard it is to get a duck fat stain out of his eight-hundred-dollar chinos.”
A voice hissed in the background.
