Page 98 of Beauty At Stake
“We have to wait,” Star said. “Just be quiet for a few minutes.”
“My wife is in danger, and you want me to just sit here twiddling my thumbs?”
“No witty comeback?” Sarai sauntered over to me. “I heard you were quite the comedian.”
“I'm thinking, okay?! Give me a second.” It was harder than you might think to listen to three people talking at once.
Sarai burst out laughing. “Youarefunny! It's a shame I'll be draining your magic.”
“Excuse me?”
That got me focused.
“Oh, you thought my end game was to collect all the Bite Witches to fuel my beauty potions? How shortsighted. Beauty and money are fantastic. I love having both. But why would I limit myself to such trivial things when the ultimate source of magic was within my grasp? Rue told me all about your Light and Darkness—divine magic. He said you also have human and fairy magic. The holy trinity, if you will. You're the most powerful supernatural being in all the worlds. And you literally dropped into my hands.” She smirked and shook her head. “One shackle around your ankle and you're no better than a normal human. That seems like a design flaw.”
“I agree. We should take it up with God.”
“Oh, yes. You're the chosen one. Do you think he'll smite me?” The sorceress cackled.
I blew out a long breath and sat back, crossing my legs. Then I slid my hand along my head as if smoothing my hair, and tapped the comm device in the process, turning on the mic. “Probably not. We had a little tiff recently.” I snorted a laugh. “I bet Anu knew you were going to catch me and is watching this, laughing his divine ass off.” He's probably got a bowl of popcorn in his lap.”
“Why is that?”
Simultaneously, Daxon hissed, “Everyone shut up! She's turned on the mic. And make sure you have your comms off. Only Seren's channel should be open. We don't want that motherfucker to hear us.” To me, he added, “I'm gonna turn off the sound on our end for a bit, love. But I'm here with you.”
I laughed but twisted it to sound bitter—a perfect segue into my answer. “Oh, because I told him to stay out of my life.” I rolled my eyes. “What perfect timing. And he wonders why I trust his sister more.”
“This is so fascinating,” Sarai drawled. “You actually speak to God? And he speaks back?”
“Oh, yeah. He appears before me. I wouldn't be here, fighting evil bitches like you, if he hadn't asked me to.” I cocked my head at her. “Why are you doing this when you know Heaven and Hell are real? I'm sure this fucking traitor of a wolf has told you everything he knows about Anu. So you know you're tainting your soul right now. Don't you care about that?”
“I'm tainting my soul by capturing Anu's favorite?”
“No, by murdering people and generally being evil. You've got yourself a guaranteed ticket to Hell.”
Sarai's calm expression cracked but only for a second. “Once I drain your magic, I'll be able to do more than make people beautiful. I'll have enough magic to make myself—”
“Immortal,” I finished for her with an eye-roll.
“Oh, I'm sorry. Does my quest for immortality bore you?” she snapped.
“Yes, actually, it does. You're the second human this year who has captured me, hoping to distill my magic into an immortality potion.”
“What?” Sarai gaped at me.
“What? You thought that was original? Please.” I rolled my eyes. “I'm not exaggerating. You're the second one thisyear. You are not unique, Sarai. Not special. You're not even all that pretty now that we're up close. Don't you use your own product?” I shrugged. “Maybe it's one of those business things—like how drug dealers should never do drugs. I get it. Smart. But take my advice and hire models for your ad campaigns. Cuz, bitch, you ugly.”
“Ugh!” Sarai screeched and came at me.
Rue grabbed her. “She's egging you on, sweetheart. Don't listen to her. You're absolutely stunning. You know that.”
Sarai melted and turned to look at Rue. Anywhere else, and I would have sighed to see such adoration between two people. At that moment, it just made me ill.
“What the fuck?” Killian muttered as he sat up. “Seriously? Is this an additional form of torture? You're going to bore us with your evil plot and get kissy in front of us? Ugh! Just shoot me now.”
Rue growled at Killian.
Killian bared his fangs, popping down the needle-sharp teeth that normally hid in his palate. Poisonous venom dripped from them, and Kill spat it at Rue, who had to jump back to avoid it.
