Page 91 of Throwing Shade
Emmett picked up a fallen book and half-heartedly flipped through it. “Like I said. I can’t control my magic. He asked. This time I had an answer.”
“Did Jude create you to work for the vamps?”
“I was her special project.” The golem sneered. “A legacy art piece for a private collector.”
“For Zev?” I shook my head. “I still don’t understand. Jude has animator magic, that’s how she brought you to life. How did you get that other power? What was the secret ingredient?”
“Laurent, spare me,” Rupert’s voice cried out plaintively. The closed door muted his plea somewhat but not nearly enough.
The wolf’s eerie howl vibrated through the room.
“What the fuck is that?” Emmett said.
“Unchain me first, you coward!” The thing wearing Rupert’s body screamed obscenities.
I’d take it over the agonizing sounds of Laurent’s shift.
The golem got up, but I tugged him back onto the sofa.
“Laurent won’t want an audience,” I said.
Emmett gave one more wide-eyed glance over to the elevators, then plucked at the sweats he still wore. “I don’t remember what we were talking about.”
“Your divination powers.”
“Mr. BatKian had a Banim Shovavim with necromancer magic. They thought since necromancers speak to spirits and spirits can predict the future, that this was the missing piece.”
Laurent growled and Rupert’s cursing cut off mid-word. The wolf must have killed the host, the dybbuk itself now free.
Emmett and I exchanged uneasy glances.
I gripped the arm of the sofa, hoping the closed elevator contained the spirit, and tried to focus on this talk. “The vamps have one of my kind?” I had to rescue this person. They’d have valuable answers about who I was and what I could do.
“Had.” Emmett looked down. “He didn’t survive making me.”
I flinched.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
“It’s not your fault.” It was Jude’s and the vampire’s. I didn’t expect BatKian to have a conscience when it came to murder, but Jude? It didn’t matter that she didn’t know what I was, she’d been reckless with a person’s life. Or was that man not a person to her because of his magic?
How many shadow freaks will you smite?
The humming-vibrating noise kicked in. Laurent had opened the portal to Gehenna.
I sucked in a deep breath, but the air around me had the consistency of mud, and there was a hollow spot in the pit of my stomach at the idea of facing my best friend.
“Why create you?” My voice was hoarse. “What was the point?”
Emmett looked at me like I was an idiot. “Power.”
The humming sound cut out and a moment later, the elevator door opened.
I glanced over but couldn’t see the wolf.
“Wouldn’t you want to know the future?” Emmett said. “Know how any decision would play out?”
Not really, because I’d become mired in indecision. Even if one action had a favorable outcome, what if that led to something bad afterwards? And what if knowing the outcome beforehand led to me doing something I might not have done otherwise that I should have?
