Chosen Thief (6 page)

My lips pursed as I inhaled slowly, and I stated just as gradually, as if he didn’t speak English, “No.” I shook my head and began tugging at the ropes again. “Never gonna happen.”

He sighed, standing straight, and began walking back and forth in front of me again. “You don’t have a choice. It is what it is. And you are who you
are.” A pause. “Which brings me back to what I’ve been trying to state for the last three minutes.” He stopped directly in front of me and reached a hand toward me, and I froze, trying to decide what he was going to do and if he was close enough to kick.

Decided that he was, and hoping the move freed my hands, too, I shoved up with my legs, the chair and me flying up, and I quickly hooked his
legs with mine before jerking the chair, myself, and him to the side. And as we fell, hitting the ground hard on our sides, I beautifully heard the wooden chair creak, the rung that held my hands prisoner breaking as I pulled with all my might. Ignoring his curse, I rolled onto my back and shoved off with my legs so I rolled backward over one shoulder to land on my knees. Wiggling my hands free of
the rope was a cinch after that since the wooden rung that I had broken off fell out, giving my hands plenty of space to maneuver. I quickly lurched to stand, backing toward the door and watching the Rulers in the room stare a little wide-eyed at King Collins as he lithely jumped to his feet, glaring at me.

“I’m not a big fan of someone touching me when I don’t invite it,” I stated simply, before
I jerked open the door, unknowing where I was going. But I didn’t care as long as it was away from them.

The door slammed in my face before I could step one foot out.

Baring my teeth at it, I opened it again, taking a quick—

It slammed again, stubbing my socked toes.

I grunted, lifting one foot, then the other, rubbing them. Then grabbed the iron coat rack as I opened the door again, shoving
the end of it out the opening before it slammed again. It caught in the door, leaving it open a crack. I darted under the long rod, shoving with all my strength, even putting a foot up on the doorframe, giving it all I had. I knew it was Queen Cooper pulling this. “Fucking Mage bullshit.”

“Pearl, what metaphor did you use before?” King Zeller murmured softly as they all watched me work endlessly
at the door.

Awed words. “Trapped mini-tiger.”

A masculine grunt. “It fits.”

They let me do this for about five minutes, mutely watching me tire myself out. Growling quietly and knowing I needed to preserve my energy, I stood up straight and yanked the coat rack back inside the room, letting it thump to the ground. I turned to them, crossing my arms over the camisole top I had worn to bed who
knows how long ago, since I had no clue how long I had been unconscious. I stared mutinously at King Collins, drumming my fingers on my arm in irritation.

I could have sworn his lips twitched, but he only jerked his head, blue hair falling back from his face to stare me straight on. “Are you done now?”

Not by a long shot.

King Zeller started snickering as he watched me, then he held up a quick
hand when King Collins shot him a glare. “I’m only thinking payback’s a bitch.” He spread his arms wide. “How many times did you find Aria’s…antics…entertaining?”

King Collins stilled then muttered, “Not the same.” He pointed at me and spoke to King Zeller like I wasn’t in the room, which I took advantage of by gradually beginning to creep toward the window and hoping this was a first floor room.
“You could still train Aria, albeit with her mom watching half the time. Her power wasn’t half the mystery hers is,” he jerked his thumb at me, which I noted was in the right direction and sadly meant he was paying attention. He glared, then he turned that glare on me, or more like, my hair. “A spirit! A fucking spirit!”

King Collins crossed his arms again, brown eyes solely focused on me, so
I stopped moving and rested against one of the walls, keeping plenty of distance between us. “That’s what I was doing earlier,” he stated calmly. “I was going to touch your hair.”

My white eyebrows rose. “Don’t be jealous of the hair.” I fingered my shoulder-length hair where the underside of it was spelled hot pink, the top half its natural white. “Pink highlights would probably look decent
in your blue hair.” And I wasn’t really joking, since the combo would look amazing.

“I can’t wait to see how she interacts with the other Prodigies.” A smile lifted Queen Cooper’s lips, showing a bit of the evil I knew lurked in her because of her history through the war. “The dynamics are going to be…” She trailed off, her eyes glowing golden, doing what Mages do as she stared at nothing. All
the Rulers stayed quiet as she gradually blinked, watching her avidly as her eyes eventually turned back to normal gold. She blinked again, eyes now on me. “Oh.” Her mouth twitched as if she found something humorous, but she said nothing else as she continued watching me, her eyes evaluating.

“Seriously?” King Collins asked, sounding exasperated. “That’s all you’re going to say?”

She shrugged
gracefully as she glanced away from everyone, her golden hair hiding her expression.

“Fine,” he muttered, peering back at me. “And you can’t tell me shit about Spirits, can you?”

That, I could answer honestly. “No.” Not unless I wanted my powers ripped away. Even if that got me out of this Prodigy bullshit, that was the last thing I wanted. Death was a better outcome than losing my powers, since
they were my defense as much as my offense.

He sighed. “So at least some of what I’ve read is right.” He waved a hand at the bookcases. “Half of those are about accounts of Spirits. As soon as the die told me a spirit was going to be Queen — a first ever, by the way — I started studying, since all I had ever heard was rumor.” He paused. “And that’s pretty much all I got from the books: rumors.”
He shook his head, sitting down on the edge of the coffee table, eyes steadfast on mine. “I’ve got to tell you, Caroline—”

“Caro,” I muttered, stopping him, the correction second nature.

“All right, Caro. I’ve got to tell you honestly, I have no fucking clue how to train you.” He ran his hands through his hair, showing his stress for this clearly. “‘I’ve only got rumors, so I don’t even know
what a spirit’s talent is.” He clenched both hands in his hair, staring at the ground. “All I have to go off are the reports of how you killed those men.”

I stiffened, turning my attention to the window.

He didn’t seem to notice my apprehension, continuing, “Those men…they were…dematerialized.”

I sucked in a harsh breath, unable to speak of how I had killed them. Fear swamped me as I worried
he would pressure me to reveal my secrets, and I breathed, “King Collins, please…stop.” A flutter of wind flickered through my hair, lifting it. It was a gentle touch, caressing in its caring nature, but I shouted in frightened fury. My pulse raced at the unwanted trace. I jerked away from the wall, standing on the balls of my feet and staring where I had stood before, waiting for the inevitable.

King Zeller blurred past me, shoving me behind him and staring where I had been, growling, “What the fuck was that?”

The rest of the Rulers were there a second later. I peered around King Zeller’s arm, watching as King Collins swiped a silver knife I hadn’t known he had on him through the air where I had been standing. It went through smoothly, not catching on anything, but that didn’t help my
fear, my emotions high and my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

Again the whispering breeze wavered around me, wrapping a cloaking tendril around me from behind. I screamed, grabbing at King Zeller’s hooded robe, but the breeze turned more forceful, dragging me away from them as they all spun in my direction. All four pairs of eyes instantly glowed as I fought against the breeze fluttering my clothes,
breathing kisses through my hair, lifting it. “Stop it!” I screamed, jerking inside the hold that was beginning to lift me off the ground, “Fucking stop it!”

All the Rulers were instantly surrounding me, trying to pull me from an embrace they couldn’t see. Queen Cooper began mumbling under her breath, glowing such a bright gold I squinted, and suddenly the uninvited, clutching warmth breezed
over my neck, making me shudder as it released me. I started to fall from the air but King Zeller caught me, throwing me over his shoulder as all four of them raced from the room, turned down a well-appointed hallway, and slammed through another door. I was promptly set on my feet behind them as all four turned in a flurry to the door they had just come through, guns drawn, eyes glowing fiercely.

There was a moment of silence as I bent over, hands on my knees, to catch my breath and regulate my emotions, focusing on nothing. Then a masculine voice rumbled from directly behind me in a lazy intonation, “Care to share what’s going on, Queen Ruckler?”

I yelped, not expecting anyone to be in here, my heart rate again shooting off as I jerked around…to stare at the bottom half of a massive
chest. I blinked, and absurdly, I muttered, “That’s a lot of fucking cashmere. Do you have to buy it by the yard?”

A sniff. “That’s a thousand-dollar shirt you’re mocking.” I continued staring in amazement at the size of this guy’s torso, my heart rate beginning to slow again as I watched him lift a hand and point around a glass of brandy, waggling it up and down my frame. “And where did you
get the pajama set? A thrift store?” Another sniff. “You smell of homelessness. Back the fuck off. I hear it can be catching.”

“I did get it at the thrift store, thank you for asking, and if you’re interested I can give you their address so you don’t have to be one of those men who makes himself feel better by wearing a thousand-dollar sweater.” I nodded when I heard him choke on his drink, and
lifted a finger, poking the guy in his pec, uncaring that he stilled at the contact. All I felt was rock-solid under the layer of black cashmere. “Holy shit, I know a man who would pay big money to have you on his payroll.”

He growled quietly, “Who the fuck are you?” He chuckled derisively. “And Jesus, can you get any damn shorter? I can’t see anything but the top of your tastelessly dyed white
hair.” He paused, then he said over my head, “Why are we bringing strays in from the damn street?”

“I’m not all that short, buddy. You’re just like,” I waved my hands high and wide, “like gigantic or something. Hell, forget the guy I know, you could play the next billed role as Godzilla and make major cash.” I shrugged, dropping my hands, still staring wide-eyed at the chest, utterly astonished.
“And they kidnapped me. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here.”

“Shut up!” Queen Ruckler growled. “Caro, what the hell was that?”

I shrugged again. “It’s gone. No worries.” And yeah, I was no longer scared shitless, so it was gone; this guy’s size was a great distraction.

“I’d like to know the answer to Brann’s question,” a feminine voice stated to my left, and I did better
this time at hiding my surprise as I finally pulled my eyes away from the chest in front of me to the direction of the voice.

I poked the guy again, earning a growl from him as I stared at the Vampire goddess. “Maybe you should let her borrow your sweater. She seems to have forgotten clothing isn’t optional if she’s not a Shifter.”

The Vampire woman turned blue eyes on me, scowling, her luxurious
red and black streaked hair brushing at her shoulders. Her bare shoulders. There was only a thin piece of shiny black leather barely covering her ample breasts, and tiny matching shorts that I was sure were smaller than underwear I owned. She also wore stiletto-heeled, thigh-high red boots, and she swung one of them in irritation over her other leg where she sat on a recliner in this living
room of sorts. “These are clothes,” her finger ran over the edge of her bosom, “or maybe you need to look closer?”

I snorted. “Um…they’re already,” I popped my eyes wide, “out there, ya know? No need for closer inspection.” I cocked my head, hair dangling over my shoulder. “And unless this is Halloween or the super-secret prostitution house the Kings and Queens run, those are definitely not clothes.”

Her Vampire growled at me as she flashed a bit of fang, clearly pissed.

“I’m feeling faint,” another voice, a soft baritone, sounded to my left. “This is just too much hostility for me. If it’s safe to leave, I think I’ll go to my meditation room.”

I blinked, turning my head slowly in that direction, and gawked at the Mage leaning his muscular, bulky frame heavily against the wall, his bronzed
face ashen as he waved his hand in front of his face, eyes fluttering open and shut repeatedly.

“Please,” I blinked again, “tell me you’re not serious.”

He stared at me with wide golden eyes, pointing a finger at the Rulers, who were holstering their weapons, and whispered rapidly, “They had their,” he waved his hand, “guns out and she,” a wave at the Vampire woman, “actually bared her fangs
at you.” He stared willfully as if he had made his point. But he sighed heavily, explaining slowly like I was a dimwit, “They could have
fired
their weapons or she could have
bit
you!”

I blinked a few times at him. “I don’t even have words for you.” I shook my head, hoping that dispelled the dumbness I was gathering from him. I turned to face the Rulers, who I could tell were staring at the back
of my head, and tried for distracting them so they didn’t start questioning me. “Who the hell are these three?”

King Collins stared at me for long moments, obviously telling me we weren’t through with the conversation they wanted to have, but he answered my question. “That’s Aria Black,” a wave at the Vampire woman, “the Vampire Prodigy.”

My lips trembled…because he was serious.

A wave at the
Mage. “That’s London Jetter, the Mage Prodigy.”

My nostrils flared, joining my trembling lips as I held his gaze — barely — steadily.

He waved behind me. “And that’s Brann Johnson, the Shifter Prodigy.”

Oh, fuck.

I grabbed at my stomach, a few odd sounds gurgling from my throat, but I was proud to say I didn’t laugh as I deadpanned, “You’re telling me you have a hooker, a pacifist, and a snob
as the next leaders of our people?” I could have sworn all of the Rulers’ faces went carefully blank at the same time, but I was pretty sure I saw humor in their eyes, which were beginning to squint. The Vampire Prodigy growled quietly under her breath and the Mage made a half-hysterical sigh at her action, to which I barely held myself together.