The True One

Chapter 4 Part 1

Alek

No sooner had Flora waved her magic pepper wand, than my eyes were transformed into hot coals. The pain was immediate. My chest constricted; my throat threatened to go on strike due to unsafe working conditions. The searing agony spread until it was all I could feel as the world grew dark as my eyes sealed shut.

While I gasped for air, Verity let loose on her friend.

"What the hell, Flora?"

"You said he was lurking. I was trying to protect us!"

"From my bodyguard?"

My wheezing filled in the silence as Flora realized her mistake.

"...Your bodyguard?"

"Afraid so. Flora meet Alek, Alek meet Flora."

I clutched at my throat rather than extend a hand in greeting.

"What am I supposed to do if someone attacks us while he's hyperventilating? Huh, Flora?"

"How would I have known who he was? You should have led with that instead of calling him a lurker."

As they argued, I contemplated my mortality. During the seven years spent leading treasure hunts for Aurum Venari, I'd been bitten by a copperhead, stung by hornets, fallen off a ledge and fractured my ankle, and had a gun drawn on me by a client who didn't think the "treasure" we found was worth what I told him it was. He was right, but that was no reason to resort to violence. Despite all those experiences, none compared to the level of anxiety and pain I was enduring now.

At some point, the women stopped arguing long enough to drag me into the living room and deposit me on a couch.

"Should we call a doctor?" Flora asked, her voice quavering. She sounded almost as panicked as I felt.

"He'll be fine," Verity responded. "It's just pepper spray."

"Just pepper spray" felt like all the ghost peppers in the world had been force-fed to me. I didn't just need a doctor; I needed a miracle. I tried to express this, but the attempt pushed my throat to the brink of disintegration.

"Besides," Verity went on, "Alek prefers not calling for medical assistance, even when it seems it might be necessary. Isn't that right, Alek? He's still responsive, so let's let him be and see how this all shakes out."

Damn. This woman was ruthless. I managed a slight gurgling noise meant to sound like an objection.

"See?" Verity said. "He can breathe just fine."

"Sort of. His eyes are so swollen. I don't think he can see."

"Oh, he definitely cannot. It's temporary though."

Flora, who sat on my right, patted my knee. "I'm so sorry about this. I thought you were going to attack Verity."

If I wasn't on the verge of dying, I would have felt sorry for her. She seemed like a decent person tricked by a sociopath into thinking said sociopath was also a decent person. Then again, Flora wasn't necessarily an innocent. If Verity did know her true nature, Flora could be nothing more than an accomplice meant to ease people into Verity's menacing inner circle. The nice act might be nothing more than that.

I'd have to watch her almost as closely as Verity. If Norvin had taught me anything, it was that the people who seemed nicest often used a sweet disposition to cover less benign character traits.

Still blind and in turmoil, the two women abandoned me to my fate in favor of eating leftovers in the kitchen. I wallowed in the darkness for what seemed like forever, and then the pain began to ease. My eyes unsealed themselves.

Verity was right: I would survive.

Once I could see again, I tried out my voice to make sure it was also back in working order. "Ad mortem cum lupinotuum."

"What was that?"

Startled, I realized Flora had re-entered the living room.

"Nothing. Just something my boss says sometimes."

Flora frowned. She was shorter than Verity, with oversized glasses and dark hair held back in a high ponytail. "Your boss used to talk about death in Latin?"

"Oh." Wondering if she'd caught more than that one word, I flashed her my coy smile, the one most women, save for Verity, seemed to respond favorably to. "Is that Latin? I had no idea."

"Right." She nodded slowly. "Are you feeling better? No offence but you still look like a puffer fish."

I touched my fingers to my cheek and to my great shame, felt embarrassed at what Verity must have thought when she saw me like this.

"Once again, Alek, I am so sorry! Verity said I shouldn't try to play the hero and I guess she's right."

"I'm fine. But you know what, Flora? I disagree with Verity on this one. Everybody can be a hero. All you have to do is what's right instead of what's easy." Using my own definition, I didn't exactly fall in the keys to the city, heroic architype, but the line seemed to work on her. She stood a little taller.

"You should come join us." She motioned behind her, towards the kitchen. "We're talking about the tour."

"It's still happening, I take it?"

"Absolutely! Wouldn't you like to talk about it with Verity?"

More time with my popstar target wasn't the appealing suggestion Flora thought it to be. "Verity would want me to continue my patrol around the premises, so I must decline your offer." I tipped my imaginary hat to her and wandered back to the front door. "Good night to you, Miss Flora. I'll see you on the road."

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Author's Note: It's a short update... but that's because I've decided to break this chapter into two parts. The second half will be up Monday, so you don't have long to wait! Be sure to add this story to your reading list so you don't miss it! Until then, here's a visual teaser of what to expect: