“YOU… SON of a… bitch,” I wheeze, squeezing my eyes shut against another wave of pain and nausea. When one bite eases off a bit, the other two take over. Constant agony. A glance down my body shows my leg twice its normal size, the skin around the puncture wounds an angry red giving way to black before returning to the normal pink farther from the bite. I guess my shoulder and neck are the same, though I can’t twist my head enough to check. The swelling prevents much movement.
“Flynn, Flynn.” Leo tsks. “Surely you’ve figured me out by now. I act on behalf of my own self-interests, perfectly happy to aid you when you’re aiding me. I needed you to get the charm. I needed Genesis’s promise not to turn me over to the Registry.”
And he doesn’t need me anymore.
Gen knew not to trust him. She wouldn’t have, either, if she hadn’t required both his info about the charm and his assistance in un-possessing me.
“Gen won’t keep her promise if you let me die.” In fact, she may kill you, you bastard. The memory of her glowing green eyes adds to the nausea from the snake venom. She has the power. She hates dark magic, but I believe she can kill, if something drives her to it.
I don’t want to be that something.
“I have a first aid kit in the McLaren,” Leo says to Arielle. “It’s unlocked. Go get it.”
I don’t know what kind of oomph he adds to the command, but her eyes glaze over. Her knees tremble when she rises, but she stands and heads around the lake to the parked car.
“Now,” he says, brushing away a strand of hair from my face that came loose from my ponytail, “let’s be straightforward with one another.” I want to flinch from his touch, but I can’t move my head at all. “By no means do I intend to let you die. I will do everything in my power, and encourage you to use yours, to purge your body of the poison.”
Not sure what he means by that, but I listen. I have no choice.
“In addition, I will contact Genesis. She’s a talented healer. Assuming Max hasn’t killed her—” His look grows thoughtful, and a smile plays about his lips. “—and that would be so unfortunate…. She can save you if you cannot save yourself.”
And now I see it. The perfect vicious circle in his plan. If we all live, he has Genesis in his pocket, owing him that favor, perhaps even protecting him from Max Harris, should he live. If Gen and I die, even better if Genesis and Max kill each other, no one except Arielle and Chris, nulls whom I’m sure he can manipulate to forget all this, will ever know what he’s done. “Why—” A fit of coughing, harsh and painful through my tight throat, cuts me off. I try again. “Why don’t you just kill me yourself?”
He gives a delicate little shiver, but it appears genuine. “As I told Genesis on numerous occasions, I don’t kill people.”
No, you just sit back and let things run their course.