Afflicted to the Core, page 18
part #3 of Wielder World Series
"Ah, but I think I do." He gave Scott a look, hoping he remembered the details of their parting. It was not kosher to out other men as Wielders. In fact, you could ruin someone's life that way. Reggie would never do that. The facts were, though, that Reggie had a lot of dirt on Scott beyond his Wielding ability and could ruin him five ways to Sunday.
Back in college, Scott had had his fingers in a lot more pots than Reggie ever imagined. Not only had he been shagging some woman on the side, but he was also a crook. He'd used some Ponzi scheme to siphon money out of their university's benefits plan and retirement portfolio. Reggie convinced Bethany into helping Scott get off, well, Scott free.
Reggie had been a fool. A broken-hearted fool.
The proof of Scott's crime gathered dust in a box in his attic. That proof was poised like the Sword of Damocles over the bastard's head.
"Fucker," Scott spat.
"Who gave you those drugs?" Reggie spoke in a harsh whisper.
Scott laughed, drawing even more attention to them. "Go talk to your sister and ask her."
"What...? Are you saying Bethany gave them to you?" No fucking way. Reggie snorted in disbelief. He wished he could read minds with the Nerve right now because there was no possible way Bethany was involved. Then his mind stumbled over itself...Bethany had pushed August into giving drugs to Tooth and Claw.
Scott sneered. "You'd be surprised what those bitches in the Bureau will do."
Reggie rounded the table, closing on Scott, nearly chest to chest. "Did Bethany give them to you?" Everything this man said would be a lie. Damn it. He'd never get a straight answer out of him.
Reggie pulled out his phone and dialed his sister. Scott spun around and stalked away from their table, almost to the restaurant's door, and Reggie said into the phone before her voicemail even clicked on. "Sis, yeah, you remember Scott. Uh huh. Yeah, that guy. Well, I know where he is..."
Scott stopped, turned and glared murderously at him, perfectly straight teeth bared.
"Hold on." He pressed the phone against his chest, though he was doubtful they could hear Bethany's recorded voice over the general hum of the restaurant. "Do you want to talk, or should I finish this call?"
"You would not..." Scott's face reddened to a shade alarmingly bright against his blond hair. Zanita's' host hovered nearby, obviously wanting them to sit down or conduct their business elsewhere.
"I need that info." Reggie crushed his other hand into a fist to hide the shakes.
Kyle stepped to Reggie's side. "We all do."
"Bitch," Scott said under his breath. "Fine, I'll tell you. Hang up the damn phone."
Reggie put the phone to his face again. "Oh, sorry, sis. Wrong guy. Yeah, sorry. I---I gotta go." He tapped his phone. "Okay, let's sit down like adults and have a nice forthright conversation."
Kyle glanced back at August and mouthed 'forthright'. Reggie ignored them.
The men sat back at the table, and the host returned to his post at the door, shooting them not-so-sly glances. Desmond kept his head down, no doubt wishing he'd been at work or laid up in the hospital or something equally as safe when August came a-knocking. Reggie sipped his juice, eyes honed in on Scott, who sullenly fiddled with his glass, letting the ice clink together.
"So, Scott. Who did you get the drug from?" Reggie asked.
"Some spook."
"Not my sister?"
Scott swallowed a mouthful, lowered the glass. "Not your sister."
"Didn't think so. Bad ploy, by the way. Should have picked someone else."
Scott looked up and shrugged. "Had to try something."
"Okay, so did you know the agent, or did you just have a clandestine meeting?"
"Didn't know the guy---"
"Guy!" Kyle burst in. "A man did this?"
Desmond groaned. "Ah, the innocence of youth."
Kyle huffed, his feathers ruffled "I am not innocent, I'm just...shocked. I was trapped in an oubliette, you fucker. I'm not innocent."
"So, you didn't know the man." Reggie thought it better to get back on track before Scott made a second attempt to bolt.
"No. I could pick him from a line-up, but I didn't know him. A suit, older guy. Remember Professor Aaryn, for physics? Reminded me of him. Glasses, that air of elitism." Reggie almost snorted again. Except for the glasses, Scott was describing himself. "This bloke had that same thing going. Like, of course I would take this drug and shoot all my buddies up with it."
"Well, you did," August said.
"Yeah, I did..." he muttered, then shut up.
"Why did you?" Reggie prompted. Why did you betray us all, he wanted to ask but felt that was taking it a little too personally. Scott was a cheater anyway; it was in his nature. Loyalty shouldn't be expected of him.
Scott stared across the table at Reggie, his cocksure smile dialed up to ten. "Because they promised me the results of the final study and a good bit of cash."
Desmond planted his face in his palm. "God damn it. You're sleazy, Scott."
Scott's smile died, replaced by contempt. "And you're a weak-ass dickweed who will never, ever make it beyond second rate." He nodded. "All of you."
Reggie took in a fortifying breath, then grabbed Desmond's drink and fortified himself with that too, flinching at the sweetness. "Okay, Scott. What was the final result of the study?"
Scott shrugged with a haughty raise to his brows. "It was supposed to cure Taint, of course. What other goal is there?"
"To cut the Nerve out of men." Reggie waited for Scott's reaction, but it wasn't what he expected. He'd expected a bit of rage, some indignation. Instead, he got a pair of raised brows and a shallow shrug.
"Probably one option, but they still want a cure. Even if it's only temporary, which is the one they'd market. Nothing permanent, mind you. No Golden Boy, because they wouldn't make the same profit. Not to mention they like to keep their stilettos at our backs."
"And you condoned this?" Kyle said through ground teeth. Movement drew Reggie's attention. Kyle's shaking was coming back, too, as the soft drink in his glass shivered. Or maybe he was that taken with rage.
"Who am I to work against the great machine? They will do what they want when they want. If I can benefit, then that's good." Scott pressed his lips together, as if in thought. "You must be Reggie's new follower, all righteous and outraged at the unfairness of the world."
Kyle leaned back in his chair and laughed. "Oh, I see." He nodded, looking between Reggie and Scott. "I see."
Reggie prayed to all the gods that Kyle kept his mouth shut.
Scott narrowed his eyes, slapping his glass against the table. "What?"
Kyle only shook his head and stared into his glass, chuckling. Kyle pulling that shit on Reggie always pissed him off, but seeing him pull it on other people was amusing as hell.
"So, you were given the drug by someone you don't know, and you just handed it over to your cult saying it was a cure?" August herded the conversation back into the realm of the relevant.
Desmond shook his head. "Jeff said it was a...an inhibitor, to delay the Taint. It wasn't a cure."
Reggie remembered and nodded. "And everyone got a round of shots."
"It was a series," Desmond said. "Some guys got really sick, like I said, but the rest of us, it worked for a while. Wasn't the same for everyone, though."
"So, varying effects depending on...." Reggie looked to Scott.
Scott just shrugged. "No idea. I gave the drug to Jeff, and he gave out the shots. There were a few vials of it, so who knows, maybe some vials worked differently. It wasn't my job to keep track."
Kyle set his glass down and rubbed his hands over his thighs. "It could be any number of factors. Mentalist, bender, booster. Taint versus Corruption, or different kinds of Taint. Or the person's ethnicity, diet, physical fitness. Who knows?" Kyle stopped spelling it out and gave a one-shouldered shrug. Reggie was stupidly proud and beamed in support. Kyle quirked that grin at him, full force smug confidence. The iron strong resolve that Reggie relied on to stop him from giving into silly impulses nearly crumbled to rust under the urge to grab Kyle and kiss him. An urge, that he would not, of course, give in to.
It was iron strong, after all.
"Just makes sense," Kyle said.
"It does," Reggie agreed.
But by God, did Reggie want to.
"And the results?" August asked again.
Scott held still, shoulders tense. "It wasn't perfect."
Desmond snorted.
"Okay, then---" Kyle leaned forward, "---tell us this. Who else gave drugs to other cults?"
Scott leaned away and glared. His eyes settled on Reggie. "Your boy toy?"
Reggie was disappointed that Scott would stoop so low. "Seriously?"
"Well, he is, isn't he?" Scott's eyes lit up.
Reggie looked over at Kyle, who'd pulled on his facade of not giving a shit. Kyle knew he wasn't a toy. No way would Scott's annoying, immature picking affect him. Reggie let his anxiety relax because Kyle had chased Reggie, not the other way around. The pursuer couldn't be a toy, right?
Reggie swallowed. "He's not my toy." He hoped the tone suggested just how important Kyle was to him. Scott shook his head with haughty amusement.
"Yo, stop dodging the question. Names. We want them, and you will give them to us," August demanded, one fist clenched on the table.
"August, that won't work." Reggie pulled his phone out again. "I'll just call Bethany; she can pluck it from his mind, and then arrest him for crimes committed." Boy was there a list.
Scott pushed his chair back, the scrape of the feet on the tile loud in their whispering bubble. "Fuck you, Reggie. You were such a wet fish in bed---" Reggie paled at Scott's words, "---you have to pick 'em younger and younger. Dupe 'em into thinking you're something."
Kyle stood. "Don't talk smack about, Reggie." A wave of silence smothered the chatter around them from other diners. "And stop dodging the question. We're not talking about him here; we're talking about you. Tell us who supplied the drugs and who has the results, or we call the agent."
August's eyes lit up as he watched Kyle. Reggie agreed; he was pretty awesome when his fire was lit.
"Matt Ratlick and Jeremy Fish. Those are the only two I know. They know the results and the supplier."
The world zeroed into pinhole focus at Jeremy Fish. Reggie felt sick. Haunted. Flashes of agonizing pain shivered over his skin like waves of freezing chill. He shared a look with August and Kyle, then squeezed his eye shut. You are not there. You are not there.
"Jeremy Fish?" Reggie confirmed once he'd composed himself. Scott nodded. One of the many men who'd tried to kill him in Mara Murda. Dumped him in a pit. Let a madman skin off his Corruption with a scalpel. Oh yeah, he knew him.
Reggie threw a twenty on the table, certainly enough to cover Kyle, August, and him, and turned his back on Scott. Then he stopped, spun around and got up in Scott's face.
"You are a sad, sick bastard who would sell out his own mother. I wish I'd known that before you convinced me to sleep with you. And you know what, Kyle has the most gifted cock. So much better than the pinky pecker in your saggy pants."
Reggie turned away again, cheeks burning hot and grabbed for Kyle and then grabbed for August, and the three walked out of Zanita's together. Oh hell. Did he just say that? Out loud? With witnesses?
"You really like my cock that much?" Kyle said, purring into Reggie's ear. Reggie's sense of mortification feasted on Reggie's sense of propriety, a long-dead casualty of hubris.
August just laughed, then the laughter died away. "Is that guy an ex?"
Reggie did not want to talk about it. "Unfortunately."
The mirrors lining the walls surrounding the elevator doors caught the three of them, heads close and intimate. Kyle's face lit up with delight. August's cheeks were flaring from his badly reined in smirk. Both men framed Reggie. Both men were strong and beautiful and supportive. August met Reggie's eyes. He winked. Reggie's face, already a shade of tomato he didn't think he'd been capable of, darkened, and then he laughed.
"Is he the reason you've been a monk for so long?" Kyle was a persistent little bastard.
"No, actually, he just took my virginity. Now, a new subject." Reggie cleared his throat and tried to focus on their current task. He had been a monk, and now...His eyes flicked to Kyle, but the obvious shake to his hand slugged that train of thought off the tracks. "August, where should we go next?"
"Hey, wait a minute!"
Behind them in their reflection, Desmond approached from the restaurant. He apparently wanted nothing to do with Scott, either.
"Sorry I wasn't more help," he said.
"Des, if you know of anyone else who might be involved, let us know. We need to find out if a cure has been produced from these tests." August leaned earnestly towards the other man and clapped his hand on his shoulder. "It will help all of us. I'm not doing this to get you in trouble or to keep the cure to myself, or whatever it is you might think."
Desmond gave a slow, thoughtful nod as if all the world's questions were rolling around in his mind. "I don't. But I can try to do my own snooping."
August squeezed his shoulder then let his hand drop. "Great. You have my number. Any information, any help."
The elevator door dinged and slid open. A couple of women dressed in glitter and sparkles raked them with a greedy gaze. August winked as the women sauntered to the host's stand, the dark-haired one blowing August a kiss, and the four men stepped inside.
Kyle leaned against the glass wall. "That Scott was a real ass."
Desmond sneered. "He's a user, but usually he's not so blatant about it. Never really mixed much with the rest of the boys, though."
"Probably felt guilty for poisoning everyone." Kyle sounded miffed.
"Well, it wasn't poison," Desmond said, "and no...I don't think guilt played into it. I think he's just not friendly unless he can get something from you."
A cold knot settled in Reggie's stomach. That pretty much summed Scott up. He hated that he'd been so naive. Still, those old haunts coming to life right before his eyes... He didn't need any more shocks this day. But, as they began a goose chase after some unknown cure before he and Kyle shook themselves to death, he figured they would dig up more than past mistakes.
"Where are you going now?" Desmond asked as the elevator delivered them to the ground floor.
August held open the elevator doors as the other men exited. "I have a few other guys to ask." He gave Desmond some empty details while Reggie thought about Jeremy Fish and the pit he'd been in back at Mara Murda. The thick skin of his Corruption suddenly itched all over. Reggie knew, without a doubt, he did not want to go through that again.
Kyle pressed his side against Reggie's, brows up in question. Reggie shook his head. He didn't need to drag anyone else down with him.
Outside of Pole Tower, they said good-bye to Desmond and climbed into Reggie's car, August behind the wheel.
Kyle held his left hand up, palm out. August cursed.
Reggie could see the palsy in his fingers. He scrunched his own hand into a fist. "We should go back to the warehouse. Let Juanita look us over."
August zipped into traffic, nearly taking down a cyclist who'd blasted through a stop sign. He slammed on the horn, then continued on.
"I think I'll need a longer leave of absence for this. I hope I don't lose my job," Reggie said. It was the end of the term, and his students needed him. His TA could only teach so much, and he couldn't expect Sally Boltmier to cover all his classes.
"Just tell them you've come down with West Nile or something." Kyle shrugged.
Reggie just sighed. It was about the only thing that would work.
~~~
Crickets chirped as Bethany rounded the barn to the door opposite the empty farmhouse. A partial moon flicked in and out from behind rolling clouds, alternately deepening and lightening the shadows. The impending rain moistened the air, carrying a grassy scent.
The unimpressive barn door opened smoothly and led into a smaller room with a reinforced door with keycode lock. She typed in the code and entered the high-security incarceration chambers Cohen had created.
"Hey Wolfe," Schmidt said around a mouthful of sandwich, causing Bethany to reflect how she appreciated being a mentalist. Boosters tended to shovel away the calories, even waking in the dead of night to feed their power. Schmidt swallowed. "Good night?" she asked from her seat before an array of four monitors, one for each holding cell, with a computer system set up to control every electrical aspect of the barn.
Bethany couldn't help but smile, remembering dinner with her daughter. "Yeah, it was." She dropped her smile and huffed in a breath of air, letting it ease through her nose as she studied the monitors. "Now, what do we got?"
Schmidt set down her sandwich, something full of lettuce, sprouts and other things that looked healthy, and dabbed at her mouth with a napkin, flashing her perfectly manicured claws painted with little yellow daffodils. "That one," Schmidt pointed to Shantelle Mace, a mind-reader with more of a mercenary view on their entire endeavor than the other two, "told us a bit about the Order of Spiritii. I figured we'd get a load more with you listening in."
Bethany nodded. Always best to have a mind-reader on hand when interrogating major suspects. It was BWS policy...or had been when things ran smoother.
"What did you get so far?" Bethany looked into the cell with the unkempt mentalist. She was sleeping on the hard bed that folded down from the wall, her hair a wild typhoon around her head. Their other two detainees looked asleep as well.
"The Order of Spiritii is a group of male cultists."
Bethany nodded to herself. This wasn't new.
"Apparently, they have physical wielders in their organization---"
"Physical?" There it was again. She still wanted to see it, doubting Thomas that she was.
Schmidt nodded and offered Bethany a tight smile.
"I wonder how many of them are out there," Bethany mused. "We had the Green Killer who desiccated women, and now members of a secret cult society."
