Page 124 of Rise of the Queen

“Yeah, it’s the same as that woman before. Not cold, I mean. But it’s there, whether it’s in control or not. It’s definitely there.”

“I’m so impressed that you can feel that now, Bubba,” I said, winking at him when no one was looking.“How’s Misha? Tell him to stop looking at the guy. I can feel his nausea when he does.”

Andrei coughed once to keep from laughing, then I saw him have a silent conversation with Misha. Misha caught my eye, grinning at me. Stephen was quiet, as was Viktor. Since we hadn’t figured out a way to communicate with Stephen yet, he was mostly on his own, but he could still feel what I felt. I was certain he had felt both Misha’s nausea as well as Adrik’s when it came to the one business associate we’d singled out. He was staying quiet, for now. Doing what he did best. Watching. Waiting.

The conversation shifted from business to more benign subjects. The three men were from different areas in westernEurope. In an effort to keep the conversation going, I asked questions about where they were from, capitalizing on the dumb woman stereotype. They indulged me, happy to answer my questions.

“Are your demons getting itchy?”Ivan asked.

“The whole time we’ve been here,”Adrik answered.

“He’s focused on the three of us. He knows there’s something different about us, but he doesn’t know what yet. What can you see, Ivan?”I asked.

Instead of describing what he saw when he looked at the man, he pushed a snapshot to both me and Adrik. We could see the man, but we could also see the demon, just behind his face. Like a demonic shadow.

“That was impressive,”Adrik said.

“Show off,”I said, trying not to laugh.

“What are we going to do with him?”Ivan asked. It was a good question. Battista had told us he simply wanted to know if there was a reason to be wary of this man. We had plenty of reasons to be wary of him. I ended up asking Vitaliy, in Russian, if any of these men spoke Italian. He shook his head no, then looked at everyone like I had just reminded him of a funny story related to the topic they were all discussing. As he finished up his pretend story, I looked at Battista, asking him in Italian how far he wanted us to take this.

Without skipping a beat, he answered me quickly in Italian and then followed Vitaliy’s lead, making up a reason for me to be speaking Italian to him. None of them were any the wiser.

“He said he wants him exposed; however we need to make that happen. He said the other two know enough that they won’t freak out,”I told Ivan and Adrik.

“We need to ditch the contacts, then,”Ivan said.

“Agreed,”Adrik responded.

I leaned over, whispering to Adrik, “Would you gentlemen like to escort me to the restroom?” He stood up, extending his hand to me. He looked at Ivan, who stood up with us as well. He excused us, walking toward the back of the restaurant. I gave Andrei a quick update as we were leaving.

They surprised me by coming into the women’s bathroom with me. I couldn’t help but laugh at them. “This is some weird porn fantasy right here,” I said, walking to the sink so I could take my contacts out.

Ivan groaned when he took his out. “I understand why your eyes have been so itchy, princess. I do not want to wear these things any longer than I absolutely have to.”

“You do get used to them,” I said. “But I still don’t like wearing them for extended periods.”

We all looked at each other, our eyes turning black immediately. We couldn’t keep from laughing at each other.

“I think we unlocked a new level. I’ve never noticed my demon get this itchy before when we’ve been around another demon. I don’t know what that means,” Adrik said. “It kind of worries me.”

I thought for a minute, trying to get a sense of what was going on. “I don’t think we’re the ones who should be worried about it. I think they’re trying to help us more as each new thing happens. It feels like mine is trying to tell me something,” I said.

“New level for sure,” Ivan said, grinning at me. “So, what’s the plan for this dude?”

“From what you’ve seen, he’s pretty much consumed by the demon, right?” I asked Ivan.

“Yeah. When they’re like the face behind the face, that’s when they’re running the show,” Ivan said.

I looked at Adrik. He had the same thought I did. “There’s only one solution then,” he said.

“Stephen,” we all said at the same time.

“He’s going to be so happy,” I said, laughing as we left the bathroom.

When we got back to the table, the conversation was still flowing. Everyone noticed as we came back, but we didn’t interrupt anything. As we sat down, I told both Ivan and Adrik to either close their eyes or look down. I turned toward Stephen, who was sitting beside me, and flashed him my demon eyes. He knew that meant his services were going to be needed shortly.

We’d discussed Stephen’s gift before coming to the hotel. Before, we had personal experiences to use as fuel for him to break the person. This person was a complete stranger, so we weren’t sure how that would work. It was Misha who came up with the idea for how to make it work.

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