Page 50 of Queen Takes Checkmate
“You wouldn't understand.” Her voice cracked with strain. She gripped the arms of her chair, her nails dug in like a cat's claws. “Keisha was only a stepping stone to get here. To be close.”
I let my breath sigh out softly. “Close to Huitzilopochtli.”
Her eyes went wide, the whites shining. “You know? And you did nothing to stop him?”
“Stop who? He's dead.”
“A god is never dead. You should know that better than anyone.”
Daire’s purr never changed. :I've got her.:
Behind the woman, Vivian glared at him.:She’s mine, dickhead. I noticed she was off first.:
Mehen chuckled in our bonds.:Oh, I like her. She fits right in.:
“Why would I want to stop Huitzilopochtli? Why is he here, locked in Keisha's basement?”
Madeline shook her head, a rough, jerky movement as if she'd lost control of her bodily functions. “It's time. It needs to be done.”
Sweat poured down her face and her eyes glowed painfully bright. She started to rise, her movements stiff and jerky as if controlled by something else. She rose enough to fall on her knees heavily. She crawled closer to me, wringing her hands. Her lips were cracked and peeling, her tongue slipping out to moisten them. Her eyes burned so hotly. Pleading for me to do something.
Vivian paced behind her and quietly unsheathed one of her swords.
“You have the power. I need it. Please,” she whimpered. “You have to help me. You have to save me.”
“How?” I whispered, pity welling in my heart. “What happened to you?”
Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, blistering her skin in red welts. “He doesn't want you to wake him up. That's why he wants him dead. I'm sorry. I thought you could cleanse me. But it's too late now.”
Her voice broke and she wailed, her head falling forward. She wretched and heaved, her shoulders straining. Heave after heave, while her body strained and shuddered. Finally, she vomited out... something. I couldn't make out what it was.
Then it leaped toward me.
Rik jerked me up so fast I squeaked. Daire swiped at the thing in the air, knocking it onto the carpet. Vivian pinned it to the floor with the tip of her blade. She lifted the squirming thing up into the air, skewered on her blade. “Bingo.”
It was one of the blue-green beetles that we'd seen devouring Keisha's body. I shuddered and looked back at Madeline. She'd collapsed on the floor, mouth open, her eyes... melting. Like her eyeballs had exploded. Fluids leaked out of her eye sockets.
"Goddess, above." Gwen whispered. "What the fuck happened to her? She seemed fine last night."
"Did I miss one?" I asked. "Could one of them have escaped?"
Rik wasn't taking any chances of another creature crawling out of the dead woman. He kept me locked high in his arms. "No. I didn't see one escape. Could she have been infested with one earlier?"
Vivian concentrated on the wriggling beetle and it burst into flame with an eerie screech. “This thing was probably planted in her years ago. That’s how Ra works. He plays the long game, willing to wait for hundreds of years for his plot to come to fruition. She probably didn’t even remember when he planted it in her.”
Grudgingly, Rik set me back in my chair. In the attack, I’d lost track of my cup. It’d tumbled to the floor and spilled on the carpet, so Daire started making me a fresh cup.
Gina stepped back inside the room and gasped. “Oh, goddess. What happened?”
Vivian waved the crispy critter at her on her way out the door. “Ra’s scarab. I’m going to flush it to be safe.”
Gina looked at me, wringing her hands. “I’m so sorry, Shara. I had no idea. I feel terrible that I recommended her.”
I shook my head and accepted the cup from Daire. “How could you possibly know? She was a smart choice. Who else on Skye’s team do you think could step up and help us?”
“Going through her reports, I saw that many of them were generated by a single name, Kevin Bloom. I took the liberty of calling him up to join us.”
Poor Madeline was starting to melt into the carpet. “I think we need to hire a really good clean-up crew that doesn’t mind dealing with strange shit.”
