Page 6 of Expose Me

“Yeah.” I shook my head to clear some of the stupefied fog that had settled around it. “Yep, point made.”

My survival instincts started to return, along with a heavy dose of curiosity. I caressed one of my most familiar threads in my mind and summoned my favorite blade. The Fairbairn Sykes fighting knife was one of the last things my mother had given me. I was fifteen, and she died a month later, leaving me all alone in a merciless world. It was all black—from the tip of the blade to the end of the handle—and had a sapphire embedded in the end of the handle.

I hadn’t really decided I was going to stab her; I was just kind of curious and acting on reflex. But she took the decision out of my hands along with the knife and stabbed herself in the chest without even flinching.

“Holy—” I startled and snatched the knife back. “Would you stop that?” I admonished, watching in fascination as the wound closed within seconds, not a drop of blood in sight. All I saw at the gaping wound before it disappeared was that depthless black.

“I am not trying to harm you,” she said, sounding exasperated. “It would be nice if you could show me the same courtesy.”

To be fair, she was right. Didn’t mean I was ready to trust her—just because she hadn’t tried to kill me yet didn’t mean she wouldn’t. But I didn’t think I was in any immediate danger.

“Yeah, OK, fair enough.” I sighed.

She nodded. “I need to know more about your ability to summon items. Is this something all inhabitants of this realm can do? How does it work?”

“Jeez, buy me dinner before you start getting into the personal shit,” I scoffed.

She cocked her head to the side, some of that frustration showing in her frown. “This can’t wait until after the evening meal.”

“I ...” I waved her off. Not worth it. “Never mind. At least put some clothes on. It’s distracting.”

She looked down at her body, then back at me and gave me a look like she didn’t see the problem.

I pointed at the clothes I’d left for her the night before and left her to it to tend to my bladder, which was now screaming to be released. As I took a few minutes to do basic, normal things—like pee and put clothes on myself—my practical side returned. I needed to get in contact with the House of Spirit and Sapphire to report this. The portal would need to be secured and monitored.

“I have put the clothing on.” The blonde appeared at the door to the bedroom. “Now tell me about your power. It is important.”

“Why is it so important?” I frowned, grabbing my phone and moving past her to the kitchen. I needed something that was more than coffee but less than cocaine to deal with this situation. A very clever witch had come up with exactly this and sold it in potion form all over the world. Unfortunately, I had no VitaBrew in my apartment; coffee would have to do. I switched on the espresso machine—one of the best things about Melbourne was the exceptional coffee—and pushed the button for a latte. I had several cases of VitaBrew in my secure storage facility and made a mental note to summon one later. It was probably best to conserve my power, considering how unpredictable my day had been so far.

“I need to find something. Your ability would make that much easier,” she said.

“What do you need to find?” I asked, watching the coffee trickle into the steamed milk. She was being kind of intense about this, and I had a feeling this was important information to get.

“Something of great importance,” she said.

“Yeah, well, I can’t find it if I don’t even know what it is or what it looks like.” I sighed and took a sip of coffee.

“Then take me to someone who can.”

“I don’t know anyone who can find something without more info than ‘it’s of great importance’ so you’re shit out of luck. There are witches who can do what I do, but even they need more details. Plus, they’ll charge you a hefty price for it, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t come here with any valuables.”

Her frown deepened more and more as I spoke, clearly not happy with what I was saying.

“Anyway,” I continued, “we’re not going anywhere or doing anything until I call this in to the House of Spirit and Sapphire. And they’re going to have a shitload of questions.”

“Shitload?” She scrunched her face up. I chuckled, sipping more coffee. I couldn’t help it. It was like talking to an alien. She had no idea about anything.

My phone started ringing again, that same distinctive tone. I’d already ignored Reginald once when I thought this bitch had blown her brains out in front of me. He did not like being ignored, and a glance at the time told me I should’ve left for work ten minutes ago.

“Well, this saves me one phone call at least,” I mumbled, reaching for my cell.

The blonde darted forward and smacked it out of my hand, making me spill my coffee in the process.

“What the hell, dude?” I shoved her off me and wiped the precious spilled coffee off my arm with a tea towel.

“You cannot tell others I am here,” she rushed out.

I rubbed my forehead. “I don’t really have a choice. I have to report this. They’re not going to hurt you. But you’re in our territory and we have to—”

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