Black On Black (Quentin Black Mystery #3) (17 page)

“I was working for Lucky. Tracking Ian Stone. He was in your congregation tonight, and––”

“––And your answer to that occurrence was to crash the space of a six-thousand-year-old ritual in progress?” the seer cut in. “A ritual that has only been performed twice in its entirety, since it was brought from the Old World? One that took us
months
to prepare for, little brother, and to set the constructs in order to enact properly... ?”

At Black’s silence, the seer stared down at him coldly, his long face as hard as granite. He stepped closer, his light shimmering with those silvery, metal threads.

“You must know the importance of this, brother,” he said, his voice dangerously soft. “It is more important than any ‘job’ you might do in the material world, no matter how critical that job might seem to you. These rituals are not mere showmanship. They are meant to bridge our light between that prior world and this one. They are meant to preserve the very
foundations
of our culture...
 
of our race. Not simply via transcription of significant events. Through our very living light!”

Black shook his head, clicking under his breath.

Staring down at the wet stone floor, he considered telling the seer exactly what he thought of that idea. Biting his lip, he decided against it when he saw the fury in the other male’s face.

“A wise decision, brother,” the seer said coldly. “Perhaps your first yet.”

Black looked up at him, frowning for real.

“What the fuck is this? You got an issue with me, talk to Lucky!”

“You were invited to that ritual
by
Mr. Lucky,” the red-eyed seer said. “Do you think anyone walks through those doors without his express invitation?”

“Should I assume Ian Stone was invited as well, then?” Black growled. When the seer clicked at him in irritation, he added, “What the fuck is this? Seriously? Lucky knows I’m not religious. Why was I even
in
that fucking ritual if it’s so goddamned important?”

“You are one of us. Like it or not, brother...
 
you are
one of us.”

He hammered each word at the end, his voice clipped.

“The hell I am,” Black muttered.

Feeling a pulse of real anger off the other seer, he shook his head, spraying droplets of ice-cold water and shivering. “What the fuck do you want from me? Lucky asked me to track that bastard...
 
to bring him in alive. I do what I’m told. That’s all I’ve fucking
done
since I got here...
 
what I’m told. I’m not really sure what you get out of moving the line every few days. Unless you just get your jollies chaining up fellow seers...”

“You cannot control yourself for the duration of a single ritual?”

Black glared up at him. “Lucky
hired
me. What part of that aren’t you getting?”

“Yet Lucky also wished you to attend this ceremony,” the seer said. “...Presumably for reasons of race and family. You cannot determine the relative importance of two different edicts when one can
only
occur on a specific evening and the other could occur at any time?”

But Black ignored the overly-pious question that time, too.

“How the fuck did Ian get in there?” he said instead. “Really? How? There’s only one door. I know, because I checked. You’re telling me your security is so shitty that he walked right through your front door on the night of some super secret woo-woo ritual?” He clenched his jaw, glaring up at the narrow-faced seer. “...Or was he invited, too? Is this all just another one of Lucky’s fucking tests that I failed?”

The other male seer made a dismissive gesture with a pale hand.

“You are certain he was there at all?” he said. “This ‘Ian Stone’ you are so obediently hunting for Mr. Lucky?” Those red eyes shone like burning coals as they studied Black’s face. “I am told you have not been sleeping well, brother. Perhaps you imagined this person to be there, when really it was someone else? Perhaps your fatigue has gotten the better of you... ?”

“I didn’t fucking
imagine
it,” Black snapped.

The other seer continued to gauge his face, his expression unmoving.

“Regardless,” he said after a pause. “It was neither the time nor the place to pursue any agenda other than the one that brought us here.”

Black clenched his jaw, staring down at the wet stone.

He didn’t answer, although he wanted to. He had answers aplenty for this robe-wearing shit-bag. Most of them involved a lot of profanity though, and he could already tell that wasn’t likely to win him many points right now. He could feel the machinations here. He was so fucking tired of it, of all the headfucks and game-playing. He knew on some level the seer was right about that––he really was starting to lose his mental control.

Still, he already knew nothing he said would change anything that was about to unfold here.

Lucky was behind this too. Black could feel it.

They were all just fucking with him. This robed asshole was no different.

At least being knocked out must have gotten him some sleep.

“Not enough, brother,” the red-eyed seer said, his voice holding a warning again.

“Not enough what?” Black said.

“Sleep, brother. You are sleep deprived. This is becoming an issue. A direct impediment to your effectiveness as an employee of Mr. Lucky.”

Black looked up, incredulous. “Meaning what?”

The seer clicked at him, holding up his hands in a kind of disbelieving gesture. “Everything is a fight with you. Everything. It is quite childish.”

Black didn’t answer that either.

“Little brother, you are not sleeping enough. What could possibly be unclear about that?”

Black shook his head, letting out an unamused grunt. “You’re going to dictate my fucking sleeping hours for me now, too?”

“If they are threatening your health...
 
then yes. Perhaps we will.”

Black stared up at him, feeling his muscles tense. He could feel the threat was real. At the very least, they wanted him to believe it was. Gripping the thick black chains in his hands above the iron cuffs, he bit his lip, then ended up speaking anyway.

“So you’re going to knock me out cold every time I don’t sleep enough to satisfy Lucky, is that it?” he growled. “Or just chain me up down here until I pass out? Or until I give up coffee? Or do you just want me to promise to do everything you say, no matter what it is?”

“None of those, brother,” the seer said, his voice cold. “Mr. Lucky is concerned that part of the problem is due to separation pain. Since we already had you subdued down here, he asked me to help you alleviate it, to see if it made a difference.”

Black stared at him. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“I assure you, I’m not.”

“I said no on that,” Black growled. “Repeatedly. I was pretty fucking clear.”

“I’m aware of your answer.”

“So you’re going to force it on me? Seriously?”

The seer gave a delicate shrug. “Force? I suppose if you want to see it that way. But it needn’t be unpleasant. Perhaps you should consider accepting the gift you’re being given with some amount of grace.”

“Gift?” Black’s voice hardened. “You call that a gift? To make me break vows I’ve made? What kind of fucking gift is that...
 
brother?”

The other clicked at him, rolling his eyes. “The whole point of doing it this way is to remove any accountability you might have for what is occurring. There is no vow broken, brother, when you cannot consent.”

Black stared into the dark corridor, suddenly aware of why he kept looking there.

Other living lights waited there, other beings. Now that he was actually paying attention to them and not just the robed seer, some of them definitely felt female. He felt sex pain on at least one of them, too––enough to know that he might not be able to see them, but they could definitely see him.

They also definitely knew what he and this robed fuck were talking about.

He looked back up at the red-eyed seer, feeling a coil of pain go through him intense enough to close his throat, bringing that pounding headache back with a vengeance. He winced as that pain sharpened behind his temples, like a icepick had been inserted there.

“No,” he said.

“Brother.” The other sighed, folding his arms. “We’ve been over this. You are not being permitted to deny consent.”

“Please don’t do this.” Black subdued his voice. He made it deliberately contrite, formally so––employing seer manners he hadn’t used in decades, not since he’d lived in the Old World. “Brother. Please. I am making a heartfelt request. Do not do this. Please.”

He swallowed, glancing again at the black space beyond the torches. His eyes couldn’t penetrate that darkness, but he definitely felt other people there now.

“...I’m sorry about the ritual,” he said. “And for being an asshole about it. I’ll give a formal apology to, if you want one...
 
to you. To brother Lucky. To the whole damned congregation, if you need to hear it. But don’t do this, please.”

Swallowing again, he let his eyes return to the corridor, seemingly on their own.

“...She’ll feel it,” he said, lower. “She’ll fucking
feel
it.”

“I apologize for your distress in this matter, my brother...
 
truly.” The seer watched him clinically, no trace of that apology in his face, or his light. “...But I would hope a companion would understand when one cannot truly consent. And I am under orders too. The decision has been made. I am told it is non-negotiable.”

Black felt his muscles clench harder as several people walked forward into the light.

They were all naked. The female in front, he recognized from Grigiore’s dining room. Her long, curled brown hair glinted with red highlights under the torchlight. She smiled at him almost shyly, her eyes drifting down his body right before she licked her lips.

“Fuck.” Black looked back at the red-eyed man. “This is bullshit. You
know
this is bullshit. This is way over the line...
 
it goes against every law we’ve ever had on the books when it comes to messing with seers under agreement...”

The red-eyed seer inclined his head, an acknowledgment of his words.

But he didn’t answer.

Stepping aside, he walked deliberately to one of the stone-masoned walls with the iron brackets, opening the space between Black and the corridor. The invitation was obvious, even to Black––the robed seer was giving the others the green light to approach.

Three of them walked right up to where Black knelt, all of them looking at him now.

Curiosity shone in their eyes. None of them looked away from his body or face. None of them appeared embarrassed either, despite what they must have heard Black say.

They knew he didn’t want this.

Clearly, they didn’t care.

Black could see now that in addition to the female seer he recognized, a male seer stood there as well, along with what appeared to be a female human. All three of them looked like they were high on something, too––which wasn’t exactly reassuring. Black couldn’t tell what they were on, not even by feeling the edges of their light, but it might not be drugs or alcohol. Lucky’s people might had done something more permanent to them.

That female seer definitely didn’t look like she was playing with a full deck.

He winced back when they moved forward, but the chains didn’t let him go far. He found himself looking up at the faces of all three of them, knowing from their glazed stares that he probably wouldn’t be able to reason with them.

He tried anyway.

“I’m under agreement,” he said, breathing harder as he stared up at the female in front. “I’m under fucking
agreement.
I don’t
want
any of you...”

The female seer smiled.

It was a knowing smile.

Kneeling in front of him, she didn’t hesitate, but put her hand on him. When he sucked in a breath, yanking hard, backwards against the chains, she stroked him with her palm. She pulled on him slowly, sensually...
 
but only long enough to get him hard.