BIKER QUEEN AND HER HELLBOUND KING

CHAPTER SEVEN

Grace

Listening to all the talk about werewolves and fairies was making me uncomfortable. My skin felt hot. "Okay. Even if I believe you —which I don't— where do I fit into your two rooms?" I asked, there had to be a point to all these.

"You don't," Kent said. "Conduits are the bridge. You don't have power of your own. You don't shift or heal or see the future. But your blood is a living amplifier, that's one thing your doctor was right about. Every Marked being in your radius becomes something more. You are a master key."

"A battery," I whispered.

"A weapon," he said. "The gold in your veins is the purest source of power in existence.”

I stared at him. "That's not possible.”

"Your blood glows gold and you watched two of my Riders transform into things that don't exist in any biology textbook," he said. "Possible has expanded considerably in the last twenty four hours."

"Fine." I pressed my palms flat on the table. "Fine. What does that mean, Conduit. How many are there?"

"As far as anyone knows?" He looked at me steadily. "One. You're the last of a bloodline that was thought to be extinct. Most of us thought your kind died out during the Great Culling. To find one now, especially one who has been 'enhanced' by whatever was done to you in that lab... it’s like finding a nuclear warhead in a haystack." He paused. "And before you ask, yes. That is exactly as dangerous as it sounds.”

"Is that why that thing was at the tree line? The scout?" Oh God. I must be going crazy to believe any of this.

"Yes. It wasn't looking for a biochemist. It was smelling for a Conduit. Whoever sent it has been tracking the surge you've been putting off since you got here.”

I looked at the vial. It didn't look like a miracle anymore, it looked like a death sentence. "Dr. Fenn told me to run. He said if the wrong people got the vial, they could find me anywhere."

"He was right. That vial contains enough of your essence to act as a tether. If the Collector got his hands on that, he won't just find you, he would own you. He can drain you slowly to power an entire army of Marked soldiers. They can tear down every ward in the continent."

The room felt like it was shrinking. I thought about my life in Charlverk. My apartment, my books, the clinical trials. It all felt like a costume I’d been wearing.

"I'm a scientist," I said, though it felt more like a plea than a statement. "I have a degree, I have a life."

"You also have a target on your back," Kent said. "And the people coming for you don't care about your degrees. They want the girl who can turn a common shifter into a god."

I looked at him, really looked at him. His eyes were dark, shadowed by the brim of his hat, and for the first time, I realized he wasn't just a bar owner who happened to be a bit intense, he was a jailer. My jailer.

"You're not letting me leave, are you?" I asked.

"You wouldn't make it to the highway if I did," he said.

"That's not your choice to make. I'm not one of your Riders, Kent. You can't just keep me here because you're worried about your town."

"It's quite the opposite. I'm not worried about the town, Grace. I'm worried about what happens to the world if you're captured. If the Collector gets you, he has the master key to every Marked being on this continent. Including me."

I stood up abruptly, my chair screeching against the floorboards. "I need to go. I'll take my chances. I have money, I can disappear."

"You can't disappear from something that can smell your soul from fifty miles away." He couldn't actually keep me here, he was one man in a bar, and I had dealt with worse situations than a tattooed stranger with unsettling eyes who asked too many questions.

"Watch me," I said. I reached for the vial, but Kent’s hand was faster. He clamped his fingers over it, pinning it to the table.

“You have no idea what kind of power you hold, you have no control over it yet. You're newly awakened, Grace”

"So that's why they want me," I said, my voice shaking. "Because I'm a prize."

"That's why everyone will want you," Kent said. He stood up, his height blocking out the dim light of the bar.

"Every faction, every rogue wielder, every person in the Marked world with enough information and enough ambition. They will keep coming until they have you or until you're dead.” He picked up the vial and tucked it into his own pocket.

"I won't let that happen," he said.

The weight of the words was heavy, like a promise and a threat all at once. I stared at him, my heart hammering against my ribs. There was a moment where I thought he might reach out, might explain why he was taking this burden on himself, or why he cared at all.

"Why?" I asked. "Why do you care what happens to me?"

Kent didn't answer. He turned away and walked toward the back door, his boots thudding against the wood. He didn't look back to see if I was following, didn't offer a reassuring smile. He just walked out, leaving me in the dark with the terrifying realization that I wasn't a person anymore. I was a commodity, a non-human commodity.

I had so much processing to do and I didn't even know where to start. I sat back down in the empty chair. My hands were trembling badly. I looked at the research drive. Dr. Fenn had died for this, he had blown up a multi-million dollar lab when he realised he made a wrong decision.

I heard the back door click shut, and the silence thickened.