Cursed Demon Kissed 2 Page 0,6
It was the parking garage with the best lighting that I'd ever seen. There were no shadows to disappear into. There was nowhere to hide. Crap!
I sprinted for the end of the row, wedging myself between parked cars before dashing up to the next level. When Martis poured out of the woodwork like roaches, I realized I was screwed.
Efanotate or let them take me.
Those were my only options. I abruptly stopped running and turned in a slow circle, surrounded. I held my palms up toward them in a universal sign for surrender, breathless.
Shannon's shoes smacked the pavement as she ran up behind the group and shouldered her way to me. "What's wrong with you? When I said don't run, exactly what did you think I meant?" I glared at her. "Oh, don't look at me like that. You woulda never come if I told you they wanted your testimony. It's for your own good. Now wipe that look off your face. We're still doing all the stuff I said. Julia just didn't want to risk you running off, so she sent some Martis."
Ironically, I ran because we were surrounded by Martis. "It feels like you lied to me."
She shrugged and turned away from me, "I didn't lie. I spoke the truth - literally. I wanted you to come along with me and Julia will give you access to the archives. I left out all the details and you know why. There was no way you would have come if I told you everything."
"Why don't you try it next time and let me decide?" I glared at her.
While Martis were bound to speak the truth, I was learning that it didn't mean that they couldn't lie. There were many ways to lie without saying something that wasn't true. I was learning that the hard way.
Part of me wanted to strangle Shannon. Part of me wondered what I would have done if I was her. Would I have lied to get her on a plane if I thought it was for her own good?
Probably.
The Martis surrounding me were tense waiting to see what I would do. Al told me not to piss anyone off since the prophecy was yet to be overturned. They could still kill me and be within their legal grounds to get away with it. No doubt that was what Julia was hoping for. She hates me. The Martis closed in tightly and shoved Shannon and me into a waiting car.
"That was a shitty thing to do," I spit through my teeth. "You should have told me."
"I did," she answered. "On the plane. I didn't know Julia was sending a bunch of Martis. She only told me to make sure you stayed with me and didn't run. And what did you do?" She slouched back into the seat. "You're such an idiot sometimes."
Anger surged through me. "I'm an idiot? You don't get it, do you? I'm not one of you. These people aren't my friends. Damn Shannon, it'd be like if I invited you to come with me and then surrounded you with Valefar. Saying it's okay, don't run doesn't exactly instill confidence. You would have done the same thing I did. Or tried to kill all of them." My arms were folded tightly across my chest. I stared out the tinted window. We didn't speak again until we arrived at the Martis compound.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Martis villa was in an ancient section of the city, mixed in with older buildings constructed of aging stucco that dripped with rich vegetation in a rainbow of colors. The front of the Martis building looked like the structures surrounding it, but it was actually very different. It wasn't the large family home that it appeared to be from the street. It was a sprawling building that went unbelievably deep and wide. The interior of the building was impossibly large. There was no way the vast space should be able to fit inside a tiny house, but it did. And from the looks of it, we were in a palace, not a little home.
We entered through the front gates. The Martis unlocked the doors and ushered us past guards. We stopped in the foyer. It was the grandest room I'd ever been inside. Everything was doused in white light, making the room seem cheerful, but its size made it intimidating. The ivory ceiling stretched high above us with a domed recess that had a large round opening, revealing the midday sun. It looked