The Fate of the Muse - By Derrolyn Anderson Page 0,54

one vibrated with the unmistakable force of charm combined with power.

They were unusual, a formidable group. I was surrounded by my own kind, and the more I looked, the easier it became for me to recognize the magic each one possessed in varying degrees. I realized that it really did take one to know one.

Some smiled welcomingly, some stared intensely, but most of them wore an expression of eager expectation. I saw Marissa seated in the group; her face was smooth and impassive, but her eyes darted away from mine nervously.

“Please, have a seat,” said an elegant looking grey haired woman, standing and gesturing to an empty space at the head of the table. She took a place next to me as I sat down numbly, still scanning all the faces. It felt like the first day of high school all over again, but they were curious about far more than just where I had come from.

“We’d like to welcome you to our little group of friends,” she said, her hair reflecting silver in the overhead lighting. She patted my shoulder soothingly, “I know it’s a difficult adjustment to make. Each one of us here remembers our first council.” The room filled with murmurs and nods of sympathy.

I turned to Evie for reassurance, but Olivia had her by the arm, and was leading her out of the room, “I’m sorry darling,” Olivia purred, “But I was out-voted on this one. You’ll simply have to wait in the next room while they ask her a few questions.”

So that was the plan. They would question me independently to try and trip me up. I was happy that Evie and I had gone over the details so carefully. When Olivia returned she took a seat at the head of the table opposite me. She nodded and smiled reassuringly.

Then the questions started. The first thing they did was thrust a stack of tabloids in my face.

“They seem to think that you’re a shape shifter,” a gorgeous blonde said, point blank. She looked familiar, and I realized that I recognized her from a spy film I once saw.

“They’re wrong,” I stared her down, “I’m not.”

“Then how do you explain these?” another woman asked.

“They’re tabloids,” I replied, “They make up stuff.”

A stunning brunette sporting a priceless emerald necklace narrowed her eyes at me, pointing a squared off nail to a blurry image on one cover that showed a flash of tail, “Explain that!”

“Haven’t you ever heard of Photoshop?” I said dryly, “Apparently there’s an alien bat baby out there too.”

There were a few snickers around the table and the brunette looked annoyed, “That’s quite a coincidence, isn’t it? You being an actual hybrid...”

“Stranger things have happened,” I said with a shrug.

“It defies logic,” said an exotically turbaned woman, craning her graceful neck to get a better look at me.

“I lost my top in the helicopter crash,” I said, rolling my eyes, “I think that sort of made mermaid the obvious choice… I suppose they could have given me shark teeth too.”

Now some of them openly laughed, and I started to relax a little bit.

“What about Peter?” A petite Asian woman asked, her shiny black hair gleaming like Nerissa’s in the overhead lights, “What were your dealings with him?”

My heart began to race at the mention of his name and I took a deep shaky breath. “He believed the stories they printed, and he kidnapped me. It was terrible… he was completely obsessed...”

She leaned forward in her seat, “It makes no sense. He knew better than anyone that a muse cannot be forced to perform.”

I met her luminous grey eyes soberly, “Surely,” I said, “You’ve had to contend with an unwanted admirer at one time or another?”

There was another murmuring of agreement that rumbled through the room, and I knew that I had done it. They all understood how their powers could be unpredictable at times, inspiring the wrong kind of passion in the wrong kind of person.

The first blonde shook her head angrily, accusing me in a loud voice, “He claimed that you were working with him. I think you had him killed to silence him.”

“Now, now, there’s no call for that kind of nastiness,” said Olivia from the end of the table. She beamed at me maternally, and Marissa’s warnings flashed into my mind. Snake in the grass, I thought.

I met the blonde woman’s gaze directly, “The wealthy family he convinced to help him did it. They wanted a muse, and he promised to deliver