A Sinister Game (6 page)

Victor waited as patiently as he could while the other team leader attempted to make small talk with Victoria. She wasn’t biting
,
and Bl
ack could sense Emerald’s
growing agitation.

Enough.

Victor materialized behind the man
, his gloved hands over the Green leader’s eyes. “Guess who.”

He heard Victoria gasp
,
and his gaze cut to her. She was so beautiful sitting there, stunned at his sudden appearance
, s
tunned at what he was doing. He could hear her breath catch.
He could a
lmost
feel
it.
It made him want to feel so much more
.

In the space of a few more annoying moments, the Green leader was gone and Victor was s
eated across from Red
,
unable to take his eyes off
her even as she watched the other man stumble hastily out of the makeshift tavern.

“How did you do that?”

He smiled. He knew she hadn’t meant to ask. The words had come forth before she’d been able to stop them. It was one of the things he found so alluring about her. She spoke from the heart and often without thinking. It was that innocence again. It was wrapped around her like a pair of white, downy wings.

She didn’t know he was capable of invisibility. There was so much she didn’t know.
“I can show you, if you like
,
”
h
e told her.

She shivered. It was almost imperceptible, and she was hoping he hadn’t noticed. He could tell by the way she glanced quickly at the tabletop and licked her lips.

“What did you do to my control console?”
s
he asked
.

He laughed. The sound rumbled across the space between them and she looked up sharply. Her lips
were parted, her pupils dilated
.

He sensed the energy building within her. He knew she was wearing her Game band. It would give her an edge. Not against
him
,
b
ut all the same she would think so. And it would give her the confidence she needed to defy him.

He needed her to hear him out.

He sighed and sat back in the chair, at once aware of the stares of every Gamer in the tavern. He ignored them, focusing on his golden-eyed prize. It wasn’t hard.

“Not to worry, love
. It is easily repaired.”

Her gaze narrowed. More energy was building. He wondered if the band on her arm was heating. Luckily he wasn’t wearing his, or their proximity would have become uncomfortable at this stage.

“I onl
y needed to gain your attention,
”
he explained.

“
And Stygian?”

“He owed me a favor.”

“You wanted my attention.
You
have it. Now w
hat do you want?” s
he g
round out
.

He leaned forward
, pulling off his black gloves and placing them on the table. Then he laced his fingers over the wood and fixed her with another hard gaze. She met it head
-
on.

“I propose a wager.”

“Oh?”

“A Game, Victoria.” He paused for effect. “Between us.”

* * * *

Victoria watched the man across from her with the wariness of a mouse w
atching a very large
cat. When he didn’t elaborate, she pressed, “What kind of Game?”

His smile was disarming. He was too handsome. It wasn’t fair. How was she supposed to defeat a team leader as handsome as he was? It shouldn’t be allowed!

“I’ve always been partial to tag, personally
,
”
h
e told her. His accent was heavier now. It always became stronger when he spoke to her and her alone.

She blinked and tried to swallow
, but her
throat felt dry.

“And hide and seek
,
”
h
e continued.

She
ripped her gaze away to stare at the tabletop. Then the wall. Then some poor schmuck at another table who quickly looked in the other direction.

When she finally returned her gaze to Victor, it was to find he was still watching her as intently as ever.

S
he’d collected herself.
She wasn’t going to let him have this kind of effect o
n her. She was a professional, a Game leader. She was t
he
Red
Game leader, for crying out loud
! She’d bested half of the teams out there…. She could best him, too.

Right?

“What exactly
did you have in mind, Black?”

“I won’t mince words, Victoria. You know I want you.”

Her heart stopped beating. Just for a moment. It hurt a little.

He went on. “I’ve wanted you for some time. So here’s the deal. A Game. Seven rounds, as per Game regulations. Only this Game is just between you – and me.” He seemed to lean even further in, and she found that she’d stopped breathing
altogether
.

“If you can escape me for seven rounds, Victoria – if you can keep from being taken
off of the board for that long,
I will admi
t defeat and
step down as Gray leader. But if I find you.
” He let his words sink in.
“
And capture you…
.
” His voice trailed off just as his gaze trailed over her
lips, her throat, her breasts.

His green eyes locked on hers again and she felt she would die right there at that table.

“Then you’ll join me.
You’ll give yourself to me for one night.”
His smile was the devil’s promise, and his
gaze was for her and her alone.

“
This is the wager. I win – you’re mine.” His eyes hardened into arctic ice. “
And then you will help me overthrow Game Control.”

Victoria stared across at Black and felt as if the wo
rld were falling away from her.
His words had sent waves of sen
sations rolling through her
. Her head felt light, her ears buzzed, and her stomach was clenched tight. Beneath the weight of his
burning green gaze
, she felt at once stripped down, exposed and vulnerable, defenseless against his radiating heat. She was hot.
So much fire
.

And then she was stone cold, his final words sitting like lead weights in her gut.

She swallowed. When she spoke, it was in the slightest of whispers. “You want to overthrow Game Control.” It wasn’t a question. She simply wasn’t sure that she’d heard him correctly.

His respon
se was a slow, affirmative nod
.

She couldn’t believe he had just suggested what he’d suggested. All of it was inconceivable. It was too much. Maybe she was dreaming? After all, Room 72 was rather surreal
.

“Clearly you need time to consider your answer, Victoria.” Black stood slowly, reaching his full height with practiced grace. She gazed up at him with his jet-black hair and black garb, his emerald eyes flashing. “And time is a commodity I just happen to possess.” He waited as the waitress approached, sh
yly, and set down Victoria’s ale
. Black drew a card from the inner pocket of his jacket and handed it to the server.

She nodded in understanding and hurried off again. Black turned back to Victoria. “When you make your decision, you need but call me.” He gazed at her
steadily
. His expression darkened, the pupils in his green eyes expanding in warning. “In the meantime, sleep well.” His words were laced with hidden
meaning. “And sweet dreams, love
.”

With that, he bowed his he
ad slightly and
turned to leave
the tavern.

* * * *

Victoria stood at the foot of her bed and gazed down at it, uncertain. Her head
was spinning. S
he knew that sleep would run from her, slippery and shifty, and that she would have to fight to pin it down this time.

On
nights like this, her bed looked
like a battlefield.

She sighed. Everything was an analogy of war.
It’s all I know
,
she thought.

S
he ran her
hand through her hair and strode
to the tall windows along one wall. With a wave of her hand over a control panel on the right, the windows silently slid open. Cool air instantly raced along her skin, raising goose bumps and weaving through her long hair.

She closed her eyes and stepped out onto the balcony, breathing deeply.
The air was slightly scented l
ike…
like
something she vaguely remembered. Everything was something she vaguely remembered.

Because of the Game.

Black’s words came back to her.
You’ll give yourself to me for one night. And then you
will
help me overthrow Game Control.

What did he mean
? How could he hope to overthrow
Game Control? What did he have in mind?

And why her?
Why
now
?

Victoria left the balcony and resealed the glass doors behind her. With one last defeated glance at the empty bed, she made her way to a cabinet along one wall. It slid open as she neared it. She reached in and retrieved a bottle of pills from the top shelf.

Max had given her the bottle
several battles ago. He’d told her she looked tired. At the time, she
was
tired
, though she wouldn’t give Max the reason for this exhaustion
. She’d been up for several nights trying to
get used to
using her powers without the Game band on her wrist. She hadn’t wanted
anyone to know she was doing it. She wasn’t even entirely sure
why it was
so
important to
her that she did
it.
She just had a feeling.

Anyway, the pills were supposed to help her sleep. Max hadn’t told her where he’d
come by them, but he was a
charismatic man with a lot of his own “connections,” so most lik
ely they’d been procured
from some buxom doctor or nurse in the Medical Research Unit.

That thought made her smile. He was shameless.

Victoria turned the bottle of pills in her hand and peered through the opaque glass at the small cylindrical capsules inside. There was no label on the bottle.

She
looked back at her bed.

Thoughts of Victor swam in her head. His hair, his eyes, his tall
,
dark form
.
His
words
.

She screwed the top off of the bottle and poured one of the pills into the palm of her hand. She had never taken medicine before. Her abilities as a
L
ight leader had made visits to the MRU and medicines, in general, unnecessary for her.

But she’d never been propositioned by the most powerful Gamer on the Field before.
He’d never looked at her quite
like that before. His accent had never been quite that strong.

Victor Black was an illness that she couldn’t he
al.

This was the only way she was going
to get any sleep tonight.

Victoria
popped the pill into her mouth and swallowed it down.

* * * *

Victor opened his hand to the sound o
f chinking glass as the shards
of fine crystal slid from his palm to the marble floor beside the legs of his leather-backed chair. A few slivers of the now ruined goblet remained embedded in the skin of his hand and he gazed at them now in wonder.

Blood, thick and red, sw
elled around the shards and dripped languidly in
colorful abandon across the white stone tiles.

If Victoria
was
here, she could heal me herself,
he thought
absently.

But she wasn’t
t
here. She wasn’t beside him
as she should
have
be
en
. She was miles away and most likely furiously plotting some means with which to defy him and his latest challenge. To turn him down.