Page 9 of Concluded (The Bureau #13)

D ee sprawled on a couch in a vast room with gold-veined marble floors, white walls, and a fresco painted on the ceiling.

Actually, the couch was more of a chaise lounge, and although its ornately carved and gilded frame was not to his taste, it was comfortable and big enough for him to sprawl.

He’d been on the couch all day, yet he felt enervated and sore, as if he’d spent hours doing hard labor.

He wondered whether Ashley would bring him some cold water.

Or maybe ice cream. Had she conjured up any frozen treats?

She sauntered back into the room, her face slightly drawn.

“What was that noise?” he asked, although he didn’t particularly care.

“Nothing.” She sat down in the throne-like chair beside him and scooted around a bit, making herself comfortable. “All right, babe. We’ve established that you can do some pretty good things. I mean, this house is great. Needs more furnishings, but we’re not staying long anyway.”

The thought of moving made him groan softly. “What are we doing here anyway?”

“I told you. This is me taking you out for a little test drive. Kicking the tires and all. Seeing if you’re worth an investment.” She winked.

Dee spread his arms. “I made all of this out of nothing. Of course I’m worth it.”

“Well, technically I made it. With my wishes. You just made the wishes work.” She waved away his attempt to argue the point. “Anyway, yeah, this is cool. But we’re in the market for more than a construction guy.”

“Who’s we ?” Dee had asked this many times already, in many different ways, and had yet to receive an answer. He didn’t actually expect one now.

“What if… I wished to be the country’s first woman president? Could you make that happen?”

He frowned. “I don’t know. But I wouldn’t.

We’re supposed to be a… democracy.” He couldn’t say the last word with any conviction, considering recent politics.

Man, what if that was how the current guy got elected?

Somebody with Dee’s talents helped him make a wish.

That would explain a lot, but it was also deeply unsettling.

“You need to think big if you’re gonna work with us. Don’t you want to be valuable? Play a role in the changes to come?”

“I don’t know.” He wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

She was using her skills to push him to do things he wouldn’t otherwise; he knew that for a fact.

But they were things he wanted, in a way.

He felt as if he’d been confined in a tiny box up until this point, and now he’d been let out and encouraged to flex his muscles.

It felt wonderful. Being powerful was a new sensation for him, and it fit him comfortably.

“Can’t we just make your dream house wherever you want to live? Or you could win the Mega Millions lottery. Or?—”

“Can you create life, babe?”

“Uh….” He pictured creating life the typical way—fucking—and wouldn’t mind the actions at all. It had been a long time since he got laid, especially by someone as hot as Ashley. He had no intention of becoming a father, however. He’d be shitty at it.

Ashley hopped out of the chair, glided the few steps over to him, and handed him one of the pearls she kept in her pockets.

She had a whole necklace’s worth of them, and she’d been doling them out one at a time.

“I want plants,” she said, leaving him both slightly disappointed and slightly relieved.

That seemed harmless enough. “Okay.” He concentrated as he squeezed the pearl, enjoying the tingle as it raced through his body, almost as good as sex. When the tingle faded away, he handed the pearl back.

She mumbled something that he couldn’t be bothered to decipher, then wiped the pearl dust from her hands.

Almost immediately, greenery sprouted through cracks in the marble floor and snaked up the walls, bringing with it a thick, jungly odor.

He couldn’t help grinning as he watched.

This wasn’t the kind of vague, tiddly stuff he did for paying clients.

This was real magic, his magic. And it was possible that nobody else in the world could do this.

Within less than five minutes, the walls were completely covered, while more vines hung like swags from the ceiling.

The leaves were broad, bright green, and arrow-shaped, some of them so big that they could have been used as umbrellas.

There were clusters of little star-shaped flowers too, tucked in here and there.

Ashley nodded approvingly before handing him another pearl. “Animals,” she said.

That made him uneasy. Vegetation was one thing, but creatures that could feel?

“I wish for animals.” She sounded a little angry.

And, well, he was pretty curious to see whether he could manage it. So he did his thing and Ashley did hers, and soon afterward hundreds of colorful snakes slithered along the vines.

“Snakes?” he croaked unhappily. He needed a nap, but no way was that going to happen in this room. Not now.

“I was in the mood. They’re pretty, aren’t they?”

“I’m not a big fan of snakes.”

“But these are yours! You’re like their daddy. And we made so many of them.”

He glanced up, saw a snake with scarlet and sapphire scales looking down at him from a low-hanging vine, and shuddered. “Are they, um, venomous?”

Ashley huffed and gave him another pearl. “Fine. I wish the plants and snakes were all gone.”

This time, the electric thrill he experienced while holding the pearl was even stronger.

But when he gave the pearl to Ashley, he felt so depleted that he doubted he’d be able to stand.

He watched while she made her wish. The room seemed to do a weird shimmy, as if he were looking through warped glass, and then the snakes dropped to the floor with sickening thuds.

They lost their colors and dried to nothing but ashes, reminding him of the fireworks he used to play with as a kid.

The vines also turned gray and disintegrated.

Soon even the fine residue disappeared, leaving the room as pristinely white as before, the cracks in the marble gone.

“That was pretty good.” Ashley’s hands were on her hips as she surveyed their surroundings with approval.

Dee began to shake as he realized the repercussions of what he’d just done. He’d created life—and destroyed it—using nothing but his talents and will. Wasn’t that one definition of a god? A minor god, perhaps, but still….

“I want mammals this time,” Ashley announced. “Puppies? Or, no. Something fierce, but I also want to control it. A lion, do you think?” She looked at him as if expecting input.

And… Dee wanted to say yes. Because creating something like that would be amazing, and he could even picture himself scratching the creature under its chin and throwing a ball for it to chase, as if it were a house cat.

But if he made the lion, what would Ashley demand next?

A human who she could also boss around? Dee had a gut feeling it was exactly what she’d want.

“Not now,” he said. “I’m worn out.” That was the truth, at least.

“If you’re going to be useful to us, you need to be stronger. You should exercise your magic like a muscle.”

“Useful how ? For gods’ sake, who is us ?”

She laughed and returned to her chair, arranging her limbs gracefully. “The world could be so beautiful, but it’s fucked up. You know that, right?”

Images slid through Dee’s mind of things he’d seen in jails and on the streets. Of recent news headlines. “Yeah.”

“And who fucked it up?”

“I don’t…. Um, corporations and politicians and billionaires and?—”

“People, babe. They wear different hats, but they’re all people .

People who beat their kids or abandon them, right?

” She cast him a significant look. “People who steal and fight and greedily gather every crumb they can while ignoring the starving. Who turn away from other people—or worse, attack them—because they look different or love different or believe different. They dump toxins into the environment, wage war, commit genocide. They?—”

“I get it. People suck. But there are good ones too.”

She shook her head. “They’re good when it’s easy or benefits them, that’s all.”

Dee had, on occasion, entertained somewhat similar thoughts, although he’d never been quite that pessimistic. “You haven’t answered my questions.”

“People have been making bad decisions for far too long. I’m a member of a…

well, we’re not really an organization, per se.

An entity, let’s say. Our goal is to gather power for those of us who deserve it.

Those of us who are strong, who are special.

We’ll make sure that people stop fucking up, once and for all, and the world will be ours. ”

She sounded entirely sure of the goals and her likelihood of success. Dee had never been that certain about anything, and he envied her. “How do you plan to do this?” he asked.

“We recruit anyone of value. Some folks are a little harder to convince, but I don’t think you’re one of those.” She winked at him. “And once we’re strong enough, we work together to eliminate any opposition. Permanently. We’re almost there.”

Dee felt chilled. “Are you talking about genocide?”

“You’re thinking small, honey. It’s really just another step in evolution.

It’s like… when your kitchen gets invaded by ants.

What do you do? You get rid of the little shits because that’s your kitchen.

It was made for you. And you don’t stop to feel sorry for the bugs.

Besides, in a way you’re doing them a favor.

Their dumb little struggles are over.” Ashley shrugged and recrossed her legs.

Her little speech was terrifying—and yet also, somehow, oddly appealing.

Why should Dee care about billions of people, none of whom had ever given a damn about him?

And here he was with his rare and powerful talents.

Maybe he was more evolved than ordinary humans.

Maybe it did make sense to hand the keys over to extraordinary individuals.

No more scrambling around for rent money, trying to please idiots who wanted love charms, wondering how he was going afford his next meal. No more jails. No more… being alone in the world. He’d never asked for much but had rarely gotten anything. It was his turn to get something, dammit.

Besides, if he refused, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t get to simply walk away. He’d end up one of those squished insects.

“How about you?” he asked after a long pause. “Why did you decide to join the cause?”

She nodded as if she approved of the question.

“I’m not like you. I can’t grant wishes.

In fact, it used to be I couldn’t do anything all that amazing.

But certain people saw my potential and asked me to join.

I grew so much stronger when I did, and I got all sorts of nice perks. So now I have superpowers too.”

Dee couldn’t help but wonder: if he joined, would he become more powerful too?

Then he remembered that nothing came for free. “What’s the price?” Hesitantly, he added, “My soul?”

Ashley laughed. “It’s not like that. You’ll see. Anyway, even if you had a soul, are you really using it?” She lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe it’s time to trade it in.”

This conversation was exhausting him almost as much as magicking the pearls had, and now his head began to ache. “I need to rest.”

“Just do one more thing for me. Then you can have a nice long nap. I want that lion you promised me.”

He hadn’t promised her anything—he was fairly sure of that—and he doubted he had it in him right now. Just keeping his eyes open felt like a Herculean task. “Later.”

Ashley’s expression hardened. “Listen up, bub. I don’t think you understand the situation. I call the shots, not you. And you’re still very much in your trial period. Don’t blow it.”

Fuck. It would be easiest just to give in. Dee held out his hand for a pearl. “Give it over.”

Looking smug, she reached into her pocket. But she stopped when a loud pounding came from somewhere outside the room. “Seriously?” she snapped. “I didn’t come all the way out to the middle of nowhere for constant interruptions.”

Dee yawned.

Ashley stood and jabbed a finger in his direction. “You want to sleep? Fine. Have forty winks while I do all the work.”

She stomped away, and Dee fell asleep before she’d left the room.