Vision of Seduction. Cassie Ryan
Читать онлайн книгу.
overthrow the planet when I came of age. Luckily, Stone found me just before my twenty-fourth birthday, and last month I ascended the throne.”
“Wow.” Katelyn couldn’t imagine everything Alyssa had gone through. She didn’t want to. “I’m glad it all worked out. But I don’t see what that has to do with me and my shop.”
A flicker of a shadow crossed Alyssa’s face and then disappeared, giving Katelyn the impression the queen still held something back. “We know they were looking for a Seer, but we weren’t sure what they were going to do once they found one. Luckily, Grayson happened to be there and was able to keep them from taking you.”
“Is that why Grayson was hanging around my shop?”
“Yes.” The queen leaned forward, resting her forearms on the table. “The Cunts are extremely dangerous. They view humans as cattle, purely existing to feed them sexual energy.” Alyssa’s suddenly intense gaze rooted Katelyn to her chair. “They are also a very sexual society, but they don’t have the same moral code as the Klatch. They think nothing of rape, necrophilia, bestiality, pedophilia, torture, and several other things the Klatch would never dream of doing.”
A shudder ran through Alyssa, and she closed her eyes as though trying to chase away dark memories. Finally, her eyes opened, and she glanced over at Katelyn again. “It might be best for you to stay here a while. In the meantime, we will continue to search for more information on what the Cunts are up to.”
Holy hell. What have I fallen into?
“Is Rita safe?” Katelyn blurted out the words. “Should I bring her here with me until whatever danger this is passes?”
Alyssa pursed her lips, considering. “We can, but do you think she’ll come?”
Katelyn studied her hands for a long moment. “No. For a woman who owns half a new-age shop, she doesn’t believe in anything supernatural or new-agey.”
The queen nodded. “As I said, we have Klatch guards watching over Rita and your shop. No one will harm her.”
Reluctantly, Katelyn agreed. Her first instinct was to tell them to thump Rita on the head and drag her cynical, skinny ass back here and out of danger. But how much did Katelyn really know about “here” yet? She didn’t sense any immediate threat, and her internal alarms were blissfully silent, but what if Tador wasn’t the right place for Rita right now? Katelyn knew better than most that everyone’s individual path had a purpose in the greater scheme of things.
Besides, Rita was one tough lady. She would be all right, especially with some hunky Klatch hanging around. Maybe Rita would even drop that loser boyfriend after seeing some hot Klatch guys.
One could only hope.
“So, now that we’ve gotten through that, what exactly do you have to do as queen? Is it all state dinners and paperwork?” Katelyn sat forward, excited to learn more. Her imaginary playmates as children had included a prince, but never a queen. She smiled as the warm memories trickled just below the surface of her thoughts.
Alyssa’s sudden bark of laughter surprised Katelyn.
“We are a very sexual society, remember? So my biggest duty as queen is to maintain a symbiotic relationship with the planet. And I’m glad because I think I would hate paperwork.”
“Symbiotic?” Katelyn sipped her tea as she puzzled over the word. “It sounds very…Sci Fi Channel.”
Alyssa cocked her head to the side. “Yes, I guess it does. But once you understand it, it makes a lot of sense. I get energy from the king through sexual interaction, and then I use that energy to heal myself and the planet.”
“Wow, talk about pressure. So what happens if you don’t create enough energy?”
The queen slumped back in her chair and sighed. “We are actually facing that problem right now.”
As a Seer, Katelyn wasn’t often shocked by the metaphysical, but other than sex magick, she’d never heard of using sex like a human battery to power a planet. She wondered what had caused a sudden shortage of energy if the entire society was as sexual as Alyssa had said.
Alyssa smiled as if she’d heard Katelyn’s thoughts. “Usually, as the future queen grows into a woman, she begins to take some of the burden for the health of the planet from her mother. Think of it as on-the-job training.”
Sudden understanding hit Katelyn. “And because you had been kidnapped and only came here a few months ago, your mother was on her own.”
Alyssa nodded. “You catch on quickly.”
“Surely there is something that can be done to fix the situation.”
“We’re working on it and hope to have a solution in place soon. But, like any world, the citizens are split about the right course to take.”
Katelyn glanced out at the view from the balcony. A lush landscape that could rival the Garden of Eden spread before her. “So what happens when there isn’t enough energy?”
Alyssa picked up her tea, and a drop of condensation caught Katelyn’s attention.
Katelyn’s sight grayed.
The familiar disorientation that accompanied her visions rocked her already weakened system. Her world tilted, and she gripped the edge of the table as a moan escaped her lips.
Suddenly everything righted itself, and she stood inside a large bedchamber with white walls, seams of pink crystals woven through them.
In her vision, a sense of urgency drove her gaze to the small round table next to the bed. The table held only a steaming ceramic mug and a book, laying facedown and open.
With silent steps, she crept forward and glanced around to make sure no one had seen her, but everything seemed calm and quiet. She squared her shoulders for courage and then tilted a dark vial of liquid into the mug, watching it disappear into the depths of the beverage.
The scene jumped forward, and Katelyn’s stomach lurched.
She swallowed hard against the tang of bile in the back of her throat and then almost lost her breakfast when Alyssa, happy and smiling, took another healthy sip from the mug.
Panic clawed up the insides of Katelyn’s throat as if trying to escape. Her mouth opened in a wordless scream as she tried to warn Alyssa—although she wasn’t sure about what.
A tight band closed around her chest and made it difficult to draw breath as the queen crumpled to the ground.
Alyssa lay on the floor like a rag doll tossed aside, forgotten, her face pale, her lavender eyes open and staring.
“Oh, my Goddess! I killed her.”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.