Chapter 4

The metal vibrated as Patches and Gorilla latched me to the electric chair. I couldn't move my legs and arms, which were trapped by the zenyar-enchanted cuffs and ankle irons. Gorilla guy pushed against my shoulders, while Patches secured the chest restraint strap. I head-butted him in the temple and he recoiled, pressing a hand to his forehead.

“Stupid bitch.” He backhanded me so hard my teeth buzzed, and I tasted blood. I spat in his face.

“Patrick, stay calm.” She laid a hand on his arm. “She'll get what's coming to her soon enough.”

My teeth still ached along with the side of my face. “Listen, I didn't kill those people. It was a Terin.”

Not listening to me, Gorilla forced my head back, his iron fingers pressing into my skull, but I strained against him. He wanted to have me unable to move at all. Panic swelled under my breastbone.

“You're not listening to me,” I bellowed. “It took my zenyar and twisted the magic all up.”

“Save it for the gods,” he grumbled.

“No, you can't do this.” There had to be something I could say to make them stop… make them realize they were going to kill me, and I was innocent, damn it! “You're making a mistake. Where's my judgment hearing?” My voice echoed through the chamber. “My lawyer?”

Patches chuckled. “She thinks everyone gets a fair trial and counsel to help them out.”

“It's the rule,” I said and clenched my teeth.

“Maybe for law-abiding citizens.” She shook her head and fastened the buckle around one ankle, then the other. “But not with you wiping out over a dozen people in broad daylight with twenty more witnessing you using your magic to kill those around you.”

Just thinking about what happened to all those innocents made me nauseous. “And the Terin, the old lady siphoning my magic, don't forget to add her to your list.”

She removed my leg irons, tugged at the straps holding my ankles and thighs down, then nodded for Patrick to take off my handcuffs. As soon as the magical metal was gone, I could move again voluntarily. Well, as much as the restraints holding me to the chair would allow. I jerked and kicked, thrashing to get away. But the locks only tightened. I drew on my zenyar, focusing the energy in my chi to saw through the bonds. Again, the straps tightened, and my skull pounded.

Fuck! They hadn't skimped on my execution. A state-of-the-art zenyar-blocking electric chair. I should feel privileged. Instead, terror clawed at my insides. “I curse you both with wizard's fire to eat you alive from the inside out.” I kept my voice as neutral as I could despite the tremors running up my legs. “Unless you let me go.”

“Go? Just set you free?” Patrick puffed out a breath. “No fucking way, bitch. I just wish this thing had a reset button so I could watch you scream over and over ag—”

“That's enough, Patrick,” a male voice boomed. “Wait outside the chamber until we call you.”

Since I couldn't move my head because of the bar going across my forehead and the chin strap holding me in place, I strained my eyes to see who had just spoken, just out of range of my vision. The straps cut into my neck and forehead.

Patches gave me a smug look as she and Patrick left. Their heels marched in sync across the linoleum floor until the echoes faded.

“I'm Regan Ashworth and there has been a mistake. A Terin, some type of magic-eating monster twisted my zenyar and it backlashed on all those people.” My words tumbled out of me. Whoever was left in the room had to listen. He or she had to know it was an accident. “I haven't had my phone call or a trial.”

“Oh, but your trial is right now,” a man with a thick Native American accent said, and stepped into view. Gray hair swept along his sideburns and his dark hair set off his too-pale face.

I inhaled sharply, and the scent of graveyard dust, like mold and decaying flesh, blood and power, rolled into me. Vampire. Legal to be and become one, provided the licensing board approved their visas, which had to be renewed every six months. Every vamp had to undergo a magician's testing to ensure they weren't feral or had taken blood not offered. Somehow, the government-paid zenyar weavers were able to discern that. Any caught taking blood without a permit or permission was staked on the third offense.

His features, though slightly pale, made me think of Native Americans with his high sculpted cheekbones and a slightly hooked nose. He stared at my throat with crimson eyes, and I swallowed, wincing at the dryness there. Vamps could be as bad as shifters and pounce on their prey if they showed fear. Though it was hard to keep one's back straight and look them in their undead hungry eyes, knowing they wanted nothing more than to rip out the throat and drink.

“Wh—” I coughed and tried to lift my chin against the strap. “What about the two other tribunal members?”

“Three,” he said, still not taking his gaze off my jugular.

I swear my pulse jumped along the side of my neck too. “Pardon?”

His smile made me push my back as far into the silver execution device as it could go. A double set of fangs extended. Shit, shit, shit. That meant the guy was very old to have two rows of sharp canines. Possibly a master vamp, even. Each master had a territory they ruled. Some a town or city, others a whole damn state. So why was this one here?

“Your trial will have four members, including myself.”

“Doubling up on the magic users?” Most trials had three judges: a shifter, a vamp, and a witch or wizard. Since I'm a half-breed, and the zenyar shouldn't have wiped out everyone within a fifty-foot radius, I would've felt the energy pulsing if there had been a ley line nearby.

“No,” the vamp shook his head. His voice, even without compulsion, was like liquid cashmere with that accent; I could listen to him all day and night. “Our fourth will be a human. After all, in one act, you've wiped out a dozen of their kind and have threatened our alliance with them.”

That was me. Killer and destroyer of peace. “All right. Let me out. I'll call a lawyer and we can have a trial.” There were no guarantees that I wouldn't end up back in this exact spot, but at least now I had a chance.

“I am unable to free you from the execution chair at this time.” He scowled and ran a hand through his gray-peppered dark hair.

“Why the hell not?” My heart sped into warp drive.

“Because,” another voice, this one female and familiar to me, said, “In two hours, after your judgment, the chair will electrify with or without you in it, because it's hooked up to a timer. And since a mob has formed outside ASH headquarters demanding your death, it would be premature for us to let you out.”

“So then fry me now. Why wait and pretend justice with a mock trial and no attorneys?” Yeah, if they were going to kill me anyway, then I was going to go out on my terms.

“No.” The woman strode into view, her high heels clicking on the linoleum tile. She wore a pressed business suit with a cerulean silk top underneath. Her dark hair was a flat-top that showed off her high cheekbones and her flawless sierra-colored skin.

Holy Fuck! “Madam President?” No freaking way… the human chief of command stood in front of me.

“Let me introduce the other judges. You've met Stryker.” She waved to someone out of my view and my guess said it was the vamp. “And this is Sarah, a wereleopard.”

A small dark woman with her black hair in Bantu knots drifted near me and after inhaling, snorted. “She has the tangy stench of cast-off zenyar magic and death on her.”

Yay me. This seemed more and more like I had already been sentenced; the judges had made up their minds and all of this was merely for show.

“And Herbert, our wizard,” the president said.

Shuffling forward was a man with dark hair and a beard that didn't match his wrinkled skin. He gave me a nod.

“And the fourth?” My gut said that it was the President, but that was ridiculous. People died every day and she didn't attend every suspect's trial. Last month, a bomber had killed sixty-three people at a mixers bar, a place where humans could hook up with supernaturals. They could even become a vamp's blood slave for the night. The guy's hearing went on for days, and the president had been off shaking hands with foreign diplomats, so why was she here?

“I am your fourth… the human judge.”

Okay, so I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a really shitty one. But the way my luck was going today, it was gonna be atrocious.

“Let's get this party started.” Sarah nodded. “I don't wanna be around when that chair goes off.”

Yeah 'cause a fragment of silver could pop off and hit her from the volts of electricity they'd pump through me. It was the one metal that could harm any shifter. Not many knew that, but a werewolf had let it slip centuries ago, so most humans thought it only applied to them. Kind of how iron hurts the fae.

“Regan Ashworth, you have one opportunity to escape your punishment and live.” Madam President stood across from me, her gaze never wavering.

Were they nuts? I'd do anything not to die. “I accept.”

“Not so fast.” Stryker clicked his teeth together. “After we tell you what we propose, you might just ask for us to throw the switch and kill you now.”

I didn't care what it was. Cut off a piece of the moon? Capture a fallen star? Anything. I had so much I wanted to do in my life. Visit the mountain monks, fall in love with a guy that didn't flirt and cheat with anything female, learn what had happened to my folks.

“We want you to retrieve two people who have been taken by the Unseelie court.” Madam President stepped forward. “Without causing their deaths or war.”

My gut clamped down so hard I worried some of the electricity had leaked through. Holy fucking shit! Taking on the fae was worse than fighting twenty dragons. Worse, my magic wouldn't help me with most of the fae, and the Unseelie had the nasty ones that made a nightmare seem like a birthday party. Spider fae were gigantic and wrapped their prey up in cocoons, just like their tiny counterparts. But they kept their victims alive for weeks, sucking out their juices. So the person didn't get a one-time pain ticket, but multiple terrors until they eventually became a hollow husk.

No wonder they'd left me strapped in and unable to escape or use my magic. Either way, I was gonna die.