If Godfrey found his own sick joke funny, he was even more warped than what she’d thought.
Godfrey studied the collar around her neck. “She’s not willing.”
“She will be.”
Could they not discuss her like she wasn’t in the cabin?
“Those are the most interesting conquests,” Godfrey said with a nod.
A cry cut through the space. Asia jumped in her seat. All eyes turned to Nicolas.
The man with the overcoat, maybe a doctor or scientist, shook his head. “It didn’t work.”
“Increase it,” Godfrey said.
The man studied the monitor. “His heart may stop.”
“Then inject him.” Godfrey turned back to his audience with an air of boredom. “Where were we?”
During the next few minutes, the men talked terms as if Godfrey’s poor tortured son didn’t exist.
When she couldn’t take it any longer, she cried, “Stop it! Leave him alone.”
Godfrey gave her an irritated look. “Give her ear plugs or gag her,” he said to Juan, “but get your woman under control.”
Juan jerked her dress up over her hips, exposing the white cotton of her panties. She uttered a shriek and tried to pull down the fabric, but he grabbed her wrists. “You will be quiet, listen, and watch, or I will strip you and hand-fuck you right here. After that, the guard at the door can empty his dick in your loud fucking mouth. Do I make myself clear?”
She stilled in his grip, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. When he didn’t let go, she jerked her wrists from his hands in a defiant act but kept her mouth shut.
“That’s what I thought.” Juan turned back to Godfrey. “Do we have a deal?”
“Win me back my territory in Costa Rica, and you’ll have your button.”
Juan sat back in his seat with a grin, his legs spread wide. “Good.”
Godfrey picked up a phone from the seat table next to him. “Tell the pilot he can turn back.” He dropped the phone and lifted a bottle from an ice bucket. “Champagne?”
Nicolas had turned quiet. He was either sleeping or unconscious. Asia suspected the latter. She took a glass with bubbly liquid that was handed to her, but didn’t put her mouth on it.
The plane hit an air pocket. The aircraft dropped several feet, causing her stomach to climb into her throat and the champagne to spill over her legs. Juan hastily fastened his seatbelt, Tony and Garcia following suit.
“Rough weather?” Tony asked.
The plane bounced as it took another bump.
“No.” Godfrey looked through the window at the clear blue sky. “Aeromancist.”
“What?” Tony and Juan shouted simultaneously.
Godfrey got up and punched a code into the panel next to the door.
“Where are you going?” Juan asked.
The door opened and closed, Godfrey disappearing from sight.
Juan looked around. “What’s going on?”
Garcia took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead. “We’re under attack.”
The glass dropped from Asia’s hand as the plane took a violent shake. Juan leaned over her and buckled her safety belt. She gasped when the nose of the plane dived.
“Fuck.” Juan looked at Tony. “We can’t call in our men.”
“It wouldn’t help much anyway,” Garcia said, “not if there’s an aeromancist on the ground.”
“What’s an aeromancist?” Asia ask, her voice thin.
“Someone who can manipulate air,” Juan said.
Asia stared at him.
“We’re going to die,” the doctor said, strapping himself in. “There’s only one aeromancist left in the world, and he’s not on our side.”
Nicolas’s body jerked.
“What’s wrong with him?” Asia addressed the doctor. “Why don’t you do something?”
The doctor barely glanced at Nicolas. “There’s nothing to be done. His body is rejecting the altered state of his DNA.”
Juan looked from the window with a tight expression as the plane lost altitude. After three seconds, the aircraft stabilized.
“What the fuck?” Juan said with flaring nostrils. “If this so-called aeromancist is playing with us, I’ll cut off his balls and make him swallow them before I slit his throat.”
“Wait.” Asia gaped at the doctor. “What are you talking about?”
The doctor’s face was as white as his overcoat. “What do you care?”
“Answer her,” Juan said with a menacing look. “I’d like to hear the answer, too.”
The doctor’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Godfrey is attempting to collect the seven forbidden arts. Up to now, the power had to be transferred to his arts practitioners. He’s trying to find a way of transferring it to a normal human.”
A bolt of lightning tore through the sky, cracking like a whip. In Asia’s limited view through the window, it branched into every direction. Currents of electricity ran horizontally across the sky before closing like a fist around the tail of the plane, shaking them with a powerful explosion.
“Shit,” the doctor said, grabbing his armrests. “We’ve been hit.”
Chapter 13
Lights blinked and an alarm rang. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and dangled above their heads. Orange flames licked around the wing. Asia saw it through the window, but didn’t reach for the mask. It was pointless. They were going to explode.