“What the hell…” she muttered, sounding afraid. “Your eyes…”
I started to cry, the panic clawing up my neck, but the tears seemed to wash away the blindness, clearing my sight with each tear that toppled over the lower line of my lashes. Poison watched in mixed horror and fascination until I drew away from her touch and searched the bathroom for the fallen notepad. I snatched it up off the floor, flicking through the pages to the one I had been drawing on.
It was a threadbare sketch, the face achingly familiar. I had etched out Silas’s scars and the frowning set to his mouth with unerring clarity. Silas was reflected there just as I knew him, except that his eyes were bare and white from the lack of detail to the page.
“He’s b-blind,” I stuttered.
Poison snatched the notepad off me, staring at it in confusion. “How?”
“Danny,” I moaned. “It’s his power, remember? Killing? He can take things away. Life, the use of movement, consciousness… sight.”
Poison swore quietly, shoving the notepad back at me with enough nervousness that I assumed she didn’t want to be confronted with the evidence of Danny’s power any more than I did, so I stowed the notepad away again.
“Well that wasn’t very informative,’ I said. “But I guess we know for sure now that Silas is with Danny. We just need to draw him out… before this happens. Or before worse than this happens.”
“Agreed. So, we’re doing this?”
“We’re doing this,” I confirmed quietly.
“Can I give our mission a code name?”
“Depends on the—”
“Operation Seph the Dirty Slu—”
“Nope. No way.”
“Buzz kill,” Poison accused.
There was a part of this plan that I hadn’t yet fully considered, and it was the part that was now staring me straight in the face as men brushed past me, staring at anything but my face. I was burning with a mix of guilt and confusion over the unspoken reasons that Quillan and Noah were staying behind. I couldn’t help but feel guilty, because the very fact that this was so uncomfortable for my pairs was the reason that I was doing it in the first place. I needed to anger Silas enough to force his hand, but that required me to anger the others right along with him. At least they understood the greater need, so they weren’t stepping in to prevent me from doing what I needed to do… but I felt exposed without them.
I couldn’t even do what I had come to do. I tried flirting, but Poison had to do most of the work while I cowered behind her.
“How much for a private dance?” someone asked me, toying with one of the ribbons on my corset.
I glanced at the guy and forced a smile, but my mind had gone completely blank.
“She’s new,” Poison interjected, pushing in front of me as though she was jealous of the attention—though she reached behind her back and squeezed my hand in reassurance. “I’m way more fun.”
“Oh yeah?” The guy laughed, clearly impressed with what he could see. “Wanna show me and my friends what you’ve got then?”
“Sure, but you gotta remember the touching rule or I’m gonna have to charge you like quadruple.” She moved his hand away from her waist, delivered him a wink, and then began to stride away.
His whole group followed, leaving me alone. I couldn’t believe she was going to dance for a bunch of strange men just to help me with my stupid plan. I followed the group hesitantly, my eyes fixed on Poison. I didn’t want to leave her alone with them, but I couldn’t exactly just invite myself into the room.
“Hey, baby, you forgot about me!” a familiar voice declared, cutting off Poison’s advance just before she reached the hallway. “You said you’d come and find me after you went to the bathroom,” Clarin accused, managing to sound both pissed-off and petulant.
“Yo, dude, she’s busy right now!” One of the men stepped up to Clarin, probably ready to start a fight which would get both of them thrown out.
“My bad, my bad.” Clarin backed off immediately, but pulled out his wallet, thumbing through the sizable stack of notes within. “Why don’t I just join you guys? I’ll pay?”
They agreed readily, eyeing his wallet, and he handed the money over to Poison, who gave it straight to the security guard before striding off down the hallway without a backward glance.
“Are you going in or what?” the guard asked me.
“Er…”
“Yeah, she was just waiting for me,” Cabe said, appearing by my side and pushing a note into my hand.
I didn’t even glance at the money. I handed it straight to the guard and hurried past, ducking into the first available room. Cabe followed at a more reasonable pace, pulling the curtains shut and sitting down on one side of the padded seats that bordered the room, framing the small dance stage in the center.