Page 131 of Even Vampires Bleed
Another chip?
What the fuck.
No.
I’m not getting anything else under my skin.
This brain chip is already the bane of my existence.
“When would I have found the time?” Angélique asks flippantly. “I’ve been digging holes with you since we arrived here. I didn’t have time to fly here and explain. And you’re the expert—you know no holo can work here.”
“I thought you all had magic, anyway,” Miss F says with a shrug.
“The only magic is in our blood,” Angélique grumbles under her breath.
“Anyway. Back to the problem. Do you consent to getting a chip under the sole of one of your feet?” the other woman asks.
“No,” I answer right away.
Both women roll their eyes at the same time, and I would find it funny if we weren’t discussing putting another object of doom under my skin.
“You don’t even know what it is for,” Angélique says. “Have a little faith.”
Her last sentence is accompanied by a wicked smile that makes me think she knows more than she’s willing to say.
She makes a large movement with her arm to Miss F—as if she’s leaving the scene for her—and then sits on my couch.
“It’s a portable faraday cage,” Miss F says, and I must look at her dumbly because she feels the need to elaborate. “I’ve studied this one. The forest one, I mean. And I managed to replicate the design, but for it to work, you need at least three pieces of electronics on you, and one of them must be on your foot. So, unless you want a toe ring that you can never remove, I suggest that the foot one be the one under your skin.”
“Why?” I ask. I’m not sure what I’m asking, though.
“Why do you need one on your feet? Or why do you need chips? Or why am I doing this? You need to be more specific because I don’t have time to guess what’s in your mind,” she says as she flicks her curly hair over her shoulder.
I didn’t think about the third question in the first place, but now I can’t help but wonder. If it had been planned, I’m sure Angéliquewould have told me two days ago, and the other woman seems to have come prepared. So now that she asked the questions out loud, I want to know.
“All three.”
“Let’s start in order,” she says with an amused smile. “First, I’m doing this because a woman hired me to do it. Not this one,” she adds when I flick my eyes in Angélique’s direction. “A tiny one with green eyes and long black hair. Ring a bell?”
Cassiopé.
But I thought she was supposed to forget me—that she wanted me as far away as possible.
Has she been trying to get me out of this forest prison all this time?
The woman looks at me with cunning eyes, and I realize she’s trying to analyze if I know what is at stake here. She must see what she was looking for, but she continues talking.
“As to why you need chips on or in your body, it’s quite simple. I was able to replicate what’s under the ground of this wonderful cage of yours. And the dude who built it had four anchors to make its perimeter. They’re big—huge. Which explains why there is a high ceiling above your head where you’re still protected. In your case, it’s a bit different. We don’t need to cover as much surface, but we need for it to be completely wave-proof, which means I need one of my anchors at your lowest and your highest. More or less. We have a few centimeters of margin.”
She stops to take a break and ensure that I’m still following.
“Now, with the fact that the electronic chip that wiped you is already in your head, I didn’t think you would want one under your skin there again. And the third one must be in the middle of your body. So that leaves your hands, hips and, hum… Well, you get it.”
Yes, I get it. And she’s right. I don’t want anything near my head again. And well, if she’s thinking about implanting something in my cock, there is no way in hell, either.
“So, my foot will have to do,” I tell her.
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