Just when Im about to blow, he does something and the door retracts into the smooth glass wall.
As I storm out I hear him say, You wasted my time, Dani. I wasted yours.
I whirl on him, fists at my waist. Thats bullshit! It wasnt even proportionate!
It rarely will be.
Thirty little fecking minutes cost me nine and a half hours?
The way you treat me is the way I will treat you. Since Im bigger and older, I imagine it will always be worse.
Oh, now you get all proportionate. If youre going to be as much of a dickhead as you are big and old, dude, thats some serious dickheadedness. Thats not fair. You cant be totally disproportionate one minute and then all quid pro quo the next.
I can be anything I want.
Oh, whose fecking comic book is this? I explode. Thats my line.
He laughs and his face changes. All the sudden he doesnt look so old. He looks happy. Free. Totally different. I see lines around his eyes from laughing that I never noticed before. My mind flashes straight back to level four and I see him behind that woman again and he groans like he did that night, then he laughs, and I feel almost sick to my stomach remembering. I dont know whats wrong with me. I wish Id never fecking gone down to level four! I stand there and gape at him.
The door slides shut in my face.
Youre early.
I give him a mutinous look. Of course he thinks my being early is about him. Its not. Mac was at Chesters last night at eight. I think shes hunting me. Since I cant be late to avoid her, I have to be early. Watch broke. Thought I was on time.
You dont wear a watch.
See? I knew I had a problem. Ill just dash out and get one. Be back tomorrow. On time. Jewelry gets caught on things in battle. The only concession I make is a bracelet Dancer gave me that I wear snug on my arm. Besides, without him around, giving orders, I might actually some make progress in the investigation.
Dont even think about it.
I drop into a chair in his office, dangle a leg over the side. What are we doing tonight? I say just like him. No inflection at the end.
Ah, Dani, if only you took instruction in all things so well.
Youd be bored.
So would you. There are three other iced places in Dublin.
Three! I sit up straight in my chair. Are they all yours?
Local places. Unrelated to me in any way.
Bugger, there goes my theory about him being the target, along with my hope that Chesters might die a slow death. Casualties?
About fifty between the three.
Humans or Fae?
Humans.
All humans?
He nods.
I let out a low whistle. Fifty more people dead. The human race just keeps getting hammered with blow after blow. Then why do you care? It didnt happen on your turf. Nothing of yours was damaged or destroyed.
I have other reasons for wanting it stopped.
Like what? You move fast like me. You can outrun anything. You can steal more stuff to replace what got iced. So whats the deal? What motives does a dude like him have?
The walls between our realms were destroyed on Halloween. Since then things have changed. Human laws of physics are no longer laws, theyre wishful thinking. Its possible parts of Faery are manifesting spontaneously, bleeding through into our reality. Its possible its happening randomly, instantly, and without warning. I didnt see surprise on anyones face at either of my properties. Put the big picture together, even for people who can move like you and me.
I snap up straight to full attention, both feet on the floor, not liking that at all. You mean if it happened in the place I was standing, Id be alive one second, dead the next. I wouldnt even know it. Id just be gone! My hands fist. Im so freaked I want to fight something right now.
Exactly. Instant death. No warning. No awareness. I dont know about you, but that offends the fuck out of me.
No blaze of glory, no epic battle! Id die a totally meaningless death. Worse, I wouldnt even get to experience it. How much would that suck, to go through my whole life waiting to die, and then not even know it happened? I think Death is like the final stage of a video game. And if what Ryodan is saying is true, and I get iced, Ill never reach that final stage. Ill get wiped right out of existence on the second-to-last level. I want to play that last level when its time. I want to taste it all, even the dying.
Im suddenly one hundred and ten percent invested in solving this mystery. Fifty more folks dead coupled with the possibility of a completely meaningless death is powerful motivation. You dont get a big write-up in the history books unless you go out in a big way. I crunch thoughts and regurgitate them. Well, first of all, the humans in your subclub were a little preoccupied with things like getting tortured and dying so its understandable if they didnt notice that they were about to die in some other unexpected and surprising way, and second, I cant say for certain what surprise looks like on an Unseelies face but I got a great idea: Ill go downstairs and kill a few right now and well collect some empirical data. I dont bother to mention I already hunted and killed half a dozen different kinds this morning after I left but I still couldnt decide what their expressions meant. Their faces just dont work like ours.
As I storm out I hear him say, You wasted my time, Dani. I wasted yours.
I whirl on him, fists at my waist. Thats bullshit! It wasnt even proportionate!
It rarely will be.
Thirty little fecking minutes cost me nine and a half hours?
The way you treat me is the way I will treat you. Since Im bigger and older, I imagine it will always be worse.
Oh, now you get all proportionate. If youre going to be as much of a dickhead as you are big and old, dude, thats some serious dickheadedness. Thats not fair. You cant be totally disproportionate one minute and then all quid pro quo the next.
I can be anything I want.
Oh, whose fecking comic book is this? I explode. Thats my line.
He laughs and his face changes. All the sudden he doesnt look so old. He looks happy. Free. Totally different. I see lines around his eyes from laughing that I never noticed before. My mind flashes straight back to level four and I see him behind that woman again and he groans like he did that night, then he laughs, and I feel almost sick to my stomach remembering. I dont know whats wrong with me. I wish Id never fecking gone down to level four! I stand there and gape at him.
The door slides shut in my face.
Youre early.
I give him a mutinous look. Of course he thinks my being early is about him. Its not. Mac was at Chesters last night at eight. I think shes hunting me. Since I cant be late to avoid her, I have to be early. Watch broke. Thought I was on time.
You dont wear a watch.
See? I knew I had a problem. Ill just dash out and get one. Be back tomorrow. On time. Jewelry gets caught on things in battle. The only concession I make is a bracelet Dancer gave me that I wear snug on my arm. Besides, without him around, giving orders, I might actually some make progress in the investigation.
Dont even think about it.
I drop into a chair in his office, dangle a leg over the side. What are we doing tonight? I say just like him. No inflection at the end.
Ah, Dani, if only you took instruction in all things so well.
Youd be bored.
So would you. There are three other iced places in Dublin.
Three! I sit up straight in my chair. Are they all yours?
Local places. Unrelated to me in any way.
Bugger, there goes my theory about him being the target, along with my hope that Chesters might die a slow death. Casualties?
About fifty between the three.
Humans or Fae?
Humans.
All humans?
He nods.
I let out a low whistle. Fifty more people dead. The human race just keeps getting hammered with blow after blow. Then why do you care? It didnt happen on your turf. Nothing of yours was damaged or destroyed.
I have other reasons for wanting it stopped.
Like what? You move fast like me. You can outrun anything. You can steal more stuff to replace what got iced. So whats the deal? What motives does a dude like him have?
The walls between our realms were destroyed on Halloween. Since then things have changed. Human laws of physics are no longer laws, theyre wishful thinking. Its possible parts of Faery are manifesting spontaneously, bleeding through into our reality. Its possible its happening randomly, instantly, and without warning. I didnt see surprise on anyones face at either of my properties. Put the big picture together, even for people who can move like you and me.
I snap up straight to full attention, both feet on the floor, not liking that at all. You mean if it happened in the place I was standing, Id be alive one second, dead the next. I wouldnt even know it. Id just be gone! My hands fist. Im so freaked I want to fight something right now.
Exactly. Instant death. No warning. No awareness. I dont know about you, but that offends the fuck out of me.
No blaze of glory, no epic battle! Id die a totally meaningless death. Worse, I wouldnt even get to experience it. How much would that suck, to go through my whole life waiting to die, and then not even know it happened? I think Death is like the final stage of a video game. And if what Ryodan is saying is true, and I get iced, Ill never reach that final stage. Ill get wiped right out of existence on the second-to-last level. I want to play that last level when its time. I want to taste it all, even the dying.
Im suddenly one hundred and ten percent invested in solving this mystery. Fifty more folks dead coupled with the possibility of a completely meaningless death is powerful motivation. You dont get a big write-up in the history books unless you go out in a big way. I crunch thoughts and regurgitate them. Well, first of all, the humans in your subclub were a little preoccupied with things like getting tortured and dying so its understandable if they didnt notice that they were about to die in some other unexpected and surprising way, and second, I cant say for certain what surprise looks like on an Unseelies face but I got a great idea: Ill go downstairs and kill a few right now and well collect some empirical data. I dont bother to mention I already hunted and killed half a dozen different kinds this morning after I left but I still couldnt decide what their expressions meant. Their faces just dont work like ours.
