Shadowfever
Page 30
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I ignore all of it. When was the Book at the abbey? I dont ask if people were hurt. The woman who is willing to ally herself with Darroc doesnt care. Besides, I wont let it happen in my new and improved version of the future.
Gonna try this again, Mac. What the feck? she fires.
I fire back, Gonna try this again, Dani. When?
She stares a long moment, then her jaw pokes out stubbornly and she crosses her skinny arms over her chest. She glares at Darroc, then back at me. You Pri-ya or something again, Mac? Only without the being-naked-and-horny-all-the-time part? Whatd he do to you?
Answer the question, Dani.
She bristles. Barrons know whats going on? Think he needs to. Wheres Barrons?
Dead, I say flatly.
Her slender body jerks and she stops vibrating. She had a major crush on Barrons. No, he aint, she protests. Whatever he is aint killable. Least not easy.
Wasnt easy, I say. It took two of the people he trusted most in the world, a spear in the back, a gutting, and a slit throat. I wouldnt call that easy.
She stares at me hard, searching my gaze.
I focus on dripping scorn.
She gets it and stiffens. What happened?
Darroc moves in behind me and slips his arms around my waist. I lean back into him.
MacKayla killed him, he says bluntly. Now answer her question. When was the Book at the abbey? Is it still there?
Dani sucks in a breath. Shes vibrating again. She wont look at Darroc, only me. This aint funny, Mac.
I agree. Its not. Its hell. But its necessary. He had it coming, I lie coldly. He betrayed me.
She puffs up, fists at her waist. Barrons aint the betraying kind. He never betrayed you! He wouldnt do that!
Oh, grow up and pull your head out! You didnt know shit about Barrons! Youre not old enough to know shit about anything!
She goes still, brilliant green eyes narrowing. I left the abbey, Mac, she says finally. She gives a hollow laugh. Think I kinda burned my bridges, ya know? She searches my face. And I feel another blade in my heart. She burned them because of me. Because she believed that I was out there somewhere and we had each other.
I console myself with the thought that at least she wont be rushing back to Rowena to tell her Im sleeping with the enemy and I wont have a pack of rabid sidhe-seers on my tail.
Thought we were friends, Mac.
I see in her eyes that all I have to do is say, We are, and shell find some way to deal with what shes looking at right now. How dare she put so much faith in me? I never asked for it, never deserved it.
You thought wrong. Now answer the question. Im the only one who never treatedher like a child. She hates being called kid more than anything. Kid, I say. Then get the hell out of here. Take your toys and go play somewhere else.
Her brows climb her forehead and her mouth pulls down. What did you just say?
I said, kid, answer my question and go away! Were a little busy here, cant you see?
Shes bouncing from foot to foot again, a smudge of darkness in the dark. Feckin grown-ups, she bites out through clenched teeth. All the feckin same. Feckin glad I feckin left the feckin abbey. You can just go to hell! She shouts the last words, but they catch a little as they come out, like they get tangled up on a sob shes forcing back down.
I dont even see the blur of black move away. Theres a burst of light from her MacHalo as she flashes into motion like the Enterprise entering warp speed, then an empty alley.
Im startled to realize that I think shes just the tiniest bit faster. Is she eating Unseelie? Im going to kick her ass all over Dublin if shes eating Unseelie.
Why didnt you stop her, MacKayla? You could have exploited her trust in you to get information about the Book.
I shrug. Kid always got on my nerves. Lets go hunt ourselves a sidhe-seer. If we cant find one, Jaynes men are bound to know whats going on.
I turn away from Barrons Books and Baubles toward what used to be the biggest Dark Zone in Dublin. Its a wasteland now, not a single Shade left. When Darroc brought the walls crashing down on Halloween and Dublin went dark, the amorphous vampires escaped their prison of light and slithered on to greener pastures.
Hurting Dani took all my energy. Im in no mood to walk past BB&B. Id have to confront the obviousthat, like the man, the store is big, silent, and dead.
If I walk past it, Ill have to force myself not to stare hungrily at it. Have to ignore that, in this reality, Ill never enter those doors again.
Hes gone. Hes really, truly gone.
My bookstore has been lost to me as completely and irrevocably as if the Dark Zone had finally swallowed it up.
Ill never own it. Ill never open those diamond-paned cherry doors for business again.
Ill never hear my cash registers tiny bell ring or curl up with a cup of cocoa and a book, warmed by a cozy gas fire and the promise of Jericho Barrons eventual return. Ill never banter with him, practice Voice, or be tested against pages of the Sinsar Dubh. Ill never steal hungry glances when I think hes not looking at me, or hear him laugh, or climb the back stairs to my bedroom thats sometimes on the fourth floor and other times on the fifth, where I might lie awake and practice things to say to him, only to end up discarding them all because Barrons doesnt care about words.
Gonna try this again, Mac. What the feck? she fires.
I fire back, Gonna try this again, Dani. When?
She stares a long moment, then her jaw pokes out stubbornly and she crosses her skinny arms over her chest. She glares at Darroc, then back at me. You Pri-ya or something again, Mac? Only without the being-naked-and-horny-all-the-time part? Whatd he do to you?
Answer the question, Dani.
She bristles. Barrons know whats going on? Think he needs to. Wheres Barrons?
Dead, I say flatly.
Her slender body jerks and she stops vibrating. She had a major crush on Barrons. No, he aint, she protests. Whatever he is aint killable. Least not easy.
Wasnt easy, I say. It took two of the people he trusted most in the world, a spear in the back, a gutting, and a slit throat. I wouldnt call that easy.
She stares at me hard, searching my gaze.
I focus on dripping scorn.
She gets it and stiffens. What happened?
Darroc moves in behind me and slips his arms around my waist. I lean back into him.
MacKayla killed him, he says bluntly. Now answer her question. When was the Book at the abbey? Is it still there?
Dani sucks in a breath. Shes vibrating again. She wont look at Darroc, only me. This aint funny, Mac.
I agree. Its not. Its hell. But its necessary. He had it coming, I lie coldly. He betrayed me.
She puffs up, fists at her waist. Barrons aint the betraying kind. He never betrayed you! He wouldnt do that!
Oh, grow up and pull your head out! You didnt know shit about Barrons! Youre not old enough to know shit about anything!
She goes still, brilliant green eyes narrowing. I left the abbey, Mac, she says finally. She gives a hollow laugh. Think I kinda burned my bridges, ya know? She searches my face. And I feel another blade in my heart. She burned them because of me. Because she believed that I was out there somewhere and we had each other.
I console myself with the thought that at least she wont be rushing back to Rowena to tell her Im sleeping with the enemy and I wont have a pack of rabid sidhe-seers on my tail.
Thought we were friends, Mac.
I see in her eyes that all I have to do is say, We are, and shell find some way to deal with what shes looking at right now. How dare she put so much faith in me? I never asked for it, never deserved it.
You thought wrong. Now answer the question. Im the only one who never treatedher like a child. She hates being called kid more than anything. Kid, I say. Then get the hell out of here. Take your toys and go play somewhere else.
Her brows climb her forehead and her mouth pulls down. What did you just say?
I said, kid, answer my question and go away! Were a little busy here, cant you see?
Shes bouncing from foot to foot again, a smudge of darkness in the dark. Feckin grown-ups, she bites out through clenched teeth. All the feckin same. Feckin glad I feckin left the feckin abbey. You can just go to hell! She shouts the last words, but they catch a little as they come out, like they get tangled up on a sob shes forcing back down.
I dont even see the blur of black move away. Theres a burst of light from her MacHalo as she flashes into motion like the Enterprise entering warp speed, then an empty alley.
Im startled to realize that I think shes just the tiniest bit faster. Is she eating Unseelie? Im going to kick her ass all over Dublin if shes eating Unseelie.
Why didnt you stop her, MacKayla? You could have exploited her trust in you to get information about the Book.
I shrug. Kid always got on my nerves. Lets go hunt ourselves a sidhe-seer. If we cant find one, Jaynes men are bound to know whats going on.
I turn away from Barrons Books and Baubles toward what used to be the biggest Dark Zone in Dublin. Its a wasteland now, not a single Shade left. When Darroc brought the walls crashing down on Halloween and Dublin went dark, the amorphous vampires escaped their prison of light and slithered on to greener pastures.
Hurting Dani took all my energy. Im in no mood to walk past BB&B. Id have to confront the obviousthat, like the man, the store is big, silent, and dead.
If I walk past it, Ill have to force myself not to stare hungrily at it. Have to ignore that, in this reality, Ill never enter those doors again.
Hes gone. Hes really, truly gone.
My bookstore has been lost to me as completely and irrevocably as if the Dark Zone had finally swallowed it up.
Ill never own it. Ill never open those diamond-paned cherry doors for business again.
Ill never hear my cash registers tiny bell ring or curl up with a cup of cocoa and a book, warmed by a cozy gas fire and the promise of Jericho Barrons eventual return. Ill never banter with him, practice Voice, or be tested against pages of the Sinsar Dubh. Ill never steal hungry glances when I think hes not looking at me, or hear him laugh, or climb the back stairs to my bedroom thats sometimes on the fourth floor and other times on the fifth, where I might lie awake and practice things to say to him, only to end up discarding them all because Barrons doesnt care about words.
