Shadowfever
Page 64
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He guided my hand to the holster and tucked the spear back in. Unpredictable is the key word there. Did you flip, Mac?
Do I look like I flipped?
He brushed hair from my face, tucked it gently behind an ear. I shivered. He bristled with the same kind of energy Barrons didheat, muscle, and danger. When Barrons touches me, it turns me on. But when Ryodan stands behind me, locking me in place with an arm of steel, touching me tenderlyit scares the hell out of me.
Let me tell you something about flipping, Mac, he said softly against my ear. Most people are good and occasionally do something they know is bad. Some people are bad and struggle every day to keep it under control. Others are corrupt to the core and dont give a damn, as long as they dont get caught. But evil is a completely different creature, Mac. Evil is bad that believes its good.
What are you saying, Ryodan? That I flipped and Im too stupid to know it?
If the shoe fits.
It doesnt. Point of curiosity: Which camp are you and Barrons in? Corrupt to the core and dont give a damn?
Why do you think the Book killed Darroc?
I knew where this was going. Ryodans theory was that I wasnt tracking the Sinsar Dubh; it kept finding me. He was about to tell me that it had killed Darroc to further its goal of getting closer to me. He was wrong. It killed Darroc to stop him. It told me no one was going to control it. It must have learned from me that Darroc knew a shortcut to containing and using it, and it killed him to prevent me or anyone else from discovering it.
How did it learn that from you? A cozy chat over tea?
It found me the night I stayed at Darrocs penthouse. It skims my mind. Tasting me, knowing me, it says.
His arm tightened painfully around my waist.
Youre hurting me!
His arm relaxed minutely. Did you tell Barrons this?
Barrons hasnt exactly been in a talkative mood.
Ryodan was no longer standing behind me. He was at his desk again. I rubbed my stomach, relieved he was no longer touching me. He was so much like Barrons that his body against mine was disturbing on multiple levels. I couldnt make out much of his face in the shadows, but I didnt need to. He was so furious that he didnt trust himself not to harm me if he remained close.
The Sinsar Dubh can pick thoughts out of your mind? Have you considered the potential ramifications of that?
I shrugged. It wasnt as if I had much time to consider anything. Id been so busy jumping from the frying pan into the fire and back into the frying pan again that reflection upon the various possibles wasnt top on my list of priorities. Who could worry about potential ramifications when the realones kept kicking you in the teeth?
It means that it knows about us, he said tightly.
First of all, why would it care? Second, I hardly know anything about you at all, so it couldnt have gotten much.
Ive killed for less.
Of that I had no doubt. Ryodan was stone cold and suffered no conflicts about it. If it even bothered skimming for information about you, the only thing it knows is that I thought the two of you were dead and youre not.
Not true. You know a great deal more than that, and that the Book might know about us at all should have been the first thing you told Barrons the moment he changed back and you knew he was alive.
Well, forgive the fuck out of me for being shocked senseless when I realized he wasnt dead. Why didnt you tell me he was the beast, Ryodan? Why did we have to kill him? I know its not because he cant control himself when hes the beast. He controlled himself last night when he rescued me from the Book. He can change at will, cant he? What happened in the Silvers? Does the place have some kind of effect on you, make you uncontrollable?
I almost slapped myself in the forehead. Barrons had told me that the reason he tattooed himself with black and red protection runes was because using dark magic called a price due, unless you took measures to protect yourself against the backlash. Did using IYD require the blackest kind of magic to make it work? Would it grant his demand to magically transport him to me no matter where I was but devolve him into the darkest, most savage version of himself as the price?
It was because of how he got there, wasnt it? I said. The spell you two worked sent him to me like it was supposed to, but the cost was that it turned him into the lowest common denominator of himself. An insane killing machine. Which he figured was all right, because if I was dying, Id probably need a killing machine around. A champion to show up and decimate all my enemies. That was it, wasnt it?
Ryodan had gone completely still. Not a muscle twitched. I wasnt sure he was breathing.
He knew what would happen if I pressed IYD, and he made plans with you to handle it. That was Barrons, always thinking, always managing risks where I was concerned. He tattooed me so he would sense his mark on me and not kill me. And you were supposed to track himthats why you both wear those cuffs, so you can find each otherand kill him so hed come back as the man form of himself, and Id never be any wiser. Id get rescued and have no clue it was Barrons whod done it or that he sometimes turns into a beast. But you screwed up. And thats what he was mad at you about this morning on the phone. It was your failure to kill him that let the cat out of the bag.
Do I look like I flipped?
He brushed hair from my face, tucked it gently behind an ear. I shivered. He bristled with the same kind of energy Barrons didheat, muscle, and danger. When Barrons touches me, it turns me on. But when Ryodan stands behind me, locking me in place with an arm of steel, touching me tenderlyit scares the hell out of me.
Let me tell you something about flipping, Mac, he said softly against my ear. Most people are good and occasionally do something they know is bad. Some people are bad and struggle every day to keep it under control. Others are corrupt to the core and dont give a damn, as long as they dont get caught. But evil is a completely different creature, Mac. Evil is bad that believes its good.
What are you saying, Ryodan? That I flipped and Im too stupid to know it?
If the shoe fits.
It doesnt. Point of curiosity: Which camp are you and Barrons in? Corrupt to the core and dont give a damn?
Why do you think the Book killed Darroc?
I knew where this was going. Ryodans theory was that I wasnt tracking the Sinsar Dubh; it kept finding me. He was about to tell me that it had killed Darroc to further its goal of getting closer to me. He was wrong. It killed Darroc to stop him. It told me no one was going to control it. It must have learned from me that Darroc knew a shortcut to containing and using it, and it killed him to prevent me or anyone else from discovering it.
How did it learn that from you? A cozy chat over tea?
It found me the night I stayed at Darrocs penthouse. It skims my mind. Tasting me, knowing me, it says.
His arm tightened painfully around my waist.
Youre hurting me!
His arm relaxed minutely. Did you tell Barrons this?
Barrons hasnt exactly been in a talkative mood.
Ryodan was no longer standing behind me. He was at his desk again. I rubbed my stomach, relieved he was no longer touching me. He was so much like Barrons that his body against mine was disturbing on multiple levels. I couldnt make out much of his face in the shadows, but I didnt need to. He was so furious that he didnt trust himself not to harm me if he remained close.
The Sinsar Dubh can pick thoughts out of your mind? Have you considered the potential ramifications of that?
I shrugged. It wasnt as if I had much time to consider anything. Id been so busy jumping from the frying pan into the fire and back into the frying pan again that reflection upon the various possibles wasnt top on my list of priorities. Who could worry about potential ramifications when the realones kept kicking you in the teeth?
It means that it knows about us, he said tightly.
First of all, why would it care? Second, I hardly know anything about you at all, so it couldnt have gotten much.
Ive killed for less.
Of that I had no doubt. Ryodan was stone cold and suffered no conflicts about it. If it even bothered skimming for information about you, the only thing it knows is that I thought the two of you were dead and youre not.
Not true. You know a great deal more than that, and that the Book might know about us at all should have been the first thing you told Barrons the moment he changed back and you knew he was alive.
Well, forgive the fuck out of me for being shocked senseless when I realized he wasnt dead. Why didnt you tell me he was the beast, Ryodan? Why did we have to kill him? I know its not because he cant control himself when hes the beast. He controlled himself last night when he rescued me from the Book. He can change at will, cant he? What happened in the Silvers? Does the place have some kind of effect on you, make you uncontrollable?
I almost slapped myself in the forehead. Barrons had told me that the reason he tattooed himself with black and red protection runes was because using dark magic called a price due, unless you took measures to protect yourself against the backlash. Did using IYD require the blackest kind of magic to make it work? Would it grant his demand to magically transport him to me no matter where I was but devolve him into the darkest, most savage version of himself as the price?
It was because of how he got there, wasnt it? I said. The spell you two worked sent him to me like it was supposed to, but the cost was that it turned him into the lowest common denominator of himself. An insane killing machine. Which he figured was all right, because if I was dying, Id probably need a killing machine around. A champion to show up and decimate all my enemies. That was it, wasnt it?
Ryodan had gone completely still. Not a muscle twitched. I wasnt sure he was breathing.
He knew what would happen if I pressed IYD, and he made plans with you to handle it. That was Barrons, always thinking, always managing risks where I was concerned. He tattooed me so he would sense his mark on me and not kill me. And you were supposed to track himthats why you both wear those cuffs, so you can find each otherand kill him so hed come back as the man form of himself, and Id never be any wiser. Id get rescued and have no clue it was Barrons whod done it or that he sometimes turns into a beast. But you screwed up. And thats what he was mad at you about this morning on the phone. It was your failure to kill him that let the cat out of the bag.
