I stole a couple energy drinks from Percy’s room on my way out, not
bothering to say my goodbyes to anyone other than Gevaudan and Marty
as I snuck out the back and to my car. A quick text of had to
leave, I’ll stop by tomorrow night on
my way out of the driveway. Already
halfway to Dante’s Inferno when I first noticed Barbie while
turning to check my passenger mirror, an
involved movement without a right eye.
The girl not speaking, looking onto the road while I took a long drag
of my cigarette watching her long as I felt safe before I returned my
gaze forward and said, “you’ve been quiet.”
“I thought I was speaking a lot more than I had been.”
No arguing there, and I sighed out a cloud of smoke before I told
her, “you could talk more. I know I’ve been… well, busy
today, but it’d help to have someone to bitch to at least.”
“You’ve been around people all day, want me to start making you
talk to invisible girls?”
“Could make yourself visible to others,” I admitted, mayhaps a
little meaner than intended, “come on, Scorpion can see you, can
you make others see you too?” and a long silence that followed.
Barbie not speaking the whole rest of the drive, even as I pulled
into a mostly empty parking spot and sat back in my seat. My
cigarette slowly burning itself out, ashes knocked off into the
parking lot, until I finally decided I’d had enough. Too much of
playing this game, too much of beating around the point, pretending I
hadn’t noticed it back when I first found out other someone could
see her.
“Tall, dark, and handsome,” I repeated her words, the ghost
looking at me confused even as I said, “you show up right after I
touch some magical artifact I shouldn’t have hoping it’d make me
feel something, you refuse to speak to me, and, let’s face it, can
probably read my thoughts.” The girl giving no sign any of that was
a lie as I continued, “I decide, yeah, let’s try a hookup, maybe
that’ll get you speaking or at least to leave, and you still stay
quiet a while. Then, you can tell what type of ammo is in a guy’s
gun, you’re afraid of me telling Elizabeth about you, you call
Scorpion tall, dark, and handsome, and ask to plan a murder
together.”
The girl saying nothing against it, only able to half-whisper,
“what’s your point?”
“Barbie was a lesbian,” I told her, the ghosts expression
unreadable, “and she wasn’t a murderer by choice.”
The girl turning to look away from me, her tone unreadable, flat as
could be, as she repeated, “what’s your point?”
Not an admittance of the truth, and certainly not a denial.
And I didn’t know what to with that information.
The point barely on my mind the last few days, just a nagging itch in
the back of my head I couldn’t get rid of. Even now unsure of how
to react to the idea that the girl in front of me wasn’t
Barbie, that she was pretending for one reason or the other or was
trying to trick me.
My next realization coming dully as, “I think… I’m too tired to
be angry or sad anymore right now,” the realization followed by a
twisted laugh, “and honestly, it’s nice having a familiar face
around, so I guess… I’m going to go in there, I’m making a deal
with The Lady, and then I’m revealing werewolves are real to the
world.”
“You still haven’t thought this out too far, have you?”
“It’s a loose plan, I’m tightening it up and I’ve added a few
more points,” I brushed off her concern, already opening the car
door, “and then I’m going to sleep for probably twelve hours, and
I’m going to want you to tell me what the fuck you actually are or
I’m calling Elizabeth for an exorcism or whatever I need. Got it?”
The girl remaining in silence while I climbed out of the car, door
slammed shut behind me, halfway to the door when she was suddenly
walking behind me. Her concern almost sounding perfectly Barbie even
if the information wasn’t hers, “this is Huntsman all over again,
isn’t it?”
His name enough to make me stop in my tracks, a dozen memories of the
time he’d blackmailed coming up at once. Alpha’s father, a man
who threatened my son and tried forcing me into a duel to the death.
Someone who had spared my life, and I hadn’t even consciously
thought of in months beyond a few nightmares.
The reminder enough to bring up the faint traces of anger through a
tired haze as I asked her, “what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Silver would do the job without half the theatrics.”
A laugh escaping me at the thought despite myself, opening the door
into the club and walking to the elevator as I admitted, “difference
is I think I’m mostly hoping I live to see this out.”
Barbie not responding to that, the ghost gone by the time I turned
the elevator key and started up to the top floor. My body feeling
heavy as I chugged the second energy drink I’d stolen from Percy,
little as it did for a werewolf, and waited for the elevator to open.
Having just enough time to finish the drink and send a text to Red of
call me in two hours before I reached my destination.
Immediately glad I’d left the cooler in the car as I saw The Lady
in the kitchen.
The vampire stood over the oven, the smell of cooked meats and
potatoes filling the air, wearing a sequin covered cocktail dress
that clung nicely to her frame. The wolf clawing to turn around and
run, to attack her, to do anything except stand still until we got
her attention. The Lady’s cold face only offering the briefest of
smiles as she crossed over to me and slowly spoke out, “Mary, you
are… healing well?”
“Doing my best,” I tried acting calm, eye darting to the oven as
I tried asking, “Vergil cooking something?” the words probably
coming out as one string of letters.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The Lady’s face unreadable, only the briefest flicker of her brow
something was wrong before she started, “Vergil cooking something….
No, I had my chef throw together a casserole for you. I was informed
of your… companion’s passing,” the words a slow merge of forced
pronunciations, like she was attempting to sound clearer than usual,
“I was informed this was the custom of the day.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that, and merely nodded a moment before
telling her, “there’s um… There’s a couple things I need to
talk to you about.”
“A couple things,” she repeated slowly, thankfully stepping back
and pacing the kitchen before admitting, “yes, Vergil informed me
of the… child you’ve received. I assume you wish the boy an
identification of some sort?”
Maybe not the way I would have put it, but I agreed, “he’s
probably legally dead, and even if he wasn’t he’s um… well, the
name’s not going to line up,” the woman making a noise of
understanding at the point, “there’s something else though, why
I… if it was just the IDs I wouldn’t have called you here.”
She raised her brow at that, clicking the oven off with a mechanical
and deliberate movement before opening it. A glass pan retrieved from
inside with her bare hands and sat on top even as she started,
“wouldn’t have called me here… speak then.”
“Percy’s in the hospital,” I started, the woman offering a nod
of acknowledgment, “I want you to heal him. Just… a little blood,
it’d give him a chance of coming back good as new, right? I
just…”
“A chance,” The Lady repeated, the disgust on her face obvious,
not even noticing as Vergil stepped out from a side room with Bleeder
in tow, “and why should I grace this boy with even a
sampling of my blood? It is one thing to offer it to an… employee;
however-”
“I’ll fuck you if you do it,” I spat the words at her quiet
enough the two couldn’t hear me, even as I offered no attempt to
hide my displeasure for the thought, “look I know that’s how it
worked with some your previous employees, but he’s my friend
and I need him. If I need to go track down another vampire and
fucking rip their throat open for the blood, I will. If you want to
turn me into a vampire and keep me around as your pet for a couple
centuries, I’ll take that if I can heal him first, but I need him
alive. He’s my best friend, and I’m not losing another person I
care about.”
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, the speech far from rehearsed,
the offer not even planned, and at the same time…
The Lady didn’t even look interested, a confusing mix of disgust
and brief fear of all things crossing her face before forced
back into a cold stone expression. Her silence long enough for me to
know I’d fucked up even as she finally told me, “you are
disgusting, pet… No, I would never so directly trade such things. I
will… I will give a servant a vial of my blood, and I shall have it
delivered to your boy. Would you consider my outburst the other night
forgiven then, since my gift seems to not have been enough to temper
your demands?”
I blinked, the idea she thought of it as an outburst almost
worthy of a screaming fit itself even as I told her, “deal.”
The Lady’s smile flickered with a worry I couldn’t explain, the
vampire nodding as she finally turned to Vergil and Bleeder. Eyes
tracing over the boy for a long moment before finally she asked,
“what must I know about you child?”
Bleeder looking at me with a flicker of fear, his hands deep in his
pockets, head bowed as he slowly started, “I’m um… I’m
thirteen, birthday’s first of November, and I’m…” the pup
looking to Vergil for support, the man’s smirk much too proud even
as he finished it, “for names I’m thinking, um… Snake
Williams,” whatever expression The Lady and I had on our faces
apparently enough to make Vergil hold in a laugh through his smile.
Even as the boy continued, “I get to pick my last name?”
“Get to pick your last name,” The Lady muttered with some
disappointment, “that’s correct.”
“Cool,” Snake, still couldn’t believe that was what he was
going with, said, the boy pointing to me, “I’m going with hers.
I’m not going back to fucking Rutabaga as a last name.”
“I get a say in this?” I asked, only needing to think on it a
moment later before admitting, “fuck it that works. My dad was just
complaining I used his last name, why not let everyone get a turn
with it?”
“Sorry I forgot to pick one,” Snake muttered awkwardly, the boy
looking at the ground even as Vergil pat him on the back, “that
work?”
“Snake Williams Jameson,” The Lady repeated slowly with a dull
retort, her eyes glazing over the boy before admitting, “thirteen
years of age born the… first of November. We’ll hold ceremony
later this week, have you publicly sworn to parole and-”
“No parole,” I interrupted, The Lady’s head jerking to stare me
down, “he’s thirteen, I already have an apprentice, I’m not
having him help me on jobs. I’m just… look, let him have a normal
life, alright?”
The Lady’s lips thin as she spat back, “normal life… we’ll
discuss it later, Mary. In the mean time though I will have my people
start on the paperwork. Thirteen years of age is… easier than yours
was. A birth certificate forged, still young enough to have most
documents created legally from that point onward. He will be taken
care of within a month, I will keep in close contact. Mary, I shall
arrange a… meeting with you, before your vacation is over, to make
sure all is well. Understood?”
“Understood,” I admitted with a small nod, The Lady already
starting toward the elevator as I told her, “you won’t see me
before then, I’m just going to stay here tonight, help… Snake
here settle in, probably bring him by the Covenant tomorrow afternoon
and see about getting him a room. I want to have time to warn
everyone and, like… you know, get people who want to greet him to
make some time.”
The Lady not gracing that with an answer as she clicked her floor on
the elevator, the three of us left in an awkward silence even as I
heard Vergil getting plates and silverware ready.
A long sigh escaping me as I finally said, “I was gone….what,
seven, maybe eight hours? What did you show him in that time.”
“Escape from New York and L.A.,” Vergil admitted with an awkward
shrug, after a moment adding on, “Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness. I
was thinking either Robocop or Die Hard next.”
I had nothing to say to that except rubbing my eyes, taking a long
moment before finally telling him, “you’re a terrible influence.”
“It’s my nature,” Vergil said with a mocking bow and smile,
cutting the casserole The Lady had brought while he asked, “we
still trying your plan tonight?”
“Red’s calling me in a couple hours, I have a plan for how to
stop The Lady looking into this once it’s all over, and I’ll
probably try taking a nap until then,” I admitted with a long yawn,
“my grandma had some blood from some vampire she was… is there
any chance a vampire’s my grandpa?”
“They’re barren, I’d know,” the older man admitted with a
shrug.
“Of course you would,” I let out a long sigh, wondering if this
was going to be my life for the foreseeable future, “well, we have
a mercenary Red doesn’t mind us killing we were holding onto. I
figure we use the blood to turn him, Red brings me the ashes, I tell
The Lady she did Misha a favor and killed the guy behind it for us.
The Lady just gets a bunch of vampire ashes, who knows who it was,
but it answers some questions and makes her think it’s over right
as the contracts are called off.”
Vergil at least looking a little impressed by my improvisation
even as he asked me, “why ask The Lady for blood then? Just, use
some of it, doesn’t need to be a ton to heal someone and can’t
imagine it’d make a difference in turning someone.”
“Because then she’d know I had access to blood,” I admitted,
the details of my plan still not perfect, “this way she can’t
even suspect me of faking it. I needed blood to heal Percy, I
obviously didn’t know anything, and now I’m hanging out with the
newest member of the Covenant all night when a werewolves seen at the
party.”
Vergil nodding along as he listened, his tone still sounding rather
unconvinced as he admitted, “well, it’s a better plan than what I
agreed to this morning. Get some sleep, I’ll get you when it’s
time to leave. I have some ideas myself on getting you inside.”