Page 51 of Wicked Deeds

Yoshi had an exemption because of his sister.

“Alright,” I said. “Log in and see you in the foyer.”

I settled myself back and put the headset over my temples. The bonus of this being Damon’s system was as soon as I hadthe set connected, Madge logged me in without me having to activate anything.

I blinked my eyes and I was standing in the white square foyer. Gwen was there, looking around curiously, wearing a default avatar with a black skin suit and her own face.

“Do you have an avatar?” I asked. “If you don’t, you can build a basic one via the menus.” She could build something much better than basic, but I didn’t want to stand around waiting.

“I’ll decide once I know what we’re going to play.”

“Sure.” I waved a hand and brought up the game menu, scrolling through slowly. “See anything you like?”

Gwen made a little ‘go on’ gesture. After a few more scrolls she gestured for me to stop. “What’s ‘training ground’?”

Crap. I’d forgotten Damon’s monster simulator was sitting on our main menu. I hadn’t blocked it.

“That’s something Damon built for me so I can practice…well…witch stuff.”

Gwen leaned a little closer to the menu. “Fighting? You know the s’ealg oiche, right. The ones who were with you in the realm?” she said. “I assume they’re training you to hunt or something?”

She was clever, I had to remember that. She had made some bad decisions in the realm, but that didn’t mean she was stupid. And she probably knew more about Fae creatures than I did.

“Or something,” I said, not wanting to tell her more.

“Can I see it?”

I hesitated. For someone who didn’t want anything to do with magic, it was an odd thing for her to be curious about. “Not just yet. I need to talk to a few people and get permission. A lot of the information in here belongs to the Cestis.”

She didn’t argue, even though her face fell. “Okay.”

“What was your favorite game before you went into the realm?” I asked, wanting to get us heading in the right directionagain. If this was going to work as a bonding session, then Gwen had to enjoy the experience.

She named a space exploration game.

“You might likeSerenity Falls,” I suggested. “That’s Righteous’s newest sci-fi game. Actually we’re going to Decker’s tomorrow night. Damon’s playing an exhibition bout of Serenity.”

“He games publicly?” Gwen’s eyebrows shot up.

“Not often. This was a contest that Decker’s ran back in April. Proceeds go to charity. The winner gets to play Damon. He does a couple of these a year. You can come along, if you’d like.”

“Is he good?”

“He’s hard to beat,” I said. “I mean, he’s not a pro-gamer, but he could have been.” If he hadn’t decided making billions inventing games was more fun. “Plus he knows the games inside out.”

“I guess that helps.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” I agreed and started the game.

By the time we got to Decker’s on Sunday night, Gwen had started to relax. She’d spent most of Saturday with Yoshi, touring UC and had arrived back at the house practically bubbling over with excitement. She’d talked Damon’s ear off at dinner asking him for his views on various options for studying. He’d answered patiently, but after about an hour had retreated to his office to finish up some work, leaving Gwen to research schools and courses on her own.

She’d spent most of the day continuing her research. I’d reminded her about the event and it seemed a game clubtrumped wading through course catalogs because she’d been ready thirty minutes early.

Decker’s was crowded, which I’d expected. Damon’s public sessions were always sold out. The crowd was a wall of noise and only grew louder as we were escorted down from the private rooms on the upper floor to the main gaming stage. But they stayed mostly respectful as we moved through the room surrounded both by our own security and the club’s.

Damon climbed the stairs to join the MC onstage, and Jake and Maia shepherded Gwen and me over to a small area to the left of the stage to stand with some VIPs and the competition winner’s family and friends.

Damon walked out on stage and the whole place went crazy.

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