Page 99 of Tell Me Why
“What’s that?” Daryll asked, and Tell shook his head.
“I’m going to go get my belongings from the apartment,” he said, pulling the door open. “You have that long to tell me whether you intend to get serious.”
“Wait,” Daryll said. “Wait. I’m ready.”
Tell nodded and closed the door.
“Good,” he said. “Let’s get started.”
The drink helped some.
Not enough.
Not nearly enough.
She needed a hard feed off of a healthy fountain, and even that wouldn’t be enough, but the drinks…
After two days of them, they came and took her out of the room. Two vampires, early evening while Tina was still delirious with sun. She didn’t remember much of what happened, but it was further into the building with slightly less sun exposure, and that was good. Needles and creams and something they’d force-fed her. She didn’t think that vampires actuallydigestedmuch ofwhat they ate, but itwaspossible for them to get drunk off of just hard liquor, so there was some absorbance going on.
She was broken and helpless.
She was trying to make herself believe that it was a ploy, something that she was allowing to happen to convince them that they didn’t have to work so hard to contain her, but she feared that it was the truth, and that when her moment came, she was going to be too weak and too vacant to act on it, or perhaps even notice it.
She was afraid.
Tell had said that he would be back.
Maybe that would be the thing that finally fixed it. Maybe she didn’t have to find her moment because he would be back and… maybe he would just walk her out that door.
She was tired for a sleep that was never going to come.
Time slipped.
“I need a computer,”Tell said. “A good one, brand new. One that none of you or your people have touched before.”
“For what?” Daryll asked, picking up his glass of bourbon and sipping at it. Amazing how quickly the man got his bravado back.
“I need to be able to do research on the people who are here and who they might be working for without them realizing that I’m doing it, and that means making sure that none of them are able to put tracking software onto the computer I’m using.”
Daryll wrinkled his nose.
“All just a little too high-tech for my taste,” he said. “I prefer to look a man in the eye, shake his hand, sign the paper, then stab him in the back, if you know what I mean.”
“I do know what you mean,” Tell said. “But being an absolute Luddite is no excuse for failure. If you know what I mean.”
Daryll grunted and shifted in his seat.
“Why does it matter to you, who goes with who?” he asked.
“You have spies here,” Tell said. “That doesn’t bother you?”
Daryll crossed his arms, pursing his lips dramatically for a moment.
“I think you and I are seeing things differently,” he said. “Show me a vampire who doesn’t have all kinds of mixed allegiances, and I’ll show you one who isn’t worth the cost of feeding.”
“Daryll,” Tell said. “That was actually insightful.”
“Oh, high praise from Caesar,” Daryll mocked.
