Page 76 of Tell Me Why
“If I put you in a police lineup, every single person everywhere would point at you and say ‘that’s the vampire’,” Tina said. “How are you alive?”
“Because I’m better than you,” Perceval said. “And in civilized countries, that matters.”
Civilized. Tina mouthed it. Tell pursed his lips, taking a half step away from Tina to draw Perceval’s attention back to himself.
“You’re the one who asked for this meeting,” Tell said. “I’m here and I’m listening, but you seem not to have anything you want to say to me.”
“Oh, darling,” Perceval said. “This isn’t an invitation. This is me looking you in the eye and telling you that things aren’t going to go the way you’ve planned them.”
“Mmm,” Tell said.
“Daryll is an idiot,” Perceval said, beginning to pace an arc in front of them. “But he’s a useful idiot. He holds a space that… I don’t particularly want to move into, just yet, or perhaps ever. Thesmellhere…” He shook his head. Tina wanted to point out that he was the one who had chosen the location. “Better to have a man whose aspirations you can see clearly and who can hold a place without making any real forward progress than one who is actuallyclever. But you? You’re actually clever, Tell.Oscar. I should have known, the way they talked about you. You aren’t some grasping aspirant. What are you doing here, Tell?”
“Screwing with you, apparently,” Tell said. “Amazing how good I am at this.”
Perceval pursed his lips, then lifted his head to emphasize how tall he was - he had Tell by two or three inches, and hecaredabout it.
“You should run away,” he said. “They don’t know who you are. Just leave. I don’tcarewhat you think you’re doing. You’re in over your head, with your tiny little friend, there, and your fake name. Run away to wherever you came from and I’ll forget that this ever happened. But know this. I have eyes in that house. Closer than Daryll thinks. And if you continue to pursue this… I think, in the end, you’ll regret it more than he does.”
“Mmm,” Tell said.
Perceval looked at Tina, predatory.
“I bet you’ve put a lot into her, haven’t you?” he asked. “To be trotting her along behind you like you are? Bet she’d roast up nice, wouldn’t she?”
“Speaking of regret,” Tell said evenly, and the corners of Perceval’s mouth came up.
“Just want you to understand what’s in play,” he said. “What you reallycareabout.”
Tell looked over at Tina.
“You’d be surprised, what she’s capable of,” he said. “And whatI’mcapable of.”
Perceval snorted, then went to lean against the counter.
“You know, I didn’t ever reallylikethe one-on-one fights to the nothing. They were tedious and… very fluid-centric.” His nose curled. “You fought in them, didn’t you?”
“I’ve done a lot of things over the years, just to see what it was like to do them,” Tell said.
“And yet,” Perceval said. “I suspect that, should I suddenly take an interest in it… I would demolish you.”
Tell shrugged.
“Have to take an interest to find out.” He looked over at the body guards. “Doesn’t seem like you have, though.”
“I don’t know,” Perceval said. “Just seems like it would be… satisfying to break your mouth.”
“Forgive me saying it, but this all seems below you,” Tell said. “How have you ended uphere, of all places, fighting overmoneychanging hands?”
“Someone has to keep the little people low,” Perceval said. “The others weren’t doing it, so…” He put his hands out to either side, a reveal motion. “I did.”
“And good on you,” Tell said. “You just… seem to have fallen further than you might have planned.”
Tell flicked his eyebrows, then looked pointedly around the space.
Why had they come here?Tina still couldn’t figure it out.
“I figured, if I was going to slum, I may as well slum,” Perceval said. It sounded like a lie, which was strange.
