Page 14 of Killer of the Bells
“He’s not here against his will,” Apple said indignantly, but he stopped and looked back at us and asked,” Right?”
“I’m not here against my will,” I agreed.
“Um, not to ruin the mood or anything, but weren’t you the one we needed a translator for?” Apple asked.
There were so fucking many words necessary to answer that question, but since none of the situation was my fault, I crossed my arms and looked away. With the number of people in the park, it took time to find a place to look that was free of people.
Finally, my eyes landed on the park bench behind us with the sandwich bag sitting there innocently. It was the only place Haruka’s people hadn’t taken over, so I sat down on the bench and opened the bag, delighted to find a huge slice of cheesecake. I ignored the sandwich under it and tore the thing out of its plastic packaging. I held it in one hand and started going to town on it. Fuck real food. If I was about to die in some stupid turf war, I was going out eating cheesecake.
“Fifty-one,” Vale said.
“Fifty-one what?” A short redhead appeared to my left. He gave off an air of casual whimsy, but I saw him note my presence and adjust his stance accordingly. “Who’s that guy?”
“Echo,” Vale said.
“Echo,” I agreed.
“The shortie’s name is Echo?” Apple asked, and since he was shorter than me, I didn’t see any need for him to be throwing out descriptions like that willy-nilly.
“The shortie’s name is Echo,” I said while taking another huge bite of cheesecake, so it was probably pretty garbled.
“And now it’s all starting to come together,” Apple said, sighing with relief. “False alarm, everyone. We can all stand down. I don’t need Eli as a translator. We can do this without any help. This was all just a huge coincidence.”
“I’ve never chosen to take a walk for fun in my life,” Eli said. “This wasn’t a coincidence.”
“Ok, fine, maybe we needed you to help me figure out what was up with Echo, but we don’t need you anymore.” Apple placated, then turned to shout at the sky, “And for the record, universe, I could have done this on my own, thank you very much. No need for the dramatics.”
“Echo, do you want to come with us?” Eli insisted.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Apple muttered, yet he kept his politician’s smile plastered to his face.
“I can take half of them,” the redhead stated loudly. “Vale can do the other half. Is there any cheesecake left, Echo? I’m Baz, by the way, and I’m starving.”
I tilted the bag and pointed to the opening to show Baz the sandwich.
“Aw, man.” Baz sounded devastated and nothing at all like someone who’d just announced to dozens of people that he could easily defeat them if needed. “Does it have pickles?”
I shrugged and handed him the bag.
“So, what’s your deal?” Baz asked as he opened the sandwich wrapper. He didn’t wait for me to answer, but instead followed up with, “You’ve got cum on your leg, did you know? Aw, dammit, it’s got pickles on it.”
I looked down at my leg and saw that, in fact, it did. But you could only tell if you looked closely. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. If I’d had a million years to guess, I never would have suspected how my evening was going to go.
Was it really too much to ask for one measly vampire to do his fucking job?
“Vale’s got cum on his coat too,” Baz said around a mouthful of sandwich. “Pickles aren’t that bad if you’re prepared for them.”
“Should we just go?” Eli asked Haruka.
“Gods, yes, please,” Apple said.
Haruka made a motion with one hand, and his soldiers began to blend back into the trees.
“I don’t want to see you again,” Haruka said flatly, glaring at Gareth.
“It’s a small world, Haruka. I can’t promise you our paths will never cross,” Gareth said, not budging an inch even though he was heavily outnumbered.
“Make the effort,” Haruka growled, taking Eli by his shoulders and steering him out of the park.
