Chapter Twenty-Two
Marcone showed up at my door the next morning, and I went out to meet him as before.
“Sir Knight,” he said pleasantly.
“Baron.”
“I have monitored the situation with Mr. Gregory as best I can,” he said. “I trust you see why I thought this action worthy of you, in terms of squaring our accounts.”
“Organized crime backed up by a demon cult,” I said. “One with the potential to spread far and wide. You could have just said something.”
Marcone arched an eyebrow at me. “Oh? Could I?”
I thought about it and shrugged. “Probably not. I wouldn’t have trusted you. Since, you know, I don’t.” I eyed him. “We’re square now?”
“I consider the debt repaid,” he said, nodding. “Though if you would consider a discussion about cooperative efforts against the Lurker—”
“Let me stop you right there,” I said. “There’s a difference in helping out someone trying to be a decent human being and someone who isn’t.”
“Did I not send someone who wished—from your perspective—to better his life to someone who could help him do so, despite significant powers stacked up against him?”
“Yeah, you outsourced. You could have done it yourself.”
“Ah,” he said. “I suppose you are technically correct. I could have used illicit influence and corrupt officials to accomplish much the same as you and Valerious did with honesty and integrity. Though that would have undermined the moral foundation of his reversal of course, would it not? And because I did not do that, you do not regard me as decent?”
“I’m not entirely sure you’re human.”
Marcone’s eyes wrinkled at the corners, and he tilted his head like a fencer conceding a point. “Nonetheless. I thank you for your assistance.”
I wanted to say something that would have made Bugs Bunny proud to have gotten an R-rating.
But Marcone had saved my life.
“We’re even,” I said, and nodded to him. “Stay out of trouble, Baron.”
He mirrored me. “Good day, Sir Knight.”
His limo swooped in and picked him up, and I went back into the castle to find Bear lounging about. The enormous Valkyrie had already healed from her wounds.
“Well?” I asked her.
“You’re going to be content to leave things like that?” she asked. “Estevez’s gang and the Lurker still running loose about the world?”
“The Lurker’s been around a long, long time,” I said. “The world’s still here. And guys like Estevez are everywhere—I mean, except here, because I kicked him out.”
The Valkyrie folded her arms calmly. “And because they are common, it means they shouldn’t be fought?”
“Maybe you missed the part where I just fought them,” I said.
She tilted her head to one side in concession.
“There are battles all over the world,” I said. “Everywhere. Everyone’s life is full of them. And no one is big enough to fight them all. We’d kill ourselves trying.”
“And that isn’t giving up?” Bear asked.
“It’s acknowledging that not everything in the world is about me,” I said. “I’m not in this alone, either. Others will stand up.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I just took an enemy,” I said, “and made him into a friend. A little enemy, sure. And maybe not much of a friend yet. But there he is, working to do some good. And who knows? Maybe one of those kids he helps will grow up to handle the Lurker problem. And if that’s how it turns out, I’ve already fought the damned thing and won. ”
“Optimism?” Bear asked, smiling faintly. “Faith, even. From you?”
“Stranger things have happened,” I said. “We won the day. That’s all we have, really. The future is a murky place.”
Bear snorted in agreement.
“Let’s get a little sleep. Then meet me back here at noon. Have the car ready. Fitz is feeling better, and Tripp is moving again. We’re going out.”
She nodded. “Where are we going?”
“We’re meeting Max and Heloise at McAnally’s,” I said. “For a beer and a steak sandwich. We earned it.”
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