Chapter 14 #2
“Do not kill Jon Nowak,” Tammy snapped at Graham. “Do you understand?”
Eros sighed, giving a click of his tongue. “You forfeited any authority when you went behind my back, Tamara.”
“Jon will be useful,” she insisted, though the bite of emotion in her voice was unmistakable. “He has skills that take decades to hone—you can’t simply replace experience like that.”
At last, Eros’ eyes flickered to Cliff and searched. “Will you stop being a bitch about all of this if I let your friend come along?”
I trembled as Cliff said nothing, his breath heavy. Eros glanced at Graham, giving him a dismissive gesture.
“If Nowak puts up a fight, don’t be gentle,” Eros said. “But bring him in alive.” He raised his eyebrows at Tammy. “Any qualms about Rhodes?”
Relieved, Tammy did little more than scoff. “Couldn’t give less of a shit.”
“No!” Delilah snarled, but a guard shoved her back, aiming his gun at her head to keep her docile.
“Settle down, sweetheart—you and I both know he’s had it a long time coming,” Eros said, sparing her a glance.
Delilah and Ben shared panicked looks. Ben was so pale that it was a miracle he didn’t forget how to fly altogether.
Graham gave a curt, obedient nod. He checked his gun before exiting the room with purposeful strides.
Stars, I wished there was a way to warn Jon. But I had seen him fight monsters before–nightmares beyond imagination. He could handle just one more.
At least, that was my fervent prayer.
Eros reached for the untouched glass of booze on the table. “Now, how about that drink?”
Expression numb, Cliff accepted the drink thrust into his hands, but he didn’t bring it to his lips. He briefly turned his attention to me, and then to the fairies cowering in the corner of the tank.
“Assets,” Cliff muttered. “You’re collecting monsters and fairies like assets, you fucking psycho. Why would you ever think I’d want to be part of this?”
“It’s a cleaner version of what you do, when you look at it in the right light.”
“The black market of nightmares,” Cliff scoffed. “Real fucking clean.”
“What exactly bothers you about it? The tank? The wing clips? In all of human history, people have found ways to tame wild creatures and put them to their optimal use. I don’t blame you for getting attached.
They really do look and sound like people, don’t they?
But you have to understand. They’re not real.
Fairies and all the other creatures that live in the shadows are nothing more than anomalies.
Tools that have simply eluded our attention for too many generations. ”
“And why should I lift a damn finger for you?” Cliff asked, his voice raw and gravelly. “Coming back, just so you can pull the same shit again? This fixes nothing between us.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive me for what I did.
You think I screwed you. Go on, keep thinking that.
” Eros’ callous tone softened only slightly.
“You wanna stand there and pretend you’re better than this, fine.
Don’t dress it up like some damn cowboy principles.
I am offering you a chance to do real good.
That’s how real men step up and move on. ”
Eros looked truly, frighteningly sympathetic.
“It’s a noble thing what you’ve been trying to do all these years, son, but you’re chasing a myth.
The heroes found in storybooks don’t exist. In the real world, all you get is a self-indulgent sap dying alone.
I get it, you worked with what you had. You didn’t have me to guide you. ”
“I don’t fucking need you.” Cliff snapped.
“And how’s that working out for you? Living in squalor? Watching the money you stole from me dwindle year by year?” Eros snarled. “I’ll give you this much—forcing you out may have made you more of a man than I ever could have done on my own. Look at you. There are legends about your sharpshooting.”
I heard Cliff take a shaky inhale. “You’re taking credit?”
“If you’d have never left,” Eros said, shrugging, “I doubt you’d ever have turned out the same. You’re independent. Strong. And I could use a man like you on my side.”
“Strong,” Cliff echoed. He gave a cold laugh, dragging a hand over his face.
He set the tumbler of booze down, rising to his feet so he could look his father eye to eye.
“Just so we’re clear, I am broken goods.
” His voice went thick, eyes darting briefly toward me—shining with furious tears—and hardened in his resolve.
“The few people I let close to me, I can barely look in the eye because I’m afraid that if they look too long, they’ll see how fucking empty I am inside.
So yeah, I hope you take credit for every ounce of that. ”
Eros glanced away, a flicker of something crossing his face that I wasn’t sure was regret or sheer irritation.
“I wasn’t there for you when you begged me to believe you,” he huffed out after a beat.
“And I will spend the rest of my life making up for that. I have been doing everything in my power to build a proper empire for you. For us.” He nodded toward Tammy with a sneer.
“You’re trying to uphold a charade that you’re cut from the same cloth as every other hunter, but you’re not.
You’re better than that. And you can finally come home.
You can finally be where you should have been all along: part of this family. ”
Tammy shifted uncomfortably, as though this wasn’t the first time she’d had to tolerate a not-so-subtle remark at her expense.
But it was the exhaustion on Cliff’s face that startled me, like the idea had tempted him before.
Coming home, returning to his family. Given my own desperate search for Mother and Hazel, my heart squeezed for him earnestly.
But this couldn’t possibly be the reunion he’d fantasized about.
“You think I’ve busted my ass for almost ten years over a power trip?” Cliff demanded. “I’m not deluded enough to call myself a hero. All I know is that a lot fewer people will be ripped to shreds as long as I’m out there.”
“And that’s exactly what I’m getting at,” Eros insisted.
“Think of what you can accomplish when you’re not scraping together bullets by the handful.
I’m talking top-of-the-line weaponry and anomaly tracking.
Scientists can put those creatures and their DNA to good use.
You’d be saving countless lives, not just picking off one creature at a time after they’ve slaughtered a dozen people. ”
Cliff glanced at the tank. “And meanwhile, you’ll be putting people in cages and draining them. Sounds peachy.”
“When you stop deluding yourself that they’re people, that will clear your head.
” Eros pointed across the room directly at where Ben hovered.
“That right there is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.
That one was supposed to be mine, you know.
The chucklefucks at Archer Tech had him under lock and key for years.
Shame what happened to them. I’m sure you saw it all over the news a couple of years ago.
Shot dead in their own office. But then again, it brought to light the odd string of deaths and suicides that kept them at the top of the food chain.
Still a great mystery to the public. But we know it was all thanks to your little friend there. ”
Ben went paler with each word. Cliff turned to him in surprise, his gaze sharpening. “That was Lee. He killed those men.”
“On his own?” Eros clicked his tongue, then gave a gruff, throaty chuckle.
“Ben?” Cliff asked.
The room held its breath—apart from Delilah, who looked utterly heartbroken for her friend.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Ben choked out. “There was no one else! No way out. N-not… Not until Lee—”
Breathing rapidly, he looked at the door Graham had exited through as though he could possibly summon Lee to stride through at that very moment and ease the moment with charm and deflection.
“You see what happens with a lack of regulation?” Eros said, gesturing his whiskey glass at Ben. “These creatures need our help to be at their best. Domesticated, if you will.”