The Grey Edge: Chapter Thirteen
‘What did you do?’
Taylor released the fairy’s neck and stared at the corpse. ‘It’s obvious.’
‘Taylor, you killed him.’
‘I know.’
‘He deserved to die.’
‘That wasn’t the question I asked.’
‘It’s the answer I’m giving you.’
Grigori waved a hand in front of his face. ‘Tell me you understand what’s going on here. You just killed a man, for no according-to-duty justifiable reason, in an area where we don’t even have jurisdiction.’
‘I am aware.’
‘You’re fucked.’
He simply stared. ‘I am aware.’
‘What do you plan on doing?’
‘Don’t know.’
‘Was it worth it?’
‘Yes.’
‘I thought she was just a recruit.’
‘She is.’
‘So…’ the Russian said, ‘you’d do this for any recruit?’
It had a moment of weakness. A moment of-
‘He deserved it.’
‘You did this for Magnolia,’ Grigori said.
‘This has nothing to do with her.’
‘You’re in fairyland, in the office of a man who exploited her on video, and then fucked her, a man who was going to mass-distribute the video, made you angry enough to kill him, and this has NOTHING to do with her?’
He just stared.
‘Tell me how you feel about her.’
‘I don’t feel anything.’
Grigori swept a hand towards the director. ‘I can make all of this go away. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.’
‘You’ve-’
‘I generally do not inquire after your secrets, do not inquire after mine.’
‘I don’t feel anything for her. She’s a recruit, that’s all.’
Just a recruit. Just a recruit. Nothing more than a recruit. Nothing more than…
‘Bullshit.’
‘Are you going to help with this or not?’
‘You feel for her, that much is obvious, was obvious even before you had blood on your hands in her name. Just tell me how you feel. I just want to know, do that little for me.’
He looked to Grigori.‘She’s loyal, I appreciate that.’
‘You’re in love.’
He gave a quick, manic laugh. ‘You belong in Madchester.’
Grigori sat on the desk. ‘I’m not going to save your life until I know there’s something there worth saving.’
‘You’re supposed to be my friend.’
‘And you mine!’ Grigori hissed. ‘So just tell me.’
‘I don’t feel anything.’
‘You just killed a man.’
That much was truth.
‘It was an…involuntary reaction.’
‘And you don’t want to think about why you had that reaction, do you Taylor?’
Complicated. He was making things complicated again.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said, wondering what was below the window, and if the body would be discovered there. It probably would. In parts, however, there was the possibility of quiet removal.
Grigori stood and pushed him up against the wall, his body holding him in place. ‘You feel, you just don’t want to think about it.
‘I don’t feel.’
‘Bullshit.’
‘If you aren’t going to help, I have a body to dismember.’
He stared at Grigori, then all thoughts of dismemberment left his mind.
Grigori was kissing him.
Strong lips moved against his, and a strong arm wrapped around his neck to keep him in place.
Questions formed, and questions died, he didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know what to do, and nothing in his repository of contingency plans had prepared him for an eventuality like this.
Grigori withdrew after a moment and smiled at him. ‘Listen, Taylor, you are the furthest thing from a passionless husk, well, you were before anyway. So much of you has changed, but I refuse to believe that anything, even death, could have killed that much passion.’
Passion was a waste of time. A waste of effort. It was a weakness. It was-
‘Do that,’ he said, ‘again.’
Grigori grinned, grabbed a handful of his shirt, and kissed him again, lips pressing against his for another moment, before sliding across his cheek to assault his ear. There was warmth breath, and the centre of his world fell away. He was glad of Grigori being so close, holding him in place, otherwise, he would have fallen to the phalli-covered carpet.
‘Do you trust me?’ the Russian asked, his lips against his ear.
‘You know I do.’
‘Then come with me after this, we need to have a conversation. A long conversation, where you talk, and it isn’t just me filling the silence.’ He pulled him away from the wall, and pushed him into the nearest chair. ‘Now sit there while I work, I have a lot to do, and very little time to do organise everything.’
Grigori pulled a phone from his pocket, dialed a number, and held it to his ear. ‘Mario, I need you. don’t care where you are. I need you in fairytown, downtown, in twenty minutes else our deal is off for good, and I’m blacklisting you. Yes, it’s that fucking serious. Can you do it? Good. Twenty minutes, or you’re dead.’
‘That was familiar…’ he said, as the Russian pulled the body from the chair and began to strip it.
‘Yes,’ Grigori said. ‘It is, or at least, it should be.’
‘Why?’
‘You’re an intelligent man, Taylor,’ he said, ‘do I really have to explain?’
‘What? I was one of your lovers?’
‘No,’ Grigori said, ‘we were exactly what we are now, except a hundred times closer, and we would fuck for fun. If you were just my lover, my life would have been so much simpler, I would have let you go, I would have never attempted to be your friend again. But…you were my friend, you are my friend, and for better or worse, I love you, my friend. It’s as simple, and as complicated as that.’
‘I-’
‘Later, everything will come later,’ Grigori said. ‘Find me a bag or something, we need to get rid of these clothes.’
He looked in the filing cabinet, and in the desk, and tossed Grigori a small overnight bag.
‘This will work,’ Grigori said, pulling the body across the office. ‘Check the computer, see if there was a list of where the video was going to be sent, just in case this is bigger than it seems.’
‘It’s Magpie,’ he said, ‘that’s big enough.’
‘Check the computer,’ Grigori ordered. ‘You can do that, can’t you?’
‘I’m not a scholar,’ he said.
The Russian gave him a smile. ‘It’s simple, I know you can do it.’
He sat on the now owner-less chair, and pulled the keyboard towards him. It was a lot different to the one that appeared when he had reason to require a computer. Sleek, slick, needlessly attractive. He pressed a hand to his mouth, and opened the fairy’s email program.
The program stared back at him, giving him a hundred different places to look.
On impulse, he clicked the “Sent” box.
‘Grigori,’ he said as he stared at the screen.
‘What?’
‘It’s already been sent.’
‘Where did it go?’
He stared at the list. ‘To my entire Agency.’
Grigori let out a low whistle. ‘Forget about that for the moment, what’s done is done, we need to concentrate on this.’
‘But-’
‘Unless there is a lot I don’t know about you, my friend, you can’t turn back time.’
He stared at the screen, watching the minutes tick by as Grigori finished stripping the body, placing the bag of clothes on the desk in front of him.
Grigori’s phone rang. ‘Ok, you’re here? Where? Ok, Applenut Road, number 379, we’re up on level six.’ Grigori slipped the phone back in his pocket, then turned to look at him. ‘You trust me?’
‘We’ve been over that.’
Grigori smiled. ‘Stand up.’ He did, and the Russian rounded him, pulling his jacket and his shirt off, loosening his belt and unzipping his fly. ‘Go outside, tell the girl at the desk that we Mister Assail requires lunch for three from the little place over on Redcap, and that there’s no need to hurry.’
‘And the reason I can’t be dressed?’
‘She likes you,’ Grigori said, ‘she kept staring at you while we were in the office. While I was flirting with her no less, so if you go out there, like this, it will put her off-balance enough not to question our request for lunch.’ Grigori grinned. ‘A bit of subterfuge, you can appreciate that, I’m sure.’
He looked down at his half-naked self, then back at Grigori. ‘I bow to your expertise in these matters,’ he said, walking over to the door, opening it only wide enough for him to slip out without the chance of the corpse being seen.
The receptionist sat, legs resting up on her desk. The legs were there to be seen, but they weren’t as good as-
Duty.
There weren’t as good as Magnolia’s.
He underlined his mental note to investigate emotion-wiping techniques.
He stared at them for a few seconds longer. They really weren’t as nice as Magnolia’s.
The receptionist caught him staring, smiled, then returned the stare, eyes roaming over his exposed chest. ‘And what can I do for you, “Agent”?’ she asked with a giggle.
He thought of Grigori in the next room and did his best to channel his friend. He leaned on the desk, and thrust his head forward, bringing it closer to hers. ‘Mr Assail requires lunch.’
‘He already ate today, you boys getting him that riled up?’
‘From the little place on Redcap,’ he continued, hoping he wasn’t going to have to improvise that much.
The receptionist stood and walked around to stand in front of him. ‘That isn’t part of my job description, “Agent”,’ she said, ‘what’s to stop me from walking in there and just quitting?’
Her temperature was raised. Her pupils weren’t at in a normal state of dilation. She was much closer to him than she had to be. She was interested. She was…aroused. A normal enough state for a fairy, but he was the cause of it.
He panicked, and put a hand to her chest, the soft curve of her breast beneath his palm, his thumb resting on her exposed cleavage. ‘I’d be grateful,’ he said, dropping his voice to the rumble that Grigori used on wait staff to convince them to do something for him.
She pressed herself up against him, grabbed his free hand and pushed it to her arse. ‘How grateful?’
‘Grateful,’ he clarified, applying pressure with both of his hands, hoping it was the appropriate way to proceed.
‘I’ll hold you to that,’ she said as she shrank to six inches, rubbing her now-tiny flying body across his cheek. ‘Lunch for three, coming up, but you’d still better want dessert afterwards.’
‘Of course,’ he said, assuming it was the response she wanted.
She blew him a kiss, and flitted out through a small access window. He shook himself, then returned to Torgon’s office, where Grigori said, smoking a cigar.
‘Mario’s on his way up,’ Grigori said, ‘you get rid of her?’
‘Yes,’ he growled as he put his shirt back on.
‘Good, looks like we can get away with this. I’ve prepped a little email, telling her that he’ll be gone for the afternoon, so that buys us a few hours. We used fake ID, and this place doesn’t have cameras, we should be safe, if not, I know a few people to bribe.’ Grigori blew a smoke ring. ‘Congratulations, Agent Taylor, you just got away with murder.’
He put his jacket back on, and stared out the window.
There was a knock at the door, and Grigori stood. ‘Close your eyses.’
‘Why?’
‘Just do it, Taylor.’
He did as instructed, and was led out of the office.
‘He’s in there,’ Grigori said, ‘do you thing.’
He was pushed into a chair.
‘You can open your eyes now.’
‘Keeping your contacts a secret?’
‘The less you know, the better it is for all concerned.’
‘What is he?’ he asked to fill the silence.
‘He’s a cannibal. That’s all I’m telling you.’ Grigori said. ‘Let him work.’
‘Why do you know a cannibal?’
‘Our line of work? Haven’t you met a few?’
‘He should be locked up.’
‘Then how would I deal with situations like this?’
‘You shouldn’t encourage this kind of-’
‘He owes me,’ Grigori said. ‘I’m keeping him free, and I’m helping him recover.’
‘By feeding him bodies?’
Grigori turned to him and smiled. ‘I don’t love him,’ he said, ‘and understand, that I will encourage the bad habits of others, to their detriment, if it helps to protect the people I love.’
‘You are-’
‘This is the quickest way not to leave any evidence,’ Grigori said, ‘and his silence is guaranteed, as there’s no one else who will keep him safe, no deal he could cut that could incriminate me. And…as you said, the scum deserved to die, so focus on that.’
‘He did.’
‘After this, I want you to go home, tell Magnolia to stay in bed, you need to make sure she needs her rest, she’s going to need it to deal with the outpouring of shit this is going to cause. And then, we’re going to talk. You tell me when you’re done with Magnolia, then I’ll shift you in, ok?’
‘Fine.’
Grigori dug into his jacket, and handed him a small, brown bag. ‘And give this to her. It’s new hair, though she’ll have to supply the new feathers for her look, I couldn’t swing those.’
‘Fine.’
The door to the office opened. ‘I’m done,’ a voice said. ‘And I hate you, Grigori.’
‘Give us five minutes, Mario, then you can leave.’ Grigori pulled him to his feet. ‘Come on, you’ve got a recruit to see to.’
Am I the only one that tried to click on the error message?
We’re doing some stuff in the back end to make the site run smoother, is it gone now?
“he didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know what to do, and nothing in his repository of contingency plans had prepared him for an eventuality like this”
I’d say that sums up the entire situation rather nicely ^_^
Very much looking forward to seeing this conversation!
Very much looking forward to seeing this conversation!
You should enjoy it…
^_^
It went away when I refreshed.
Mags is gonna be so jealous he groped another woman, without even the excuse of drawing blood.
It was for the greater good, it doesn’t count!
” …I have a lot to do, and very little time to do organise everything.’”
extraneous “do”? Or s/organise everything/it in/ ?
Extraneous “do”.
Taylor you slick son-of-a-bitch. Melting a girl’s heart like that. I’m liking him.
And how did that version of the song go: I kissed a boy and I liked it?
EDIT: Spell nazi reporting in, mein überfrau!
“There weren’t as good as Magnolia’s.” right after duty. I think it’s supposed to be “They” instead of “There”
I swear there was one more but, I’ll let it slip…. for now.
Taylor you slick son-of-a-bitch. Melting a girl’s heart like that. I’m liking him.
It was entirely unintentional on his part. 😛
And how did that version of the song go: I kissed a boy and I liked it?
😀
*fixyfixy*
“tell Magnolia to stay in bed, you need to make sure she needs her rest”
Is that a typo, or is it meant to imply that he’s supposed to tire her out further?
Typo. Probably a Freudian slip on my part.
Though…man, that setence would work if it was intended. Gah. No, I need to go back and change it.
‘Do that,’ he said, ‘again.’: oh gods….
lol @ meeks…
If you’re “oh godsing” now, adjust your shock-absorbers for the next chapter.
O_o
Dude, if that’s what Grigori kisses do, he should have kissed him ages ago and get it over with.
Also, he actually flirted! With a woman! And groped her! Omg, he’s come a long way… *sniffles* I’m so proud of him…
Also, LOL @ He stared at them for a few seconds longer. They really weren’t as nice as Magnolia’s.
Dude, if that’s what Grigori kisses do, he should have kissed him ages ago and get it over with.
He’s been trying to protect Taylor’s worldview, and not push stuff on him that he couldn’t remember. Desperate times take desperate measures though.
Also, he actually flirted! With a woman! And groped her! Omg, he’s come a long way… *sniffles* I’m so proud of him…
But still miles and miles and miles and miles to go…
But every road starts with the first step. And right now, it seems Taylor’s got a running start!
Indeed.
Oh my there is signs of life, and even saying that he has feelings. That’s it, the sun will rise in the south now.
And boy is she going to be pissed, missing out on all that agent loving.
…not exactly like she’s in any condition for mad passionate sex anyway. 😛
Hah, that’s the kind of squeal-extractor I’ve been waiting for! Awesome! ^_^
And yeah, Taylor asking for more kisses, while his “logic” and “duty” tell him otherwise is.. surprising and BIG!
P.S. Sure, he’s all hanging now, but this phrase just JUMPED at me as SOOOO NOT Taylor >_>
‘I bow to your expertise in these matters,’
And yeah, Taylor asking for more kisses, while his “logic” and “duty” tell him otherwise is.. surprising and BIG!
hehehehehehe….
P.S. Sure, he’s all hanging now, but this phrase just JUMPED at me as SOOOO NOT Taylor >_>
‘I bow to your expertise in these matters,’
It works in my head, but in my head he’s cranky and saying it sarcastically. Yanno, like he says every other line. 😛
It works in my head, but in my head he’s cranky and saying it sarcastically. Yanno, like he says every other line. 😛
haha, imo, that works really well.
otoh, what i thought originally, that he actually means it sorta? it doesn’t really look too bad either:
– he’s still going nuts a bit with all that is going on
– he’s just killed someone, so that should make him more relaxed
– and he doesn’t know stuff about this, but trusts Grigori
so, imo, he might just be a bit dazed and just trusting Grigori as to when he says it’ll work, that it’ll probably work.
I mean, it does mean he doesn’t have to think about it, which is a bonus 😛
…doesn’t mean he can’t be cranky and sarcastic at the same time. 😛
I mean, it’s Taylor, it’s not exactly like he’s brimming with requests for help. He probably thinks he could punch his way out the situation. >_>
Speaking of, the Grigori accent in my head is damned sexy. <3
…Grigori is pretty much always naked. Accept on top of that…well, if I was into super-muscled manwhores, I’d be in line after all the other girls. 😛
The secretary will remember last seeing Torgon with two handsome men applying for the “Duty” series, who thus look like Agents. With an actual death, and the two fist-sized holes in the bathroom wall, the Agency might be suspected. Taylor is distinguished by his red hair, Grigori is perhaps the only Russian Agent alive (and non-comatose). And of course there’s the email, supplying motive and directly linking the victim to the Brisbane Agency.
Stormy, halp! I dun’ want Taylor to get recycled, he’s too sexy! Plz info on Fae police, to appease paranoia?
The secretary will remember last seeing Torgon with two handsome men applying for the “Duty” series, who thus look like Agents.
True, but a lot of people look like Agents, and it’s not really an everyday thing for real Agents to wander in and apply to be porn stars.
With an actual death, and the two fist-sized holes in the bathroom wall, the Agency might be suspected.
He won’t be noticed missing for a couple of days, so won’t be reported until then, and it’ll take a few weeks for it to become a murder investigation – and by then, the holes in the walls (in a different building), will have been fixed.
Taylor is distinguished by his red hair, Grigori is perhaps the only Russian Agent alive (and non-comatose).
True, but in Grigori’s defence, a fairy woman isn’t going to be able to immediately identify a Russian accent, or even necessarily be able to distinguish it from, for example, certain other eastern European accents.
And of course there’s the email, supplying motive and directly linking the victim to the Brisbane Agency.
This, this might be a bit tricksy.
Stormy, halp! I dun’ want Taylor to get recycled, he’s too sexy!
He’s too…sexy? O_O
Plz info on Fae police, to appease paranoia?
Police in fairyland, for the most part, aren’t fairies – as very few would go through the necessary procedures in order to say, be a beat cop. I mean, if you’re going to castrate yourself, it’s because there’s something you sincerely want to do, and being a cop usually isn’t it.
So, there’s an assortment of other races working to enforce the few rules that they do have. 😛
And murder isn’t exactly very common. Say, a man comes home and finds his spouse in bed with something else, a more likely outcome will be “can I join in” rather than flying into a jealous rage and murdering the other party.
Basically, there’s a good chance they did just get away with murder. 🙂
a more likely outcome will be “can I join in” *giggles*
This, this might be a bit tricksy.
Tricksy but manageable, I think. Jonesy and his techies couldn’t trace the first email, so presumably they can’t trace this one either. (we’ll accept that Taylor could so easily look up sent mail because Torgon had some email software that automatically did all the sneaky stuff, but still presented it normally for efficiency’s sake).
So the only people to hide it from are the Fae police. We know they’ll be a while, so even though Grigori didn’t do anything to the computer, he still has time to get it done. They know the location … is that enough for the techies in Russia to hack in? More interestingly, does Grigori trust his family (or subsets thereof) enough to include them in his murderin’?
we’ll accept that Taylor could so easily look up sent mail because Torgon had some email software that automatically did all the sneaky stuff, but still presented it normally for efficiency’s sake
Basically. 😀
He works in porn, as much as a stable, upstanding career as it may be among fairies, this isn’t the first time he’s done something dirty and underhanded.
More interestingly, does Grigori trust his family (or subsets thereof) enough to include them in his murderin’?
He does, but he prefers to use people who don’t look up to him when he’s doing something like this.
Explain about the castration again? And Fairies/Faeries? And the laws that they do have?
Faeries, or Fae (with the e), is basically the collective name for all the races.
Fairies, on the other hand, are the little frippy, horny guys with wings.
Castration: sex is on their mind way too much, like, literally. To the point of distraction most of the time unless they do something about it. It stops them from functioning very well, as they basically spend nine out of ten waking moments thinking about getting it on in one form or another.
On average, a fairy has sex four times a day.
Because it’s present to the point of distraction, they aren’t able to hold down very challenging jobs, or do anything that requires an intense amount of concentration (I mean, would you want to go under the knife of a fairy surgeon if you knew there was a good chance he was going to have to stop for a sex break in the middle of your operation? And that of course presumes he paid enough attention during medical school).
To combat this, any fairy wishing to pursue a “real” career, or wants to be free of the NEED to have sex on such a regular basis generally undergoes one of a few forms of castration, removing their sex drive, and giving them the ability to sit and think about kitties for an hour if they want, instead of (for example) sex every thirty-seven seconds.
There are several ways they are looking at combating this – including new and varied forms of castration, development of lesser means of deadening the sexytiem urges, there’s the “Voluntary Fairy Extinction Movement” which proposes that they should interbreed with other races and eventually kill off all pure fairy DNA whilst retaining the culture. There’s also the biotech angle…as fairies are masters at two things: Porn, and Genetic Manipulation.
One actually feeds the other – a large percentage of the tax tariffs from the porn industry go to fund genetic research so that they can hopefully re-engineer themselves without having to go the VFEM route.
Wow, and, how did they get to be like this? I assume there’s tons and tons of fairies?
Fairies constitute one of the largest (or, actually probably, the largest), single-race populations of fae.
And…it’s just the way they’ve evolved.
Do they have high fertility too? Or are there methods of birth control that work for magic…ah…’juice’?
…they have a really cool method of reproduction.
They don’t carry children in the traditional way, instead they have the fairy fruit trees (yes, the same fairy fruit that Jonesy, Ryan and Merlin were nomming on during MS).
(But don’t think that it’s weird, it’s just the same way that we eat chicken eggs, the unfertilised fruit is yummy).
This is how they have kids – both parents, to put it simply, press a hand against the fruit, and it takes a genetic sample, this fertilises the fruit, and the child grows inside, and brought at a later point once it has finished growing.
As you’ll see though (should I ever finish that side story), it is possible to leave a fiary/half-fairy child in there much longer than you should, with varying consequences. 😀
…of these were mentioned already. *shrug*
“don’t care where you are” – ‘don’t’ should be ‘I don’t’ or ‘Don’t’
“desk that {we} Mister Assail requires” – superfluous word
“very little time to {do} organise” – superfluous word
“There weren’t as good as Magnolia’s” – ‘There’ shoudl be ‘They’
“where Grigori said, smoking a cigar” – ‘said’ should be ‘sat’
“Close your eyses” – ‘eyses’ should be ‘eyes’
“make sure she needs her rest” – ‘needs’ should be ‘gets’