The Grey Edge: Chapter Twenty-Six
‘Your agent will go with them,’ Magpie said as she pointed to two armed guards.
Magnolia stared, then gave a nod, too tired to argue, in too much pain to fight her mother, and too unsure of the situation to attempt to remedy it.
Too much of everything, and everything was wrong.
Another two guards gently lifted her, and carried her as they trailed her mother into a large, open room. The couch they placed her on was soft, rich, something out of a palace or the den of a crime lord. Too nice for someone like her mother.
Magpie handed her a glass of water, which she immediately placed on the floor. She didn’t want charity from her, not when-
‘Do you really think I would poison you, Magnolia? So soon after you finally come home?’ Magpie lifted the glass.
‘I don’t want anything from you,’ she said. ‘You are-’
‘I would compel you to drink it, were it in my power.’
She glared at her mother. ‘You have enough power over me.’
‘There’s no such thing,’ Magpie said as she sat beside her, grabbed the sides of her mouth and forced it open, ‘as too much power.’ The water was poured down her throat. ‘This is the first time you’ve come home to me, Magnolia, don’t knock back my hospitality.’
She began to choke, but still her mother held her still, pouring more water down her burning throat. She pushed her away, coughing up water over herself, over the expensive couch, and over the carpeted floor.
‘Say you’re sorry,’ Magpie instructed.
She looked away. ‘You’ve got my attention now, mother, what do you want?’
‘I have what I want,’ Magpie said, ‘you are home, at last.’
‘What do you want with me, mother?’
Her mother stood, and crossed to the red chaise lounge. ‘Why is it not possible for you to be pleasant to me? Being the bitch of a proxy has only worsened your attitude. I should not have allowed you to stay there.’
‘Not that it was your choice.’
‘Of course it was. I’m your mother. I own you.’
‘No one owns me.’
‘I do.’
She sat up, feeling entirely too weak for the simple action. ‘Tell me why I’m here, usually you aren’t so persistent.’
‘Do we really have to rush into this? Unpleasant as you’ve been to me, I did want to show you around the Court, around your home.’
She tried to stand, then reconsidered the action, instead settling for staring at her mother. ‘I want you to release myself and Agent Taylor.’
‘The agent is free to leave at any point. He’s a guest at the moment, and being treated as such, however, I have no intention of keeping one of them here for the long-term, you know how I feel about them.’
‘Don’t make me ask again, mother, why am I here?’
‘You really don’t know?’
‘Personally, I think you just want to fuck with me.’
‘Daughter, it isn’t I that will be fucking you.’
‘…what?’
Magpie stood. ‘You are going to be the mother of my heir.’
Several words came to mind. Phrases – in English, in a few of the low fae languages, all perfectly suited for what she wanted to say. Simple was best though. ‘Like hell.’
‘Again, I’m your mother, you don’t have a choice.’
‘What are you doing to do, tie me down and-’
‘I’m sure your brother would quite enjoy that.’
‘You cannot be serious.’
Her mother simply nodded.
‘Give birth to your own heir. You’re mother to all, do it yourself.’
‘I can’t. I choose not to. And…I designed you for the task.’
‘You didn’t design me for anything. You fucked my father, you left an egg on the doorstep and you disappeared.’
‘You were one of several. One is dying, one is a strung-out crack whore, two are dead and one is a recruit proxy bitch.’
‘You make me out to be the worst of them.’
‘Agents are nothing more than ghosts in the skins of dead men, playing with their fathers’ guns and deluding themselves with grandeur. They purport to have power that they do not, and force rules upon the fae. They disgust me.’
‘No wonder you’re black-listed.’
‘Conversation changes nothing. You have a task to perform.’
‘I owe you nothing, mother.’
‘I gave you life, you owe me a life.’
‘No such obligation exists between us.’
‘You’re talking like a proxy.’
‘Recruit Magnolia Hammond. Aide. ID-827694. I have limited authority to negotiate for my release, should my delegations not be enough, you can contact the Brisbane Agency under the direction of Agent Ryan, or our liaison, Agent Clarke. With an “e”. I can furnish you with phone numbers. Beware that your current actions, and any further actions against either myself or Agent Taylor may bring your entire court into conflict with the Agency.’
‘Do you think your words mean anything?’
‘I don’t care, they’re what I’m saying.’
‘Then I have something of my own to say. Sleep, Magnolia.’
Her eyes closed and consciousness fled her body before she had a chance to argue.
She knew one thing: she wasn’t in bed alone.
Unconsciousness still pervaded her body, the fog in her brain making it impossible to remember anything. She turned her mind away from unreliable memory and focused on her present situation – the bed was not her own, the sheets were unfamiliar, and the mattress far too soft, and-
Teeth raked over her nipple, pulling her further awake, but not enough to open her eyes, those stayed shut no matter what. The pain continued for a moment, then there was just hot breath.
She tried to lift a hand to fight her attacker, to smack them away, or to snap their neck if she caught them by an opportune spot. Her hand stayed still and dead, her body far less awake than her mind.
A hand slid down her chest, over her exposed stomach and over the ruffles of her short skirt – at least that was still in place. Another hand joined it, and began to lift her skirt.
She kicked, wildly and without a target, forcing her body to bend to her will. She felt her knee make contact with another body, and the pressure left her for a second, then returned as she was pounced and straddled, one strong, firm hand pressing down on her chest, another roughly grabbing her chin.
‘You should open your eyes, lover,’ her attacker said.
She still couldn’t, it was still as though they were glued shut, keeping her just this side of sleep.
‘Oh,’ he said, ‘my apologies, wake.’
His voice shook through her as surely as an orgasm would, and she felt her eyes open. The first thing she saw was the young man on top of her, his eyes as black as hers, his hair a shock of black-tipped white spikes, his expression a contorted mix of hate and lust.
Though, at least he was wearing clothes.
‘Get. Off. Me.’
He dipped his face and ran his tongue up the side of her face. ‘We really are getting off on the wrong foot. How about you start again, by greeting me as your master.’
‘Oh, I am going to choke you with your own intestines.’
‘Try it, sis.’
She reached to grab him, but her arm didn’t make it very far, stopped by the short chain attached to the bed. She twisted her head and saw the cuffs around her wrists, and for the first time, felt the metal biting into her pale skin.
She focused on a spot across the room, her vision tunneling, but as she tried to race down the tunnel, and fade away from the cuffs, from the bed and from her brother, she felt herself slam back into place, and the familiar feeling of blood leaking from her nose.
‘Yeah,’ he said, wiping her face with a corner of the sheet, ‘don’t try that.’ He ran a hand up her arm and tapped the cuffs. ‘They’re designed to keep you in place.’
She yanked on her arm, trying to slip her thin wrists through the metal restraint, but he pushed down on her hands. ‘This isn’t helping the situation, sis, accept it, and the cuffs might go away. I do like a woman in chains, though, so they might come back.’
‘You have no idea-’
He slapped her. ‘I wasn’t finished talking. You should know my name at least.’
‘When I have to bury the dead, the sites are unmarked. Unnamed. Forgotten.’
He slapped her again, and she wished that she was her mother, that she could explode him with a thought.
‘I didn’t think you would be like this,’ he said, ‘mother said you were disagreeable, but I didn’t think you’d be this much of a bitch. You were a lot nicer in your video.’
‘Porn isn’t real life.’
He thrust a hand up her skirt, laying his hand where her legs met, caressing the lace of her panties. ‘So you’re telling me that in real life you don’t fuck like a well-paid whore, that you don’t scream, don’t take on six guys at once and don’t swallow everything put in your mouth.’
She stared at him. Conversation was pointless. Answers were pointless.
‘I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched your video. How many times I’ve jerked off to it. How many times I’ve come in one of our sisters while watching you. It’s the best preparation I could do for this, for our union. Mother may own you, Magnolia, but she’s loaning you to me for as long as I want.’
‘Bring her in here.’
‘What?’
‘Get off me and go get mother. I need to discuss this with her.’
‘Whatever you say, sis, I can be generous.’
Whereas in her rooftop meeting with the Agency in Magnolia’s youth she was “grey-listed”. Two cookies and a slice of pie says the color change goes along with the story of how Mags’ childhood got toasted.
(p.s. no, I will not mail you a slice of pie. Maybe the cookies, tho, but only if your conspiracy theory beats mine)
is always that the lizard men from mars didnt like nixon’s haircut.
(bonus cookies to those that catch the reference)
I used to see Magpie as a powerful threat. The archetypal villain, wild machinations and superior intellect. I believe I erred. Magpie is fundamentally lacking in terms of mental faculties. She is a spoiled brat with no advantages beyond those of her station; who lacks the good-sense to wield those appropriately.
Her abuse of her power is irresponsible and repulsive. She views an entire species as her plaything and treats them as such. She is the worst kind of slaver and I want her dead. Not that that is likely to happen any time soon.
*noddle*
I believe Magpie is a spoiled, petty bastard brat, with twisted fuck potential,. For once I am slightly concerned for Taylors well being. You have seriously accomplished something here Stormy, since Taylor has been upgraded from Twisted Fuck to Person With Issues in just a few chapters. he reigned as Twisted Fuck for 3 whole books!!!!!!! Hats off to you, ma’ammy ma’am.
By the way, seriously freaky the whole half brother porn lust thing. *shudders*
I do kind of worry that I’m making him grow too fast, but I manage to justify it to myself that (aside from a piece here and there), we really only had Stef’s perspective on him for the first three books, so we didn’t get a complete picture.
By the way, seriously freaky the whole half brother porn lust thing. *shudders*
I’m glad people are freaked out, but not shunning the story for it. I was seriously afraid people would see freaky!incest!plot and run for the hills. -_-
We’ve stuck with you for skinning people alive, and cutting pplz’s eyes out, and Stef-volleyball between Mags, Taylor and Grigori, and you killing off our favorite inept hackergirl!Agent for the 11th and a half time. A little incest ain’t gonna scare us off now. Or so I hope, but then, my sense of sex-related squick is centered differently from most people.
And ’cause pulling up all those images is depressing, now read this: I usually use hyphens, like “hackergirl-Agent”, partially ’cause I’m a programmer, and we read “!” as “bang”. So yes, I will forever read “hackergirl!Agent” as “hacker girl bang agent”. Bang! (link is just wikipedia, I promise)
…the threshold for sex squick for a lot of people is a lot lower than for violence squick. I mean, I don’t plan on going into a lot of detail at any point, but it’s still there. -_- And it’s not like it lasts the rest of the book anyway.
you killing off our favorite inept hackergirl!Agent for the 11th and a half time
I <3 when people call her inept, I really do. I mean, she's gonna get more competent over time, but even Taylor's going to make an off-hand comment about in one of these next few chapters (I think, I have it written down somwhere) - something to the nature of "at least Mimosa doesn't know what she's doing" 😛
(Competent Stef: Taylor's worst nightmare).
So yes, I will forever read “hackergirl!Agent” as “hacker girl bang agent”.
So long as you’re ok that I managed to see “gang bang” in that sentence when I skimmed over it. >_<
’cause the Ashreaders whisper things into your ears that could be between the words. Wonderful for authors, I suppose, except that yours seems to be whispering naughty things. <3.
@ Hacker gang bang agent. This is one of those chuckles I will carry with me for months to come that will come bubbling to the surface at inappropriate times and have people including my husband looking at me >.> in O_O. thank you for that -_- Oh who am I kidding with serious-face, I love it and I know it.
Oh Taylor isn’t going to be happy, the body count could go thru the roof. And that is if Magnolia doesn’t off most of them before he does.
…plenty enough for all!
(If this was more of a comedy, it would end up in a Gimli/Legolas bodycount fight 😉 )
I see a non-canon sidestory peeking around the corner.
or a glitch. i could totally see jones waking up in mordor.
…that would be awesome.
*snerk* Is it bad that I automatically read “Gimli/Legolas” and think “slash fic”, on account of my early internet days coinciding with my “I have just learned about LotR, and it is the most awesome thing ever” days?
…in a way, a big part of the blame as to why we’re here belongs to LotR.
The timeline is something like of this:
*watches movie*
*gets obsessed*
*thinks Legolas is cute*
*finds fanfiction.net and its hoard of Legolas-fic*
*gets knowledgable about Tolkien and starts to talk about it all the time*
*starts to write LotR fanfic*
*starts to freak out friends when I’m talking about Elvish ancestory etc*
*decide to find another fandom to split my attention*
*decides on a whim to go with Matrix because “oh, it was cool”*
*starts writing Matrix fanfic*
And the rest is history. 😛
i totally want to readthe matrix fanfic
But at your own risk: http://www.fanfiction.net/~stormhawk
…quote someone:
“Incest: fun for the whole family!”
😛
>_<
…she’s just quoting someone! >_>
Seconded
is Taylor during all this?
(Oh, yeah, another one that’s not showing up in the RSS feed.)
which feed?
There seems to be a delay of some sort before it shows up.
From the timestamps in question, the post seems to have been listed in the RSS feed approximately five hours after it was made.