As your wings discard their feathers on the ground
Fritz has finally been cornered in the lobby of the Conrad. Gail is frowning at her. Fritz is scowling back. This is not a conversation the younger angel wants to have, but Gail isn't letting her get away from it again.
The red-haired woman reaches out to touch Fritz's arm and Fritz yanks back.
"Maria," Gail says. "Can't we just talk?"
"Why the fuck do you want to talk to me?"
Fritz's bravado, her flash and sarcasm, seems to have disappeared. She doesn't want to have this little chat. She would welcome an interruption of any kind.
Aniki does not like being ambushed, but she can deal with it. It's being leveraged into a near-hopeless (or at least extremely difficult) situation that pisses her off, and that seems to be where she's found herself. Teach her to take alley-linked shortcuts, why don't you, Chicago.
She's not worried. She has enough outs that these people apparently don't seem to know about--
"Get the drugs."
"The what now?" Aniki narrows her eyes. The speaker has a knife to the throat of a woman probably Aniki's senior by a year or two, a woman shaking with tears and nerves. He leers.
"The drugs. You've got a lot to answer for, Wanderer bitch. We're going to make sure you're alive for most of it."
Aniki closes her eyes, tracking the movements of the man behind her. He's the one who tied her hands together behind her back--and a shitty job he did of it, too. She could slip the ties as easily as think them into her hammerspace--
Oh.
Of course.
She grins, unaware as usual how very predatory it looks.
"I'm about to have a bit more, my dear, dear laddie."
The cords around her wrists and the knife in the speaker's hand vanish in the same breath.
The red-haired woman reaches out to touch Fritz's arm and Fritz yanks back.
"Maria," Gail says. "Can't we just talk?"
"Why the fuck do you want to talk to me?"
Fritz's bravado, her flash and sarcasm, seems to have disappeared. She doesn't want to have this little chat. She would welcome an interruption of any kind.
Aniki does not like being ambushed, but she can deal with it. It's being leveraged into a near-hopeless (or at least extremely difficult) situation that pisses her off, and that seems to be where she's found herself. Teach her to take alley-linked shortcuts, why don't you, Chicago.
She's not worried. She has enough outs that these people apparently don't seem to know about--
"Get the drugs."
"The what now?" Aniki narrows her eyes. The speaker has a knife to the throat of a woman probably Aniki's senior by a year or two, a woman shaking with tears and nerves. He leers.
"The drugs. You've got a lot to answer for, Wanderer bitch. We're going to make sure you're alive for most of it."
Aniki closes her eyes, tracking the movements of the man behind her. He's the one who tied her hands together behind her back--and a shitty job he did of it, too. She could slip the ties as easily as think them into her hammerspace--
Oh.
Of course.
She grins, unaware as usual how very predatory it looks.
"I'm about to have a bit more, my dear, dear laddie."
The cords around her wrists and the knife in the speaker's hand vanish in the same breath.