He was good. For a while. Even if he did hang onto the card. It didn't really seem like the sort of thing he could exactly just dispose of, leaving a Faerie Queen's phone number lying around. Even if that was a bit irrational. Besides, there was always the chance it might come in useful some day. Maybe. So he kept it and went about his life
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Still. So the boy was taking her up on her offer. Not immediately, but she had rather suspected the bait would be a little too much for him to refuse, and he would have discovered what it was by now. Oh yes. He would have discovered, and then discovered that it was only a taste. Just a little sample. The cruelty of it was in that she hadn't told him, hadn't given him the advance warning to savor what he had while he had it.
Even if it wasn't too much for him to resist it would certainly put the thought in his mind. Temptation. Of all the powers that could give him this precious gift, she was likely one of the better choices.
With a little more careful planning, she could succeed with the elder where she had failed with the younger. And perhaps a White Court vampire was more suited to her Court than a wizard, anyway. Even a Raith, whose purview was lust rather than icy dispassion.
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"If you have the time, I'd like to finish our conversation of before. There are a few points I'd rather like to have clarification on." He gave his phone number and the times he'd be available for a 'chat', though he rather suspected she needed neither pieces of information. "At your earliest convenience, naturally. Ta for now, darling!"
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Which was, among other reasons, why she appeared at his door a few minutes later.
"At my earliest convenience, you said?"
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He did not, however, expressly invite her inside.
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"You have questions for me, I believe." And she would rather he invited her in, but if he didn't do so soon she could sacrifice her power at the threshold. She didn't feel the need for it for this meeting, anyway. Unless he required a demonstration, in which case, he should know better, and she would point that out. And then figure out a way to counter...
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He could have beat around the bush, played the game, but she had asked and if they didn't get to the point, they'd both just end up frustrated. Or so he imagined. And that was the one question he expected her to answer the most straightforwardly, anyway. Since she couldn't exactly get what she wanted if he didn't know what was expected of him.
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He could play word games better than his brother, she noted. Although the younger of Margaret's sons had his other talents.
"Your brother may have told you that there is a position in my Court that I wished him to fill. I would like to extend to you that same offer."
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"I'm not exactly human..." and he seemed to recall that being one of the prerequisites for the position in question.
Not that he was considering taking it or anything. And implicit in his statement was the other side of it, I'm a monster, even if he didn't consciously note that. It was, after all, the term he thought of himself in.
He turned the frown into a dazzlingly bright smile that would have had most women swooning at his feet, not that he expected any sort of similar reaction from Mab, "but I am flattered to hear my wondrous reputation has so impressed even the Winter Queen herself."
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And she knew damn well he was considering it. She had laid out too tempting a bait for him to refuse out of hand. That was, after all, the point of the bait.
"Your reputation has indeed preceded you." A lot of it, really. Including the part about Justine. "You do have your flaws, everyone does. But your flaws correspond very nicely with my requirements. And I can offer you a great deal that you have not, as yet, been able to achieve."
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She was making this sound way too easy.
But then, that was the point.
"And yes," he said drily in response to her last statement, "I did get that idea." And take it away just as quickly. He would do well to remember that.
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She really had an ability to turn black into white. But then. Faerie queen. They did that.
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"That does sound rather familiar," he conceded with a nod. "And that would make a person in that position, what? Your wetworks-man? Someone who does whatever you don't feel like dealing with personally? All of the above?"
He knew, more or less, what a Winter Knight was supposed to be. But what other people thought and what the actual Winter Queen in question thought could very well be two different things.
And yes, he did quite deliberately not say and that would make me...
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"There are ceremonial tasks, of course, the changing of the guard, winter to summer, and so on. Very few of them would require your presence. You would be my agent in the mortal realms."
"And for specific duties, there are matters that have transpired over the last few years that I would like to see investigated more thoroughly than my drunk, broken Knight can do."
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And that was something else to keep in mind. It hadn't been cozy.
"What about my own interests?" Not just Justine. His salon -- he'd grown attached. Harry. Even how that would change his relationship -- whatever it was -- with Lara.
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But this was about Thomas, not Slate. This was a negotiation with Slate's potential successor, and if all went well she wouldn't have to worry about that drug-addicted madman any longer.
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Possibly he should have actually listened to his little brother.
But he'd do anything to make things right with Justine. To protect her as best he could.
He couldn't do that as a hairdresser.
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