not to be a cliché.” Jenny said from the other side of the island.
Max rolled his eyes at her comment as he turned around to face her, his arm crossed against his chest (it was becoming clear this was his signature move). “Care to elaborate?” he asked.
Hands on hips, she gave me a dirty look and I immediately put the chocolate bar down.
“One candy bar is not going to give me diabetes.” I grumbled as I came to stand next to Max.
“You really don’t expect me to believe that’s your first piece of chocolate today?” She said and reached into the bowl of fruit sitting in the middle of the island and tossed me an orange. I made a grab for it but Max’s hand snatched it out of mid air. He held it out to me with an irritated look. This time I was more careful and took the orange without touching him.
“Ladies, can we please get back on topic?”
Jenny picked up another orange and began peeling it as she spoke. “Mateo hasn’t taken Allie because he doesn’t feel threatened by her. Besides it’s the visiting Demons that are the bigger danger.”
“How do you mean?” Max asked.
“They don’t follow the laws.” Jenny answered.
At his confused look, I took pity on him and explained. “In Vegas, when a Demon swears allegiance to one of the Demon Lords, they agree to follow a set of ‘laws.’ The most important of which is not drawing the attention of the Guardians. To accomplish this they can’t expose their true form in public, leave any mysterious human deaths and most importantly to me, no blatant hunting of yours truly.”
I hoped he would believe the same lie I had told my friends and continued, “You have to understand, for the Demons, Vegas is an all-you-can-eat buffet. No hiding from Guardians, starving or living in nests. Here they can actually have a life and they love it. No way would they give all that up for a Guardians.”
Jenny picked up where I left off. “If we start to hunt the resident Demons, it tends to piss off the Demon Lords. We didn’t know this at first and took some pretty serious beatings. Once we figured it out things calmed down and we found a way to do damage without getting trampled on every night.”
“Why don’t you just take out the Demon Lords?”
“Ever hear the saying ‘Better the devil you know?’” I asked. “We’ve spent a lot of time learning about the Seven Demon Lords here and can finally anticipate most of their moves. Let’s say just one of them is killed; it would cause an all out-war between the Demons to fill its spot. Think shark feeding frenzy but not as controlled. No good comes from that, especially for the humans.”
“So to protect the humans from the Demons you let the Demons live?” Max asked.
“It’s either that or we have another Roanoke and we both know how well that turned out.” Max’s face paled at the mention of the last big Guardian failure and he turned the conversation to something a little less touchy. “What exactly do you do?” He asked Jenny.
“Oh…a little of this and that, how about I show you my work area and you try to guess.” She said with a coy smile.
I shook my head as I watched her lead him like a puppy around the bookshelf and back into her work area. There weren’t many people that Jenny could talk to about her real work so when she got the chance she jumped on it. Although completely illegal, she was proud of what she did. To an outsider, forgery was something shameful but to her it was just another form of art. And like she said, original art doesn’t pay the bills, at least not as well as forgeries of the great masters.
Putting the orange back, I picked up the chocolate bar and went back to the couch. I listened to their hushed voices as I unwrapped the chocolate bar, broke off a piece and popped it in my mouth, closing my eyes in bliss as the chocolate
Max rolled his eyes at her comment as he turned around to face her, his arm crossed against his chest (it was becoming clear this was his signature move). “Care to elaborate?” he asked.
Hands on hips, she gave me a dirty look and I immediately put the chocolate bar down.
“One candy bar is not going to give me diabetes.” I grumbled as I came to stand next to Max.
“You really don’t expect me to believe that’s your first piece of chocolate today?” She said and reached into the bowl of fruit sitting in the middle of the island and tossed me an orange. I made a grab for it but Max’s hand snatched it out of mid air. He held it out to me with an irritated look. This time I was more careful and took the orange without touching him.
“Ladies, can we please get back on topic?”
Jenny picked up another orange and began peeling it as she spoke. “Mateo hasn’t taken Allie because he doesn’t feel threatened by her. Besides it’s the visiting Demons that are the bigger danger.”
“How do you mean?” Max asked.
“They don’t follow the laws.” Jenny answered.
At his confused look, I took pity on him and explained. “In Vegas, when a Demon swears allegiance to one of the Demon Lords, they agree to follow a set of ‘laws.’ The most important of which is not drawing the attention of the Guardians. To accomplish this they can’t expose their true form in public, leave any mysterious human deaths and most importantly to me, no blatant hunting of yours truly.”
I hoped he would believe the same lie I had told my friends and continued, “You have to understand, for the Demons, Vegas is an all-you-can-eat buffet. No hiding from Guardians, starving or living in nests. Here they can actually have a life and they love it. No way would they give all that up for a Guardians.”
Jenny picked up where I left off. “If we start to hunt the resident Demons, it tends to piss off the Demon Lords. We didn’t know this at first and took some pretty serious beatings. Once we figured it out things calmed down and we found a way to do damage without getting trampled on every night.”
“Why don’t you just take out the Demon Lords?”
“Ever hear the saying ‘Better the devil you know?’” I asked. “We’ve spent a lot of time learning about the Seven Demon Lords here and can finally anticipate most of their moves. Let’s say just one of them is killed; it would cause an all out-war between the Demons to fill its spot. Think shark feeding frenzy but not as controlled. No good comes from that, especially for the humans.”
“So to protect the humans from the Demons you let the Demons live?” Max asked.
“It’s either that or we have another Roanoke and we both know how well that turned out.” Max’s face paled at the mention of the last big Guardian failure and he turned the conversation to something a little less touchy. “What exactly do you do?” He asked Jenny.
“Oh…a little of this and that, how about I show you my work area and you try to guess.” She said with a coy smile.
I shook my head as I watched her lead him like a puppy around the bookshelf and back into her work area. There weren’t many people that Jenny could talk to about her real work so when she got the chance she jumped on it. Although completely illegal, she was proud of what she did. To an outsider, forgery was something shameful but to her it was just another form of art. And like she said, original art doesn’t pay the bills, at least not as well as forgeries of the great masters.
Putting the orange back, I picked up the chocolate bar and went back to the couch. I listened to their hushed voices as I unwrapped the chocolate bar, broke off a piece and popped it in my mouth, closing my eyes in bliss as the chocolate
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