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Jerkoff...She whispered that last part to herself, but Green still heard it
and smiled thinly.
"I'm your boss?" He asked, loud enough to carry, but phrased only for her.
"Well, I don't work at the Chevron anymore." She replied, shrugging. They both
looked up when they realized they were being flanked by Arturo, Brack, Sweet,
Blissa, Crocken, Grit and a number of other elves who were either staunchly
loyal to Green, friends with Adrian or one of the other vampires, or who had
come to love Cory all on her own. The shape-shifters were all there as
well including Ray, who had been up and talking quietly to Renny for the last
few days, both of them grieving for Mitch and for their other friends who had
been lost in that first attack.
"And this is for Renny." Cory added, trying very hard to look like she had
expected such an obvious show of support. "And for Mitch, because we all loved
him.
"And for Ratso." Arturo intoned, "Because he was a friend.
Two or three others shifted to look at an increasingly small number of elves.
Corge and Gref were not among them. "And for Janine, Jake, and Gary, and Jon
Greves, who were our friends." Said Ray, speaking up.
"Look...it's not that we didn't love these people..." Said one of the few
elves on the opposing side. It was Cocklebur now that he was without the
support of the masses, Green could place him.
"It's just that you don't see what this has to do with you?" Cory asked
sympathetically. Cocklebur nodded and smiled, relieved, he thought, to have
such a sympathetic ear. "Hmm...yeah." Cory pretended to consider. "But then,
technically this doesn't have anything to do with me right? I mean, like you
said, I'm just fucking Adrian we all know I'm not his first bed mate, right?"
The others nodded, looking wary. "Yeah quite right I mean, really, Green's
taught me a lot, this month I could protect myself from attack after attack I
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could move to Bum-Fuck-Saskatchewan and really, nobody could do a thing about
it, could they?
The opposing elves looked eager at hearing their own logic spoken back to
them, and a few on Green's side were looking alarmed.
Cory nodded again. "Well, I could do that I mean, I am pretty powerful, you
know." She smiled conspiratorially at the resistant sidhe. "I mean, if I
wanted to...if I got good and angry...I could fry your asses right where you
stand, couldn't I?
Everyone's eyes got really big at that, Green noticed, and his people started
to smile.
"I could do that, right, Green?" Cory was saying.
"Right luv...too right, that." He affirmed.
Cory smiled wolfishly. "But I'm not gonna..." She said, and somehow, no one
looked reassured. "I'm not gonna, because that wouldn't be right, now, would
it? And if Green's taught me anything, it's what's right...right?" She asked
them.
They all looked at Green sideways, considering. "Right." Cocklebur mumbled at
last, and the others nodded, not looking at Green.
"So...as your leader, he's taught you right...right?
"Right." The others mumbled, not liking where this was headed.
"And he's treated you right yes?
"Yes." The mumble was downright ashamed now.
"Sooo " Cory continued, her smile completely unpleasant now, "If Green's your
leader, and he's taught you right from wrong, what the fuck are you doing over
there?
Silence. Complete silence.
"Well..." Cory drawled, enjoying herself now, "I'm going to assume you're
going to ask your captains or whoever, exactly how quick to step, what to
fetch, and whose ass to kiss to make us forget I even had to have this
conversation... am I right?
Cocklebur made eye contact, finally. Green noticed he looked the definition of
sheepish, and he felt his own mad coming on.
"We will do it because we all live here, and we all protect each other, and we
all care about each other, and that's what makes us different from Crispin's
get, and Sezan's, and from any other sidhe or vampire or shape-shifter who
believes that only the biggest, meanest, and most amoral buggers make it to
the top." He snapped, and in that moment he knew that his eyes went cold, his
face remote, and he knew that as he stood there he had become the chill of
discarded love, the dark shadows of a regretful heart, and that even Cory was
watching him and shivering.
Cocklebur and the others dropped to their knees, and shivered and wept as they
crouched. Without another word Green gathered Brack, Arturo, and Cory to him
with a glance, and they swept out of the living room and down the hallway to
the underground, leaving the others to prepare as they had planned.
When they got to the bottom of the staircase, Cory's knees went out, and she
sat shivering on the second to last step, while the others gathered around the
table to look at their map of Folsom and the lists of personnel and strategies
they had devised over the last week. "We'll need someone free to snag Renny if
they see her in the fray." Artuuro said at last, and the others nodded
sightlessly, not wanting to think about the alternative.
"Bracken." Green said decisively. "He's quick, strong, and she knows him." And
that was it the last decision they had to make. The three of them stood there
for a moment, saying nothing until Cory spoke up from the stairwell.
"That's all moot now, isn't it? Your plan?" she said softly. The others looked
at her. "I mean, we made a good exit and all, but Renny's missing, and they've
got her, and now it's all them, isn't it?
Green thought about it, bit his lip, shook his head negative. "No not at all.
The sprites have still volunteered to confuse the enemy, the vampires will
still flank the elves to keep Sezan from blowing them up, the shape changers
will still go on the front lines it's full moon tonight, so they should be
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able to shift in and out at will, in order to counteract the music. It should
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