Bitten

Chapter 21: Edie

Edie kept her pace slow and even only by sheer force of will.  With a tight smile, she asked Silas to come with her as she drew up the contract that would protect everybody but the idiot she worked for. 

“Are you out of your mind?”  The words burst from behind Edie’s lips before the door closed.  “Spider has been trying to get his fangs into you for years and you’re just going to serve yourself up on a silver platter?”  Edie paced three steps and turned around, throwing her hands up in the air.  “Are you out… of your mind!?”  She couldn’t even find the words to tell him how foolish he was being.  

“Are you quite finished?”  Silas growled the words in that threatening rumble that used to make her insides turn to jelly.

“No, I’m not.”  The words that finally came fell out of her lips like ice chips.  “Callie’s way too powerful, she’s being protected by God only knows who, and she’s killed two demonridden and a human!”  Edie held two of her fingers up.  “And what are we doing?  Meeting with Hatter.  Messing around with witches!  She’s going to get us killed.”

“How quick you are to wash your hands of the second demonridden.  I did not hear you protesting.”  Silas snapped back.

Edie paused and inhaled sharply.  “No, I didn’t.  But she’s dangerous, Silas.  The man who trained me all those years ago would never have allowed this situation to occur.”  Edie trailed off, searching his face for some sign that she was getting through to him.

Silas twisted his mouth.  “Do you want me to kill her?” 

The baldly stated words startled her for a moment and she looked at the curtains over the kitchen table with a frown.  “I don’t know.  But shouldn’t we at least talk about it?” 

Silas gave her a long look as his anger flowed out of his eyes and was replaced with a look as spare as a glacier field.  He folded himself into the booth on one side of the table and Edie settled on the outer edge, each of them facing in the other’s direction but at different ends of the table. 

With a swallow, Edie spoke.  “While I would love to believe she has only killed one human, we don’t have any idea what happened these past six months.  She could have killed dozens.  I don’t trust her.” 

“Nor should you.  She is a liar.”  Silas folded his hands in front of him on the table though he still wouldn’t actually look at Edie.  “How long have you been doing active field work with me, Edie?”  

She gave him a narrow-eyed look.  “Two years.”

“How many sentient creatures have you killed?”  Silas enunciated each word as he said it.

Edie leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms.  He knew the answer to this question.  “Seven.  Or eight depending on what constitutes sentience.”   

“And when you wake from your dreams, whose face haunts you the most?”  Silas turned his face to look at her with an empty gaze.

“You bastard.”  Edie exhaled slowly.  Her skin broke out in gooseflesh as she remembered how the bones in her arms felt when she decapitated Jack Williams. 

“Why is it his face you see?  Surely your first kill made the biggest impression?”  He curved his lips into a small, cruel smile. 

“You know why.  And what does this have to do with…”  Edie trailed off as she put the pieces together. 

“Jack Williams had to die.” Silas made a slicing motion with his hand.  “We both knew that.  I trusted him to take care of training bitten in Australia and he betrayed the children he was responsible for caring for.  He tortured them so badly that they went mad.  It was such a waste.” Silas shook his head and for a moment he looked like a horse shaking off a fly.

Edie looked at the kitchen table and studied the grain of the wood.  She could see Jack on his knees, tears rolling down his wrinkled face, as he tilted his head to one side to give her clear access to his neck.  “He said he couldn’t stand the hunger anymore.” 

“If you told that girl we could not help her control her abilities, she would get down on her knees and offer you her neck.  At least, as soon as she destroyed the book.”  Silas pointed at Edie.  “Tell me I am wrong.” 

“I can’t.  But this is crazy, Silas.  Think about it.  How can we possibly protect her?  Or us?  Or anybody?  God!”  Edie’s stomach started to churn with worry and frustration.

“Kill her if you like.  I will not stop you, but I will not swing the blade myself.”  Silas turned his face away from her again.  “Edie, there is only so much one person can bear in a lifetime.”  Silas said these last words quietly.

Edie stopped for a moment and looked at him.  His admission shocked her.  When he’d first shown up in her life, weeks after her brother’s death and subsequent possession, he’d been her rock.  And later, after life went to shit, he’d helped her put her life back together.  When did that change?  Silas, please, tell me what’s wrong.  She didn’t ask the question out loud, though, because she knew he wouldn't tell her anything. Edie rubbed a hand over her face while she thought.  “Let's get that contract ready, shall we?” 

Silas nodded in agreement.