Page 70 of Legion
Lou whirled on her.“I need specifics.”
So she told him everything, watching as his expression turned darker and darker.
“I shouldn’t only be learning of all this now!Why did you keep it from me?”It was a whiny demand.
“Why do you think?”She would have thought the answer was obvious.
“I have no idea.I’m such an approachable, understanding person—ask anyone.”
If she did, they’d laugh their tits off at the mere idea that any such descriptors could be applied to him.
“Not to mention that I’m yourfather,” he reminded her, stabbing his finger into his palm.“I have a right to know these things.”
Tia went to his side, her hands raised in a placatory gesture.“It wasn’t a matter of excluding you.We just wanted to be careful how we approached the situation, and we didn’t have enough information to go on anyway.You would have wanted details that we simply didn’t yet have.”
“You knew that a dark practitioner was involved, though.”He sniffed.“That problem, at least, is easily solved.”
Khloë frowned.“It is?How?”
“I’ll just kill all the dark practitioners in Vegas,” replied Lou, as if the solution were obvious.“Then we can be sure he’s dead.”
Naomi barely held back an aggravated sigh.“That’s a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think?”
“Nope.And why would you care if they all die?They’re terrible, terrible people.The things they get up to” —he shuddered in disgust—“are pure evil.They should be eradicated for the greater good.”
Beck frowned.“What do you care about the greater good?”
“Not one thing,” said Lou.“But I want my daughter to be safe.A dark practitioner is a threat to her.Slaughtering them would remove that threat.Ergo ...”
Naomi stepped toward him.“While I appreciate that you want to protect me, I’d rather you didn’t go on a killing spree.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he pointed out.
“Who did you kill before?”asked Khloë.
“A bunch of angels.”Lou folded his arms, inching up his chin in superiority.“They deserved it.”
Khloë’s nose wrinkled.“Why?”
“Because they did.”
Alfie tipped his head to the side.“And that conclusion has roots in pragmatism or is just something you claim to excuse your actions?”
Lou’s face scrunched up.“Why would I want to excuse what I did?That kind of thing is for people who feel ...you know ...remorse.I would genuinely pity those who experience that emotion if I had it in me to give a rat’s ass.”
“And yet you judge others so much,” said Beck.“You don’t think that you’re perhaps equally cruel?”
Lou pointed at his face.“Perfection itself, remember?”
Jolene rolled her eyes.“Your ‘solution’ won’t help us.Unless the first dark practitioner you kill is our boy, you’ll only scare him into lying low by massacring his kind.He might even go underground, making it harder for us to find him and dragging out this whole thing.More, he could decide to come at Naomi another way.Aharderway.Like with preternaturals instead of clerics.Humans who have a trace of Nephilim blood and thereby possess an aptitude for holy magick are far less of a threat.”
Lou leaned back, eyeing the Prime curiously.“Wait, you think you can talk me into ignoring that this is happening?Is that what you’re trying to do?”
“What I think is that if you want to get involved, you need to go about it more stealthily for Naomi’s sake,” said Jolene.“No dramatic displays of power or vengeance.”
“Says an imp—the very personification of dramatic displays of, well, everything.”
“Be a parent, Lou, andthink of her.”
