Page 88 of The Gathering
“Okay but…Handy’shere,” she barely whispered, making Handy lower his head and grin. “Are you going to tell me why now?” she said even quieter.
Bishop turned. “Well, as you know Handy requested I design his body. And I wanted to show you how fuckingamazinghe came out.”
Handy realized he was hiding his intentions from her. And yet what he said rang true in his blood. He opened his arms and turned slowly, letting her see the magnificent craftsmanship that he was, grinning with pride.
“Ohhhh, wow,” Beth exclaimed. “Thatisamazing!”
He faced her again and eyed Bishop for some sign of his plan. He hadn’t mentioned she didn’t know why he was coming.
The Creole King Idiot
Skul risked driving a luxury JLTV to the edge of the Southern territory then took a cramped, low-profile boat with a whisper motor to the coordinates on his GPS.
He was beginning to think all the Marsh people were gifted for the simple fact they could locate their own dwellings in such a tangled web of waterways.
He read the detailed medical report Patches sent him for the fourth time. He didn’t need to, he had to. The miniscule mental activity scratched his itches. Side effect—brain blisters.
He feared the Marsh King’s alchemist was correct regarding the bite symptoms becoming hostile if denied or ignored. It made obsessing over the details of the daughter at the location he was headed to feel necessary. The female daughter. That’s the term he’d used when inquiring about specifics because with the bite, it was all about females. And the only safe ones were children.
“You said there was a female daughter. Is this a child?”
“No, I’m afraid the daughter is a woman,”the good doctor said. “A female woman.”
Hilarious. Fucking Marsh Mongrel.
Fifteen minutes is all it would take for him to do the job and drag himself out of whatever fire he’d find himself in. The fires were never a wonder. They were a fact. Everywhere he went. He could only control how long he’d burn in them.
He’d have to be fast if he wanted to make it back before dark. Of course he was too fucking busy decipheringpeopleto remember to decipher a fucking clock. It didn’t help that this family didn’t have phones. There was a CB radio that was missing parts. The daughter had a cell with a battery that didn’t hold a charge, leaving only the mother’s cell who spent most of her time helping prepare for the incoming flood of refugees.
Essentially, he was going to confirm that this father needed treatment. Why not have him picked up and brought in? As a medical requirement?
He allowed himself to consider the lonefemaledaughter. To care for another human suffering mental deterioration said something about her ethics at least. He wondered who’d had the sense to put tracking on his boat in case he got lost. He would surely die before being found in this sprawling water-wilderness.
He dialed the mother’s number when he made it to the coordinates with no house in sight.
“Hello?” she answered, curious.
“Miss. LaFleur, this is Skul, with the Creole Kings.”
“Oh! I didn’t recognize the number. How did it go, I hope Remi behaved.”
“Well, it didn’t go yet. I’m at the coordinates but don’t see a residence.”
“Ohhhh well… what do you see?”
“I only see…” he looked all around and spotted a flash of white. He gunned the little motor and it came into view. “My apologies, a few meters more and I would’ve seen it.”
“Oh, don’t fuss, I sometimes can’t find it myself and I’ve been there for forty years,” she laughed. “Hope on the other hand, can find it with her eyes closed. So could Remi, but as you know his memory isn’t what it used to be.”
“I’ll see what I can see and give Dr. Patches my report.”
“Alright,” she said softly, questions weighing in her tone. “Hope will fill you in on anything if seeing isn’t enough. She keeps a careful journal of all of it, bless her heart.”
Skul’s cock was now all ears.
“Now, don’t be put off by her, she don’t really have a lot of… social experience. She homeschooled herself because they were too slow for her. But she’s very bright,” she assured, as if he might think otherwise.
“I’m sure she is,” he said back.
