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You tapped a finger to the side of your face, pretending to consider her proposition. You’d already made up your mind a long time ago.
<span class="mu-r">“Hmm…nah.”</span>
You pressed your middle and ring finger into the small of your palm, causing a glob of webbing to glue the Silvertongue’s mouth shut. Her eyes went wide with surprise, and she immediately began pawing at it.
<span class="mu-r">“Tell you what, here’s a deal for you. You stop bothering us until I have what I brought this crew together for, and I promise to let you live long enough to go back to Pandora. Try to offer something else or try to escape? Well…she won’t need to make any decisions about you because I’ll have made the final one before she gets here.”</span>
You pulled your cloak open momentarily, revealing your sheathed dagger. She grew very still, her eyes darting between you and the knife, clearly having no trouble interpreting the implied threat.
<span class="mu-r">“Oh, and don’t try to partner up with the new guy.”</span> you mentioned, pointing a thumb back at the cannibal. <span class="mu-r">“He might even be higher on shit list than you right now. I can’t fix what he fucked up, unlike your case.”</span>
The Silvertongue looked you right in the eye, and you stared right back, not finding a single trace of defiance there. She nodded slowly, and you did the same.
<span class="mu-r">“Right, then. Good chat. Sit tight.”</span>
You got up and turned to check up on your new prisoner, who was now very clearly awake and glancing around the room. Thankfully, he hadn’t tried breaking free from your webbing. You were slightly worried that he might actually be able to manage it.
So…why wasn’t he trying to escape? He was just sitting there, watching you.
<span class="mu-r">“No no, don’t get up on my behalf. Lord knows you could use all the beauty sleep you can get.”</span>
This time, you weren’t so much taunting the man as you were stating a real fact. Despite having a healing factor, his face was almost unrecognizable, seemingly permanently scarred by steam burns. He’d managed to burn off his fingerprints too, so that only left his teeth for identification, and those just looked downright inhuman.
Julie was still running some searches upstairs, but all of her results so far had come up blank. None of the others seemed to know who this man was either, leading you to believe that he was either a new player, an insignificant peon, or a man who valued discretion above all.
And given the way that he dressed, that last one was a bit of a tough sell.
The man snarled at you, but not entirely out of anger. <span class="mu-r">“You’re the only one here that’s wearing a full face mask, cobber. What’s that say about you?”</span>
<span class="mu-r">“Well I’m glad you’re feeling chatty, because me and my friends have got a few questions for you.”</span>
<span class="mu-r">“Neat. So do I.”</span> he said, flashing you a fluorescent, wolfish grin. <span class="mu-r">“Is Dracula really coming to this Podunk town? Because if so, I’d like to know in advance so I can see myself out.”</span>
(Cont.)
