My installment in the War series. Please review! (I DO have Rb's permission).
Rb felt a chill. She glanced around, not seeing anyone in the warm Anime forest. It's just nerves, she calmed herself. Since the war had started she was getting more and more paranoid. But, just in case, she opened her jacket a little, revealing a gun and a frying pan. She kept the gun empty, in case someone grabbed it. If they didn't however, it looked threatening. In the back of her jacket were two throwing knives, and she kept another knife up each sleeve. One couldn't be to careful these days.
"Ahem." Rb spun, saw the woman that had come up silently behind her. She was dressed in a dark red body suit, just the color of dried blood. She carried two all-propose knives, and a long, thin, knife that Rb couldn't identify the use of.
Rb shifted a little, put her arm casually behind her back, felt the reassuring metal knives. "Who are you and what do you want?"
The woman smiled. It reminded Rb of an icy river. "I'm here to see what you'll offer me, Rb." Her impromptu rhyme seemed to escape her notice.
Rb looked the woman over again. She was dressed very severely, her hair tied back in a tight bun with not one hair loose. Then again, she looked like she'd tear out a a hair if it disobeyed her. She didn't look mad, or happy, either. Her features were set, just so.
"Why would I need to pay you? There are plenty of authors that don't want paying to fight."
The woman laughed, a sound as cold and deadly as a sharp chunk of ice. "I don't go where anti-fic bullets can get me. I'm far to valuable for that."
"So what do you do?"
"I torture." The answer came matter of-factly, and Rb was surprised. Most authors that did it loved it. She stopped herself before she said anything. "I can extract information or I can make someone suffer for your viewing pleasure."
Rb looked her in the eye. Yes, madness shown there, if less so then in Meeko's, or Ryan's. She shoved her hand in her pocket, to keep from showing her trembling on this warm day.
"Who are you?" She slipped her knife out of her sleeve, into her hand. She gripped the knife inside the pocket.
"J.D." Something seemed familiar about the letters, but she couldn't place them.
"So you torture for fun?" Oppps! It slipped out before she could stop it.
"No. It is my job." J.D.'s words still sounded cold, if not as icy. "My mother was a merc. She was determined not to let me get hurt." JD gestured, a sweeping move that included her whole body. "This is what I became." Another laugh. "My mother's love turned me into a torturer."
Rb made a sound. It could be taken for anything. The Ellimist knew she didn't want to upset JD.
"I don't torture for fun. Although it is fun. But the enjoyment is a...." she cocked her head, apparently looking for the right word. "....Fringe benefit. Am I hired?"
"We have Meeko and Ryan." And Kyla, she added to herself, when she's on our side.
This brought a laugh. "Meeko is not at the level I was at when I was seven. As for Ryan.....Ryan does not have the detachment necessary to rise above a page. I repeat, am I hired?"
"How much?"
"Three meals a day, a place to set up my equipment, a dungeon, two assistants, and exclusive rights to Forlay if you capture her."
"You're hired." Just then Rb realized why JD seemed familiar. "You're Jessica DragonTamer, aren't you?"
"As much as you are Arebee. For years Jessica and I fought for control of our body. For years she had the upper hand. Then I built this body and moved in." She laughed again, and this time it reminded Rb of a deadly blade. "I take my revenge on her friendship with Forlay NOW."
TBC (To Be Continued)........
You must review!*grovels*