Sorry everyone! Finished the book, but I took down the link because I think that the site moderators would be against it. Also, you guys are fantasy fans, and it's a straight contemporary romance - entirely different voice, entirely different writing style. Good exercise, though.
Also, I got stuck. It's not so easy, writing in Ryo's voice. Even if it's a close third. And then I had brief depression, since the book got pushed back AGAIN...
But I love KMM to pieces. Anyway, on we go.
Where the FUCK is she.
Ryodan doesn't pace. Men who move - who agitate the air with kinetic energy - not only waste their own energy, they give up the power. If he has any advice for men, or boys who want to be men, actual, real men, it's this: Stand still. Better yet, sit. Only boys fall for that self-help bullshit about the person higher up has more power. Power comes from not needing to prove you have it. There are moments when you can pace forward, back someone (a woman, Dani) into a corner until she's (Dani's) forced to raise her chin to look up at you, to be vulnerable (soft lips and loud gasps when he shoves her against the wall and she wraps those nubile young legs around him), to admit to weakness.
Otherwise, he stays still.
Ryodan doesn't pace.
But Lor, who stands in his office, hands in his pockets, smirk on his face, can see through him. They've been friends since before this world was even a thought. In some ways, Lor knows him better than Barrons does. Fucking Barrons, letting a tight pussy turn him into a pussy.
Ryodan will be better. He's smarter than Barrons. Dani will know who is in charge. He has his ways. He'll chain her to his bed (Jesus, that's an image he can't get out of his head). He'll have his hands, his mouth, on her for days. She'll come and come until she's purring like a kitten, until she submits. To him.
Ryodan will let her be on top, sometimes. But just for sex. He wants—no has—Dani for her fire, her strength. He's man enough to realize this.
(Want is not a strong enough word, love allows for too many uncontrollable variables, and Ryodan needs control. This, he's also man enough to recognize.)
But in the end, he's in charge. He's got millenniums on her. She'll learn she's not in the driver's seat.
If he can fucking find her.
"Boss." Lor interrupts him. "Fade says she's nowhere."
"He looked everywhere." It's a question couched in sarcasm, a question without punctuation. Funny that he actually never realized he did that until Dani pointed it out. It wasn't deliberate; he just lets her believe it is.
"Yes." Lor's face turns sober.
"In Dublin."
Lor nods.
"Fade and Kasteo checked out all of fucking Dublin, every destroyed pub, every flat she might have holed up in, the underground, and found nothing."
Lor looks at him. The look on his face clearly says, you know us well enough to know we were thorough. This girl is eating your ass. Thought I'd never see the day.
Ryodan stares back. There's a lot in his eyes. It makes Lor stand down.
He clears his throat. "You can track her, can't you?"
Ryodan has. Or has to some degree. He knows she's nearby somewhere, can sense it, but she's... muted. Fuzzy around the edges. Something's wrong.
At first he thought the kid was avoiding him because of how far he'd taken things with her. Probably her first orgasm. Then she was reminded of all the women he fucked on that desk. No wonder she ran.
Except she didn't. Ryodan's not relieved. Ryodan's -
Ryodan's not some old Irish woman worrier. He doesn't fucking worry.
Dani's in Dublin. She's not in Faerie. She's a smart girl. She can take care of herself.
But images flare up. She can be a real fucking idiot sometimes. Touching that baby in the church, freezing up when they were battling the IUP and the Hag. Killing so many fae that they all have it in for her. Releasing the Hag. Releasing the Hag and getting HIM killed. (He's not sorry he beat the shit out of her that day. She needed the wakeup call. He needed to release his anger. They both needed the rest of the world - because Chester's IS the world these days - to see that equilibrium had been restored. Kept him on top, and him staying on top means she'll always be safe.)
Ryodan doesn't suffer remorse.
Where the FUCK is she.
He told her to stay out of trouble with We Care.
He looks up again at Lor, who is watching him closely.
"Have you checked in with those white-hooded freaks?"
Lor's eyes look troubled. "Well, that's the thing, boss."
Ryodan goes even more still. He knows Lor knows what that means. It means someone's about to end up dead, and that someone is going to be either Lor, or not Lor.
"Way to fucking bury the lede."
Lor shrugs. "Was about to tell you. You need to fucking relax. You aren't helping the kid by -"
"You don't know SHIT about what helps Dani. What's the thing."
Lor folds his arms across his chest ("all casual-like", Ryodan can hear Dani saying in his head).
"You've got it bad. You fucked her yet?"
"Answer the fucking question."
"So no. No wonder why you've got your panties all in a twist."
("What the FECK are panties," Ryodan can hear Dani say.)
"What's. The. Thing. Lor." He can hear how soft his voice has gotten. He's gone entirely still. He knows what that means. Lor knows what that means.
Good.
"The thing is," and Lor fucking stretches out the word (is he enjoying this?). "They've all disappeared. Every last one."
Ryodan doesn't worry. He never has. He's not some old Irish woman worrier.
He's a warrior.
The fight goes on a while - he and Lor are pretty evenly matched, these days - but in the end, Lor's lying on his office floor, bleeding out.
"You're going to have to clean in here," Lor tells him right before his breathing stops.
"You better move your ass when you get to the other side," Ryodan responds. "We've got a lot of shit to do."
Lor goes still. Ryodan feels no remorse.
They've known each other for millennium. Been friends. Respect each other. Still kill each other. That's who they are.
Warriors, not worriers. Mercenaries, whatever Barrons wants to believe about himself.
They go after what they want. They get it.
Dani is his. He'll get her back. Alive. Safe. And then she's never going anywhere without him.
Ever. Fucking. Again.
In fact, he's going to get inside her the first chance he gets, and, based on what he's learned of her body in the past 48 hours, he may never leave.
Ryodan doesn't pace. Ryodan doesn't worry. Ryodan never feels remorse.
He's on top. He's king.
And Dani is his.