Before it goes any further, I should probably say this fic owes a debt of gratitude to a) ilex-ferox for recommending I go back and read b) Blue Yeti and Dim Alderbran, whose stories have definitely influenced this one, though it'll never be as dark, gripping or beautiful. So, thank you!
Chapter Two: A Snake in the Grass
If Minerva Paradizo is surprised to see them appear seemingly from nowhere in her bedroom at 3:47am on a Sunday morning, she hides it remarkably well.
'He's unconscious,' she says by way of hello.
'And he's going to stay that way for at least three more hours. I have a favour to ask,' Holly packs away the foil and disconnects him from her belt.
'Yes, I had already come to that conclusion.'
Holly has forgotten how obnoxious this girl is. 'Right, well, he needs to lie low for a while. But somewhere I can still get to him,' her hand reaches out to touch his hair, but she checks the motion in time, 'things aren't going so well between him and uh, my bosses. So could you keep him here? Otherwise, well, he'll probably die.'
So, she may be overdoing it a bit, but she really couldn't care less.
Minerva tilts her head, smiling, 'You are willing giving him to me, demon? Me, of all people?'
Holly has also forgotten that no one ever bothered to correct Minerva on the matter of faery families, 'Yeah, that's right, he's all yours. Let Butler know where he is, or he'll probably have a heart attack. And don't you dare tell anyone it was me that brought him here. Do we have a deal?'
The other woman regards the man lying on the floor between them, 'He won't just stay here because I tell him to.'
'Tell him it's to keep him safe. Tell him he'll never know who was sent to kill him if he doesn't. He'll stay. And give him a room that has heavy curtains. That goes totally black.'
Minerva raises her eyebrows, but follows it with a shrug, 'Alright. As you wish. I'll keep him.'
You make him sound like a pet, thinks Holly. Aloud she says, 'If anything happens to him, you realise you're dead too, right?' and disappears into the night.
She gets dead end duty doing above ground maintenance jobs. They think it's self-punishment on her part. Keep busy so that she can't think.
Well, she's keeping busy at any rate.
Every night she comes to him, hidden by the dark.
Never turn on the lights, she warns, or they'll see me and know. She isn't sure if Foaly still has Minerva under surveillance, but she isn't willing to take the chance. She can trust him to turn a blind eye to Artemis' sudden appearance here, but to her, sneaking in at night like she does, to do the things they do? She isn't so certain there.
She isn't, however, willing to stop coming. That appears to be worth the risk.
Running her thumbs over the bridge of his nose and delicate bones of his face, she misses the sight of their eyes looking back at her. Fingers tracing his lips, she misses the sound of his voice, cold and cutting and beloved. But she still has taste, touch, scent and feel and they do the job well enough.
One day, she thinks, one day, I will be able to spend hours just looking at him while he goes on and on and on. And then I'll be wishing he'd just shut up. Might as well enjoy the silence while I can.
When they lie still at last, he mouths the same words against her skin, night after night. I know you. And his eyebrows wrinkle in frustration.
Better than anyone, she replies.
Minerva, meanwhile, ever-watchful, realises Holly didn't quite tell her the whole truth. There was nothing about all-night rendez-vous in their contract. She whispers to Butler, Can it be safe, letting who knows who come visit him? It could be anyone. And all we know is that we must never come in after a certain hour...
And Butler, though trained to follow orders, can't help but have a faint niggling doubt. Artemis knows what he's doing, true, but that only means he knows when what he's doing is dangerous. And that knowledge has never deterred him in the least.