Lycaon
Lycaon settled into the front passenger seat and shut the door. The slight pressurization of the armored vehicle closing up caused a sharp sting of pain to shoot through his ears. He winced, his eyes shutting tightly in surprise as his ears twitched uncontrollably for a few seconds.
"Are you well, Von Lycaon?" said the driver.
Lycaon looked over at the driver, a non-descript man who looked like every middle-aged office worker in existence- save for his eyes: bright brown with tiny shafts of silver. "Yes, sir. A minor discomfort. We are secure."
The man nodded slightly and the car began moving. Lycaon flipped open the computer terminal in the dash and began querying traffic information. He began sequencing a series of PubSec CCTV cameras along their route, live feeds available to the car thanks to Victoria's friendly relationship with those in power. A vehicle was extremely vulnerable to attack in an urban landscape, but with the myriad of alternate paths between any given destination, it could also be difficult for an ambush to take shape. With municipal CCTV feeds, Lycaon could watch their progress in third-person and real time- while being able to survey future intersections and streets. It was the best they could manage, but Victoria had never lost a client in transport- yet.
"It's been almost five years since Victoria experienced multiple losses…" said the driver.
Lycaon took in a quiet, deep breath. He knew this ride was going to double as his debrief, but he still needed to gather his response to the implied question. The car pulled out into traffic in silence, the driver content to provide Lycaon his time to think.
"S-S-3 loc sus fig armed at ele," said Lycaon, rattling off operational shorthand. "1 AP. 1 HE. Nix cover. Snipe OW. WD to GF. 3 gun via APC. P1 secured. 3 gun suppress. 3 GK upright. KIA."
The driver clicked his tongue loudly in displeasure and the car was silent for a while.
"Well, Von Lycaon," said the driver in a soft voice. "A commendable performance during a solo assignment. You secured your principal, as is proper. The groundskeepers did not follow their training. I will recommend to their department that they refresh incident training on a biannual basis. Clearly, annually is not enough."
Lycaon was silent. It was not his place to offer the driver his own opinion on the general operation of the Victoria companies. He was not being blamed for the deaths of the groundskeepers, but he had not expected to be. The principal was the only entity he was professionally obligated to protect, yet Lycaon still felt a twang of guilt. If he had been faster, or more clever, or had placed scanners in better locations…
"I intended to assign Ms. Sebastiane to your detail," said the driver. "But she said you requested Ms. Joe. I admit… trepidation at your choice."
"Ms. Joe's combat presence will be invaluable," said Lycaon immediately.
"But her domestic work remains…"
"I am more than adequate for Lady Belle's needs."
Something in the tone of Lycaon's voice seemed to have attracted the driver's attention. He glanced over at Lycaon briefly, then refocused on the road ahead.
"...Very well, Von Lycaon. Let it be as you request. And when we learn anything of value from the surviving attacker, you will know immediately."
Oh, right. The bleeding man in the street.
"Who has him?" asked Lycaon.
"NEPS' C.I.S.R. team," said the driver as he turned the car, his glasses flashing in the headlights of oncoming traffic. "Apparently, they have an interrogator who is really something…"
Belle
The cramped car ride was awkward and silent. Well- until Ellen seemed to fall asleep and then it was just quiet. The goth schoolgirl shark could sleep as much as she wanted, as far as Belle was concerned. But it wasn't long until Belle's eyes also became droopy, the slow progress of the slightly too-warm car through the city acting as a soporific. How had this day began again? She'd fallen asleep with an injured Lycaon, she'd suggested a movie marathon, she'd shared a… satisfying encounter with her bodyguard, and then she'd almost been murdered a few times. Was- was that all in a single day? And it wasn't even over?
Belle fell asleep, too.
…
"Lady Belle?"
Belle awoke gently, the cooler air of evening on her cheek. Lycaon was standing over her, just outside the open car door. Daylight was fading and the world was becoming dull and gray with deepening twilight.
"Hrmm.. wherearrwe?"
"The Black Sun," said Lycaon as he gently assisted Belle out of the car.
Remembering her own earlier excitement, Belle's sleepiness vanished and she looked around eagerly. But they were just in a rather mundane looking alleyway. Dumpsters lined the concrete walls of buildings. The constant faint roaring of huge ventilation systems echoed in the small space. It smelled vaguely of garbage juice, wet paper, and old cigarettes.
Belle looked up. Far above her towered a graceful black tower, though she was too close to the base of the structure to fully appreciate its form. Belle knew from seeing it on the horizon and in commercials that the Black Sun was vaguely teardrop shaped, and the upper floors tapered into a sort of blockish 'hat'- or so Belle saw it through a lens of general architectural ignorance.
"Let us not linger, Lady Belle," said Lycaon as the Victoria Housekeeping car drove off down the alleyway.
Ellen was revealed by the departing car, her attention down the opposite side of the alleyway. She held a massive pair of gardening shears- or perhaps they were bolt cutters? Belle wasn't sure, but where had that thing been hiding? The trunk? Regardless, Ellen's lithe and youthful figure didn't seem like it had the bulk to wield the weapon, but Belle had seen the young maid go toe to toe with Anby Demara- so… perhaps it was just a thiren thing, to have tiny arms and be super strong.
Or maybe just a not-Belle thing.
Lycaon ushered Belle into the side of the nearby building, and it was immediately recognizable as a sort of delivery hub for the hotel as a whole. A delivery dock where trucks could unload their cargo. Lycaon led them through quickly. Belle felt something to her left and turned her head to see Ellen walking close at her side, her red eyes searching outward. Meanwhile, Lycaon remained close at her right, his attention focused on the opposite direction. They kept Belle between them as they entered and moved down a wide hallway.
Voices murmured ahead of them and it was clear even to Belle that some hotel staff were approaching. Lycaon and Ellen didn't react, perhaps having already identified the approaching people as non-threatening. The employees reacted, however: three people dressed like kitchen staff startled backward at the sight of Lycaon and Ellen's passage, but they didn't say anything or challenge their presence.
Ellen drifted behind Belle as they passed, putting herself between Belle and the gawkers. It was a natural adjustment that was strongly reminiscent of Lycaon. Though, that was also the only example of active bodyguarding that Belle was aware of, so maybe that didn't really mean much.
Lycaon led them to a bank of elevators and pushed the button. A door immediately opened and Lycaon entered, motioning Belle to wait, while Ellen turned her back to Belle and kept watch on the hallway. Inside the lift, Lycaon took out some sort of device from his cybernetic legs and waved it vaguely over the elevator. Checking it for bugs? Bombs? Traps? All of the above? Whatever it was, Lycaon seemed satisfied.
"Step in, if you please, Lady Belle."
Inside the lift, the door closed and Lycaon held up two hands to the control panel. With two fingers and thumb on each hand, Lycaon simultaneously pressed what seemed to Belle a random six buttons. The elevator began rising, and Lycaon staggered into the wall of the elevator- his tail swishing, an ear twitching.
"Lycaon!" said Belle, immediately concerned. "Are you-"
"Fine, Lady Belle," grunted Lycaon, immediately regaining his feet. "I am fine. Thank you."
Belle looked at Ellen to see if she had witnessed the event, and Ellen two was ignoring Belle and frowning in her small way at Lycaon- but she said nothing. Was Lycaon hurt? Belle recalled the feeling of a bathtub against her face as a massive shockwave rattled through her. Lycaon had been covering her at the time. And then he had jumped off a flight of stairs with her wrapped against his chest and landed hard. Remember that, Belle was shocked Lycaon was walking around almost like nothing happened.
Or was he hiding something?
The rest of the ride upwards passed in silence. Belle was worried for Lycaon but felt awkward with Ellen here. Ellen didn't seem disposed to say anything to anybody. And Lycaon… Belle traced her eyes over his body. Was it her imagination, or were his ears a bit less stiff than usual? And his nose seemed to be wet. It gleamed in the light. It wasn't usually like that, was it? She was half-certain he was concealing some rather large discomfort. That would very much like him, Belle decided.
The elevator door opened to a surprisingly small room, and all this one contained was another trio of elevators. Lycaon led them to the right-hand one and began typing in a complex code into a more extravagant control panel. After a moment, the door opened and they all got on the new elevator. The interior controls on this one had only two buttons and a little black box. Lycaon took something out of his vest and swiped it near the black box. A light went green. Lycaon pressed one of the buttons. They began rising.
And rising. And rising.
The door finally opened on an elegant hallway. For the first time since entering the building, Belle felt like she was in a luxurious hotel. Gleaming black tile stretched outward, a long runner of shining silver carpet down the middle. Beyond the hall, a surprisingly large room with intriguing furniture items and large windows awaited discovery. Belle stepped forward, eager to explore.
"Please wait, Lady Belle," said Lycaon, halting her in the first step. "Ms. Ellen and I need to sweep the suite for dangers."
"Isn't this one of your approved hotels?" said Belle, curious and a little ancy to look around.
"It is," said Lycaon in a matter-of-fact way that made Belle's observation sound entirely irrelevant.
He moved off and again took out that little device from his legs. Ellen moved past Belle next, taking a similar device out from the folds of her maid skirt. She glanced at Belle as she did so.
"Complacency kills…" said Ellen as she turned away from Belle to join Lycaon's sweep, an ominous finger outstretched to point at Belle as he walked away. "... you."
Why did that seem like an idle threat? Belle fidgeted, feeling abandoned at the first step of the hotel suite. The elevator closed behind her. She waited. And waited. She looked at her phone. And waited.
"Clear! Lady Belle, you can enter," called Lycaon from some deeper part of the suite.
Belle walked down the carpet and she stepped into the most extravagant hotel room she had ever seen in her life or even in pictures. The black tile spread out everywhere till they met walls made entirely out of windows and their gleaming black frames. The furniture was all white, like the varied area rugs of the room, and all of it looked extremely expensive.
"You need not worry for the windows," said Lycaon. "They are not glass and opaque to the outside viewer. Shooters are not a worry here.
Belle, who hadn't even been thinking about snipers or anything like that, simply nodded. "Oh- okay."
Outside the windows, directly ahead and down, glowing ominous in the middle distance, was Hollow Zero.
The disturbingly perfect dome of gleaming energy was surrounded by a vague ruin of a cityscape, all of which once was, and would likely be again, inside the hollow itself. The border of broken ruins seemed like the tide-line for the constantly vacillating size of the original hollow, the progenitor, the killer of the old civilization and now the dangerous but useful captive of the new. Dozens and dozens of varied towers surrounded Hollow Zero above its tide line, looking very much like chimneys or smoke stacks- but Belle knew they were enormous heat pumps used to cool the ether generation machinery endlessly at work underground. From those subterranean generators stretched power lines in every direction to every part of New Eridu- with Hollow Zero at the center of that vascular system like the yolk of an egg.
Belle's eyes traveled away from Hollow Zero and she spotted Scott Outpost, just a bit off to the left of the tide line. Further afield, the endless cityscape of New Eridu flowed in every direction. Building lights were coming on, and the various collections of skyscrapers sparkled in the sky over their respective sub-cities.
A few other hollows could be seen from this vantage, the alien domes sitting on the topography of the city like giant pimples. The one off to the east was the Lemnia Hollow, wasn't it? And the one way off south was the Cretan Hollow? Belle wasn't entirely sure.
"The bedroom is here, Lady Belle," said Lycaon, causing Belle to tear her attention from her stare at the visible expanse of New Eridu.
Belle walked over to the bedroom door and found much the same as the main room: black tile, white carpet; A large, very fluffy looking white bed.
Just one bed.
She glanced at Lycaon. Did he have his own bed? Where was Ellen sleeping? She was a schoolgirl wasn't she? Would Ellen leave before bedtime? Would Lycaon need a nice, big, fluffy place to sleep? Would he want to share with her? A low thrum of excitement ran through Belle as she considered this.
Lycaon indicated the bathroom and the phone to call room service. "There are other preparations I must complete. Please, do order your desired dinner, Lady Belle. We will fetch it from the ground floor for you when it is ready."
"All right," said Belle, opening up the bedside room service menu and immediately seeing a picture of the most delightfully marbled ribeye she had ever seen. "What do you two want?"
"We have our own rations," said Lycaon. "You should order whatever you wish for yourself. In the meantime, I must ask for your leave. There are other matters I wish to attend."
"Sure," said Belle. "Thanks, Lycaon. And: are you okay?"
Lycaon wore his mask of the professional butler. "I am quite well, Lady Belle."
Belle pressed her lips together, knowing that was a lie. But when Lycaon did not wilt under her gaze, she didn't feel like she could press it. Well, if he needed to act tough, fine. Wise did that, too.
"Okay, Lycaon. Thank you, again."
Lycaon nodded and left her.
Belle ordered food, then went to the bathroom and found a delightfully soft social robe waiting for her. She became eager to get out of Nicole's pink get-up, so she took a quick shower in an enormous walk-in (( and avoided the mild temptation to really experiment with the dozens of settings on the detachable nozzle)) and then wrapped herself in the robe. It was a delightful piece of clothing that Belle didn't think even looked like a bath robe- she could walk around a street festival in this thing and not look out of place.
Meanwhile, Belle's dinner arrived- delivered disappointingly by Ellen, who again seemed to be ignoring Belle's existence. Ellen set the dinner trey on the table clumsily and without regard, the plates and silverware rattling at the rough handling. She left with only an audible swoosh of her shark tail.
Lycaon was apparently busy. So Belle ate alone at a big, gleaming white table and… thought about Wise and wondered how his night was going with the Cunning Hares. It was probably quite a bit more lively than her own dinner. The steak was good, of course. Really good. But having no one to share the experience with made it fall a bit flat.
Feeling lonely, Belle took out her phone. There were certainly ways to share the room with Wise and the others. It would be fun to show them the digs!
Lycaon
Belle was eating and the room was secure. Lycaon finished the last few brushes of his tail's fur and decided it would do for now. He'd rather have a shower, of course, but he didn't have time. Perhaps tomorrow morning before Ellen left for school. But Lycaon had felt like his body was full of mortar dust ever since the attack, and it gave him a bit of peace of mind to at least be able to brush himself clean.
The security room was just off the main hallway near the elevator. It was far more spartan than the rest of the hotel suite: a chair, a desk, a large computer/security system, and a bed. The bed had a nice mattress, so that was an upgrade over a cot- but that was perhaps the single nod to comfort for the security detail. Ellen sat on the edge of the bed, there being no second chair, and she was eating a cup of instant noodles. Lycaon had offered to buy her something from the hotel himself, but Ellen refused and professed to have been excited about this new flavor of ramen she'd found. So the room's little water kettle had been enough to see her satisfied.
Lycaon didn't feel hungry.
The sensor suite and security system was already set up, per Victorian Housekeeping standards. Supposedly, this suite was to remain locked whenever Victoria was not using it, but it was not something Lycaon could take for granted- so: much like how he and Ellen swept the suite for bugs or devices, he turned on the security system to check it for much the same.
Lycaon grimaced as he did so, his head was feeling slightly pressurized. His ears mildly hurt. The attack was just a few hours before and two shockwaves had passed through his body… and then he'd jumped off a flight of stairs. He ached. He was next to exhausted.
Was this what it was to be old? Two little blasts from military-grade explosives and he felt like this? Lycaon sighed, running a stiff finger down the length of his own snout, seeking relief for his head. Yeah, he was getting old.
"So, like…," said Ellen suddenly.
Lycaon's eyes opened and he saw Ellen leaning casually in the doorway now, having maneuvered herself to be in his field of vision.
"So… like," said Ellen, as she confirmed she had Lycaon's attention. "Who is this Belle chick, anyway?"
"Lady Belle is our current principal, of course," said Lycaon, half his mind focused on his own task. Ellen sighed audibly, so Lycaon felt impelled to fish for Ellen's point for her: "What exactly are you asking, Miss Ellen?"
"I saw you lick her face."
Lycaon's fingers froze. Ah, so she had seen that. He typed out the final commands for the final self-test of the security system and then turned his attention fully to Ellen. She had lowered her head slightly and was staring at him intently- Lycaon perceived it as judgemental. She saw, and Lycaon tried never to lie to Ellen. Not that there was anything to realistically attempt anyway: That was entirely platonic face licking?
He turned his body to focus at Ellen, who stood with arms crossed and one leg up, perhaps intentionally showing off the silhouette of her now fully developed breasts and thighs. But Lycaon didn't and couldn't see such things, not when he looked at Ellen Joe. When he looked at her, Lycaon could only ever see the wary little girl who had stepped out of that black car on that rainy day so long ago. The one who had massaged the fur on his hand as he guided her through the halls of her new home.
"Belle and I," began Lycaon, unsure of how exactly to word it. "Seem to be developing… unprofessional emotions for each other, Miss Ellen. That is what you witnessed."
Ellen's expression suddenly seemed shell-shocked. Her eyes went wide and her raised foot slipped off the door frame, causing her to stumble slightly. She stared at him, aghast.
"L- Lycaon, what about the tenet? Isn't there a tenet about… what you are talking about?"
Lycaon stared at Ellen silently for a long moment, a dull spark of defensive indignation igniting within him.
"I believe it to be quite fresh that you would even try to quote Victoria Housekeeping Tenets to me, Miss Ellen. You have violated so many that- well, we both know it is only your talent in combat that maintains your employment."
Ellen pointedly ignored him. Lycaon fought to keep his face neutral, but it was one of Ellen's tactics that irritated him most: what she wasn't interested in simply did not exist. She pursued her own thoughts.
"Yeah," said Ellen, putting on a mock thoughtful expression. "...one of the first ten tenets. Something about beds?"
Victoria Housekeeping Tenet #9: Make up the client's bed. Never wake up in it.
Before Lycaon could stop himself, he took Ellen's bait: "Lady Belle is not technically… a client."
Ellen blinked at him, mouth falling open slightly as she stared at him incredulously. "Technically? Huh?"
Lycaon reprimanded himself silently. When had that become his argument? Last night? This morning? Or perhaps sometime around the time a half-naked Belle was in his lap and her tongue was wrapped with his own. Lycaon took a deep breath, Ellen still staring at him.
"Lady Belle is an asset of the Client. She is not the client." Lycaon felt his own tail twitch behind him. Now he was doubling down. But it was true wasn't it? Wasn't it? "The tenets do not directly apply."
It felt a weak line of argument. It always had. So why was he advocating it now? Lycaon suddenly felt anxious and disturbed with his own thoughts and his behavior with Belle. Ellen was making his own points at him. Things he had only recently half-argued himself away from. Lycaon suddenly felt imperfect, and he instinctively did not want Ellen to witness him in such a state. He was supposed to be her role model, and he could demonstrate nothing less than perfection- or she'd get the wrong idea about how things should be.
Not that his devotion to duty and work had been entirely successful in molding Ellen. She was irreverent, lazy, and unenthusiastic. Was she not? Did that not show that Lycaon had failed in her proper upbringing? Somehow? Was his show of attempted perfection a waste? But Ellen also showed a solid devotion to the truly essential things: she always showed up, she was always the first to fight, and she never hesitated to protect her principal. Everything else was fluff, in the end, was it not? Could Lycaon credit himself for that?
Ellen cocked her head at him. "So- what? She seduce you? Or something?"
Lycaon's mind immediately began considering that possibility. He could not immediately refute that. Nor could he honestly say he didn't want to be seduced. But wasn't he supposed to resist such a thing?
"Pray excuse me for a few moments, Miss Ellen," was all Lycaon could manage, keeping his voice even. He stood and left the room, wishing to be away from Ellen's red gaze, cursing himself for cowardice even as he did so. The ember of indignation ignited the pool of emotional confusion he'd been gathering over the last four days. Lycaon left the security station, outwardly stoic, but inwardly he was a reignited storm- and the pain of his injuries added a bit of extra spice to the mixture.
Ellen only watched him leave, her mouth slightly open in surprise. She seemed genuinely shocked by his behavior. It was rare that Lycaon did not know what to say.
Well, so be it, Lycaon thought. He needed a few moments to calm down. Get his head on straight. Things had happened between him and Belle, but a great deal had not yet happened. He could stop it. Should he? He should. Ellen had a point. Was he not allowing himself to be imperfect at his work? Since when had he suffered imperfection in himself? If he made a mistake. He fixed it. If he did something poorly. He would learn and practice until he never would do so again.
Lycaon began seriously toying with the idea that Belle was responsible for his alarming new appetite for his own imperfections- not intentionally, and certainly not maliciously, but Belle was the cause. Was she not? She spoke to him. She touched him. She was influencing him to stray from his own set path.
But another part of Lycaon was tired, so deeply tired of that set path: that isolate, cold, servile path. What was the value in endlessly honing oneself, when all else was to be sacrificed to that effort? What virtue lay in the perfection of an empty room? Why would any sane living person pick that over…
Lycaon's mind filled with memories of Belle. He decided to walk down the hall and check on her. Not that there was anywhere else to go in the suite.
Belle
"And this is the view of Hollow Zero!" Belle was saying to her phone in selfie mode. The faces of Wise, Nekomata and Nicole bunched up on the small screen, all of them watching Belle's video call on her brother's phone. Anby and Billy peered over the tops of the front three's heads.
"Pretty bougie, right?" said Belle with a wink.
"Lady Belle!"
The voice was loud and deep and intense with a sort of barely contained spun on her heels, startled by the tone and the volume- and half-confused because it sounded like Lycaon's voice but it also sounded like nothing she had heard before.
Lycaon stood at the end of the long hallway, his eye blazing at her and it seemed afire with a true anger Belle had never yet witnessed in him. Lycaon's body was devoid of his usual graceful poise, and his arms and legs seem slightly spread in anticipation of a lunge- he was literally bristling from every part of his body not covered in clothing.
"Pray assure me, Lady Belle, that you are not now taking video of your current physical location and transmitting it over the Inter-Knott!"
Belle clearly heard in Lycaon's tone that he had zero doubt that was what Belle had been doing. And- it had been exactly what she had been doing. Her thumb searched for and found the power button to her phone, shutting down the video call. And now that he'd said it… Belle remembered that she had recently learned that the entity trying to kill her was an A.I. which gleaned data from networks at inhuman speeds and capacities.
Oops.
Ellen joined Lycaon's side. Her red eyes also focused on Belle, but she wasn't angry. Ellen looked strangely smug.
"Many persons have sacrificed a great deal to keep you safe, Lady Belle," said Lycaon, his bristling visibly increasing, however the volume of his voice remained harshly in control. "They continue to do so. They will do so tomorrow. And the next day. So: if I may be so bold as to say: I insist you keep that fact in the forefront of your mind- and not use your blasted phone!"
A silence stretched in the room as Belle stared at a furious Lycaon with wide eyes. Fairy spoke into this silence, like a glass shattering in a quiet restaurant.
"I have erased all traces of the transmission from the Intra-Knott and encrypted the data on your brother's phone. Conceivably, a third party could have obtained the data before I took action."
Belle gritted her teeth as Lycaon's eye burned into her. Fairy had once offered to encrypt and manage all of Belle's and Wise's data online, but previously Belle had been suspicious of Fairy and prohibited her from doing that.
"Thank you, Fairy…"
But did the A.I. have to add that last little bit? Read the room, Fairy! But Belle had to say something to Lycaon, or might just stare at her forever.
"Lycaon, I- Just-," Belle sighed. There was no justification. "I just wasn't thinking. I'm sorry."
"Kindly restart thinking, Lady Belle," snapped Lycaon.
Belle winced, but she was rewarded with Lycaon's fur slowly laying back down and his stance returned to a normal posture.
"Since it is after dinner, we shall retire to the security room," said Lycaon, marginally calmer but Belle could since a simmering irritation. "With two in your detail, either myself or Miss Ellen will be awake at every given moment. So do alert us if you have a need, but for now, I will wish you good night, Lady Belle."
"G- good night, Lycaon," said Belle. He was signing off. Her imagination of sharing her bed with Lycaon shattered to dust.
With a more curt-than-usual nod, Lycaon turned on his heel and headed back down the hallway towards the front entrance of the suite and the security room door.
Meanwhile, Ellen lingered to grin slowly, her eyes going half lidded as she gave Belle a strange look.
"Hey, Lycaon," said Ellen, her voice transforming suddenly into a slightly brighter and eager version of itself, her eyes still on Belle. "Would you read me a story to help me sleep?"
"Of course, Miss Ellen," said Lycaon tersely but with an automatic feel to it, as if it was a request he never turned down when asked. "Come along. I intend to take first watch tonight."
Ellen's smile and eyes widened at Belle, who could do nothing at all but blink at the obvious non-verbal taunting. Then Ellen turned, her tail whooshing through the air, and she followed Lycaon down the hall. To sleep in the same room as Lycaon, and leaving Belle all by herself.
Belle stared after both them, feeling a mix of shame, remorse, and outrage. W- what was that all about? Yeah, the video call was stupid, but wasn't Lycaon over-reacting? Or was he? Had he not almost died multiple times in the last few days while protecting her? Belle blinked. Would it be fair to argue that if she was stupid with her own life, she was also then being stupid with Lycaon's life?
A ball of ice hit Belle's gut and a ball of lead lodged in her throat. Yes, that was true. Lycaon was quite reasonably mad at her. That was fair. But still- his demeanor? His subsequent disregard for her.
Something else was going on. Something between her and Ellen and Lycaon.
And whatever it was, Belle was entirely sure it was Ellen Joe's fault!