Free The Ryu Morgue (A Jane True Short Story) (Trueniverse Book 2) by Nicole Peeler Page B

seemed genuinely pleased to see Maeve.
    “Your shawl did something to me,” Maeve replied. “I don’t know what, but it was horrible. What you’re doing is evil.”
    Pai laughed, returning to her spinning. It was a rich, earthy sound, that laugh. The laugh of a goddess.
    Ryu moved ever closer to the edge of the hayloft.
    “Oh, humans are so entertaining. I have missed you so.”
    “It’s not funny. This is serious. I hurt my…my boyfriend, because of you.”
    Pai looked up sharply at that. “That bloodsucker was no more your boyfriend than I am.” She carefully disentangled her hair from the spinning wheel, but still she stayed seated. “In fact, you hate him.”
    “That’s a lie,” said Maeve. “I don’t hate him.”
    Pai sat back, her arms crossing over her chest so that she looked stern and matronly. “You are the one who is lying, young miss. But you don’t have to…not with me. I can see into you, don’t you know that?”
    Maeve faltered. Ryu took a few more steps toward the edge.
    He was nearly there…
     

FOURTEEN
    “What do you mean, you can see into me?” Maeve said, intent on keeping the Moiroi distracted.
    “I mean that I know what you really want. What you need. And I gave it to you. That is my gift to humanity.”
    “Gift? I attacked my partner.” Maeve’s head was beginning to hurt, her thoughts growing muzzy. “How is that a gift?”
    Pai stood up from the spinning wheel, moving a few steps closer to Maeve. Maeve knew she should move, but it didn’t seem all that important to do so. She felt safe, suddenly.
    Pai was now in front of Maeve, and she was unsure how the blonde woman had gotten there. Had she closed her eyes? Pai took Maeve’s hands in hers.
    “I know humans, you see,” Pai explained, looking into Maeve’s eyes. Maeve saw eternity in that gaze. “I know how much people want things. How much they feel. How they yearn to accomplish their dreams and yet how much holds them back.”
    “Accomplish their dreams,” Maeve repeated, falling into the depths of those eyes.
    “But you can’t, can you?” Pai said, letting go of one of Maeve’s hands to stroke a finger down her cheek. “You are all so conflicted. So fraught. So needy for other things, so distracted by all the effluvia in your lives. That’s where I help. I take all of that away, so you can finally go after what you really want.”
    Maeve forced herself to focus. That was wrong, wasn’t it? She hadn’t truly wanted to kill Ryu?
    “No. That’s not what you do. You pervert our desires. I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t...”
    “Of course you did,” Pai interrupted, placing her finger on Maeve’s lips. “You hate him. You hate all of them.”
    Maeve saw something drop behind Pai, crouching for a moment before straightening. Ryu. Her partner. She kept her eyes on Pai, however.
    “No,” Maeve said, “I don’t hate him.”
    “But you do, child! I know you do! I can see you . I can see how much you hurt after your mother’s death. She was killed by just such a monster. You went into this line of work to hunt things like him, things…how do you say? That go bump in the night? You want to kill all of them, to make humanity safe. Instead you work with one of them. You have dinner together and act like they’re not murderers, when you know they are. You know they are!”
    At this point Pai had both hands on Maeve’s jaw, holding her head still. Maeve was too confused to fight back, her vision swimming.
    They had killed her mother. Left her an orphan. Taken away her childhood, her one chance at a happy life.
    But that wasn’t Ryu , a tiny voice reminded her. She clung to that voice. It sounded like sanity in a brain racked with chaos.
    “Ryu didn’t do any of that,” she said. “He’s not a monster. He could have gotten rid of me a hundred ways, but he didn’t. He’s my partner.”
    Her voice was strong now. She shook off Pai’s hands, taking a step back but keeping her eyes on Pai.