Chasing Dragons - Clean

Chapter 3: Fandom

Renegade

The next day was an absolute and utter chaotic disaster. I was ready to publicly execute half my compound. It took Breck over an hour to talk me out of it.

Dragon was distantly present, but I was far too wrapped up in dealing with my people to give him much notice, until evening.

Finally, I'd gotten everyone settled down, or gotten frustrated enough that I told them they'd survive until morning. If they wanted to push it, they wouldn't.

Invariably, they all realized that their 'emergencies' weren't all that urgent. Bananas could be bought tomorrow, and school was temporarily suspended so Theresa's sons 'perfect grades' weren't at stake, and all the other worthless minutiae was suddenly just that. Once they'd all filed out of the office block Dragon had given me to use, I sighed and turned to Breck. "Well, that went better than I expected."

He chuckled darkly. "I think they realized yesterday that you really are a Blade."

"What'd they think before? That I was some random kid Blade found on the side of the road and brought home?"

He shrugged. "It's the blonde hair and innocent looking features. You don't look like a vicious killer."

I rolled my eyes. "So I need to come parading in drenched in blood more frequently?"

He shrugged one shoulder. "It couldn't hurt."

I arched an eyebrow at him.

"I'm reasonably sure the hysterical, almost maniacal laughter helped too."

I smacked his arm lightly. "Shut up, ya jerk. You started it."

"They already know I'm crazy, but you've done a remarkable job of keeping your wildly vicious, trained killer persona tightly locked up." He smirked at me. "I think yesterday was the first time they realized that you're not a mini Marista."

"I look nothing like Marista!" I protested indignantly.

"Doesn't matter." He stated patiently. "They didn't ever see her up close, but her distain for this life and for the family were well known."

I shot him an indignantly puzzled look, and made a 'so what?' gesture with my hands.

"So," Breck continued, maddeningly calm, "the point is: the vast majority of the people have barely seen you until the last year or so. Blade kept you away from everyone as much as possible to protect you, so they don't know you."

"But I've been Blade Dancer for years! Ever since Marista left!"

"True. But only the people who actually have real problems come to the Blade Dancer. Everyone else is positive their problems are the highest priority, so they take their worthless minutiae straight to the Blade."

I stared at him for a long moment. "Seriously?"

He nodded, expression grim.

"Ugh." I sighed. "Poor Blade." I paused. "How'd he ever get anything done?"

Breck grinned. "That's where you and I and Adison all come in."

I nodded slowly. "We did most of the foot work and he did the people stuff."

"Yep. And you and I filled most of the contracts, which left Blade with more time for Fiona and for you."

"Well, at least the money issues aren't a factor." I sighed. "We'll have jobs any where and any time we want to take them."

He shrugged. "True. There's always someone somewhere who wants someone else dead and is willing to pay handsomely for it."

"Exactly." I muttered, then yawned. "Wow, apparently my body's trying to tell me something."