Psyche

Chapter Ten

Good people do bad things for good reasons. Bad people do good things for bad reasons. And sometimes you're neither bad nor good, and you do things that are bad and good.

The good: getting rid of Patchy, because he was threatening me, and I suspected he wasn't going to be a gentleman to August Park. Stupid minori rarely were . . . They could do with learning some class from me.

The bad: . . . I had to use August Park as bait. Hold it, hold it. I know. Blah, blah, blah, blah, irresponsible, stupid, reckless, rude, mean, evil, blah, blah, blah. Go ahead and shove it, because I knew what I was doing, and why. August would thank me. Or not. I was planning on scramming after I dispatched Patchy and made sure August Park wasn't going to get wrecked by his bosses. And then I was in the clear . . . all the soft-serve I could ever want . . . in my dreams.

Who cared about soft-serve? I thought, It's a distraction. It makes you soft. You'll get fat. But I was still thinking about it. I still missed it. And it wasn't the soft serve-not really. It was just this place. It reminded me a lot of my mother's village, when she sent me there to get to the source of my roots.

I suppose I would miss the soft-serve anyway. And who needed the humans?

I jogged easily along the path. Normal humans would get tuckered out easier, but I was expecting better from her. I was hoping she was going to stay low for a bit longer. She couldn't pop out and start pestering me right away.

I felt a prickle of sensation along the back of my neck. Patchy was here . . . and not happy. I ducked under some branches, and emerged at the foot of a small wooded hill. Patchy was sitting on a rock overgrown with moss, checking an expensive Rolex that he had probably pick pocketed from a human.

"Finally," He snapped, "took you long enough. Give me the girl and get lost."

"Hold up there." I smirked, "I want my payment."

"You'll get it when I get the girl." He stood, brushing invisible dust from his cheap suit.

"Nuh-uh." I shook my head, "If I'm handing her to you, then I get the knives first."

"Don't make me angry." Patchy warned, redness flaring in his eyes. He wasn't going to stay in his human form for long.

"Don't even think of trying to attack me." I countered, "I have millennia of experience on you. Plus she's not here. You think I'd be stupid enough to bring Park here with me, without knowing who you were with and if I was getting the knives? Bitch, please."

"Listen Phoenyx." Patchy glared, a coy smile spreading on his face, "You're a smart guy. You didn't actually think I was going to get you the knives, did you? Once you found Park, I could just kill you."

"Could you?" I said thoughtfully, "You couldn't even find a little girl by yourself."

"HEY! Asshole!" I mentally cursed August Park as she burst from her hiding spot in some brambles. I had sensed her there, but Patchy had not. I had been hoping to use that against him. Damn her and her big mouth.

"You want to call me a little girl again?" She stomped over, eyes like daggers.

I sighed, thought about how human girls were pains in the ass, and turned to Patchy, "Would you mind just rewinding that a bit and forgetting she appeared? She was supposed to stay there. I didn't realize how dramatic she was."

"Dramatic this." She flipped me the bird, "You're such a jerk. You were going to trade me for knives? What are you, some criminal with a dagger fetish."

"Mm . . ." I considered this, "What's your definition of criminal?"

"Well, it's good to see you turned out after all, Phoenyx." Patchy smiled, teeth turning pointy, eye turned dark, his skin starting to transform into that god-awful red color.