The Unknown

Chapter 13

It was official, I hated the cold. I walked beside Alister, hands showed in the pockets of my leather jacket. This jacket was lined with soft fabric with a rune on the inside that kept the jacket and pockets nice and warm. It was a gift from Alister. So was the beautiful pink cashmere scarf and knee high heeled leather boots. I had asked him what the occasion was to get such expensive gifts that kept me nice and warm.

"You're still human, can't have you getting sick," he told me. I didn't push his reasons, after all, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth. I was incredibly thankful for the gifts, especially since the temperature was well below freezing.

I followed Alister, my boots clicking on the pavement. So much time has been wasted trying to find Gabe and Madeline, it's almost Christmas. In that time I have tried my best to make good use of that time so I didn't feel like I wasted every minute of it. I trained and I worked on some of the cases that involved killing Other Worlders assigned by the Organization. The pay was nice, although I do need to work on my questioning skills. Anytime I would try, the Other Worlders would laugh. Some called me Barbie and some would call me a child.

I had complained to Alister about it the other day when I found him in the living room reading. "How did it go," he asked me, placing his book mark in its place before closing the old looking book. "I killed them no problem," I told him. "I tried to question them on Gabe and The Prince however, and the bastards didn't find me the least bit intimidating. One even laughed and called me a Barbie." Alister looked over my skin tight leather pants, combat boots, whip holstered on my hip, the tight soft pink long sleeve shirt, and leather jacket. "You're far more curvy than Barbie and your assets aren't plastic," he told me, causing my face to heat up a little. I plopped down on the couch, "I don't care about the Barbie insult, I'm blonde with blue eyes, of course people are going to call me Barbie. Maybe if I dyed my hair and stopped looking like Barbie I'll start having some affect on them."

"Don't," Alister told me. "It has nothing to do with your hair. Don't worry about being intimidating, that's not something you need to be. I'll handle the questioning." After that he went back to reading his book. I looked at him a little slack jawed and he looked over his book at me.

I like you the way you are, Barbie features and all. Don't change, the look he gave me said.

I wasn't able to return with any kind of response, besides my face heating up more. I dropped the topic after that since it was clear he wasn't going to teach me how to question them properly.

"How much further," I asked him as we walked. He didn't reply. Meaning he wanted me to stay silent. I was getting better at reading Alister. He wasn't one to show emotions. Ever. So I had to learn to pick up his subtle tells. I was using him as practice to work on my skills of observation. It was easier said than done. He was a mountain of steel reinforced with some kind of alien metal. Getting anything from him was harder than convincing a lion to keep its mouth open as you go into its mouth to pull its teeth. The only emotion anyone can really tell is when he is feeling angry. Unless you pay attention to how he talks. Its not in his tone, but how he talks.

When he is annoyed, he calls me Ms. Charles, whether he is annoyed with me or someone else. I can understand if it's with me, but why someone else? When he wants to put someone in there place and remind them of just how smart he is, he uses rarely used words as he is talking to them. The result is them looking ridiculous as they try to figure out what he just said. When he feels like murdering someone his fingers flex in a way that resembles as if he has claws on the ends of his fingers and he is resisting the urge to rip out their throat. I have never been on the receiving end of that feeling and I never want to. Other than that I haven't really figured out much about him.