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By Root 4264 0

of black mountains, as if everything of worth had been strip-mined away and the waste had been lumped into those forbidden black mountains like giant mounds of coal. Yeah, it looked like the world’s largest strip-mining operation, and it had that feel to it of waste and desolation. Of things spoiled, and an alien hostility, as if you weren’t quite welcome. I guess Donna would say, bad energy. I’d never felt anyplace that had such an instant alienness to it. Edward was carrying both my suitcases that had come off the carousel. Normally, I’d have carried one, but not now. Now I wanted Edward’s hands full of something besides guns. I wanted him at a disadvantage. I wasn’t going to start shooting on the way to the car, but Edward is more practical than I am. If he decided I was more danger than help, he might be able to arrange an accident on the way to the car. It’d be tough with Donna in tow, but not impossible. Not for Edward.

It was also why I was letting him lead the way and putting me at his back instead of him at mine. It wasn’t paranoia, not with Edward. With Edward it was simply good survival thinking.

Edward got Donna to go ahead of us and unlock the car. He dropped back to walk beside me, and I put some distance between us so that we were standing in the middle of the sidewalk staring at each other like two old-fashioned movie gunfighters.

He kept the suitcases in his hands. I think he knew that I was too keyed up. I think he knew if he dropped the suitcases, I was going to have a gun in my hand. “You want to know why I wasn’t bothered with you following behind me?”

“You knew I wouldn’t shoot you in the back,” I said.

He smiled. “And you knew I might.”

I cocked my head to one side, almost squinting into the sun. Edward was wearing sunglasses, of course. But since his eyes rarely gave anything away, it didn’t matter. His eyes weren’t what I had to worry about.

“You like the personal danger, Edward. That’s why you only hunt monsters. You have to be taking the big risk every time you come up to bat, or it’s no fun.”

A couple came walking by with a cart full of suitcases. We waited in silence until they passed us. The woman glanced at us as they hurried past, picking up on the tension. The man jerked her back to face front and they pushed past us.

“You have a point?” Edward asked.

“You want to know which of us is better, Edward. You’ve wanted to know for a long time. If you take me from ambush, the question will never be answered and that would bug you.”

His smile both widened and faded, as if it wasn’t a humorous smile anymore. “So, I won’t shoot you in the back.”

“That’s right,” I said.

“So why go to so much trouble to fill my hands and make me walk in front.”

“This would be a hell of a time to be wrong.”

He laughed then, soft and vaguely sinister. That one sound said it all. He was excited about the idea of going up against me. “I would love to hunt you, Anita. I’ve dreamed about it.” He sighed, and it was almost sad. “But I need you. I need you to help solve this case. And as much as I’d like the big question answered, I’d miss you. You may be one of the only people in the world that I would miss.”

“What about Donna?” I asked.

“What about her?” he asked.

“Don’t be cute, Edward.” I looked past him to find Donna waving to us from the parking lot. “We’re being paged.”

He glanced back towards her, lifting one of the suitcases to make a vague wave. It would have been easier to do if he’d dropped one of the cases but in his own way, Edward was being cautious, too.

He turned back to me. “You won’t be able to do your job if you’re looking over your shoulder for me. So a truce until the case is solved.”

“Your word?” I asked.

He nodded. “My word.”

“Good enough,” I said.

He smiled, and it was genuine. “The only reason you can take my word at face value is that if you give your word, you’ll keep it.”

I shook my head and started closing the distance between us. “I keep my word, but I don’t take most people’s oaths very seriously.” I was even with him and could feel the weight of his gaze even through the