“Yea, yea, food first.” he said with a light chuckle, pulling up to a microphone on a window and giving it his attention, “Spiced Kine, just brown it, a 2, Citrus juice and Dark Caffe.” he said before using his Comcard to pay the bot.
It responded with a chime before the meal was passed out in a basket by a mechanical arm.
He took the food bag and passed it to me, “Hold this a sec,” he said before retrieving the cups to put them in holders so we could pull away from the window. Once he found a space out of the way, in a nearby motel lot, he parked, did something with his Comcard, and took the fiber bag back to pull out a wrapped chunk of meat. He passed everything else back, “the rest is yours.” he said, taking the paper off the top of his to eat it like a candy bar, careful not to mess up his suit.
Accepting the package back, I took my turn to look inside, pulling out a box of some sort of fried prawn and yam chips; way more flavor than I was used to, “This smells amazing,” I marveled, picking at the chips first; they would cushion anything in the frying mix.
“Don’t get too excited. It’s cheap.” he said, starting on his own meal while pulling back into traffic, heading directly toward the big highway. “So. I see you’ve been climbing.” he said, trailing off with a quick glance in my direction, seeming to expect an explanation.
I tucked the chip in my cheek to answer quickly, “Not intentionally.”
He hummed, ruminating on the response till I was done chewing and reaching for another chip, “Explain.”
I hesitated, nibbling on the edge of the chip nervously while I tried to find an angle to explain it from, “He wants me to keep the spirits in his throne room up. Or people distracted. Cause I’m less obvious or something.”
He nodded, going quiet while he ate.
Recalling the delivery he made the day before, I stopped eating and frowned, “About the hands...”
He stopped chewing to glance toward my face, probably trying to get a feel for my thoughts on the matter, “Right, you saw that.” He stated as he looked away, “They’re in the back seat.”
I twisted to look at the cooler before turning back to him, “Why?”
He shrugged, weaving around a bit of traffic, “Urgu said hands, I brought hands.”
My eyebrows furrowed at him and I grazed on more chips while psyching myself up to ask more; eventually repeating him with, “Explain?”
He gave a smirk, “It’ll be a message to the mine’s old owner. A bouquet of his Right-hand’s right hands. Your master is trying to move up in his own world.” he explained.
I sat quietly, taking the thought in while I ate, pausing to ask, “Any ideas on the burnt one?”
He shook his head, “Some of the miners got free. I assume it’s related.”
I nodded and we both fell silent, picking at our food.
He finished first, crumpling the paper and dropping it in the vehicle’s garbage processor before drinking from his Caffe, “What do you think of it?” he asked, before clarifying, “The burnt one.”
After a slight apprehensive whine I responded, “Seen it before.” I replied between fried prawns.
“Oh?” he asked, sounding genuinely caught off guard but keeping his eyes on the vehicles around us, “Where? How?”
I gave a bit of a wince at the original memory before deciding to skip those details, “Looked like an Umbra burn. Power source woulda been another person.”
He went silent, dark eyebrows pinching together as he nursed his Caffe.
Worried he might start thinking I was trying to fool him, I added softly, “I know people don't always believe it's a thing, but I have seen it.”
He shook his head, “No, I know. Kindred are a nuisance. It’s probably how some of the miners got out too.” he said, going quiet again.
I found myself staring out the window at passing lights, we were quite a ways in the air. The silence gave me long enough to finish what I could of my food before setting the leftovers in the bag on the floor and giving my own drink some attention.
“Hey,” he said, tossing a fuzzy blanket at my head, “Slide down your seat a bit. You’ll be a good alibi so we can’t have you seen here.”
I nodded and put my cup in the holder so I could curl into the floor space without spilling, pulling the blanket over my head so I could still see him. I could feel us starting to descend and weave around build-mounds, probably approaching his destination and needing cover which was found when we turned into a tunnel.
He spun the vehicle in place to settle into park facing the exit, wasting no time in pushing his seat back to reach into the storage for what ended up being a long black fur vest with a hood, a black skull mask detailed in red, and leather gloves. He shrugged the vest over his clothes and pulled the gloves on; the hood, once up, distorted the appearance of his horns. He flashed me that smirk before putting the mask on and reaching back for the cooler, pausing to look at me as he rested it in his lap, “Wanna see before I go?” he asked, patting the cooler; I could hear his grin.
I stared at him, it was definitely not a question I expected to get, but, “I uh… Sure?” I was curious!
I could feel his amusement second hand as he wordlessly popped the lid open. I don't know what I expected, but it definitely wasn't five-hands-tied-at-the-pinky surrounded with actual carnivorous flowers, even if he did call it a bouquet.
My eyebrows came together as I realized what I was looking at and couldn't help but give a soft snort of laughter, “It’s a hand-off.”
He busted out laughing, clearly caught off guard by my joke, and I took to grinning ear-to-ear at the accomplishment. “You’re going to get us in trouble,” he said playfully after settling down, as if he wasn’t the one delivering body parts. “Wait here,” he added before climbing out of the vehicle to take the cooler somewhere.
I stayed there, on the floor, in the blanket, with nothing but my thoughts and my juice, so naturally my mind wandered; Why hasn’t he made a move on me? Am I not good enough? What if I made the first move? Why does he keep me around if not for… the more time passed, the more my thoughts spiraled into, What if he doesn’t come back?
As if on cue, the vehicle chimed, started up, and began driving itself, prompting me to peek out of the blanket. My heart was racing, I didn’t know where I was or where this vehicle was taking me but after making its way around what felt like a rather sharp turn, Vee climbed in. “That went well,” he said in a jokey tone as he closed the door. He wrestled himself free of his disguise as we sped off.
“Oh?” I asked.
“It went as expected, left the package at the drop point, no fireworks.” he said with that confident smirk.
All these red flags and I still found myself saying, “We could kiss.”
That smirk faltered as he looked at me, clearly unsure of how he wanted to respond, “You don't get that enough?” he finally asked as he took the wheel and turned the autopilot off.
I looked down at my drink, not sure how to respond to his counter, so I sipped at the juice sheepishly. His emotions had muted so I couldn't really sense enough to guess the thought processes behind his rebuttal. I didn't know what to do with these emotions, let alone communicate them.
“Well?” he pushed.
I panicked and pulled the blanket over my head, “Not from anyone I like,” I squeaked.
He was quiet and I felt the vehicle turn, prompting me to peek out again. His jaw appeared to clench and relax as he considered the revelation, his uncertainty palpable. An e-cig was pulled from his jacket pocket so he could take a long drag before finally speaking again, making the cabin smell of Bakko and cotton candy? “I show you severed hands and you’re still interested,” he seemed to be talking to himself, no doubt taken aback by my lack of sensible priorities. He glanced to me and I pulled the blanket back over my face in time to feel the vehicle come to a stop and settle into park, “You can stop hiding, we’re here.”
“Here?” I asked, emerging from the blanket again and moving to look outside; we were at the motel we’d parked at earlier, “Is this-?”
“Don’t get excited. It was the most obvious place to take you on record. We’re already signed in. Bring the garbage; gotta make it look like we’ve been here a while.” he said before getting out and heading for the room.
I nodded, grabbed up the bag and empty cups, and followed.
