Dangerous Creatures(20)

“Did I say Link Floyd?” Ridley shook her head. “I meant Supertramp.” She glared meaningfully at the blond chick staring at her boyfriend.

Back off.

Floyd bumped fists with Link and added, “Or superhot.”

Excuse me?

Ridley frowned. This wasn’t what she was expecting. “Did I say Supertramp? I meant Bitch.”

Link’s eyes flickered over to her, surprised. Even Floyd looked at her like she was psycho.

Rid shrugged. “What? It’s a band. Look it up.” She stifled the urge to kick the coffee table to pieces. It would be bad for her boots.

“Da-ang,” said Link and Floyd, accidentally and in unison. They looked at each other and laughed.

It was the final straw.

“You two want to get a room?” Ridley rolled her eyes. “Or maybe you can just show me mine. I’m exhausted.”

“Yeah. Sorry. Sampson needs his own room, and Floyd and I share the other one.” Necro glanced at Floyd, like there was a story there and she was warning her not to tell it.

Which was fine, since if there was, Ridley definitely didn’t want to hear it. “Nice. I see who the boss is around here.”

A shadow flickered across Necro’s face. “You know any Darkborns? They’re unpredictable. Not exactly roommate material.”

“Darkborn?” Link was confused.

“Long story,” Rid said. She looked at Necro and Floyd. “Some kind of mutant Caster. But he’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“What are you gonna do? Charm him?” Necro laughed. “I’d love to see you try, Siren.”

Apparently, Darkborn immunity had advantages beyond Underground card games. Ridley had lost everything back at Suffer, when Sampson had beaten her in spite of her Power of Persuasion. She wasn’t interested in going head to head with him anytime soon.

Not like I’d admit that to these two fashion victims.

“So my mojo doesn’t work on him. That doesn’t mean he’s invincible.” Ridley was irritated. She just wanted this day to be over.

That and my own bedroom.

“Watching you try to Cast something on Sam? That would be like watching a fly try to high-five an elephant. You barely exist to him.” Necro was happy to remind her of what she already knew.

“We’ll see about that,” Rid said. “Just show me my bed, Nympho.”

Floyd looked at Necro, who stood there with a hand on her hip. “Find it yourself. You can’t miss it. It’s the only mattress on the kitchen floor. The dirty one.”

Then Necro smiled—her first smile of the night. “By the way. A friend of yours wanted me to tell you something.”

“I don’t have any friends,” Ridley said.

“Sure you do. I don’t know his name, but I think he gave me some kind of sick message for you. You seem to bring that out in people. It’s been stuck in my head, like a bad dream. Happens sometimes.” Necro extended an arm around Ridley, pulling her close.

“Keep your sick dreams to yourself,” Ridley hissed.

“Vindicabo,” Necro said. “One word. Four syllables. Noun. Vengeance Cast.” Her lip rings clicked against her teeth as she spoke. “I think you have friends in low places, Siren.”

Vindicabo.

The word hung in the air between them like a threat. Ridley stepped back, stumbling against the wall, pulling away from Necro. “What kind of message is that? I will avenge what? What are you talking about?” She’d seen enough Vindicabo Casts to know they were bad news for everyone involved. A Vindicabo was the Casting equivalent of a Vex: It showed no mercy, took no prisoners, and left a vast trail of destruction in its wake.

Ridley swallowed.

“That’s all I got.” Necro shrugged. “This stuff comes to me at night. I don’t control it. And I’m not your secretary.”

“Nice try, Nutbag.” Ridley rolled her eyes. Her heart was pounding, but she could see Link watching her curiously from the doorway, and now she had no choice but to try to play off the whole conversation.

No big deal. Whatever.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. My kind, we hear these things. Watch your back. Something’s coming for you. Or someone.” Necro’s eyes flickered to Link.

“Both of you.”





CHAPTER 10


Dream of Mirrors


Ridley thought it had to be a joke. But Nympho or Nightmare or whoever wasn’t kidding. According to Miss Piercing Pagoda, not only was Ridley’s life in danger, but her bedroom was the kitchen.

The kitchen floor.

The second of the two was the bigger problem, as far as Rid was concerned. She was familiar with death threats, but sleeping on a bare mattress on a dirty linoleum floor was something new. Ridley suspected her new roommates were trying to punish her, and if they were, they were a couple of sadistic geniuses. She had never slept on the floor of anything, anywhere, in her life.

Even when Abraham Ravenwood himself had kept her in a literal gilded cage, she’d had a divan for a bed.

For the record, she wasn’t certain she’d ever been in a kitchen. It wasn’t entirely her own doing. Back at Ravenwood, Kitchen wouldn’t stand for that sort of thing.

By the time Link returned from the Beater with her three bags, a big gray box, and his old Stonewall Jackson basketball team duffel, Rid was lying on the mattress, fully dressed.