The Drummer's Coming For You Now ((51))

[Meadowlark]

She moved over to clean the bartop, shaking her head, "No. I don't believe he did."

[qualapec]

"I was a hitter and an enforcer," he stated it simply, coldly, waiting to see her reaction. "I taught Mac how to kill."

[Meadowlark]

Her brows rose at that, as she looked up to meet his gaze briefly, "Quite the job."

[qualapec]

His grin went somehow feral, tail bristling. "Stop playing dumb." He put a paw on the chair and leaned on it. "I really hope you know what I'm capable of, because the rest of this conversation will be very interesting without that acknowledgment."

[Meadowlark]

Her eyes narrowed very slightly, "I know full well what you're capable of. Especially if those claw marks over your eye are any indication of what you've been doing of late."

[qualapec]

"Oh good, I'm glad to be speaking frankly with you, Ms. Griddlebone. I don't think I could have handled it if you turned out to be a bimbo, but I suppose you wouldn't have lasted long in this town without a survival instinct." Sneering, he cast a cursory glance over the room again, seeing where the phone was just in case he needed to cut the line. He couldn't tell if there was a weapon anywhere, but he wouldn't have been surprised. "I care a lot about Macavity. I've trusted a lot of myself with him. Given him pieces and taken them in turn. I'm giving up a lot to you, I hope you realize." His eyes narrowed. "I need to know that you won't toss that back."

[Meadowlark]

She blinked at that, looking him over, not entirely sure she understood everything he'd said, but getting the meaning of the last sentence, "I've no intention of doing so." As soon as the words were out of her mouth she realized what that meant for her. Did she honestly mean that? Yes, she was pretty sure she did. Well that was going to cause hell if 'Tiger ever came back.

[qualapec]

"Well miss, I'm glad to hear that." His face softened, turned almost genial.

Within a heartbeat, he shifted and snarled, drawing one of the knives in his suitcoat in a second, in the moment he didn't quite know what he was going to do with it, but it passed, and he'd planted the blade in the table in front of him with a heavy thunk.

"If you hurt him," he met her eyes, voice dropping low and dangerous. "I will make you wish you'd never been born."

[Meadowlark]

Griddlebone startled at that, her free paw moving toward her skirt. When the knife ended up embedded in the table instead she changed the motion to smoothing down the blue fabric. "I-I understand."

[qualapec]

"So long as we understand each other..." he growled. He straightened, left his knife on the table as a reminder. "Mac needs you, I think. I hope I'm right, because otherwise I think I might be throwing my life away for nothing. Do you know how awful it is, to be conscious enough of your own slipping sanity but not be able to control it?"

[Meadowlark]

Her ears flickered back a bit, uncertain how to answer that or if it was rhetorical, "I..."

[qualapec]

"That's okay, most cats don't. I hope you never do, quite honestly. But that's my life every day."

[Meadowlark]

"Why are you telling me this?" Her voice was quiet.

[qualapec]

Brachen snapped his head up and looked out of her, seemingly startled out of his rant and surprised she was there. He swallowed, ran a paw over his face. "I couldn't tell you why, maybe because it's not really a secret, maybe because I want to wake up one day and realize this is all some horrible nightmare, and maybe because I hope you never see Mac go through it."

[Meadowlark]

Her ears flicked back again at that, more in concern for Mac this time than anything, "That's a possibility?"