With a sigh Alexis looked me squarely in the eye and answered, “I’ll be honest with you, I’m not entirely sure you can do that.” With a ferocious slap on my back he went on with a voice that held far too much sincere joviality. “Cheer up boy, you’re not dead yet. We have a long night ahead of us.” With that the warmth in his voice vanished like water down the drain. “Now answer my question. Can I trust you to behave on this little outing? Aside from asking your questions, will you act strictly as an observer?”
Great! Fantastic! So to recap my day, first I managed to let a major crime lord get his talons into me. Then I agreed to dispense with some of the thorns in his side, only to have said thorn capture me instead and threaten to execute me because I had changed a pen into a gun in my failed assassination attempt. If I was smart I would simply have stayed here and waited for him to return. There was a pretty good chance that whatever he had planned was going to end poorly. But at least with Alexis there was the hope of freedom… or at least the hope for continued existence at any rate. I could only hope that it would someday turn into freedom as well.
Looking up at Alexis I forced a smile onto my face and answered his questions. “You have my word that, aside from my questions, I’ll remain an observer.”
“Excellent.” Alexis exclaimed as he clapped his hands together before turning around, ready to leave. After he took a few steps I was ready to call out to him, but before I could he seemed to remember that I was still frozen in place and he spun around. When he turned he looked straight into my eyes and I saw just how harsh they were. And with a voice that was even harsher than his eyes he asked a question with just a hint of impatience. “Well, are you coming?” Without waiting for my response he spun around and walked out.
Chapter 20
Now while I certainly had no right to be furious with Alexis for this little stunt, I was. He had immobilized me with his forgery, though I was beginning to think he could perform genuine magic since he had never touched anything. I was about to scream at him about my current state when I realized that he had silenced me again. And to me at least, that gave me two very real and valid reasons to be angry with him. When I thought about it logically I knew he was within his rights as I had just tried to assassinate him. But since he was going to get the last laugh, seeing that he was going to be my executioner, I guess I figured that he should be nice to me while he left me alive.
Since I couldn’t do much else I stood there watching his retreating form and when he rounded the corner, I realized that I had moved my head to watch him vanish. That was when I began testing just how much I could move. But before I could try much of anything else I felt a solid pull, like I was a resistant dog on a leash being dragged along behind his master. I wanted to swear and curse at Alexis but I swallowed my initial reaction and considered my situation. As I hurriedly moved to lessen the slack in the invisible leash I decided that I was getting a lesson in humility, which was fair considering the circumstances. So I bit my lower lip and I hustled to keep up with Alexis.
As I ran out of the house I was hoping I would be able to avoid any more tugs when I noticed that Alexis was already sitting in his truck, a truck that was already pulling out of the driveway. Scared that Alexis had just decided to execute me, I ran as fast as I could towards the truck. The last thing I wanted to happen right now was to be dragged to death. When I was close enough I jumped into the truck’s bed and, fortunately for me, that happened just as Alexis took off down the road.
When I landed on the truck’s bed my heart was pumping so hard that adrenaline flooded throughout my body, making it rather difficult for me to take stock of any injuries. As I gave myself that quick once over I was shocked to discover that I must have twisted my ankle while trying to catch up to the truck. I was so distracted by my examination that I failed to notice the headset that fell at my feet from the back of the cab. Truthfully the only reason I noticed it at all was because it flew into my head. My eyes widened as I saw it hovering in front of my eyes. I hesitantly picked it up and placed it up to my ear and, despite everything that had happened, I was actually shocked to hear Alexis’ voice coming out of the receiver.
“It’s about time. Now I know you’re probably a little mad about the rough treatment but I’m not going to apologize for it. I’m sure you can understand that I’m only willing to trust you so far, hence the gag and the leash. But just so you don’t get the wrong idea you were never in danger of being dragged to death, and don’t bother trying to lie to me or yourself, it defeats the purpose of what you’re trying to do. I know you were worried about it because everyone I put through that stunt is, and you’re certainly no exception.”