I looked down at Gloria’s smug, pretty face and felt equal parts panic and fury. She wore sweetness like armor; I could fight, too little too late, and it would only make me look petty and threatened. I’d done this dance a thousand times with a thousand saccharine Southern girls, and I always ended up getting danced right out the door.
“What’s in this for you?” I asked Gloria, making no apology for towering over her.
“It’s not about me, hon,” she said with an expression of tender concern. “It’s just, you haven’t been here a week, and already Caryl’s got you interviewing Unseelie bloodsuckers and mopping up at crime scenes?”
She actually sort of had a point, which made me more furious. “You didn’t answer my question,” I said. “Is there money in it for you or something?”
Gloria looked like someone had dropped a worm down the back of her shirt. I looked at Caryl, who only gave a weary sigh.
“Because fey blood was shed,” Caryl explained, “I had to alert my contact at the Department of Homeland Security to the possibility of Arcadian retribution.”
“Wait, the government knows about fairies?”
“Not most of the government, no. But we have people at the DHS, and they will be paying us a substantial cash reward if we can keep the Accord intact.”
“To whom would this reward go, exactly?”
“To the Los Angeles Arcadia Project. Generally, when we are paid for resolving a conflict, I give most of the proceeds to the employees involved in the resolution.”
I gave Gloria a hard look. “Oh, is that so.”
“Don’t make it sound like that,” Gloria chided, giving me a disappointed-mom look.
“I don’t have to make it sound like anything,” I said. “This is my assignment. There is no one, not even Teo, who could do it without me at this point. In the few days I’ve been, here not only have I become best buddies with David Berenbaum, but apparently Viscount Rivenholt has fallen in love with me.”
“What?” said a few people at once. Then the room got very quiet.
I pulled the drawing out of my pants pocket and showed it to Caryl. “I already touched this,” I said sheepishly, “but Teo can attest to the feeling that used to be in it.”
“Yup,” said Teo. “He seriously wants to hit that.”
Caryl looked at the drawing for a moment. “I’ll confess this development surprises me,” she said evenly, “but between the viscount’s inexplicable infatuation and your magic-canceling abilites, I will admit you have become valuable. The best solution would be for the four of you to work together.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” someone blurted.
Oh. It was me.
“I think that sounds like a fine idea,” said Gloria, the very picture of humility.
I forced myself to take slow, deep breaths. “Fine,” I said. “But this is a complicated enough situation without everyone just going off and doing their own thing. If you want my help dealing with Berenbaum and Rivenholt, then I want to be in charge.”
“Now you’re just being a silly goose,” said Gloria. “You don’t even work for us yet. Caryl can’t put you in charge of a major crisis response.”
“So hire me,” I said. “Give me a pen and I’ll sign the damned agreement right now. Don’t act like there is any chance you lot could fire me at this point. I could blow your Code of Silence to bits.”
Gloria put a hand to her mouth, a cute little oh my! gesture. “Oh, honey,” she said in tones of deepest pity. “You haven’t figured it out?”
“That’s enough,” said Caryl. Two calm words, but it was as though someone had cut Gloria’s strings. She drooped submissively on the couch, hands in her lap.
“I haven’t figured what out?” I said.
“That is quite enough bickering,” Caryl said. “I am taking all four of you to Residence One so we can find out if Rivenholt is still alive and plan what to do next.”
“Let me just freshen up first,” said Gloria, sliding down off the couch and hurrying to the downstairs bathroom.
I watched her go, ashamed of myself for focusing my loathing on her short-legged gait instead of her scheming mind. Once she was gone, I muttered between clenched teeth, “I thought everyone came here straight out of the loony bin. Does passive-aggressive qualify as a personality disorder these days? What’s her story?”
The room was very quiet. Uncomfortably so.
“Right,” I said. “I’m not supposed to ask. If someone will give me one of those agreements to sign, I’ll follow the rules and shut up about it. But since no one seems to find me worthy of such a document, I wouldn’t mind a damn answer, since I’m stuck working with her.”