“I know you know what she knows. Don’t bother saying you don’t.” His voice was liquid. If sounds could be seen with the naked eye, then this would’ve been a rich indigo, like fine oily dye. Purple-blue with a faint rainbow sheen. “And I know you know where she is right now. I saw her sneaking out of the hotel last night, but she must’ve known I was watching for her, so she gave me the slip-slip-slide and now she’s nowhere to be seen. So the first order of business is for you to tell me where she is.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I really don’t.”
He sighed, as though very disappointed. “Here’s the way it’s got to work. I don’t want you to get hurt. You just go with me right now down the hall and out to the street, without making any fuss or getting the guards steamed, and you take me right to where she is. And everything will be fine. Do you think you can do that? Are you okay with that?”
I just stood there, stupido, like he’d hypnotized me.
“She’s not going to be your best friend. Trust me on this one. I can save you a lot of grief. A great deal of suffering. You do what I say, and you won’t get hurt. Trust me. I know her a hundred times better than you, inside and out, and she’s nobody’s friend but mine. Never was and never will be. She will lie and cheat and steal and trick you for all you’ve got and leave you like she thinks she left me. Only I’m not letting her get away with that kind of thing. Not now and not never ever. She’s mine, mine, mine. There’s no way but my way, you understand?”
I nodded, even though I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
“She’s pulled this kind of thing before and it didn’t work. So you might as well get it into your brain right now that you’re not special, you’re not her friend, and she doesn’t really want you. She’s just winding you round her finger with her lies and her spaced-out talk. What was it this time? No, don’t tell me. She gave you the mutation routine—is that it? Homo lux. The big alien transformation? Did she tell you all about the creatures of light from the realms of night? Was it angel-talk with you or was it monster movies? No, really, don’t tell me. I want to figure this one out all by myself. But in the meantime, you start walking out of the room and down the hall and out of this place. You understand? You do that and you won’t have to get hurt.”