“You’ve never liked anyone?”
“No.”
“Has anyone ever given you a reason to?”
There was a long silence from Holly, and, for a while, Mal thought they were going to lead him the rest of the way out of the airport without any further conversation. Finally, Holly said, “You did.”
Mal’s brain made a noise like a record scratch. What was happening? Whatever it was, it had better not be.
“I did nothing for you, Holly. I harassed some nuns because I was hungry. You just happened to be there.”
“You could have picked any time to go after them. You could have waited until they had the cops come and drag me to their nun cave. But you didn’t. You stopped them, and you tried to get me to leave. That’s niceness, asshole. Deal with it.”
Mal didn’t respond, but the ground hissing as it corroded away under his feet spoke volumes. Some people’s cheeks flushed in anger. Mal caused involuntary property damage.
“You were nice to me, and you didn’t have to be,” Holly added softly.
“Well, don’t expect it to happen again,” Mal grumbled. To make sure he got his point across, he added, “And don’t be annoying or I’ll eat you.”
For some strange reason, a smile flickered across Holly’s face. “I’ll do my best.”
Chapter
Twelve
MAL
“There are a lot of creatures in the world who lack empathy,” Mal began, deciding to circumvent further confusion by cutting to the chase. The kid wanted to know why they were weird, and Mal was going to fill them in. “Some kill for pleasure. Some kill to survive. Some do both.” It was Mal. Mal did both. “Neither tend to feel any remorse.” Also Mal.
“I don’t kill,” Holly said in a hopeful tone.
“I don’t care,” Mal said to make sure they both knew how little the kid’s life meant to him. Holly wilted, and Mal pressed on. “Some creatures only care under certain circumstances. Some due to trauma, some due to their nature. Brownies come under that last category.”
“I’m pretty sure brownies don’t care about anything. At least I hope they don’t. They’re too much fun to eat.”
Mal blinked at the kid who just claimed they didn’t kill. Maybe they were on the psychopathy scale after all. Those folks were well-known to be liars. “You eat brownies?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” Holly cocked their head to the side. “When I’m on my period, I’m violent unless I have an ample brownie supply. Every girl has her period food. That one’s mine.”
“You’re a girl?”
“Duh.”
“Good for you.”
“You’re not very observant, are you?”
Mal was keenly observant, but since he didn’t care about humans in general, he didn’t think about gender much, especially if it wasn’t obvious. Holly’s shapeless clothing anddon’t look at mevibe made it so Mal would have had to care in order to find out what her gender was.
He knew it would either come up or it wouldn’t. Either way, he still didn’t care because it had no relevance to how he treated someone. Mal was far more concerned with whether someone was delicious. Holly wasn’t, and that was all he needed to know.
Clayton was going to be so fucking delicious…
Ahem. Back to the moment at hand.
“I’mnot observant? I’m not the one who’s…” Mal stopped himself. He wasn’t sure what would happen to the magic Holly was unconsciously working if he startled her. He didn’t relish getting decorporealized because reality unbent and crushed them when the concrete wall they were walking through was reunited with itself. He might be tough, but reality made its own rules when it came to what belonged where. “How long until we’re out of here?”
“We’re there.” Holly waved a hand and showed a grass-covered grate leading out to an overgrown lot. It wasn’t there afew seconds ago. “You still have to answer my questions until I’m satisfied, though.”
