She’s frowning again.
“Are your billion people all happy with their long, safe lives?”
Her frown lines grow. “Many of them suffer from what we call mental illness.” She turns to look up at me. “I propose a deal.”
“I’m not bargaining,” I say. “I told you that.”
“This is different,” she says. “You want to convince me to help you. I think before you can do that, you need to learn a little bit about humanity and how it has changed. If you let me teach you, I’ll listen to you as well. Maybe I’ll even become the champion you want.”
Instead of stabbing me in the back. It might be worth some cooperation if she could join my cause. “What are you proposing?”
“We’ll reach Reno soon, at the rate you’re traveling. I’ve been watching mile markers, and you move close to thirty miles per hour. It’s not car fast, but it’s impressive.” She inhales and then she sighs. “But you’ve been killing everyone around us, and it seems you destroy tech by being close to it. If you truly want to attract attention, that’s not a good way to do it. You may be killing people, but you’re also eliminating their ability to tell anyone about it.”
I don’t like that.
“Can you suppress those things? If you want human leaders to find us, you’d be better off grabbing their attention in Reno.”
“Suppress what things?”
“Whatever you’ve been doing that’s destroying the internet and technology, first of all. But massacring everyone means there’s no one to pass on word of what you’ve done or where you’re headed. I propose that you stop doing all that for three days.” She smiles. “In the grand scheme of things, do three days really matter?”
“I suppose not.”
“If you let me show you the current state of humans, and if you learn about our time and the way we live, and if you still think we need you to restore the balance, I’ll agree to be your champion.”
“And you’ll train for that now,” I say. “Three days for me and three days for you.” I lift my eyebrows. “You’ll learn to use the powers I can grant you, and you’ll learn about the balance we strive to reach, and I will listen to your confused ramblings about humanity, and then in three days, you’ll join me. That’s what you propose?”
Her eyes flash admirably. “No, I’m saying you will learn what I have to teach about how we live and what we want.”
“Isn’t that what I said?”
Whitney groans.
It makes me smile. “I listen to your confused ramblings and suppress my innate magic, and you learn to use yours. Then in three days, I return to my purpose with you at my side.”
“Or I win you over, and you stop slaughtering innocent people.”
“Sure, except there’s no chance that will happen.”
She holds out her hand. “Do we have a deal?”
I look at it. “Yes.” Then I slowly take her hand and shake it. I dislike how much I like touching her. I yank my hand back quickly. But when I shift into a horse and she climbs on my back, I don’t hate it.
It’s very frustrating to suppress my natural abilities, and it’s vexing in the extreme to stop killing the people who pass us in cars. Leaving those living in tiny shelters alive also bothers me, but I keep my side of our bargain.
Mostly.
If she hasn’t come around over the next three days, I’ll be forced to do something I never wanted to do. I’ll have to ask my brothers to intervene. Killing Whitney may put me back to sleep, but with their help, I can be reawakened almost immediately. I just don’t like the idea of telling them that I’ve made a mistake or asking for their help.
6
Whitney
The first trip we ever took to Disneyland lasted three days. My college visit to Rice University in Houston took three days. And I spent three days locked in a room, writing my thesis paper before I graduated college. Now I have the same amount of time to reform an immortal psycho, and I have no idea where to even start.
We’re all doomed.
Because I’m the worst person I can imagine to show him that earth is great and convince him that he shouldn’t slaughter people. I don’t even like most people. In fact, I might be the single worst-suited person alive for the task of sweet-talking a death demon so he won’t go on another mass-slaughter rampage. And how do you convince someone not to implement their plan to eliminate all the dark, old, sick people of the world when their basic premise makes no sense, but they think it does?
