Friends and Enemies (Gwen Farris Book 5) (30 page)

That was the first sign that something was incredibly wrong.

No one was there.

"What kind of a prison are they running here, anyway?" She didn't know if the correct response was to go and demand she be guarded more carefully, or to revel in the fact that no one had been watching her pee. Both were probably the correct thing to do, on some level or another.

She was about ten feet down the hallway, going slowly, her feet a few inches over the ground, when Katherine explained.

Sort of.

'You gave your parole, Gwen. So did I, as far as that goes.'

"So? Why would they trust my word, in particular?" She sounded just a bit pissy, thinking about how it was all her fault that Katherine had access to the knowledge she'd given Europa. Rather than address that rather obvious point, the other girl used their mouth to speak.

"Why
wouldn't
they trust you, Miss Farris? Your word has been impeccable, at every turn. Even when it could have led to your own death, you've honored it. The pure fact is that I
can't
escape from here, not while I'm injured. A point that I'm sure young Peter didn't miss when he failed to fix my leg totally. You won't help me do it, so there's no need for a guard on me that way, for the time being." They kept floating along, Gwen doing the work that way, using her own magical talents for the task.

Then she giggled a little. It was Katherine still, but it was annoying. Especially since the situation was so incredibly fucked, thanks to her.

"
Peter
grew up rather nicely, didn't he? I bet I could get him into bed. Boys that age don't need a lot of convincing, as far as sex goes. It's one of their better traits."

Gwen nodded, both because Pete
had
grown up cute, and because if Kate tried that, even once, she'd teletransport them straight up in the air so fast and hard that they might leave some internal organs behind. That was metaphor, but the other woman chuckled at it, a bit nervously.

"Killjoy. Why shouldn't we have a bit of fun? You have to know that one way or another, we aren't long for this world. Goodness, it's your own plan, isn't it? I hear it all, you know."

She took back over and frowned, just as she was about to float down the stairs. It was a nice set of them, which wasn't a problem, most days. Wood, but polished and cleaned in a way that made them slightly tacky, instead of slippery. Gwen had never been certain how that worked. Some kind of wax, possibly.

"You hear what?"

"Why, everything you think.
All
the time. Not when you were tucked away for all those years, since all you did was scream, but when I let you out, ever since you came to my world, I've known every part of it. Every hope, fear, and desire for nachos, whatever those are."

"Oh." It made a certain amount of sense, but she didn't bother to let it get to her. It was just one more sign as to who had the real power here, wasn't it?

Katherine Vernor was the owner of this body, and Gwen Farris was simply the ghost that tried, and had failed, to possess her. That the whole thing had been set up by the heiress, probably using some help from Erin Debussey, just made her feel that much weaker about it all.

Like she didn't matter at all, when it came down to it.

It wasn't until they got to the front hallway, and she turned toward the morning dining room that anyone saw her. It wasn't even one of the guards.

It was in fact, Will Werner.

He actually looked good, compared to most of the others that she'd seen, who'd looked worn around the edges. He'd gained a few pounds, but had been a raw boned man before. That made him thin now, but healthier looking for the extra bit. The suit he had on was nice, if a bit more somber than what she'd noticed him in before. This was striped, which was the fashion, but in light blue and silver, instead of warmer colors. He had a hat, held firmly in his hands, which meant he wasn't living there, most likely. If he was that would have been closer to the door, and he wouldn't have picked it up until he was heading out.

When the man, who had to be pushing fifty, she realized, saw her, he went a bit white.

"Miss Vernor?" There was something near terror in the words.

Kate the Bogeyman. It actually kind of fit, Gwen realized.

"It's me, Gwen. I have control again, after a fashion. Mainly so that people here won't kill Katherine out of hand, I think. Are you visiting Winslow? Or... Um, just leaving for the day?" She smiled, since it wasn't her business, but the man blushed. It was a dead giveaway.

"Don't tell, but it's that second one. It's poor form for the help to have guests over, when the master of the house is away, but things are unsettled enough that Charles felt it worth the risk. When did you get in? I was here all night, and no one woke me."

"Late enough to be annoying. I'm shocked you didn't hear the ten people that came in for the questioning. Anyway, I was just about to try and find some food. I'm under house arrest. Self-imposed, really. If you want to report on this on the air, remind people that if they see me without a guard they should try to catch me. That will mean Katherine got out. I have a broken ankle right now, so it will be a while, but better for people to be watchful, yeah?"

The man, his normal color returning now that he knew he wasn't facing a world killing nightmare bitch, fiddled with his hat for a bit.

"Would it be improper for me to sit to meal with you? That way I can unscrupulously question you, and get the jump on my competitors. I haven't had a good story in several years. Once things came out about myself and Charles, it's been hard. If it wasn't for the Vernors purchasing WGN and firing my old boss, I'd be out of the business altogether. No one else would hire me."

Gwen tilted her head, then shook it a bit, floating lightly as she was. It was starting to become work, since she wasn't used to it anymore.

"I should have suggested that back then.
Buy
the station, and fire the asshole. Brilliant, but not the kind of thing I would have ever considered. Still, you and Charles are out now? Good for you. Sure. I'll give you an exclusive. People might as well know it all. Secrets almost never help anyone. Not to do anything good, or healthy."

They traveled with decent speed then, Gwen not wanting to land until she got to a chair. The room she'd been headed to was set up however, the table for ten having been in use, it seemed. If not that day, then recently enough that the furnishings in the space weren't covered up.

Just as she started to settle in the chair at the head of the table, Will having pulled it out for her, Winslow walked into the room, and froze.

"Miss?
Will
, I don't think you should be here." There was something near fear in his voice, probably due to the breach of trust having a man over for the night showed. The guy took his job very seriously, she recalled.

So much so that he'd broken Will's arm to try and get him not to report anything about her once. How the men had moved past that bit of domestic violence she didn't know. Will didn't seem scared at the moment however, so it might not be a common thing.

"Miss Farris has invited me to interview her. It's a huge story, and this way she'll be able to get her side out before the gossip starts."

She nodded, even though the man had invited himself.

"That's the plan. Though the real tale isn't going to be better than the rumors. People might as well hate me for the right reasons." She glanced up as her butt sank into the cushioned dining chair. "Would it be possible for me to get something to eat? I think the drugs that the Europans had me on are finally starting to fade. I certainly ache enough now." She smiled, not meaning it. It was true, after all, and as time went on, her body was becoming more uncomfortable.

In fact, at the moment it felt like she'd had a hard work out the previous day. No one had even kicked her ass. Yet. That it was coming was, of course, just a thing. Sooner or later someone was going to lose it and come after her. Then she'd do her best not to lose, even if she was too weak and tiny right now to make that work.

Like Billy had told her when she was a girl,
fight
. Even if you were going to lose, or die, you had to do what you could. Otherwise, the bad people would take your life from you, and leave you with nothing at all.

Winslow did
not
seem all that pleased that his honey was trying to do his newsie best to get with Gwen at the moment. In a totally business like fashion, but still, the room got chilly every time he came back. As if saying Will didn't have as much of a right to know what was going on as anyone else.

The only things she kept quiet about were how to rift, and the fact that she could do it herself. It was cowardly, but the public knowing she was a bomb wouldn't go over too well. The fact that she'd learned, the hard way, to teletransport, was left in however. It was how she'd escaped, so needed for the story to make sense. She covered it all, then as the man sat taking notes and asking questions, suggested to Katherine that she do the same.

She grimaced, and looked at Will.

"After all,
she's
the one that's on trial. She's already confessed to it all, so there's no need for it to be hidden. Unless she says the wrong thing. If she tries to tell you how to rift, then-"

The man went wide eyed.

"I understand. That won't leave this room. It would be best if I didn't hear it at all. Maybe we should just run with what you told me? It would round things out to have the rest of the story, but I don't want to risk learning things I shouldn't know."

Gwen was about to agree, since she was kind of bored with the whole thing, but Katherine came out then, and winked at the thin man. "I won't tell you any of the secret things, William. Let
me
start at the beginning? People might as well know why I did it all."

They all went silent, since Charles had walked back in, carrying a tray that held a single plate on it. It was under a silver dome, and the fact that Will wasn't being fed had a bit to do with how upset his boyfriend was, she didn't doubt. It was pure snubery, done in a high class fashion. He'd even put on gray color gloves first, and changed his shirt, making it seem like a proper meal.

It was lunch however, so it was a light salad with a coleslaw style dressing, instead of something small and sweet to drink. There was enough for her to have three bites of it, the way she used to eat, or, in this place, with the ultra tiny fork she was given, about ten.

No one had invented stuffing vast quantities of food into your face here, for some reason. You could try to use the spoons and forks for that kind of thing, but most of them were smaller than the tip of her finger, making it really hard to manage.

She ate in silence, with Katherine becoming chatty between the courses.

It took a while to get it all out, since it didn't start with a kiss from Bethany like it had the night before, but with the girl getting a tutor for magic. When she was fifteen. It took a while to work out that she'd started to experiment with the slightly older college woman within weeks, and after a year had moved on to vamping a full professor at Western University. Erin Debussey, of course.

"It was... Thrilling, to say the least. She was horribly beneath me, socially speaking, but
so
intelligent. Charismatic, really. It was hard not to do what she wanted. It was her mesmerism, but I didn't know that at the time. So, after a while, when she hit upon her plan to take over the world, to make it a better place using the knowledge of the most ancient gods, it was easy to be swept along." There was no giggling with the words, which was the only thing that left them sounding remotely sane.

Another course came then, which was a nice bit of chicken, that seemed to be thigh meat that had been deboned, smothered with a savory white sauce. That meant it was bland, and reminded her a bit of the pudding crap that she'd been eating, but probably without the drugs. On that score it would come down to how upset the new cook was with her. Magda, the main cook, wouldn't have poisoned her, but she didn't really know the woman that was there now.

She ate the food anyway. Either it was good, or not. She couldn't afford to get paranoid now. For one thing she was way too hungry not to have something.

Katherine kept talking, and Will Werner kept on writing away, scribbling page after page with his pencil. At about one thirty, just as she was finishing the last bit of food on her plate, he stood up, looking slightly panicked.

"I'm going to be late. There's a meeting, this being mid-week. I'm afraid I got caught up in the tale. I can just make it, if I run now. I'm due to be on at four, that being my current time slot. Forgive me for rushing away like this. May we speak again?"

Gwen waved at him, "go. You can come and talk to me whenever you want. Just, you know, try to tell the story the way I told it to you?" It was hard, asking him not to lie, but the man
got
what she meant. A lot of this world's news was a bit spotty, as far as the facts went. In fact, it was a lot like their news was mainly filtered through conservative talk stations, in the main.

"I will, Miss Farris. You have my word." There was a bow, then the fellow hoofed it out the door at the side of the room at a trot.

Her plate, which held a small bowl, was empty. It had been an apple and plum compote, which had been good. Sweet enough to count as a real dessert, even to her ruined American palate. There was a bit of tang to the dish, which she tried to savor, as she sat there alone.

Waiting for the next thing, whatever came.

Nothing did, for a long time. No one came in, except Winslow, who took her plate setting away, leaving her to sit there, doing nothing. He actually had work to get to setting things up properly, he informed her, since there was someone living there now. That being Gwen.

After a time, she decided to float to the telesar room, to sit on a soft sofa, and listen to what was on. At first she'd intended to listen to some nice music. Just a popular station that played instrumentals that reminded her of big band music, or perhaps ragtime. Annoyingly enough, they broke in after a while, with Will Werner's voice, talking about
her
.