Tooth & Nail (Withrow Chronicles Book 2) by Michael G. Williams

Tooth & Nail (Withrow Chronicles Book 2) by Michael G. Williams

Author:Michael G. Williams [Williams, Michael G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-08-20T14:00:00+00:00


We were silent for a long time, undisturbed even by the sound of breathing except for Smiles’ heavy, dozing snores, then I looked away from the little electronic Sudoku thing I’d bought out of a gas station’s dollar bin. It wasn't backlit but I could, of course, read it in the dark. Roderick was still staring at his pinky finger, still holding it crooked exactly as before, with the dead butt of a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. I drew a breath that sounded like sandpaper. “Any new ideas for your product endorsements?”

The lights went back on in Roderick’s eyes, like a golem whose magic word has been inscribed for the first time. “Waverly home appliances,” he said without hesitation. “Preferably the washer and dryers. Did you know they make an all-in-one? It’s a front-loading washer that then becomes a dryer when it finishes a load.” A long, slow smile spread out across his lips and the cigarette butt tumbled unnoticed to the floor of the deck. He was still looking at something I couldn’t see, but at least now I could see him looking.

“You’ve seriously spent time thinking about this, haven’t you?” I smiled at him. “What’s your selling point for the washer-dryer business? Why vampires as spokespersons?”

He scoffed, brow knit, eyes wide. “Really, cousin? Blood, obviously. ‘When I need an alibi, I say Waverly Wash & Dry!’” He sang it like a ‘60s advertising jingle, voice high. “It has a ring to it, right? Who could resist their brat screaming that at them in the White Goods aisle of a Sears & Roebuck?”

I chuckled a little, but that was a relic of the time when I thought he was just joking. “I don’t know how to break it to you,” I said, “But Pedro Almodovar already had your idea. It’s in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Late ‘80s, early ‘90s? Sometime in there. I watched it on tape.”

Roderick’s face fell a little and he said, “Damn, you’ve seen that, too? How many people have seen that? Has everyone seen that?”

I could see a pout coming on so I waved it off. “I’m sure no one else remembers.” He smiled and I laughed again, but only half-hearted. “You’re, um, you’re not thinking about trying to go, you know… ” I cleared my throat. “…Public.”

Roderick turned now to look at me again – finally. “Of course not, don’t be absurd. The world that will accept us is a very different one from this.” He waved a hand at life in general, out there somewhere, vague and all-encompassing. I didn’t dare to suppose what he meant, but he let me know on his own. “This world is way too at odds with its own inherent injustices. It thinks it can solve its problems by people being nicer to one another. It hasn’t yet realized that one day the nice people will simply have to make the not-nice ones stop.” He paused. “It will be a world



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