Matt

Over the next week, brunch with Evelyn became a regular occurrence. It was still awkward a lot of the time, and there were still moments where I had to tamp down on my instincts or excuse myself until I could calm down, but we kept it up anyway. Those moments were growing less frequent, with time, although there was still a long way to go, and there were moments now where I could almost forget that pain entirely. They never lasted long, and the pain and fear and hatred never disappeared completely, but this was a start.

It still felt weird calling one of my parents by her first name, so this morning we were trying out some options to see how they felt.

“How about mother?” I asked between sips of coffee.

“Eh, feels a bit too formal for me.”

“Fair point.” Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of that one either. “Mama?”

“I could work with that. Could you?”

Hmm…

“No… I don’t know why, but no…”

Deliberations were going well.

Our vitally important discussion was interrupted by a knock at the door. Excusing herself for a moment, Evelyn took it upon herself to answer it while I topped up my coffee. When I returned, a new visitor had joined us in the living room. Erica sat awkwardly on the couch between Evelyn and I, and I could tell there was a tension in the room that wasn’t there before.

“Hey Matt.” She offered me her trademark, bovine smile, but it was obviously forced. She quickly realized she wasn’t fooling anyone and dropped the pretense. “We need to talk.”

I sat back down in my chair, nodding towards her, wondering what she might have to say.

“So there’s a lot to go over, and I don’t really know where to start, but basically, if you’re willing, I wanna offer you and Chelsea a way to bite back at Cyrus.”

Well that was certainly interesting. Now I understood why Evelyn was so tense, I can’t imagine she liked whatever Erica was suggesting.

“What do you want us to do?”

“Well, Aoife, Willow, and I were thinking, right? The best way to get at Cyrus is to turn his friends against him, and now that you two have joined us, we have a pretty surefire way of doing that. All we need you to do is get the golden prick to confess.” She crossed her arms, gently tapping a hoof against the floor as she spoke. “He’s arrogant, and he likes gloating. If he doesn’t think anyone else will hear, it should be pretty simple to get him to say something he shouldn’t.”

“So what’s the catch?”

“The catch… is that you have to piss off a dragon the size of a whale, on purpose, and it’s pretty hard to walk away from something like that alive.”

“So it’s a suicide mission.”

“That,” She nodded towards Evelyn for the first time this conversation. “Depends on Evie.”

“You know what you’re asking for, right?” Evelyn’s voice was stern, her eyes cold. She wasn’t yelling, not yet, but it’s obvious she wasn’t ok with this. “You’re asking Matt to put himself in front of the deadliest creature within five hundred miles and antagonize him, you’re asking him to place himself in the clutches of a monster who manipulates emotions like they’re nothing, and you’re asking me to help you make that happen.”

“I’m aware, Evelyn.”

“So why?”

“Because this might work.” Erica’s response was calm and measured. She clearly didn’t want things to escalate. “We’ve all been working our asses off trying to think of something, and we’ve all come up blank. This is the only idea I have, and Aoife and Willow are willing to back me up. I need to know that you both are willing to do this before I pitch it to everyone else. I wish there was another way, but I’ve got nothing, and we’re running out of time, so unless you have some kind of brilliant plan kicking around up there…”

“I get it.” She made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a hiss. “I wish I didn’t, but I do. In the end, it’s Matt’s choice. I’ll help if he does, but as soon as I think he’s in danger, I’m pulling him out of there.”

“If I do this, I’ll be in danger from start to finish. He could splatter me against a wall with a flick of his wrist, Ma.”

Ma didn’t feel right either.

“Not exactly filling me with confidence right now, kiddo.” She sent a tense smile my way, flashing her fangs before turning back towards Erica. “I’ll have to be close by if this is going to work, if his nose is as sensitive as you say, how can I get close enough to act without being spotted?”

“The Fletchers can help with that a little. Rat magic is all about sneaking around, so with a potion from Mr. Fletcher’s blood, you might have a shot.”

“That still doesn’t deal with scent.”

“That’s-”

“We can fake your death.” The idea sprang fully formed  into my mind. I was always pretty vocal about wanting to take revenge on the vampire who killed my parents, I really thought this could work. “If I show up with a bottle of your blood and say I killed you, that blood will mask your scent, and nobody’ll have any reason to assume you’re there, right?”

“Is that a yes from you then?”

Right. I still hadn’t officially agreed yet.

“I’m in.” I said, trying to project more confidence than I felt. “Cyrus has to go down, and if this really is the best way, I’ll do it. Just don’t get jumpy and pull me out of there too early or something…” I was running out of words for mother. “M-Moom…”

“Moom?”

Fuck it. Commit, Matt.

“Yes. Moom.”

Evelyn grinned, and I knew I’d made a mistake.

“You know what, Matt? I think I like that one.”