The Puppet Assassin [TTR sequel]

The Puppet Assassin - Ch 18 [family -|- luke]

"I'll be honest, I'm surprised you can actually cook." I heard Liam say. I turned to find he'd moved from the hallway to the kitchen. Dizelde and I followed.

"I'll be honest too, I don't really like you." Larkin, smirking at his own one liner, turned as we entered the room. He was at the counter mixing up some dough in one bowl and a tomato paste in another. Liam was perched on a stool at the breakfast bar. "Dizelde come help me."

Beside me, Diz stiffened a little before stepping forward, her facial expression obviously schooled into a polite expression. Either she didn't want to help or Lark had done something to make her wary. I really hoped that it wasn't the latter.

She stopped a few metres away and awaited instruction. Lark pointed to a chopping board where a pile of vegetables lay waiting.

"You've had pizza before, right?" he asked. She nodded. I could imagine her glaring at him. "Then you should know how to cut up that stuff, yeah? Go right ahead. Luke?"

"What?" I grumbled, not wanting to be roped into helping.

"Have you talked to Liam about the phone call yet?"

Oh. "Ah, he just got here."

Lark glanced at me sideways. "Now, then?"

I rolled my shoulders to relieve tension. It felt an awful lot like he was bossing me around. "Yeah, fine, whatever. Did Garth tell you what the basic message was?" I directed the question at Liam.

"Mm, yeah." Liam's green eyes went hard. "And you have no idea who the caller could have been? Didn't recognise the voice?"

"Nope."

Dizelde's chopping slowed.

"Dizelde THINKS it is her father," Larkin said, pausing his stirring to stare at her. She flicked a glance at him and then suddenly began chopping faster.

"It's not," Liam said easily. "You can trust me on that, Dizelde. He's now ashes but my father saw his corpse before he was cremated."

I wonder how he got that information from his father without revealing what it was for. I wasn't sure if Dan would allow Dizelde to be kept here and not in the care of LASER agents. He was a good, honest guy so he might feel obliged to report it.

"I'm going to set up a security vehicle at the end of the street to keep an eye on things."

Larkin banged his spoon against the edge of the bowl, harder and louder than necessary.

"My street already has the best security, Liam, as well as highly sensitive neighbours. Getting into this house is already impossible, you don't need to waste other people's time."

"I'm not backing down on this so you'll just have to clam up and get used to it. Dizelde."

She turned and raised her eyebrows.

"Don't take a step outside the wall surrounding the house unless you are in the company of at least three people that you trust. Understand?"

She narrowed her eyes and nodded.

"Good. I'll tell my team that if they see you outside alone, they're to apprehend you. So don't forget."

"...Like a fucking prisoner," Larkin muttered.

"It's for safety, Lark, you know that," I said, even though I felt a bit cruel about it anyway. Dizelde was chopping up some mushrooms with extra force, her knife banging on the board each time it came down, though she made no comment.

I heard the front door open and a few seconds later Garth walked in, absolutely drenched.

"Storm came out of nowhere," he grumbled, plonking a bag onto the counter. He took the knife from Dizelde and nudged her out of the way, cutting up the vegies with the speed of an experienced cook. Lark handed Diz a spoon so that she could help spread it onto the bases. She was probably hardly aware of their herding, they worked well as a team. If only they got along better.

"What the shit is with this cheese? Since when do we put cheddar on pizza?" Lark blurted out as he looked in the bag, outraged over the tiniest thing.

Liam pushed back his stool and stood. "I think I'm going to go before they start up again. Keep in touch though, I'll catch up with you soon." He left.

Wait a minute. "Hey Liam!"

"What?" He sounded like he was at the door.

"Tell Bianca 'Saturday, seven thirty'."

He was silent for a moment. "Way to move in fast, Remington," he said, quietly amused, before shutting the door.

Garth had stopped chopping. "You have a date?" He asked, mockingly shocked.

I glowered. "Oh, no way! I actually had a chance to meet someone!" I said sarcastically.

"A witch? Someone I might know?" Lark asked, reaching around Dizelde to grab the toppings.

"No and no."

"She know about witches?" Garth asked, raising a brow.

That was a good question. "I don't know. She's Kayli's friend... so maybe? If not, then it's not hard to explain it all. Most people hear the 'rumours'. And with the whole mutant thing it's not that weird."

"Where are you taking her?" Lark asked.

"That's a secret." I smirked.

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Sorry there's not much... 'bulk' in this chapter. It's a filler, though it was a fun filler to write, for once. Hopefully it's a fun filler to read. I'll try to upload again quickly.

Sid x