Little Bill
Daisy saw Veti coming from a mile away, and immediately began efforts to look cool and sullen and unaffected by the utter bullshit raging on around her.
There never should have been a second option. Anyone who knew Max didn't need to choose, and anyone who didn't shouldn't have been able to. It wasn't even that she liked Max -- so maybe she wasn't being quite so objective as she'd hoped, not that objectivity was ever something Daisy had excelled at -- but she'd been there. Close. Closer than close, wading their, ankle deep at the Gates, watching Max ripped away from life. From Veti.
And she'd seen Veti crumble, day by day for a year now. Fucking idiots. You didn't have to be a Reaper to see it. Maybe the necromancer was blind. But the others shouldn't have been. Leaving Max would kill Veti, too. And Daisy was so not about that. She liked Veti. She owed Veti. And she and Siya --
...were about to have a massive fucking falling out.
A year. A year they'd quietly put up with each other, with not so much as a cold glance in Veti's presence, and little else besides. Daisy had only ever been part of two teams before. The first had gotten Max killed. The second had tried to save Veti's life, and for a year, it had worked. They weren't friends, but there was a camaraderie there, two tiny soldier fields left on a battlefield of sanity where any next roll of the die could set the whole damn thing aflame.
And now she was backing out.
Daisy gaped, as openly stunned as any of the others who'd seen Max die. Atticus was hot. A little stiff, kind of clueless, but hot. But Daisy doubted Jesus Christ could be that good of a lay.
So, what was it? A year of silent suffering by Veti's side, and Tiny Vamp up and leaves at the first opportunity? To serve the man who had stood silently by as Max had been ordered to Death? As Daisy had been ordered to kill the lover of the only friend she'd ever known?
Siya and Daisy weren't friends on the best of days. Tiny Vamp didn't owe Daisy shit, and there wasn't much she wanted from the bitty parasite. But Veti...Veti...
"Great," Daisy muttered to herself as she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that Tiny Vamp had just betrayed her best friend. And maybe Daisy, too. "One more for team Long Dick of the Law."
She continued to stare straight ahead, temper burned out by her brief outburst. She caught Henry looking at her and almost sort of smiled reluctantly. It was harder to ogle at him now (well. Sort of). She saw him as kind of a friend after their last mission. A confidante, at the very least. It was weird to like him and not want to mount him behind a giant rock. Though that method of coercion seemed to have work well enough for Siya, so maybe there was something to be said for the ol' hot rock fuck.
She stopped smiling as she felt Artie and Veti post up on either side of her, silent sentries meant to turn off the brood. Of course. In the last year, she was pretty sure Veti had seen Artie more than she had. And she was fine for it. When he wasn't with her, sleeping, or eating, or playing with more chew toys than any sane dog owner ought to have access to, he was with Daisy, helping her search the deeper planes of Death for increasingly shorter periods of time. She had taken a year off, laid low. And now she was heading right back into the maw of the undead.
But for Veti? Well, whatever. Daisy wasn't the sentimental type, or so she'd told herself. But she'd try.
"Flynn Ryder," she said tersely, without looking at Veti, or even moving her lips more than she had to, "has nothing on Captain Shang. Just...ignore the Donny Osmond part, that's a turn off for -- "
Everything after that happened quickly. Henry ditched. Goddess showed. And Daisy wasn't generally into chicks, especially the kind that defied Death, but hot damn, emphasis on the hot.
And then the pouty elf was pouting, and Daisy was rolling her eyes, because everything was turned on its head, but if there was one thing she was good at, it was being catty.
The necromancer went on for a bit, finishing her whine with a little cheese, albeit in a language Daisy couldn't even pretend to understand. She waited patiently 'til she was finished, then looked right at her new friend and said, "No hablo fuckin' Español."
Whatever either of them had been about to say was lost as another attractive ruiner of all thing began to grope the elf. Daisy watched with equal parts interest and disgust. Yes. An alliance between the necromancer and the mummy as they set off to look for a 'key to life'. Get the Wight in here with a Red Bull spiked Fountain of Youth, and Daisy could have a fucking field day.
She clenched her jaw so hard it hurt, then made herself look at Veti. The next words were spoken only for the werewolf.
"And I'm going with you. I'm going to get Max back. I promise."
