Before she put the car in gear Mina reached over and patted Effigy's cheek with smile on her face, as usual.

"You're cute when you're annoyed."

She put the car in gear and pulled out into the traffic. Instead of pealing out at top speeds Cosmina kept to the speed limits. They didn't need to stand out like that right now. Blending in with the crowds would serve their purpose better. Glancing back over to her passenger Cosmina decided, for once, to explain her reasoning behind killing the officer. Right he was still fun so she felt inclined to offer him this bit of information. Not to mention it might be amusing to see his reaction.

"Subduing someone without using lethal force takes time, time that we didn't have. If I was going to get to my car and get back in time to pick you up it had to be done. Otherwise I would have had to take the time to find something to tie him up with, something to gag him with, and something to blindfold him with."

She hadn't included the gag in her original calculations but if she didn't want him calling for help then it would have been necessary. Cosmina chuckled a little under her breath. He was still young and naive. Sometimes people had to die. There was no point in holding back. Besides, they'd be back later. It wasn't as if people that died were gone for good. Cosmina never did understand why people seemed so upset about death. It wasn't a permanent condition or anything.

Daddy hadn't come back yet but that was ok. Cosmina would keep herself alive until he came back and found her. By then she would have a lot of money and she and daddy could live a good life! A glance in her rear view mirror told Cosmina that none of the police had followed them from the scene. That was good. That meant that they either hadn't figured it out yet or hadn't located them. Either was fine by Cosmina. The longer the police remained unaware of where the two of them were, or weren't,the better.

She smiled and patted him on the cheek, as if killing a man were nothing. Mat, who usually prided himself on being able to read a person, couldn't tell if she was patronising him or not. Closing his eyes, Mat took a long, slow breath. He had come to America to get away from the deaths he had caused, not to create a new pile of corpses. Killing in self-defence, that was justified. Killing for revenge, it wasn't necessarily justified, but it was something Mat could understand. But killing somebody because they happened to be in the way? That was a line Mat didn't want to cross.

Opening his eyes, he kept his eye on Mute as she explained why she had killed the man. She even chuckled a little under her breath after she had finished. The cool, calm way she had explained it, as though it were an obvious matter of fact, confirmed the suspicions that Mat had had in the store.

She probably did this a lot.

With a heavy sigh, Mat spat out onto the road. The worse part about it all, she was probably right. It only took one cop calling for backup. A few choice words into a radio and the pair of them would have had police swarming all over them. Mat didn't fancy a stint in jail, nor did he wish to be sent back home. And if the police had discovered that he was a mutant, the one responsible for all the chaos and destruction out front, well, Mat had seen how quickly they opened fire on something they assumed was a mutant...

“I get it,” he finally replied. “I get why you did it, I understand. Doesn't mean I have to like it.” He lifted his stolen tie from his chest and inspected it, fingering the smooth silk. Who was he to judge, really? It wasn't like his hands didn't have blood on them.

Still, it all seemed a high price for some new clothes.

Dead was dead. You don't come back from that. Lily, Sarah, Mat knew that he would never see either of them again. Never see their smiles, never hear their laughter. The last memory he had of his sister was of her laying in bed, struggling to breathe. The last memory of Sarah was her screams, and the screams of the rest of the commune, mingled with the crackle of fire.

With another sigh, Mat banished the thoughts from his mind. Too late to worry about any of it. There was no reset button for any of this. So he would do what he always did. Survive, and move on. He turned his head and spat out on the road once more, the saliva ripping free in the wind. He faced Mute and, not for the first time today, wondered just who this woman really was.

“Well, I don't know about you, but I need a drink”

The tone of voice Cosmina used when she replied to his first statement was almost serious. The was only a hint of her playfulness left and her smile barely remained.

"I'm not asking you to like it." her smile returned moments later and her voice perked up, "Just don't get in my way!"

Cosmina kept an eye on the traffic and inspected Effigy at leisure. He was young and far too thin. However the suit he now wore looked excellent on him. With a little cleaning up and some regular meals he might be something worth looking at. She wondered what he'd look like after a few months of decent living. There was room at her warehouse for more than just her. He might be worth keeping around to see. His suggestion of getting a drink sounded good. It would be the perfect way to unwind after such a heist. They couldn't afford to stop in a bar though. If they did there was a chance they'd be caught.

No, they needed to go to ground. However that didn't mean that they couldn't have that drink. Cosmina kept a few things around her place for when she didn't feel like going out for a drink.

"Sounds like a plan. It wouldn't be a good idea to stop at a bar but I keep a few bottles at my place." Cosmina smirked somewhat as a thought dawned on her, "You know, you'll be the first guy I've ever brought back to my place."

Truth told he would be the first person she'd brought back to her place period, male or female. It was more fun to say it that way though. She'd spied a few seconds of the goofy grin she'd left on his face merely by kissing him on the cheek. He would be fun to toy with. It wasn't often she got to play with someone like that. Most of those she met were associates or targets. Most mercenaries weren't quite as naive and innocent as Effigy was. As for her targets, most of the time they ended up dead and of little use to her for flirtation.

She told him to make sure he didn't get in her way, and Mat could only smirk. That much, he had figured out already. So had the cop, for that matter.

As she drove, Mat's roving eyes settled on Mute. Despite the misgivings he now had about this woman, the initial curiosity that had caused him to partner up with her in the first place still lingered in his mind. She didn't seem much older than himself, a few years at most, yet she seemed totally at ease with murder and death. How did that happen? How many people had she killed before? Was it a hobby for her? Or was it simply the cost of business? A thought crept into his mind.

How many people had he killed?

The ambush he and his fellow mutants had sprung on the humans that burned down the commune had gotten so out of hand, that none of them had been entirely sure of who did what. The collective toll was visible for all to see, but the individual toll? Mat still wondered how many of the deaths had been caused by his hand. Well, the hands of his golems at least. He bit his lip and gently shook his head. These were not thoughts he wanted to linger on. He needed to think of something else, something more positive. It was then that Mute commented that, while it was unwise to go to a bar, a sentiment he agreed with, she did have something to drink at her place.

Yep, that would do nicely.

She mentioned that he would be the first guy that she'd ever brought to her place. For the first time since the heist had gone sour, Mat let out a laugh. Somehow he wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Another careful inspection of the woman led him to believe it was a good thing. A very good thing.

“Well then, I guess I'd better make it memorable,” he smirked, catching her eye.

She had caught Mat off-guard twice today. Once with a kiss, once with a corpse. He would make sure she didn't catch him unawares again. Settling back into his seat, he made himself comfortable for the car ride to wherever they were headed.

((Continued in On the Rocks ))