Little Better than a Beast (Marla Mason) Read Online Free Page A

place outside the city, called the Blackwing Institute. It’s where we keep sorcerers who go crazy and pose a danger to themselves, and others, and the substance of reality.”
    “And the sorcerer who runs it, Dr. Husch, is totally hot,” Rondeau said.
    Marla rolled her eyes. “We’ll keep the beast in a cell deep in the basement, with every kind of technological and magical countermeasure we can think of, in case it ever wakes up. Don’t worry. It’s a secure site.”
    “We’re sure you’ll like it there,” Langford said, and shot Malkin with the tranquilizer pistol.
    #
    “We could have given Malkin a perfect fantasy life, too,” Langford said. “It would have to be far more complex than the one I created for the beast, but it’s certainly possible.”
    “Fuck that,” Marla said. “Why would I want to make him happy? He called me the weaker sex.”
    “Carry on, then,” Langford said, and waved as Rondeau drove the truck off into the night.
    #
    “His real name is Barry Schmidt,” Marla said, sitting with Dr. Husch before the security monitors. Malkin was on screen, sleeping on a bed in a pleasantly-appointed – but impenetrable – apartment in the Institute’s east wing. “An apprentice from out west. Poor bastard actually thinks he’s Everett Malkin, the first sorcerer of Felport, you believe that? He came to the city and started talking about how he was the rightful ruler, demanding I give him my dagger, crazy stuff like that.”
    “Hmm,” Husch said, a vertical worry line marring her smooth pale forehead.
    “And then he summoned the beast of Felport from, you know, the primordial whatever,” Rondeau chimed in. “So he’s got some magical chops, no doubt about that. Better to keep him in maximum super-isolation, we figure, with every magic-nullifying countermeasure you’ve got.”
    “Heck, keep him sedated forever,” Marla said. “That’d be fine with me.”
    “You know I believe in therapy, not mere containment,” Husch said. She looked at the Chamberlain. “Tell me, Chamberlain – do you think there’s any chance he is Everett Malkin? The beast of Felport is bound, dreaming peacefully, in my basement, and if one creature can come from the past, can’t another?”
    Marla tried not to tense up. The Chamberlain was the key here. Rondeau was trustworthy, and Langford was both uninterested and trustworthy, but the Chamberlain could change her mind. She had a potent connection to the early days of Felport through her relationship with the ghosts, and she didn’t really like Marla all that much. But, on the other hand, Malkin had ordered her around like a servant, and the Chamberlain said the ghosts who’d known Malkin – especially his apprentice Corbin – had really hated the guy, so maybe she’d stick to the plan.
    “Oh, no,” the Chamberlain said, smooth as her own silk gown. “That man is not Everett Malkin. I checked with the ghosts, and they say he’s nothing like Malkin was. He is merely a madman, I’m afraid, a troubled soul who read too many histories. But his delusion is very fixed. He’s clever, too – he might pretend to be cured, even if he isn’t. Be careful.”
    “The poor dear. It’s good you brought him to me. At the very least, I’ll make him comfortable.” Husch raised one perfect eyebrow. “He really demanded you relinquish your dagger of office, Marla, and said he was going to take over the city?”
    “He did.”
    “I suppose he’s lucky you left his head attached, then.”
    “Hey,” Marla said. “Don’t ever let anybody tell you I’m not a benevolent and enlightened ruler.”

STORY NOTES
    The events of this story take place between the novels Poison Sleep and Dead Reign , books two and three of my Marla Mason series respectively. In Dead Reign I had Marla make an offhand comment about a few of the things she'd been forced to contend with over the summer: "In the past few weeks I've dealt with the return of the beast of Felport, a crazy