"I really don't think ya should." Rex drawled slowly. He was not, and Princess doubted he ever would be, a man in a rush.

  Not like Princess, this was a fast woman, a modern woman. Dead and gone were the stodgy ways of her mother. Now was the time for ladies to curse, and belch, and to get into fights if they wanted. Which Princess did, very badly. "That's why I know I must!" Princess said excitedly. She had the same low voice and drawl of her brother but spoke it at least twice as fast.

  She stretched out her hand so her lady's maid could inspect the glowing line of skin around her wrist. "What about something in slate grey?" The maid tilts her head from side to side going over Princess's vast jewelry collection. "We match your new bracelet with some turquoise pieces. The dull dress with bring all the attention to your new addition."

  "You lost me at grey." Princess yawned. She'd been given the most amazing piece of jewelry in the world, and she couldn't show it off in anything but the best.

  "Then we must go, blue with a gold trim!" The maid started sorting through Princess's vast wardrobe.

  "We must!" Princess agreed. "Mustn't we Rex?"

  "Those are the family colors." He said, and took a sip of his scotch. He sighed in appreciation, then tried to weasel in his next words. "Allow me to make an inquiry against your otherwise flawless judgement."

  Princess rolled her eyes. This was classic Rex, why say with one word what could easily be said with twenty? "Just say you don't like it Rex."

  "I would if I didn't know that would make you all the more determined to flaunt the thing. Instead I hold onto the hope that you're still susceptible to the whiles of rhetoric and reason."

  Princess was pulled behind her dressing screen, so she could be made ready for the ball. Off came her clothes, as the maid made her ready for the ball. "I'm a fortress of unreasonability, brother. Your bones will be added to the foundations of my great will."

  Lord knew better men than him had tried. "Then into the jaws, I go. Folly has it's own sort of nobility."

  "So they claim." The Maid brought out a darling blue flapper dress with, gold beading down the middle and along the trim. God had gifted that girl an eyes. "It's perfect." She said in hush so her brother would think she was ignoring him.

  "After our Sojourn on that ship, do we have any reason to doubt the word of our metallic allies?"

  Princess scoffed, sensing he was trying to get her to agree to his point before he even made it. "Don't try to sneak your way around my walls, you coward. Attack!" Rex fancied himself the Cato of One Week, and could often be found trying to tie people up with his tongue. Luckily for the majority of society he wasted this talented on young women, for whom his money would do just as well.

  Now Rex scoffed. "We're at war Princess. Each spot in time should only have three pilots. Does it really seem wise to announce to the world, where one of them is?"

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  "Does it seem wise to give us access to their weapons? There's 5,000 veterans of The Great War in One Week alone. You'd know that if you went to any of my charity events. You can't expect me to plug these small holes, when their efforts are already so biliously misinformed."

  "I could see why they'd want me on the team. You certainly are a mystery though."

  "Exactly so." Princess popped her head out from the screen. Her blonde hair was done up in meticulous waves, and her blue eyes shimmered from across the room. "No reasonably soul would want me as guardian of Earth. Which means either our benefactors are unreasonable, or they want me behaving the way I normally would."

  "Enlighten me on how that leap of logic works."

  "Assume for a moment I'm a big hit at the ball. As you are a cold hearted man of logic I'll offer you a vast body of previous engagements ending in my favor. It's reasonable to assume I'll be up to my elbows in fawning sycophants, is it not?"

  Rex raised his hand. "This point, I so concede."

  "In return." Princess said. "I so concede that you may be right, and our enemy does indeed take notice that I'm one of the twelve destined saviors of Earth."

  "A saint truly walks among us."

  "After discovering me, they try to take me out. In retaliation I summon a device the size of The Eiffel Tower, I'm interested to know what their riposte to that would be."

  Leave it to Princess to pick the most attention getting solution to any problem. "One does wonder where the assassin got his manners. They weren't nearly so kind of Lincoln or Ferdinand."

  "Well, i'm a lady." She said stubbornly. "Who would do something so dreadful to a lady?"

  "A man."

  She sighed and ducked back behind the screen. "Well this has all been as entertaining as a conversation with you can be, but I'm getting bored Rexy. You'll stop being so boring for me won't you?" For Princess boring her was tantamount to abuse.

  Rex knew that was the end of that. The only way he'd stop her from showing up with that armband now would be with a machete. Someone should really tell her how unattractive all this stubbornness was one of these days. "Do you know anything about the Bloodmoon girl?"

  "This Brandy gal? Not a peep, but her mother has a taste for theatrics. The comet gimmick is just lovely." The Green Comet only came around every hundred years. Princess was almost jealous her debut couldn't have been blessed by the heavens. Then again she hardly needed the stars' help for make her party a smash. Yes indeed even years later the papers were still unwinding the webs of intrigue and scandal from that night.

  Good times.

  "Having your debut at the end of the world, seems like it would be more fitting for you, doesn't it?" He could sense her grin from behind the screen.

  "That is some bad luck for her isn't it?"

  "It's almost tempting to let it go through isn't it. A travesty like that couldn't happen to a nicer family."

  The Bloodmoons were the natural enemies of Rex and Princess. They were like cobras and mongeese. The twins belongs to the Goldfinch family, which was an offshoot of a wealthy railway dynasty from New York. They owned the stockyards, and most of the ranches in the area. When people thought of rich, they thought of the twins. Each was every bit the useless socialite their mother had raised, and neither quite had what it took to run their father's empire. The board would cower in fear at the thought as his demise and their ruin, but everyone was quite sure that Baron Goldfinch was a souless bloodsucking vampire, and thus would never perish from this Earth.

  "Yes but think of the glory we'll get for saving the world. We should let them live to choke on it."

  Rex grinned. "Have I told you I love you lately?"

  "It is nice to hear.'

  Princess heard him stand up, the solid leather of his dress boots echoed across the floor. "I suppose I should go get ready myself, my valet will be getting nervous."

  "Don't drink to much tonight Rex, we've got a battle to attend."

  He snorted and was out the door. "Now who's being boring?"