Chapter 6
“I think that I have magic.” Rance told Kimmy that she did.
“No, I mean vindictive kind of magic. I wished for David to smell like a rancid pile of shit, and he does. Don’t ask how I know that, I just know that he can’t get the smell off him, no matter what he does.
Other people will be able to smell him, too.
No matter how far away they get from him, he’ll still smell bad.
And it’s worse for him. He can get sick with it and has been. ”
“That’s brilliant.” She was so shocked that he laughed that she wasn’t sure what to do with him. “He won’t be able to hide from people to feed on them either. I knew that I loved you for some reason.”
“You love me?” He nodded, and she didn’t know what to think. So she told him that. “I don’t hate you like I did before.”
“I can take that. I was a right bastard to you when I first met you. I have a lot to make up for, and I plan on doing it every day for the rest of my life with you.” She didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing to him.
“I can wait. I’m going to make myself so irresistible that you can’t help but fall in love with me. ” Again, she didn’t say anything.
She could see the hurt look on his face.
She hadn’t treated him badly, but the other way around.
Not that she didn’t like this new him, but it was going to take her a while to get over some of the things that he’d said to her, like telling her that he didn’t want her and that she was human and going to ruin his life.
He might not have said those exact words, but he’d been close enough when he said he didn’t want her in his life.
And she had planned on that too, right up until he changed himself to be a nicer person.
But she wasn’t ready wholly for the change.
He was going to change back to the bastard she’d first met, and she wasn’t going to get her heart broken just because he’d had a change of heart.
“Tell me about this smell. I’m curious why you decided that you wanted him to smell badly.
” She told him that she’d know when he was around.
“But you said that anyone can smell him. Is that the way you did it? He won’t be able to feed either like that.
I think you might well have saved a lot of lives by saying it that way. ”
“I didn’t think about him not being able to feed.
That sounds too gross. I know it’s what you guys need to do, but perhaps you can change it to having dinner or something.
” She laughed when she thought of Rance saying he was going to have dinner when he bit into someone to get their blood.
“Do you need a lot of blood when you have dinner?”
“Not nearly as much as I used to. I wouldn’t take from only one person either.
That would cause them to be ill or too weak to defend themselves if someone else came along after I was finished.
” She nodded, knowing that made sense. “I would never take too much because I’m old and don’t need as much to sustain myself. ”
“Will you have your dinner with me?” He asked her if that’s something she’d been thinking about a great deal. “I know that there’s sex involved. And Calla told me that having sex with you would make me stronger. I don’t know how much stronger I can get other than being immortal.”
“You’ll have more magic. A great deal more.
You’ll heal much faster than you do now, too.
And we’ll have a connection like never before.
Of course, you could always talk to Calla and Brew because of who they are.
But you’d be able to read minds with a little bit of practice.
You’ve heard the term raping one’s mind, I guess?
” She said it was a term she’d heard but never understood.
“It’s where you’re not gentle when you go through someone’s mind.
You could really hurt them by doing that.
Once, I heard of someone getting killed because they messed with their brain so much.
It’s just something that you have to practice with, and that’ll make you not harm anyone. Unless you want to.”
“I don’t want to try that just yet.” He said that she could practice on him if she wanted. “Maybe later. Right now, all I want to know is what you’re willing to tell me. I can handle that for now.”
“All right. When you’re ready.” She thought of other questions that she had and asked him.
He answered them all with honesty. Something else that she’d been told by Calla is that Rance would never be able to lie to her.
Ever. So if she wanted him to tell her something, she needed to tell him how she wanted it.
In bits and pieces or all at once. Either way, there would be no lying from him.
She thought that she liked that rule a great deal.
She couldn’t deal with what she didn’t know, and knowing, even if it was bad news, was easier to deal with than having to sort through the lies he might well have told her.
It was nearly midnight when she had had enough.
Her head was hurting a little from all the information that she’d gotten.
But she’d have it no other way. Now that they had sorted through all the things that she needed to know, she wanted to ask him about David.
But it was so late that she didn’t know how to bring it up.
Just blurting out the question made her feel better, but she wasn’t sure after seeing his face if she wanted to know.
“You want to know what he’ll do to you when he finds you?
I can answer that a little, but I don’t know how he’s changed his method of killing people.
I’m worried that if he catches you, he’ll try to flay you while you’re still living.
” She asked what that meant, and after explaining it to her, she still couldn’t wrap her head around the way that he wanted her to die.
“With you being immortal, it would take him a long time to get bored with you if he ever did.”
“Christ.” She shivered and pulled one of the blankets that they’d just gotten around her shoulders.
“He would peel my skin off of me one strip at a time? Who does that sort of stuff? The pain would be incredible. Not to mention how much blood there would be. You said he practiced on your parents? How could he still be alive when he did that to them?”
“I didn’t know. And you must remember, they were never my parents.
But had I known, I would have done the same to him.
They weren’t great people, but no one deserves that.
I have a feeling that he’s been practicing on others, too.
Bodies that we’ve not found as yet. Now that we’re looking for them with the help of the faerie queen, the number of things that Brew can kill him for is mounting up.
” She asked if Brew could kill him. “Yes. He can do so without removing his head. Just kill him outright.”
“Your group of beings is scary as fuck, you know that, don’t you?
I know you told me that Brew was the king, but even he must be sickened by what he’s done.
” He told her how he’d been commanded to come to him.
“Will he show up? He has to know that he’s in trouble if Brew is calling for him, don’t you think? ”
“David believes that Brew has no power. At least not as much as he has. He also believes that I’m without it as well. He called us pussies.” She asked if he had more power than David. “I do. I can’t kill him, however. Not unless he harms something of mine. And that would be you.”
“You mean for him to start flaying me alive?” He shook his head and told her any harm. “I don’t understand. I know what harm means, but not the way that you’re saying it.” He picked up her hand and showed her the nail she’d just painted.
“If he would break a nail, muss up your hair, anything at all that causes you distress, I will tear him apart. I can too. Once he touches a hair on your head, he will be dead, the same as if he were to break a nail. And as far as him getting to you to harm you in that heinous of ways, there will be no hole deep enough, no cave thick enough for him to hide from me. I promise you this with the love that I already have for you.” She looked into his face and saw it there.
The anger that would accompany him trying to harm her.
She saw his beast, his monster too. “I would never harm you, Kimber. Never again.”
“I want to see him. Your other half.” He didn’t move when she asked him that. “Are you afraid to show me? I need to know what I’m going to be seeing in David if he comes around.”
“My monster won’t look like David’s. I’ll show you, but he’ll have the appearance of something more grotesque because of what he’s done to himself.
” She asked if he meant killing. “Yes. The more he kills, the more monstrous he gets. He’ll be darker, his eyes will be redder than mine when I’m angry.
Not to say that I couldn’t win a fight between us because I’m more powerful.
But he’s more of a monster than I’ll ever be. ”
“You could lose to him then. I mean, he’s had more practice killing than you have, so he’s going to be better at it.” He told her it would never come to that. “I worry now. What if he takes you on and you’re not mean enough to kill him? What happens to you if he can get the better of you?”
“I die.” She didn’t like how final that sounded and told him so. “I don’t know what else to tell you. If he does get the better of me, I want you to go to Brew and swear an alliance with him. He’ll protect you from then on.”