Chapter 2 #2
I laughed and then stopped abruptly. I didn’t laugh.
I coughed and then tried to stop making weird strangling sounds.
Normal. I was trying to be normal. Not an insane vampire assassin with absolutely no social skills after a century spent being a silent witness.
“Sorry, you weren't joking? That is sweet.
You clearly haven't lived long enough.” I muttered under my breath.
“And this child is the one assigned to destroy Tralcon? Angels are so delusional.”
His lips twitched. "We also have extremely good hearing. You're calling me a child? And in third person? Vampires. So ill-mannered."
I grinned, flashing my fangs. "You have no idea how 'ill-mannered' I can be. I'm an assassin. I was made for killing, not polite society."
He tilted his head at me while my head spun and I tried not to look like I was five seconds from kicking off my shoes and launching at his throat.
I wasn’t. For a century, I’d resisted the impulse to take blood, but his blood wasn’t just blood: it was heavenly death in a sharp suit.
With wings. And that face that had been beside me in my darkest times, giving me comfort and strength when I had only endless misery. Disconcerting.
He finally gave me a slight nod. "In that case, this child will have to teach you how to dance. The last place there were whispers of Tralcon was at the Host's.”
I bared my teeth on accident. “The vampire king?” His parties were well-attended by everyone who was criminally minded, particularly the undead.
"Some call him that. Would you give me the honor of being my escort for the Vampire King's ball this weekend?"
I couldn’t help the slight shudder at the thought of taking this beautiful piece of art to a place that catered to the evil undead. "You want to go to the vampire king's ball and think we'll get out alive? I rest my case. You’re entirely delusional."
"Neither one of us is strictly alive, so getting out alive would be too much even for a delusional angel to expect. Shall we, or do you have a better idea where we should start?"
He was asking me, almost as if he truly accepted me as his partner. “How old are you?” I asked because I had to know if he was really the hallucination that had been shadowing me for a century.
“Does it matter?”
It mattered so much. “Have you been the Reaper longer than a decade?”
“No.”
“No. Are you sure?”
He smiled slightly. “I am sure. I am outside the constraints of time, but that only makes me more aware of them.”
“Ah. Outside the constraints of time. That sounds complicated.”
“Heavenly magic is as complicated as any other kind. How many angels have you killed?”
I hesitated. “It’s in my file.”
“I want to hear it from you.” He tilted his head, crossed his arms, and studied me like he could wait all day, me in my heels in the shifting gravel, him in his dress shoes that were still perfectly functional.
“Five.”
“How did you do it?”
“I used various methods.”
“How would you kill me?”
I flashed a fanged smile at him. “I wouldn’t.” See? I could be polite.
“I’m interested for the sake of my own defense should another vampire assassin attempt to end my life.”
“Not that you’re entirely alive…” I said, frowning at him. His heart beat. His skin was warm, but being outside the constraints of time…I had no idea what that meant.
“Humor me. How would you kill me? Also, you’ll have to give me a name to use.”
“Ruby is fine. I couldn’t kill you without corrupting you first. As long as you’re tied to your goodness, there would be no weakness that I could exploit. I’ve never killed an angel who wasn’t already on the far side of corruption. You’re pure, like a newborn mouse.”
He raised a brow, amused. “A mouse. Not a ferret?”
I shrugged. “Most people think ferrets are unusual.” This conversation was on the far side of unusual.
“And I’m pure? How would you know?”
“I can smell corruption.” I leaned closer to him and allowed myself to open my mouth and inhale deeply, letting his unbelievably rich goodness dance along my senses until I was thrumming with the craving for more than his blood.
I was two inches away from the skin of his neck, inhaling breath I didn’t need, except that scent…
I smelled his shifting awareness, his guardedness and then amusement, and then a flicker of answering interest in him that had me pulling away, blinking rapidly.
His eyes were slightly softer as he looked at me more like a woman, less like a murderous vampire.
That wasn’t good. I didn’t seduce angels.
Or anyone else for that matter. I’d had one love, and didn’t need anything so destructive in my life ever again.
Loving this angel would be different. He wouldn’t ever lie to me, not unless I corrupted him first.
I took a large step away from him. “And you smell like a fresh-born ferret, not corruption.” That’s right. There wasn’t anything weird in that sequence of events. People sniff out corruption in angels every day.
“Thank you. Angels can smell purity of heart and will. May I?” He raised a brow while he waited, so polite, asking before he entered my space and smelled me like a crazy person.
I wanted to say no. Being close to him was dangerous, mostly to him, but letting him smell me like a lunatic would help normalize my own behavior. Better two lunatics than one.
“Of course. I’d be delighted.” No, that wasn’t what I should have said, although when he stepped close to me and bent down, staring into my eyes until his gaze shifted to my neck, and his nose was close enough I could feel the energy of his skin leaping onto my flesh, it was delightful.
He smelled me for a long time while I stood perfectly still and tried not to inhale his deliciousness.
It was incredibly uncomfortable to not smell him when I had a perfectly good opportunity, but I resisted the temptation until he finally straightened and gave me an angelic smile.
“Your smell is buried beneath a manufactured scent, but I believe I’ve managed to find it.”
Oh. Then he’d know that I smelled like stale blood.
“You, Miss Ruby, smell like purity. I haven’t smelled such purity in as long as I can remember.”
“Purity?” I repeated, staring at him. Maybe he was the mad one.
“Pure vengeance. Shall we?” He held out his arm towards me.
I smiled slowly. Vengeance was a good scent, much better than stale blood. I looked at the arm he was still holding out for me. “Shall we what?”
“Take care of business. First things first. Where is your ferret?”
I looked from his arm to his face, confused. “My ferret isn’t any of your business.”
“We have until the weekend to make it to the ball. You’ll probably have to get us in using your vampire connections, which may take some time.”
“You invited me to a ball you have no invitation for? That explains it. You wouldn’t mind if we stopped to check on my ferret?” That’s what he was talking about, wasn’t it?
He smiled again, another flash of heavenly beauty that made me woozy. “I don’t mind at all. In fact, I insist on it.”
“Well,” I said, hesitating. It wasn’t like me to trust people, but he was an angel, and he wasn’t corrupt, and I was concerned about the health and happiness of Crucible. “My old place was in Singsong City, so he should be near there if he hasn’t found someone else to stay with.”
“Sing or Song?”
“Song. I’m a vampire. The sun is uncomfortable.”
“You don’t seem uncomfortable.”
“It’s overcast. Also, I fed on a demon for almost a century. It leant me a great deal of immunity to the sun.”
“You fed on a demon for almost a century?” He sounded shocked, like I’d told him that I’d murdered his grandmother.
“Among other things. That must be why I smell of pure vengeance. Demons are incredibly vengeful.” I wrinkled my nose.
I wanted him to trust me, but feeding on demons was madness.
I had to explain something that was fairly inexplicable.
“He was my master, and he insisted that I feed on him. It strengthened the binding, the compulsion to do as he commanded. I was difficult to control, but he took great pleasure in the task. Our original contract limited the things I did for him, but I didn’t think about writing a clause about drinking his blood, probably because I wasn’t a vampire at the time I made the contract. ”
“You made the contract?”
“Yes. He said that it was the finest one with the fewest loopholes he’d seen in centuries.”
“Then I suppose it was reasonable for you to make a deal with a demon.”
“No. It’s never worth the price. Besides that, you only bargain for things you can’t accept, that you wish to change. I’ve gotten very good at accepting the limitations of my existence. I would never make a deal with a demon now, because there’s nothing I want.”
“Just because you asked for what you wanted, and it didn’t turn out, doesn’t mean that you should stop wanting things.”
I stared at the idealistic angel. He was so sweetly charming and naive.
Also gloriously beautiful. If I wanted something, it would be someone like him, and a life of old-fashioned charm and tradition, with him chopping logs for the fire, and me baking bread and snuggling our babies and ferrets.
Alive. I’d want to be alive to have a future, a legacy, and a love that lasted forever.
I patted his arm. “I hope that living outside the constraints of time doesn’t impede your ability to have children. Your babies would be beautiful.” I’d just said that to an almost stranger. I needed to stop talking. Forever.
He stared at me blankly and then said in a stilted way. “Do you fly?”
I stared back at him. “I don’t personally have wings, but I’m not against it.”
He nodded and then stepped into my space and picked me up like I was a bride he was about to carry over the threshold.
It was so entirely out of my reality that I did nothing to resist him, just stared at him and accidentally breathed in his scent.
Our noses would brush if I moved slightly to the left.
“Hold on and I will do my best not to drop you.” His eyes narrowed, darkness spreading around us, no, those were his wings, casting a shadow that blocked out the rest of the world, and then he leapt into the air, and his wings beat once, twice, and then the world disappeared in a rush of movement and energy that was like nothing else.
Except for him. It was exactly like his arms being around me.