27. The Slayer
The Slayer
“Burn it all down?” Iris asks, blinking at me.
Adam is present. I can feel him like a festering mosquito bite, but I do my best to ignore his presence. I gave Iris what she wanted and got two whole kisses out of it. Today is the best day.
“How else are we going to get rid of all this blood?”
Iris grabs the wand at her hip and waves it at me. “Uh. Magic.”
I laugh and nod my head. “Brilliant. Show me your skills.”
Long gone are my hurt feelings over her potentially trying to use the spell book to send me to the void—not that her plan would have worked, anyway.
No, now all I care about was how good those kisses felt. My first kisses ever…wait.
“Iris, have you kissed a male before?” I ask, and she chokes as she holds her wand tightly in her hand.
“Yes, I just kissed you, didn’t I?”
“Before today, have you kissed another male?”
She sighs and waves her wand; I watch in amazement as the blood lifts off the ground, winding and twirling until it becomes nothing.
“I’m almost thirty,” she replies.
“What does your age have to do with anything? Wait, Adam, how old are we?” I ask the man I share a vessel with. “He says we’re twenty-six. Are you alright with being with a younger man?”
Iris’ lips part and then close. “Yes, Slayer, I’ve kissed other men.”
I stand taller. “What are their names?”
“I’m not telling you their names,” she says defensively.
“Why not?”
“Because you literally just turned this vampire into soup. I’m not giving you the names of the men I kissed. Thank you for helping Ember, by the way, and controlling yourself with Warin, I know it probably wasn’t easy for you.”
“Of course, anything for you, back to the kissing. Will you not tell me their names because they are better kissers than me?”
“No, they’re not…what? I’m not telling you who I kissed, Slayer. It’s not a big deal, but if it really matters to you, I’ve never had a boyfriend or anything truly romantic. Nothing like what Ember and Warin or Violet and Silas have.”
I contemplate her words, and I swear there’s longing in there. My Iris is a complicated creature. She doesn’t like me to push too much, and she insists that I’m just her friend, which is just lunacy. We’re mates and I’m working on proving that fact to her. I can’t be pushy, Scarlett told me so.
“Silas is the big wolf shifter?” I question and she nods.
“Yeah, do you have an issue with them, too?” she jests as she continues her magic, cleaning the surrounding space with a beautiful effortlessness.
“The shifters? No, I actually quite admire them.”
She arches an eyebrow, her cute little nose scrunching, showcasing the golden hoop in her nostril. I need to buy her more jewelry to adorn her body, I remind myself.
“They are born the way they are and they look out for one another. They are a true community, I envy that.”
Iris looks away from me, more blood disappearing from sight.
“You’ve been alone all this time?”
“Alone in the void, alone in the mortal lands, yes.”
“That’s sad, Slayer, I’m sorry.”
I give her a warm smile. I’ll accept her pity. Whatever makes her more endeared to me, I’m willing to use to my advantage, which might include letting Adam take over the body once in a while.
As much as I’m loath to admit, I felt how enamored he was with Iris’ kiss as well. Part of me hates him for even considering my mate in a romantic way, but we also share a body.
No one’s lips but my—our—lips will ever touch hers.
Maybe it can be like a prison, where I treat him like an inmate and he gets an hour of recreation time. I snicker, liking the sound of that.
“Stop being a prick. Ask her if we can stop by my place here and get some of my things,” Adam says and I groan.
I don’t like feeling like the man's puppet, not one bit.
“Adam is asking if we can go to his apartment in the city and collect his things.”
Iris looks contemplative as she continues her work. “Right, so…you’re both coming back with me?”
“Yes. There’s no other option.”
If she doesn’t let us in her apartment, I’ll set up a bench outside and spend all my time there. I have no belongings. Nothing on this plane matters to me, nothing but Iris and Scarlett.
“Yeah. It’s going to take me some time to clean all this up, it’s everywhere. I could meet you in a half hour or you could wait.”
“We will wait,” I say it and Adam repeats it in my mind. There’s no way in hell that I’m leaving her in a place where vampires are just rummaging around.
“Alright. Why don’t you go and sit over there so I can concentrate and get done quicker.”
I do as my witch says, sitting at the same desk I made her hide behind before.
“What is this place, anyway?” I ask Adam.
“A distillery. They make beer.”
I whistle. This is a lot of ale. I’m not a huge fan of the drink, but in my previous cycles, I wasn’t as picky about what I ate or drank. The modern mortal selection is far better, I must say.
“I felt the way you were looking at my mate earlier, just so you know.”
“Fuck, man. I just found out some vampire gave my family the spell book for you to possess my body for some stupid vampire politics, and this is what you want to talk about?”
“Yes, this is what I want to talk about. That vampire is dead and your family is worthless.”
“How empathetic of you.”
“I don’t know what that means. But I do know you like my mate,” I say, trying to not be scolding. I want him to admit that I’m right and to figure out where we go from here.
Scarlett’s advice to use him rings around my head, and that’s absolutely my plan. Use him to get closer to Iris and then…well…shove him deep deep down.
“She is beautiful, okay, and no one has been this kind to me for a long time. We’re stuck together forever, so isn’t it kind of important that I like your mate?” The way he says mate, as if it isn’t a true bond, makes me want to punish him in some way, but I ignore it.
“Yes. But one thing you must always remember, Adam? She’s mine and I do not share. We might be forced to share this life together, but Iris is mine and mine alone.”
“Says the guy who took my fucking body,” he complains.
“Always so annoying,” I groan.
“Did you just call me annoying?” Iris says, coming to stand before me.
“Of course not. Are you already done?”
“Almost,” she says, waving her wand to clean our clothes of any signs of blood. Humans get freaked out when they see blood dripping from your hands. Kind of weak. “Should we head to Adam’s?”
“Lead the way, asshole,” I whisper the last word so that Iris can’t hear me.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to give Adam control to take us to his home?” Iris suggests and I shake my head.
“We were just in a skirmish with vampires.”
“But the sun hasn’t set yet,” Iris states as we get outside and she waves at the beating sun; I swear it’s gotten hotter on the mortal lands since I’ve been here.
“Sure, but apparently those slippery human-draining killers learned how to walk in the sun.”
Iris gives me wide eyes as a smile takes over her face and she laughs. I made my mate laugh with a joke.
“Alright, fine. But we’re going to have a deeper talk about you and Adam sharing time with the body.”
“Fine,” I say, my stomach grumbling as we walk. I give Adam just enough control over the body so that we look completely human as we easily blend into the upcoming nightlife.
Delicious scents waft from the street, and I groan. “Can we eat first?”
Iris takes pity on me and we enter a cozy little place and I realize immediately what this is.
I saw it plenty of times in the films and shows Scarlett has forced me to watch.
The lady at the front of the restaurant leads us to our table.
I try to hide my smile with my hand, but Iris, of course, notices.
“And what are you smiling about?”
“This is a date.”
“This is not a date,” Iris immediately says and I shrug.
“It kinda seems like a date to me and I’ll be paying,” I say, taking out my wallet and placing eight different money cards in front of me.
“Slayer, what the hell are these?” Iris says, picking up the cards and reading the information on them. “Did you steal these?”
“They wanted me to have their money,” I say, not showing her all the physical money I’ve also taken. While the feel of paper bills reminds me of a simpler time, I can’t deny that these plastic cards come in handy.
“What if they figure out it was you?”
I shrug, not concerned with mortal bullshit. Iris rubs her temples, which means she’s thinking very hard and I leave her to it.
“Alright, if you’re going to assimilate into society better, you need to listen to me and you need to give Adam more presence in the body.” She holds up the cards. “Things like this are what you can’t do.”
She takes all my money cards away, which is fine, I have five more back at the apartment.
“What other mortal things do you want me to do?”
“Maybe a job, or something, a hobby?”
My brows furrow as I look at my mate; a candle between us flickers, casting a glow against her lovely warm brown skin.
“My job is slaying vampires,” I say plainly.
She smiles with no teeth, which is strange. “Right, but you need a mortal job so that you can be in society.”
“But I don’t want to be in society. I just want to be with you.”
Iris plops her forehead on the table, talking to herself for a moment, as if I can’t hear every word. “Slayer,” she groans my name, and it sounds perfect.
“I’m good at woodwork,” I suggest, trying to make her happy.
She promptly lifts her head and tilts it as she looks me over.
“What kind of woodwork?”
I think really hard over my next words, knowing that if I carve intricate stakes to slay vampires isn’t the right answer.
“Small stuff,” I say with a shrug and Iris says.
“Alright, well, that’s something we could definitely work with. Adam already has a trade too. More importantly he already has an identity and everything, so it’s not like we’re starting from scratch.”
I plop my elbow on the table, propping my chin up with my fist. “Would you have gotten me a fake identity?”
“Yes. The world now is beyond anything you’ve ever experienced before. You will have to try to fit in with the mortals if you want this to work.”
I groan, taking a sip of my water. “Mortals are so boring.”
She can’t help herself as she lets out a little laugh. The server brings us our food and after slaying a vampire, I’m absolutely starving.
We eat casually and I know without a doubt that this was a date, even if Iris won’t admit it. My mate is a tough nut to crack, but I know I’m getting close.