“It is a rare type.” Lilith sipped the blood, closing her eyes for a moment as the warm, coppery liquid slid down her throat. “Where did you and Azrael meet?”
Her smile brightened her blue eyes. “Here, at speed dating, but we’re supposed to be talking about you. What’s wrong with your snake?”
Lilith ran her finger around the rim of her goblet. “She’s an extension of me, as is Percival.” She took the crow from her shoulder and set him on the table. “Their bodies can’t handle my emotions. He’ll fall ill as well if I can’t get my act together, and…they both could die.”
“He’s beautiful.” Dee reached toward him but fisted her hand and jerked it into her lap. “He doesn’t like to be touched?”
“Not by strangers, but I suppose that’s an extension of me as well. I’ve grown rather…grumpy over the millennia.”
She rested her elbows on the table and placed her chin on her hands. “Why?”
That was the million-dollar question, and though she hated to admit it, she knew the answer. Leaning back in her seat, she clicked her tongue. “I have no purpose.”
Dee laughed. When Lilith simply arched a brow, her lashes flew high. “Wait. You’re serious? You think you have no purpose? What about your job? What do you do?”
She lifted her hands before laying her palms on the table. “Lucifer took pity on me when I was cursed. After my work with the Adam and Eve apple debacle, he decided I’d contributed enough and has allowed me to stay in The Underworld rent-free.”
Her new friend’s mouth hung open. “When you say the ‘apple debacle,’ do you mean the whole serpent and the tree of knowledge bit? That was you?”
“It was Esther.” She lifted a shoulder. “Well, it was me acting through Esther. I wasn’t allowed back in the garden after my banishment, so I sent my familiar in my place.”
“Wow.” Dee shook her head in amazement. “Talk about getting even. You’re the mother of retribution.”
Lilith blew a hard breath through her nose, and Percival ruffled his feathers in response. “I wasn’t trying to get even. I was trying to save Eve. After our creator lost control of me, I feared Eve wasn’t shaped with the same free will. I simply wanted her to know she was her own person and didn’t have to obey a man. Her giving Adam the apple wasn’t part of the plan, but Lucifer was pleased with the mess I made of the situation.”
She took another sip of blood and stroked Percival’s wing. “Of course, Luce gets all the credit. Everyone thinks he shapeshifted into a snake, but it was Esther who sneaked into the garden. Hell, I don’t even get credit for being the world’s first woman most of the time. That title usually goes to Eve. It’s like I’ve been swept under the rug.”
Lilith tightened her lips, her jaw clenching. “Would you listen to me? I sound like a child. I don’t need credit for those things, but I do need to find a new purpose for this existence.”
“I give you credit. Those feats alone sound like a helluva purpose to me.”
“A purpose I had. But what now?”
Deirdre chuckled. “Are you kidding? Lilith, you’re the devil-damned mother of all vampires. You’re the reason I am what I am. The reason I met Azrael. The reason thousands of us exist at all.”
“I haven’t turned anyone in centuries. I could cease to exist, and our species would continue to thrive. Vampires are doing just fine without me.”
“You’re still an icon, though. Hell, they named a whole music festival after you because you’re the world’s first woman.”
Thanks to her refusal to obey Adam, she was occasionally used as the poster woman in the fight for equality, but… “Women have their own momentum. They don’t need me.”
Deirdre drummed her hot pink nails on the table. “I see where you’re coming from. Your contributions to the world, while magnificent, happened long ago, and now you feel lost.”
“Exactly.”
She stilled her hand, tapping only her index finger. “You need a different mindset.”
“And how do I achieve that?”
“Think of it this way. You’ve contributed more to the world than most ever will. Now, you’re in retirement. It’s time to start living your undead life for you.”
Retirement. She’d never thought to look at her life in that way. Perhaps she didn’t have to make another grand contribution to society. She could simply exist.
Her shoulders slumped. She’d been simply existing for the past who-knew-how-long, and look where that had gotten her. “I suppose I could get a job. Serving drinks here at The Fang and Flask could be nice. I’m sure Eve would hire me.”
Dee shook her head. “Do something exciting. Take a vacation; go on an adventure.”
“Perhaps I could learn a new trade. You said you’re a web designer, right? Will you teach me? I could be your protégé. Tell me what it entails.”
