I shrug, not bothering to open my eyes. “Jealous of what? You’ve given me everything.”
There is no chuckle now but I know he’s smiling. “I did, didn’t I?” He sounds different. Serious. His voice less musical than it usually is.
“Mmmhmm,” I hum. Because I’m tired and I’m probably gonna fall asleep.
“Well, I love them all in different ways, Ryet. So I guess the answer is yes. But none of them will deliver the gift of Darkness. That’s you. And Syrsee, of course. You are the best of me. And so I will always be there for you. Remember that when the time comes.”
I hear the threat in these last words. Well, threat is probably not the right word. More like a warning, maybe. Because what he really said, and I know this because he’s done it so many times now, is that things are going to get horribly bad for me. There’s no way around it. And he wants me to know he’ll be there when they do.
“Am I going to live through it?” My words come out sleepy and slow. My eyes remain closed.
Paul swipes some hair away from my face. Then he leans in, his mouth touching my neck, his sharp teeth ripping my skin. He licks up some blood before answering my question. “I certainly hope so. You and I, Ryet, are meant to spend eternity together. I’m counting on it.”
And then he feeds. Pulling the blood out of me. Mixing us up once again.
I go somewhere else now. Some other realm, maybe. It’s nothing but an empty place filled with gold and purple mist. But inside the mist there are specks of black.
The Darkness.
The mists, both colors, represent magic. Or a better way to put it, I think is that they represent what can bedonewith magic. They are like paint colors sitting in front of a canvas, waiting to be used.
Mostly, so far, at least, I’ve used them to dreamwalk.
“But you can do so much more, Ryet.” Paul says this because he’s standing next to me in the mists now, but still feeding on me at the same time.
“Where are you right now?”
He shrugs up one shoulder. “I’m right here.”
“No. Where is your physical body?”
“In the dirt, back home in Montana.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me to do what?”
“Come up out of the ground, of course. I’m waiting for your third life. I’m waiting for the new you.”
“What about this me?” I point to myself.
“All things in good time, Ryet. We’re not in a rush.”
“I don’t understand what will happen.”
He turns and smiles at me. This version of him is wearing a suit. He looks very…Paul. Commanding, and arrogant, and fucking desirable. “You’re going to Hell, Ryet. But don’t worry, I’ll be there too. I must have that final conversation with our Maker.”
“Isn’t the Darkness our maker?”
“It is.”
“Isn’t it… technology?”
“It’s that too.”
“But it’s not like… I mean, does it talk?”
