“Oh, he’s from an old family.He’s been in trouble before, but we were actually thinking that it was high time that he had his magic back.But then you came along and fired us.”The second one huffed at him, and he had to smile.They had no idea what he was capable of.“David is the younger brother of Rance Smith.His parents are both gone now, but they were good people, too.”
“No, they weren’t.They allowed him to get by with everything that went against our kind, and you indulged him.”The first one huffed this time and said that they, like the others, couldn’t be watched all the time.“Yet I’ve been able to do it with just a couple of faeries.I know for a fact that you had access to the faeries to use when you were working.”
“They were too flitterly.We couldn’t stand to be around them because they were just flying around all the time and using their magic.Why should little creatures such as them have more magic than we do, I ask you?”Brew asked them if they ever used them in the capacity for which they were there for.“No.As I said, they were just too much to be around.Besides, we watched over him for awhile.He was a good boy when we were watching him, and that should have been enough.”
“Did you know that he killed his parents?”They said that they’d heard a rumor about that but never believed it.“Did you ever check in on them to see if that’s what they did or not?I’m asking this because I’ve read his mind and I know for a fact that he did.”
“We aren’t allowed to read vampires’ minds.”He asked him where he’d read that.“David told us.He said that he was up on all the rules, and we were just too busy to look into it anyway.As we said, he’s been a good boy and hasn’t caused us any trouble in a long time.If you’d allow us this one job, we could give him back his powers so that he can live a better life.”
“He’s killed more people in the last six months than any other vampire living or dead.”He said that couldn’t be right.“Yet it is.You only saying that he could use his fangs for feeding did little good when he’d kill the people anyway when he was finished feeding.Did you know that?”
“No.And as we have said several times now, he’s been a good boy and deserves to let us give him a second chance.We’ve had no trouble with him since his parents were dead.”Brew pointed out again that he killed them.“That can’t be right.There is a rule that says one cannot kill his parents.Or any relatives for that matter.”
“Did David tell you that one, too?It’s true.However, he was able to keep them alive for three months before they begged him to end their lives.That’s the only way that he could do it.”
“I remember that now.He told us that they were sickly and needed to have their lives ended.Something about bad blood.He told us that the only way to end their suffering was to remove their heads while they were still alive so that they’d be able to rest in peace.Yes, I remember that rule now.And no, before you ask, we did not check on them to see how sickly they were.None of us wanted whatever they had to come back on us, so we stayed away.David said that it was better that way.”Brew felt his anger getting the better of him and wanted to kill the lot of them.“There are a lot of rules we weren’t aware of until people started telling us about them.David was kind enough to teach us a few so that we’d not look foolish when the time came to enforce the laws that we had to abide by.It was hard enough keeping up with the easier things brought before us.We didn’t want to die because of them.”
Brew waved his hand at the three of them, and they were nothing but ash.While he knew that his power could kill them, he had no idea they’d turn to ash like a vampire did.After having the staff deal with the mess, he went to find Calla Lily.He needed her to calm him down before he took down a mountain and ruined their lovely home.Christ, he was pissed off and knew that she’d be the only one who would calm him down.Thankfully.
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.“Maybelater.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.”
