“Well, maybe I will at some point,” he admitted. I had to laugh at his honesty.
“Well, for today,” I began, “We’re going to work on your skills. You’ll be too tired for any of your ‘ideas’.”
“We’ll see about that,” he replied cockily, swaggering back to the picnic basket to grab another strawberry.
I smirked. Within an hour, he’d be begging for mercy.
Chapter Seven
“So, how much longer do you want to do this?” Brennan asked calmly.
He wasn’t even a little bit out of breath. I was drenched in sweat from my mental exertions and I could quite literally kill for an ice cold drink. But I didn’t want him to know that.
I leveled my gaze at him. He stood with his arms crossed across the room, his tanned brow furrowed.
“Are you tired?” I asked innocently.
“No,” he answered. “But I’m hungry.”
“I need for you to master this,” I insisted, gritting my teeth. “As you saw today, traveling god-style is the best way to go. It’s saved my butt a hundred times.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t appear that I can do it.”
“That’s because you’re still thinking like a mortal,” I mused. “You’ve got to open your mind and start thinking like a god. You’re the son of Apollo, after all. Maybe we should focus on other abilities and come back to this one. Have you noticed that you’re able to do something special? Something that normal people can’t do?”
“There are a few things,” he admitted. “But I’ve always tried to put them out of my mind- tried to pretend that they didn’t happen.”
“Like?” I prompted.
“Oh, you know…” he drawled. “The normal stuff. I can heal faster than the average person. I don’t get hurt as often. Sometimes, I can see something that is about to happen. It plays in my head like a movie and then it actually occurs.”
“So, you can see the future and you heal at a supernatural rate,” I repeated. “Is that it? Because I thought it was going to be something impressive.”
He grinned and I sucked my breath in. By the gods, he was handsome. I would chalk that up to another gift inherited from his father. I just wouldn’t point it out to him.
“Is there anything else?” I asked, somewhat nervously.
“Perhaps,” he said slowly. He finally seemed a little nervous. “Sometimes, very rarely, I can make things happen. I don’t know how, but I think about something and it just… happens. Maybe not exactly as I imagined it, but it still happens to some degree.”
“Interesting,” I breathed. He could not only see the future, but he could make it happen, too. That could certainly come in handy.
“Maybe,” he acknowledged. “But the problem is, I apparently haven’t mastered it. It doesn’t usually work.”
“And you never wondered about these things?” I demanded. “You never once wondered why you were different? Why you could do things that your friends couldn’t?”
He scowled. “Of course I have. But what answers could I possibly come to on my own? Being the son of a god isn’t exactly a logical conclusion.”
“I suppose not,” I answered tiredly. “There are several things that it looks like we should work on. I really wish that we could get my mother’s help. She’s very good in situations like this.”
“Then why don’t we?” he suggested. I tried to ignore the way his black shirt was clinging to his muscular chest. “Why can’t we?”
“I’ve already explained this,” I replied grumpily. “I can’t let her find us. She wants to take me to Hades to have the curse removed. I can’t let her do that. I just don’t trust him. My life is rather important to me. I don’t trust Hades with it.”
“So, let’s go to your mother, then,” he offered. “We can travel to… wherever it is that she lives. And the second she acts as though she’s going to try something, you can whisk us out of there with just a little wriggle of your nose.”
“I’m not on
Bewitched
,” I sighed. “And I’m not sure that I would be strong enough to get us out of there if my mother tried to prevent it. She’s
very
powerful.”
“And you love and trust her,” he pointed out gently. “I think that she would respect your wishes enough to comply with them. Really. I mean, clearly she loves you. She’s been searching for you. Can’t you trust her enough to try?”
He knew exactly which buttons to push and I cringed. It was true. My mother loved me more than anything in the world. And Brennan’s idea was almost a good one. If we appeared to her in her home in the Spiritlands, perhaps we could appeal to her to just help us and let us leave.
“Maybe,” I answered cautiously. “I wonder…would it be better to surprise her or gain her cooperation first?”
“And how would you go about doing that?” he answered curiously. “Don’t tell me that she has a cell phone.”
I rolled my eyes. “No. The goddess of witchcraft does not have a cell phone,” I answered wryly. “But she visits me in my dreams. If she comes to me tonight, I’ll bring it up.”
“Interesting,” he replied quietly. “You can visit other people’s dreams? Then you would find mine fascinating lately. You’ve been in all of them.”
My heart beat faster. “You wouldn’t continue with the same dreams once I was there,” I explained. “I would just fill up your mind and we would have a conversation, just as if I was there in person.”
“But you
are
here in person,” he murmured, crossing the room in four long strides to stand in front of me. “You’re right in front of me.”
“Yes,” I murmured, running my hands upward on his chest. Sliding my fingers along his neck, I leaned in to kiss him, but the startling desire to suck out his soul caused me to drop my hand and quickly step away.
“What is it?” he asked, his eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong? Why do you always do that?”
“There are more things that you don’t know,” I answered weakly. “Things about me. And I don’t know that I want to explain them right now.”
“Now is the very best time,” he answered firmly. “I think I have a right to know.”
He took a step toward me, but I gestured him back. He stilled in his tracks.
“Maybe,” I acknowledged. “But that doesn’t mean that I want to get into it right now.”
“Please?” he added, his handsome face uncertain. Somehow, that boyish quality did me in. Despite myself, I felt my heart soften. “Tell me about you,” he continued. “Everything.”
I sighed. He was right. If he was going to be close to me, he deserved to know.
“My full name is Empusa,” I began softly. “You already know who my parents are. I was born immortal. You know that I am cursed because my father traded my soul for his own freedom from the Underworld. What you don’t know, is what that curse entails.”
I glanced at his face. He was watching me intently, standing motionlessly just two feet away. I could reach out and touch him—I ached to do it- but I clenched my fists instead. I had to get through this.
“Go on,” he urged quietly. “Tell me.”
I nodded. “In order to stay immortal and young, I have to steal mortal souls. I have to breathe them in. In order to stay alive in between, I have to drink mortal blood.”
He froze, absolutely still, his eyes widened. “You’re a vampire?”
I shook my head quickly. “No. Of course not. The vampyre are legends, not real. They were created to make sense out of nightmarish events that mortal minds couldn’t process otherwise.”
“You mean, like your father drinking their blood?” Brennan raised an eyebrow. “I assume that your father was like this before he transferred the curse to you?”
I nodded miserably. “It’s possible that my father was the true source of vampire legend,” I conceded.
He moved to me, pulling me to him. He placed his hand on my chest. “Your heart beats,” he observed quietly. “So, you’re not a vampire.”
“I told you that,” I replied. He nodded.
“Your skin is warm,” he pointed out, as he slid his fingers along my arm.
I nodded silently, not trusting my voice. I hadn’t realized how nerve-wracking it would be to expose myself to Brennan. I trusted him and he could stomp on that trust if he wanted. I had never felt so vulnerable.
“Are you tempted to steal my soul every time that I’m near you?” he asked quietly.
Lifting a hand, he brushed it across my cheek. I wanted to melt into his arms, but I restrained myself.
“They say that it causes vampires physical pain to be near humans and not drink their blood,” he said as he watched my face. “Do I cause you pain, Empusa?”
He sounded concerned for me- for my well-being- far more than he seemed to be about his own. My heart warmed even more. Except for my mother, I had never known someone who thought about me before they thought about themselves. It was… huge.
“No, you do not cause me pain,” I told him. “I’m not a vampire. But it takes a lot of restraint to not hurt you sometimes. Every once in awhile, I feel an overwhelming need to take your soul from you.”
“What about my blood?” he asked curiously. “Do you want to drink my blood? Is it hard to resist?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t really get cravings for blood. I simply know when I need to eat- I get tired, pale. And when that happens, I must find someone to drink from.”
“I doubt you have trouble finding willing donors,” he said wryly. And then his brow wrinkled. “You don’t… kill people, do you?”
For the first time, he sounded nervous- like he wasn’t sure that he wanted to hear my answer. And I didn’t want to answer him.
“I don’t kill them by drinking their blood,” I confirmed, leaving out a key piece of information. I killed them by taking their souls. And Brennan was astute. He took one look at my face and knew I was holding something back.
“What are you hiding?” he asked gently. “You’re not telling me something.”
I swallowed hard and then swallowed again.
“I’m very dangerous,” I reminded him. “I don’t want you to lower your guard around me.”
“If you aren’t tempted to drink my blood, then what threat are you to me?”
“Your soul is more valuable to you than your blood could ever be,” I explained abruptly. “Your body creates more blood to replace any that is lost. You have one soul. If it is lost or taken from you, then you will die.”
“So, when you steal someone’s soul from them…” his voice trailed off as cold realization dawned on him. “You
do
kill people.”
“But I don’t like it,” I rushed to say. “I hate it, actually. And I have faith that once everything is sorted out and my father is once again in the Underworld where he belongs, that all of the souls that I have taken will be returned to the Underworld where they can live in peace for eternity.”
“How do you choose?” he asked slowly. “How do you decide who will die?”
I hadn’t noticed until now that he had stepped backwards- away from me. The distance felt like a stake in my heart. I gulped. I hated that he had made such a difference in me already. I hated that I cared what he thought.
“I choose people who are about to die anyway,” I murmured. The words welled up painfully on my tongue and I hated to say them. “That way, it doesn’t feel like I am actually ending their lives.”
He stared at me, his hazel eyes pensive. “Like my uncle,” he stated calmly.
I gulped. I had never, in over a thousand years, had been forced to stand in front of a family member and held accountable for killing someone. It was a hideous feeling. The accusation in Brennan’s eyes impaled me and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
I nodded once, the only movement I was able to make.
From here, I could hear his heartbeat race, louder and harder than it had beat a moment ago. He was frightened. Or upset. Or angry. Maybe all three of those things. And he was silent.
I waited for an uncomfortable moment.
Then another.
Finally I couldn’t stand it.
“Say something,” I pleaded.
“What would you like for me to say?” he asked. “You killed my uncle. I don’t know how I’m supposed to process that. I feel like a traitor because I’m still so drawn to you with this overwhelming attraction. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel.”
His voice was tight, his hands clenched at his sides. I had never felt so helpless.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I never asked to be… what I am. I pray every night that I will be given my old life back, that my father will be captured and returned to the Underworld.”
He nodded curtly. “That’s part of what makes this so hard. You’re a victim, too.”
He turned away from me and walked to the fireplace, holding his hands out to the warmth. The flames reflected from his eyes, making them seem golden and I flew to his side, grasping his arm.
“Brennan,” I began softly. “Please believe me. I really liked your uncle. He was ready to go. I didn’t hurt him. He didn’t feel a thing. And someday, he will be with his daughter, where he belongs.”
Brennan gazed down at me. “And until then? Until then, where is his soul?”
I averted my gaze. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I have no idea. I think it’s in limbo.”
He looked away, staring once more into the flames. “Empusa, I’m still angry with you for choosing my uncle. But I’m also furious with your father for doing this to you in the first place.”
“But you understand, don’t you, that I had to?” I beseeched him. “I didn’t want to.”
“I understand that, yes,” he nodded. “And I also understand that you can turn it around. All you have to do is stand in front of Hades and he will un-do the curse- which will free you from its grasp and will release all of the souls you’ve taken. I don’t understand why you haven’t done so already.”
When he said it in such a way, it did make me seem like a monster. I was letting my own fears, my own need for survival, interfere with doing what was right for all of the souls that I had taken over the years. It wasn’t that I hadn’t worried about them- it was just that I blocked it out so that the worry didn’t consume me. But it was here now, front and center, and I had to face it.
“I understand what you’re saying,” I acknowledged. “But it’s harder than it sounds. If I make a wrong move, perhaps all of those souls will be lost. I couldn’t bear that, either.”