Chapter
Twenty
Charisse
was sprawled on the floor of her own living room. How strange it was to
be home after what felt like a lifetime away, but was in reality only four
days. There had seemed little point in refusing to invite Destiny to
enter when they’d arrived. Oh sure, she’d had the added incentive of
avoiding a too sharp nail to the jugular, but there was also the knowledge that
Nate would quickly figure out where Destiny had taken her and be riding to the
rescue close on their heels.
“Such
a little life.” Destiny prowled around her living room, sniffing
disdainfully at her cosy beachside cottage set up.
Charisse
leaned her back against the nearest sofa, every bone in her body aching.
“Do me a favour would you, Vamperella?
Pull
up the zip of your catsuit.
Watching
your tiny assets bouncing around is making me feel nauseous.”
Destiny
pulled up the zipper absently, pre-occupied primarily with running slow fingers
over her broken teeth.
“I
can give you the name of a good dentist, if you need one.”
“They’ll
grow back by tomorrow night… unless your dentist makes house calls? I am
feeling a little peckish.”
While
Destiny continued to prowl, Charisse catalogued possible escape strategies and
available weapons. Unfortunately all her options were rather
limited against Destiny’s lightning fast reflexes.
Fighting back was a pipe dream. Certainly a
full frontal attack would be a mistake. No, what she needed to do was lull
Destiny into complacency, whilst at the same time, providing a big enough
distraction to catch her off guard.
“I
didn’t mean to fall for Nate.” Whoops, the words popped out before she’d
clearly thought them through. Oh well, this was obviously something she needed
to talk through and Destiny would just have to listen. “I mean, I wasn’t
looking for a man period. Hooking up long term in my family equals
permanence of epic proportions. We’re talking very long lived here…”
“Not
if I have anything to say about it.” Destiny advised, but didn’t do
anything to stop Charisse from talking.
“Melded
… joined together, for over a hundred years! Can you imagine?”
Charisse mused out loud. When she’d been growing up, that thought had
horrified her, but now… now she was beginning to reconsider.
Destiny
laughed gleefully. “Not really, most men just make me want to kill them the
moment I set eyes on them, and when they open their mouths, invariably to say
something insipid, it makes me want to rip their heads right off their puny
bodies.”
Charisse
ignored Destiny’s vivid description. “Though it’s not like I’ve ever
heard any of them complain, not the ones matched by Great-Aunt Alma… Maybelle’s
dismal attempts at match making are a whole different story.” Charisse
smoothed back her still damp ponytail. “Of course, it’s not like they have the
time to complain, they’re too busy having copious amounts of sex.”
Destiny
scoffed a grating laugh. “No one has sex all the time, not if they are
together for over a hundred years.”
“The
melded couples in my family do. Once you’ve officially hooked up, the
couple become connected to the Sanctuary grid, there’s a whole, generate magic
- feedback arrangement, that involves the couple having sex… no one has studied
it scientifically yet, so we’ve never really quantified how it works, but then
magic is always hard to pin down.”
Destiny
heaved a faux bored sigh, seemingly intrigued despite herself. “So
everyone here goes at it like rabbits?”
“Only
if you find the perfect partner and meld with them. But then, like I
said, you’re stuck together for a very long time.”
“But
if you are so-called
perfect
for one
another, what does it matter?” Destiny pointed out with surprising logic.
Charisse
nodded her head. “So you’d bind yourself for all eternity to one other
person knowing that when you did so, you would forever be under the sway of
some unseen powerful entity that influenced your actions just so it could keep
itself charged?”
“Well,
not when you put it like that.” Destiny continued to pace, glancing out
the windows. “But if this magical grid is such a horrible slave driver,
then why has there been no revolt? No uprising?”
Charisse
looked glum. “Because they’re too busy having sex to see that anything’s
wrong.”
Destiny
continued to look intrigued. “So these people are sheep? Docile an
easily led, with no lives of their own?”
“No,
not at all.” Charisse responded immediately… then actually thought about
what she’d said.
“Huh,
and you think I’m the emotionally damaged one in the room.” Destiny
scoffed with a delighted laugh.
Goddess,
okay, so who wouldn’t be wary of being at the mercy of another demanding power
when they already had one like Bettina in their life? Yet no one ever
acted like being melded and connected to the Sanctuary grid was a burden. Nor
did anyone’s behaviour change dramatically after their melding, well except for
being totally in love with their meld mate and all the sex.
Fine,
so she had a few commitment issues, understandable surely, with Bettina in her
life demanding so much time and attention.
The thought of meeting someone and adding their demands to her life
along with connecting on a fundamental level to the Sanctuary power grid had,
for such a long time, seemed far too over whelming. Until Nate.
“You
know he’s coming here to kill you once and for all this time, don’t you?”
Charisse asked curiously.
“He
can try.” Destiny smiled.
“It
seems kind of strange to me that you’d chase after a warrior of Maat like you’ve
been doing and not expect to get… well, dead. Do you have a death wish,
is that it Destiny? Suicide by warrior?”
Destiny
shook her head. “This grid of yours that makes the couples act like
bunnies in heat… it must be nice to feel so strongly, so passionately about
another person… about anything really. My kind is even longer lived than
yours but very few of us do highs or even lows for that matter. Most of
us live a very moderate existence, keep our heads down, never take too much blood,
never draw too much attention.”
“But
you were born differently?”
“From
the cradle I wanted more… more of everything. It happens occasionally
with the females of my species. It is expected that we will split off
from the group, take our excesses elsewhere. And the highs are so
addictive we gladly go to seek them out.”
“And
the lows?” Charisse asked softly, gasping as suddenly Destiny was
kneeling in front of her, a dagger sharp nail once more resting against the
side of her throat.
“I
make sure there are never any of those…” Turning her head, Destiny looked
towards the sliding glass door leading out to the beach. “Why don’t you
join us Lover. We were just about to start the games without you.”
Nate
had chosen not to mask his approach to Cyd’s beach cottage. Destiny would
be expecting him and there was no point in trying to take her by surprise until
all the pieces were in place. Entering the living room from the double
doors leading to the beach he kept his swords sheathed, all his attention on
Destiny snuggled up so close to Cyd on the floor, she was practically sitting
on her lap.
“Lover.”
Destiny almost purred the word, though her broken teeth made the sound come out
a little unevenly. “We were beginning to wonder where you’d got to. Was
dispatching Gustave really that big of a challenge for your skills?”
Nate
remained frozen in place. Thanks to the bright moonlight he could see
that Destiny was in a perfect position to bleed Cyd out with no more than a
sharp jab of her razor sharp fingernail. “I’m pretty sure I killed Gustave a
few days ago, I think the one I just offed was Olaf.”
Destiny
shrugged unconcerned shoulders. “No matter, plenty more minions out there
for the taking… though next time, I think I’ll co-opt some that have at least
half a clue when it comes to fighting.” Destiny shifted restlessly on
Charisse’s lap. “Whilst we’ve been waiting, girlfriend here and I have
been having a deep and meaningful, haven’t we precious?” Destiny reached up,
grabbing Cyd’s ponytail and giving it three hard tugs.
Charisse
grit her teeth at the enforced nodding. “Yes.”
“It
was starting to border on the nauseating. Thankfully you’re here now, so
the fun can begin.”
Nate’s
whole body tensed in readiness.
“Easy
there lover.” Destiny applied a fraction more pressure to the tender skin
of Cyd’s throat. “So eager to spend quality time with me, so
flattering. But first I need to deal with girlfriend here. You know
what gals are like when they have a falling out… merciless.”
“No.”
Nate kept his tone low and even, though every instinct he had screamed at him
to attack, to save Cyd. “It started with just you and me Destiny, that’s
how it should end. Let Cyd go.”
“Hmmm.”
Destiny bit into her lower lip, a jagged fang drawing blood. “I don’t
think so Lover. She joined our exclusive circle of her own volition and
she’s come to mean so much to me, not just food but more of a… sister.
One who gets on every nerve ending I have, stealing my boyfriend, making me
want to pluck out her eyes and drink her life’s blood via the sockets.”
Destiny smiled with evil promise.
“Destiny,
you know real couples… soul mates, don’t play these types of games?”
Destiny
pouted. “Then they’re playing them wrong. If there’s no pain, no
bloodshed, then there’s no challenge, no test… and it’s all meaningless.”
Nate
shook his head, the vamp Queen was bat-crap-crazy, maybe it was time for a few
home truths. “You know you were only ever a means to an end for me
Destiny. A chance to get at Sek and Mot. Essentially you were just
a tool.”
Destiny
blinked silver eyes that eerily reflected the moonlight before tossing her head
back and laughing. “Oh Lover, I know that. But you’ve been so much fun to
play with, not a dull moment to be had since the moment we met. And you
have to admit, you’ve liked the challenge… I’ve seen the look in your
eyes.”
“I
think you’re mistaking bloodlust for something else.”
Destiny
shook her head. “Bloodlust is the best kind of lust in my book. I
thought maybe you’d…”
Nate
sighed. “Thought what?”
It
was Charisse who answered. “She thought you might change your mind.”
Nate
shook his head in denial.
The vamp was
crazy but she couldn’t be that crazy. “You’ve killed hundreds of people for
money and fun. You nearly killed Vivian. You’re hurting Cyd. As for there
never being a dull moment? Well I’m sorry, but I like a clear dividing
line between the monsters I kill and the women I date.”
“Oh
really?” Destiny twined Cyd’s long ponytail around her wrist like a
rope. “Girlfriend here lured my minion to its death, the air around her
hums with potent power that messes with men’s minds and enslaves their will,
and you don’t think she lives in the abyss?”
“Cyd
isn’t a monster.” Nate stated flatly.
“Hmm,
that’s one interpretation I should imagine. Maybe you’re just blind to
the amount of wilful damage she inflicts when she takes possession of their
hearts and minds? At least I have the good grace to be upfront about the
cost of what it means to be in my arms. A pint or three of blood is a
small price compared to trading one’s soul. How can you be sure Lover, that
you’re not just the next poor dupe in line to be mind-fucked? What makes
you think you are in any way, shape or form, different or special, from all
those other drooling deluded fools that grovel at her feet?”
“Because
her powers don’t work on me for a start, she hums, it’s like nails on a
blackboard to me. Maat, if she sings, it has me wanting to reach for the
nearest ice pick to end the pain.”
“Hey!”
Charisse protested. “Ouch…” Wincing as Destiny yanked hard on her
ponytail.
“If
you’re not a slave to her song, why do you prefer her to me?” Destiny
frowned in genuine puzzlement.
Nate
breathed out a frustrated sigh. “What answer can I give you that will result in
you letting Cyd go and you and me having it out between us once and for all?”
Destiny
laughed, dragging back Charisse’s head so that her pale throat gleamed velvety
smooth in the moonlight. “I think you know that no matter how tonight
plays out, your little bit of fluff won’t be getting out of here alive.”
“Could
I just say something at this juncture?” Charisse enquired through gritted
teeth, her back arched tight like a bow, her hands scrabbling behind her for
purchase.
“Must
you?” Destiny huffed out a put upon sigh.
“Look,
we get that you have abandonment issues. Ugh…” Charisse came to a
halt as Destiny pulled even harder on her hair.