“Demon issues,” I say vaguely.
“Obviously,” he snaps at me, but I am keeping schtum. No one needs to know what is going on just yet. I don’t have the strength to deal with the backlash. I yawn and feign fatigue. Well there is no feigning. I am tired and tell them both so.
“I’ll carry you upstairs to bed,” CK says.
“No, I want to sleep here,” I say. I am settled and comfortable and I don’t feel like being jostled. The pain isn’t subsiding at all and that is also a worry. But one for another time.
“Blood first,” he says, “then sleep.”
“Okay,” I say, and he disappears and returns shortly with a glass. I furrow my brow at him and then the glass. “Feeder,” I say insolently.
“Oh no,” he says as he sits and hands it to me. “Get yourself used to it again, my sweet. You remember what happened last time.”
“It’s only been three months,” I sulk at him. Last time I had been starved of human blood for over a decade. “You went three months and you were fine,” I remind him. His eyes freeze over, and Cole looks up interestedly. Oops, I guess he didn’t want me telling anyone about his punishing starvation hiatus.
“I had not been mauled to near death by a poisonous beast,” he says, grinding his teeth.
Whatever, I am not arguing about it. I snatch the glass off him like a sullen child and drink up like a good girl. He smiles at me indulgently and I return it before I close my eyes. Cole kisses my hand as does CK and I am left alone to nap.
I shiver as I get up a few hours later. It is getting chilly and this blanket is not cutting it anymore. Must try and remember to go to the store and buy some proper English weather duvets and blankets. I hobble into the library and close the doors. I am still alone, and I enjoy the peace for a few minutes as I sit in my chair and spin to stare out of the window. I feel the pop behind me and hunch my shoulders in response. Whichever one it is, I don’t have the oomph to deal with either of them. Nevertheless, I spin around in my chair and come face to face with Other Liv as she sits and props her Louboutins up on my desk.
“Whoa, you look a mess,” she says by way of a greeting.
“Gee, thanks,” I say, bringing my hand up to smooth my hair.
“No, seriously,” she says, putting her feet back on the floor and leaning forward with a curious look. “What in Hell happened to you?”
Well, she is not one to mince words. I admit I haven’t looked in a mirror since I woke up. Not even in the bathroom. CK had turned me away from it and I never even thought to look. Oh, good grief! I think now as I bring my hand up to my face, what in Hell do I look like?
Liv shakes her head at me and with a faux sympathetic smile says, “It’s not good, sweetie.”
“What do you want?” I ask now, needing her to leave so I can go and look at myself.
“I?
?ll get to that in a minute,” she says still peering at me. “I want to know what happened to you.” She tilts her head and looks closer at my neck. I put my hand up to cover the bite and she raises her eyebrow at me. It is really annoying. I know I do it and seeing it on her face, that looks exactly like mine, I decide to try and give up the habit.
“Remiel is what happened to me,” I say shortly, seeing no reason to not tell her.
“Come again?” she says, confused. “You let him bite you?”
“Hm, ‘let’ is not how I would put it,” I say wryly. “And by the way, I knew you knew more than what you told me about him!” I accuse her.
She shrugs, unconcerned by my accusation.
“Why didn’t you tell me everything?” I ask her.
“I am certain that what happened over in my World is not what would have happened here, regardless of what I told you,” she says. CK had just said the same thing. “I gave you the information you asked for.”
I think about that and realize she is completely right. I asked her how to get rid of him and she told me how. She obviously hasn’t got rid of him in her World. That I can see now plain as day. I had wondered about her choice of words when discussing him at the time and now it all completely makes sense. “Okay, fair enough,” I admit. “Tell me now though, what happened over on your side?”
She settles back in the chair and once again props her feet up on my desk. She sees no harm in telling me now that events have occurred here. “Well, for starters, I didn’t let him bite me,” she sneers, and I growl at her.
She snickers at me and continues. “I had avoided him for quite a while, I knew what he wanted from me and I wasn’t prepared to give it to him so he could live. Mother obviously killed him for a reason, right?”
I am about to answer her when she carries on. Rhetorical then.
“Anyway, as Mother lay on Her deathbed, She asked me to give him what he wanted. He needed my blood and She wanted me to give it to him. She was full of sorrow over what She did to him and Her last dying wish was that he be fixed.”