Claudia D. Christian

Estimated reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

Lily stared at his chin, brow furrowed in thought, as she hemmed and hawed. Finally, she pinched his nose hard and declared, “I just know I have.”

“Have a care for my poor nose, brat.”

“Ha! Like you really feel this. Try it on someone who doesn’t know how much pain your kind can really take. Or how much you really like it.”

Julian smirked in agreement.

Lily pulled away the makeshift handkerchief and inspected his aquiline nose. “It looks to be okay. The bleeding’s stopped.” She dabbed at his lip. When the dried blood stubbornly stayed, she wet the scrap with her tongue before attacking his lip. Julian could scent the doughnuts she had for lunch. It stirred misplace memories of fetching her dozens at a time.

“Do you want to be a diabetic?”

“Hmm?” she murmured while continuing her cleansing mission.

“I constantly have to repeat myself with you…it’s beyond frustrating. Do you want to be a diabetic?”

“That’s a silly question. Of course not.”

“Then stopping consuming so much sugar.”

“I don’t.”

“Yes, that’s why I can smell so much of it in your blood.”

“Hey! Don’t be sniffing my blood!” She punctuated her sharp command with one final scrub to his lip. “I’m not your food.”

Julian’s lazy gaze glittered with gold. “Of course not, darling. You could be my food. You’d send me into a vampiric coronary with all the garbage you eat.”

Lily threw the bloodied scrap at this face. “And thank you to you too. Just take me home.”

“What’s got your little panties in a twist now?” Julian brought the engine to life and pointed to her seatbelt. Lily snapped it on with a tiny scowl. He waited until they backed out onto the driveway before drawling, “Well?”

“Well what?”

“You know what. I asked you a question.”

She wished he would put the top down. Having it up made the small space claustrophobic. She crossed her ankles primly before answering, “My diet, or lack thereof, is none of your business. I happen to like to eat. Fucking excuse me for not nibbling on just lettuce like a damned rabbit.”

“You know if I weren’t fond of your mother I would just throw you out of the car right now for having such a dirty mouth.”

“Leave my mama out of this.”

Julian looked at her with raised brow. The venom in her tone challenged his curiosity.  “I would think it pleasing that I favored your dear mother.”

“Favor her? Let me tell you something—you come near her I’ll gut you. I will fucking stake you to the ground, wait for dawn, and begin gutting. You will feel it and it won’t be fun. I promise you. Don’t fucking this as a joke.”

Julian assessed the spitting kitten disguised as a very young girl. “You think I’m sexually attracted to her, don’t you? Of course she is very lovely, even after the obvious stress of raising a creature like you. I could imagine bedding someone like her but—”

Lily’s palm made brutal contact with his cheek. “Never speak of her like that again.”

The beautiful car made an ugly stop. Julian’s grip molded itself around her small throat. He dragged her across the armrest. His even whisper carried more menace than if he had shouted. “Never hit me again. I am not a whipping boy to take your misguided rage on. Hit me again and I will hit back in kind. Trust me—I can hit harder than you ever could.”

Lily’s fingers twitched. They wanted to sink into his eyes. Self-preservation stopped her. He would obviously return the gesture in kind and unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to regenerate now that the Spirit had found another host.

“Do you understand me, Lily? Are you in perfect clarity of what I am saying to you? Answer quickly.”

“Yes.” Her mouth made a disconnect from her brain. She fantasized about setting him on fire. The gruesome imagery made her smile.

His hand released her with a shove. He watched Lily’s maniacal grin grow wider. “Thoughts of me I presume?”

“How’d you know?”

“Oh, instinct has a way. I imagine your thoughts are very much the same as mine were. Unlike me, you didn’t get a bloody nose.”

Lily turned to him in surprise. “You were thinking of hurting me?”

“Who wouldn’t?”

“What were you thinking?”

“Why should I tell you? Won’t your little feelings get hurt again?”

“Try me.”

Julian resumed driving. “I imagined crushing your ankle with the car door.” He glanced at her to assess her reaction. Her feline smirk intrigued him.

“Amateur.”

“What did you imagine?” Pique made his words abrupt.

“Setting you on fire.”

He frowned in distaste. “I shudder the thought.”

“Yeah, you weren’t shuddering in my mind.” Bliss overtook Lily again. “You were most definitely screaming in agony.”

“You sick, twisted creature. How can you be a Resurrector with such psychotic tendencies?”

Lily’s face dropped. “I’m not, remember? The Spirit’s gone. Poof. Bye-bye.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, brat, but you’re still it.”

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