Page 62 of The Vampire's Lament
That term, that rotten fucking term the Global Order loved to bandy around.
I balled my hands into fists, keeping my frustrations in a safe.
Don’t lose your head here.
“But—”
“These are not the days for pettiness,” she added, not helping.
“Disliking someone trying to murder me isn’t petty, it’s natural,” I threw back.
“Yet you sullied your body with the touch of your actual murderer,” she countered.
Whoa. Talk about a kick in the balls.
She plucked a rose from the bush. “But you are mortal and susceptible to the longings of your body. It’s a failure I have never understood.”
Sex as a failing? I guess she had a point, but really?
“I’ll be doing better on that front from now on,” I rebutted.
“Excellent news.” She tucked the rose into her hair, unbothered by the huge thorns on its stem.
Yikes.
“Now, let us return to business. Keep walking.”
I followed her a few steps before saying, “Couldn’t we just take the disk?”
“If it comes to it, yes,” she answered, sounding upset. “But we must avoid sliding into too much immorality. Follow my plan first.”
Hmmm. A cheeky bit of theft paled in comparison to Aidan’s plans for domination.
She led us to the edge of the forest. A cluster of butterflies fluttered nearby, each one a different color of the rainbow.
“Isn’t it lovely here?” she whispered.
“Yeah. Pretty.” I might have sounded indifferent, but the place was easy on the eyes.
The deity stepped closer to me, placing her hands on my shoulders. “Together, we can do this.”
My eyes grew hot. “Right.”
Caer touched my left cheek with the back of her cold hand. “We were brought together to change the world. I have every faith in our success. And faith can be a fantastic weapon against the darkness.”
I nodded in agreement.
She removed her hand, a gentle gust of wind flowing through her hair. “Trying times await, precious one. We will overcome. We will triumph.”
Call me an elfy puppet on a string.
Caer looked to the sky. “For now, I will say goodbye. I have told you what we must do. Get to the Elf Domain.”
Before I could respond, rose petals fell around me in a thick curtain. Lines of the song coiled around me in a spiral of sound, taking me on another journey of remembrance with Silvanus.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SILVANUS
