“Put your hands around my neck and hold on to me,” he warned.
The moment I’d grabbed on, the world went off-kilter, and I groaned as my stomach clenched and rebelled from the immortal speed he used. I could use the speed, but it was different when another used it without the mind grasping that took place.
Rhys placed my wet body onto the bed, checking my legs for injury. No emotion shone in his eyes while he touched my thighs, parting my legs to check each one. Once he was confident the glass tub hadn’t harmed me, he reached for the sheer gown beside the bed, handing it to me. Quietly, I pulled it on over my head before lifting my derriere to shed the wet panties. I held them awkwardly before his lips curled into a knowing, smug expression.
“I don’t have anything else to wear, do I?” I asked in a high tone.
“You don’t need panties to sleep. I won’t assault you or push the issue. We’re going to sleep so that when you wake, I don’t have to hold your hand. How do you manage the curse without a Van Helsing around?”
“I have a cell that I use in my room at E.V.I.E. that’s safe for me to be within, but my whole room is pretty much a safe zone. It’s reinforced steel, and once the curse becomes active, I retire there until it has run its course. I try not to use more than a tiny amount of magic when crafting weapons. That way I don’t have to deal with it for very long.”
“How did you end up at E.V.I.E.? I doubt your mother supported your choice to hunt vampires and other creatures before immortality claimed you.”
“Elizabeth hates that I joined. She spent my entire childhood running from your bloodline, and I just wanted to stop running for a little while. Every story and every lesson was about how to prevent detection until I couldn’t take it anymore. I left at seventeen, and I remained hidden until Winchester found me and made me call my mother, who had gone mad during my disappearance. I guess it was rather selfish to run from the one person who had stuck around to make sure I survived to adulthood. I was a child running from a parent who was a little more than smothering, I guess.”
“Who is Winchester?” he asked, reaching for the whiskey beside the bed. He sat beside me, pouring us both glasses.
“She’s no one,” I swallowed, knowing she’d use to me to test out her newest arsenal if I discussed her with a Van Helsing.
“Judging by her name, I’m guessing another of Eliza’s daughters?”
“How do you know it’s a girl?” I demanded.
“You said she was no one, meaning female. I guess in this day and age, it could be otherwise. I’m guessing you never entered a public school or got to see much of the outside world. Knowing Eliza, you would have been raised off-grid, kept out of the eye of the world. You never learned how to be human because she never intended to leave you alone until you turned twenty-five and ascended to immortality. She’d have taught you how to survive in the wild, but on her terms. She probably taught you to control silver from childhood and use magic. Your mother was a fierce woman and had the patience of a saint for her children.”
“You knew her after you burned her home and family to ashes?” I asked curiously. He flinched, filling my glass before doing the same to his. “You didn’t know her after, because you said she died—” I cringed, lifting my eyes to lock with his. “My mother had other children, didn’t she? She never spoke of them if that is the case.”
“It was war, and both sides struck fast and hard, Remi. Grief makes people act out, and most of the time, it’s with the intent to inflict the most amount of pain you can cause. We set their house on fire without warning. We hit your family fast and hard, and we offered no mercy. Your mother lost her mate and children in the fire, or so we assumed. Considering we thought she was dead, it is possible others made it out alive as well.”
I swallowed, nodding while biting my tongue. I lifted the glass to my lips, chugging his expensive whiskey without stopping to sniff or swirl it as he was doing. I