Cherry Creek - Dani Matthews Page 0,79
rebuilding the lower half of our body. Cut our head off and there's no coming back from that. There's not enough left to rebuild from.”
“Are you just yanking my chain?”
“No. I'm serious,” he assures.
I’m stunned, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. If the incubi and succubi are demons, it makes sense they aren’t mortal like humans. “Is Khristos older than he looks?” I manage to ask.
“Yes.”
“By how much?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Tell me, Roman,” I demand.
He shrugs and picks up his beer. “I think he’s been around for four or five centuries. I don't know. I asked when I was younger, and then I forgot the exact answer. I'm thinking four. Don't quote me on it, though.”
Speech is no longer possible. I am silent, lips parted as I process this news. Roman—the asshole—looks amused by my speechlessness. My mouth opens, but it's like I've forgotten how to speak. “Holy shit,” I croak out.
Roman grins widely, flashing white teeth. “Trust me, his shits not holy.”
That's enough to snap me out of my stupor. I shoot him a dirty look. “Don't be an ass. This is all new to me, be nice.”
“I am being nice,” he says pleasantly as he finishes off his beer. “I'm sitting here with you instead of going to the club.”
“Go to the club. I'm not forcing you to be here,” I retort.
“I never said I didn't want to be here,” he contradicts.
True. “Okay, moving on. How old are you?” I ask as I brace myself.
Roman chuckles. “Seventeen.”
“No, I mean really. How old are you?”
“Seventeen. I turn eighteen in October.”
My eyes narrow. “You're actually seventeen?”
“Yes.”
“Like literally?”
“Yes, for real, Vee.”
Well, good. That's better than sitting out here with a guy that looks my age but turns out to be two hundred years old. I'm not sure I could handle that. A new thought hits me, and I look at Roman sharply. “What's my life span?”
“Same as ours.”
My mouth goes slack. “I'm...”
Roman nods. “Immortal. Unless you get close to starving yourself again,” he adds.
“But I'm only half,” I sputter.
“When you've got the genes, you've got the genes, even if they are mutated.”
“But I've been sick. I had pneumonia when I was seven and was in the hospital for two days,” I point out.
“That was before your genes kicked in. Have you been sick in the past year or two?”
“No. Not really.”
“There you go. I will warn you though, you are a slower healer than we are. A life threatening injury won't kill you, but it won't be pleasant, either. It'll take you much longer to bounce back from it than it would if it were one of us. So, you still have to watch yourself,” he warns seriously.
“This is crazy,” I mumble as I rub my hands over my face.
“You sure you want to continue on with this, or should we save the rest of this inquisition for another time?”
My hands drop, and I give him a firm look. “I want to know everything.”
“There is such thing as too much at once, Vee,” he points out.
“You guys have kept things from me long enough, don't you think? I just want to know what I'm getting involved in now that I know what I am.”
Roman nods at my insistence. “What else do you want to know?”
“Are we basically human, but for the feeding off energy thing?”
“No, we're not human. We're stronger, and like I said, we can heal from just about anything. We can also shift,” he says carefully.
“Shift?” I echo.
Roman suddenly grins. “It's a fun perk to being an incubus or succubus. Our lives depend on being able to feed. Since not everyone is going to find our original form attractive, we have the ability to morph into anyone as long as it's the same sex. I can't turn female, even if I wanted to. Just male.”
“You're serious, aren't you?”
He sits up in his chair and rises to his feet. He looks down at me, hands on hips. “Think of someone in your head, preferably male. I don't care what he looks like, just imagine someone.”
Trace flickers in my mind, and I can't help but latch onto a picture of him in my head. Then, before my eyes, Roman begins to blur slightly as his body and facial features begin to shift. His dark hair lightens slightly and grows in length until it resembles Trace's. His eyes fade to a light gray and his clothes begin to blur and change color and texture. He's literally turning into the