sheets. It was teeth, but they scraped and toyed. They worshipped and teased. They bit…but she felt pleasure at their touch, not pain and terror. “I will not kill you. I will not hurt you.”
“I am not special to you.”
“You may think that, but you are wrong. You very much are.” Dark wings spreading over the night sky, immense and ancient like a dragon. She found herself lost in the enormity of it all. “You can see me for what I really am, Miss Parker. In a way no one else ever has. You are my mirror. Your emptiness calls to my own. I am compelled to seek you, just as you are to me. You are already very special to me, Maxine…I do not think I shall ever let you go.”
She opened her eyes, meeting his crimson gaze. “Everything slips from your fingers like sand.”
He frowned. “Yes. You needn’t remind me. All falls away from me in time. Even my immortal children like Walter and the rest succumb to madness or death in time. I am the only thing that is immortal in this world. I am the one soul cursed with true eternity.” His grasp on her hand tightened, and he looked at her fingers twined with his. “What happens, Miss Parker, when you touch someone who is not I?”
She was glad to change the topic away from the enormity of his words. She pulled her fingers from his slowly. It was not in rejection. It was not because she did not want to maintain the link between them—in some strange way, she did. After a long moment, she formed the proper words.
“It is as though their soul is a soap bubble in my hand. I can protect it for a time. But it will falter. It will pop. I cannot control it. And when it happens, I take a piece of them into myself.”
“What…?”
“Not only their memories or their emotions. I rob from them a piece of their soul.” She rubbed her other hand over her heart, the reminder of an ache that had long passed but remained fresh. “It fades over time, but they are a deep wound that is hard to heal. It leaves a scar like it would in my flesh. I am still plagued by their dreams. For a time, it as though we were never different people.”
“It sounds terrible.”
“I worried it would drive me mad. Even the slightest touch, and I can absorb some of another’s soul. It is for that reason I avoid it so.”
“I feel different to you, then?”
“Yes. Your soul is unique. Instead of a soap bubble, I find myself holding a cannonball instead.”
He chuckled. “I am a heavy lead weight, thank you, Miss Parker. Quite flattering.”
“That is not what I meant!”
“Oh? I am a heavy lead weight whose only use is the destruction of life and property, then?” he teased, a mirthful and wicked smile on his lips.
“Yes, I do think that is far more accurate.” She glared at him and sighed heavily. “You are bent on destroying this city, after all.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“I must.”
She watched him curiously. “Explain. What do you mean?”
“I am more than the curse of my soul, my dear. I am haunted by every life I have ever killed. You saw the beasts that attacked your friends last night at the gala? They dwell within me. I am to leave nothing but death and destruction in my wake. I can keep them at bay, but they hunger. They whine. They are incessant and loud. From time to time, I find myself inspired to feed them. And so, I take a city or two as my own, and let them do just that.”
She sat back, watching him, stunned. “I am not sure I know quite what to say to that. You say you are not merely plagued, but you claim to be the illness itself.”
He lifted his glass to her in a silent toast and sipped it again. “I tried to convince them to take up crochet or knitting, but I fear they did not listen to me.”
She put her hand over her eyes and sighed.
“I thought that was quite clever.”
“You are monstrous.”
“And?”
She shot him a look and found him smiling, laughter in his eyes. She couldn’t help it. She chuckled. He did the same. When they quieted, he was still smiling. “I do not wish to frighten you. I do not wish to harm you. I hope for the day you will run into my