bones. I’m eating better. I can hold down adult-sized meals now, though nothing too rich (I make exceptions for Mama Bear’s desserts). I’m still not fond of eating meat. And I continue to get regular infusions of Pure blood from Tal.
Speaking of which, something has changed in him. I can feel it in the blood that he gives me. It’s stronger, richer. Incredibly powerful. Whenever I get an infusion, I feel my senses come alive in ways they never have before. And by extension, I feel stronger, more powerful.
He also looks like a male who gets more than just “some,” if you know what I mean.
Ugh. It makes me break out a little in hives to know that my progenitors are getting it on regularly and thoroughly. This is one of the many reasons I prefer to think of them as Tal and Ishtar, not Dad and Mom.
(We don’t openly talk about our blood ties, however. I think we all know, but no one explicitly mentions it. We pretend to be no more than acquaintances, not quite friends and not entirely enemies. That’s the way I want to keep it.)
I had the impression that Tal hates sex as much as I do. I thought that at least we have that in common. But nope, I guess I was wrong. He’s apparently overcome his hump, while I remain disgusted and terrified by the mere thought of sex.
Which leads me to a secret I haven’t yet told anyone (except you). The one bout of sex I actually did right. So right that I managed to impregnate a human woman. That resulted in the birth of the most beautiful, magical boy in the world.
My Benjamin.
And I love him more than anything else in the world.
E.
“What happened to you, I mean, Ninsa, after I left the village?” I ask Liv as we sit side by side in the sauna next to the communal shower behind the gym.
I have a towel wrapped around my boney hips, and she has one wrapped around her flat-as-a-board torso.
Hey, I’m honest with our shortcomings. This is the real world. I’ve never believed in rose-colored glasses.
“Suddenly, this trip down memory lane pops into your head?” she quips, her eyes closed, her body relaxed beside mine.
“I just wondered,” I murmur, feeling drowsy.
She takes a deep breath and lets it out in a long sigh.
“After I realized that I couldn’t make it my life’s mission to search for you and still live a life, I decided to combine the two by joining the human Resistance that was supporting the Pure Ones in the war. I thought that it would bring me closer to you, that in some small way, I might be helping you.”
“I never pegged you for the soldiering kind,” I muse.
“I never wanted to be a fighter,” she admits. “If you recall, I just wanted a home and a family of my own.”
“Ah yes, an average, non-toady man to give you a few babies.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t in my cards,” she grunts. “And I realized that night…after what happened…that I didn’t ever want to feel so terrified and helpless again. I wanted to be able to protect myself, and when I found you again, to have a chance to protect you.”
“You’re doing a bang-up job of that,” I mutter.
“Literally.”
She swivels to squint at me through narrowed eyes.
“Seriously, what is wrong with you? Your parents are two of the fiercest fighters there ever was in the Pure Ones’ history. Your father the General that led the whole race to victory, your mother the prophesized Great White Beast. Your sister was the Angel of Death for the Dark Queen Jade Cicada once upon a time, and now the Light Bringer of the Elite. And then there’s you.”
“Your point being?” I intone.
“It’s like you got all the pretty, superficial genes and none of the substance.”
Ouch.
I know this, but it still sucks to have it pointed out so bluntly to me.
“Well, someone has to look good,” I bare my teeth in the fakest smile, even as something inside my chest squeezes with pain.
She’s silent for a while, a novelty in of itself. I try to enjoy it.
But then, she releases a beleaguered breath.
“Why do you do that? Why don’t you tell me I’m full of shit? Why don’t you knock me back for talking down to you like that?”
Huh?
Was she trying to rile me up on purpose?
“Why would I waste breath arguing against what’s true?” I ask the obvious.
She punches my shoulder with her fist,