Pure Requiem - Aja James Page 0,47

almost toppling me from the wooden bench.

I’m proud that I barely wince. I’ve gotten so many bruises from Sophia and Liv in training that I hardly notice any more.

“It’s not true, you idiot,” she argues her own earlier assertion vehemently, confusing me. “You need to learn to stand up for yourself. Physically, mentally, spiritually. You need to own your self worth.”

I’m starting to get good and pissed. I’m sick and tired of these psychological games.

“I know my worth,” I growl, pushing her back as hard as I can, using my immortal strength, watching with satisfaction when she practically flies against the opposite wall and smacks into it with a fleshly thud.

“I’m devilishly brilliant, deviously cunning. I have an expansive vocabulary and can harness many languages, including English, better than most. Unlike some manish-looking dwarf woman with owlish eyes. I have beautiful hair and stunning eyes. And a magic dick that makes all people come like they’ve never come before in their entire lives.”

Except for the one or two people I voluntarily tried to fuck. But that’s just a rounding error amongst the countless people I did fuck, however unwillingly.

She grunts with soreness as she straightens her towel and sits back down on the bench beside me, completely ignoring my recent violent outburst, as if it was expected that I send her flying into a wall.

“You’re also loyal, protective and incredibly brave, An-Nisi.”

“Pfftt,” I dismiss.

If she’s referring to the misguided heroics of my previous life, that was just a blip in good judgement. I would never do anything so stupid again. I was obviously not in my right mind when I stepped in to protect Ninsa, and also when I pretended to be the Pure Queen Ninti and suffered the consequences in her stead.

Won’t repeat that idiocrasy, that’s for fucking sure.

“Same thing with physical training. It’s like you just can’t learn to hit back—”

“I just shoved you into a wall!” I remind her.

“That was nothing. That’s just you showing irritation. If you used your full strength, you would have sent me flying through the wall and I wouldn’t be getting back up without at least a few broken bones.”

“You want me to put you in the hospital?”

I can’t believe this ridiculous conversation.

“I want you to fight for yourself!” she practically shouts into my ear. “You fought for me. I know you’ve fought for others, even if you haven’t told me everything that happened after you left the village. Why can’t you do the same for you.”

I shrug and turn my face away, exhausted by this exchange.

“There’s nothing to fight for when it’s me.”

“Arrrgggghhhh!” she does screech this time, nearly bursting my eardrums. “You make me so friggin’ mad!”

“Back at you!” I shout, jumping to my feet as she bounces to hers, the two of us squaring off in our limp white towels.

“You’re a rotten friend!” I hurl at her. “I hate you for what you did! I hated myself after that. I still do! You don’t know what I’ve been through. You weren’t there! You were the only person in the world that I trusted, and you fucking abandoned me! YOU WEREN’T THERE!”

“An-Ni—”

“Stop fucking calling me that! I’m nobody’s blue-green heaven. I’m hell on wheels, baby. I’m pure darkness. One of these days I’m going to betray all of you do-gooder trusting fools. Then, you’ll see me for what I really am. Then, you’ll know I’m worthless.”

“Ere—”

“There’s only one good thing I did in life. ONE. I made a child. The most beautiful, wonderful, brilliant child in the world. I did that right. Even if I ruined his mother when I drank her blood and took half of her soul.”

Liv finally shuts her gaping mouth in the face of my rant, giving me the opportunity to bear down on her and back her into the wall.

She needs to hear this. I need to say it. She needs to know me for the monster that I am, not some heroic figment of her imagination.

“I don’t know why I didn’t just kill her that night,” I mutter, speaking of Olivia. “I meant to. I was starving. But I didn’t. I fucked her and miraculously impregnated her. Then left her to pine after me and lose herself in the process.”

My mouth cants to one side in a sneer of self-disgust.

“Cuz, dontcha know—my dick is magically addictive. She couldn’t forget me. Or rather the disguise I wore that night. Couldn’t move on. I didn’t give a fuck. She was just a hole I somehow found