“Don’t you worry about hurting your own kind during a hunt?” I asked.
Charles shook his head. “We know who we are. We would never accidentally confuse another Strigoi for a real animal. Their scent, their eyes…even the way it feels to be around them…it’s too unique to mistake for anything else.”
So this was ‘life’ as an immortal? Suddenly my own troubles didn’t seem so bad.
***
WHEN I ARRIVED BACK AT CHARLES’ PLACE, I flopped down on my guest bed with my Book of Shadows to make some additions and updates.
Charles had confessed that pure Strigoi don’t really need blood to survive; he only needed it because he was part Cruor, something he’d hidden from me as an attempt to protect me from the dangers of his world. Knowledge of their world was a gray area. Knowledge of a living dual-breed was a death-sentence.
I crossed out the Strigoi’s need for blood from my Book of Shadows’ entry, then added the rest of what I’d learned.
Strigoi are faster than Cruor. If they are in animal form when they die, they remain that way to protect their secret. They can sense others of their kind by scent and appearance.
Cruor are stronger than Strigoi.
I made new entries for the Ankou, Chibold, Witches, and dual-breeds as well.
Ankou: These air elementals are like grim reapers. They also have magic that can help elementals crossbreed as well as magic that can purify a dual-breed into a pure bloodline.
Chibold: These fire elementals are sprites that materialize as small children. They need host families to survive; if they go longer than a century without a host family, they die. The Chibold have powers over fire as well as telekinetic abilities. They are believed to be extinct.
Witches: Also known as spirit elementals, Witches were humans chosen by the Universe. Their powers were too potent to give to an immortal. They died with their human bodies.
Dual-breeds: Any elemental born of a pairing of two different elementals. Their strengths are less potent and their weaknesses less severe. The Maltorim sees them as a threat, and any discovered will be executed.
Mentally exhausted, I closed my Book of Shadows and tucked it away in my dresser drawer. Though my sleep was fitful, it came easily.
In my dreams, I saw Elizabeth again. She was standing in front of the gallows, inches away from me. She stared into my eyes, slowly lifted the Samhain ritual apple to her lips, and bit into its red flesh.
Inside, the fruit had rotted.
Chapter 14
THE NEXT MORNING, I sat at the kitchen table and gave Lauren a call. She picked up after the first ring, her voice easily filled with ten times more energy than I could ever muster.
“Amazing night last night,” she said. “We need to go there again next year!”
Too bad the ‘there’ she was thinking of didn’t exist—not in the way she remembered. “It was okay, I guess. I’m just calling to check on you.”
“It was okay? Just okay? That was the best haunted house ever. Do you remember the address?”
“Drats, I don’t,” I lied. “Can’t even remember the street name.”
She sighed heavily, and my heart sank. To her, this was reality. Charles’ friend, Adonis, had made sure of that. Though the Cruor’s practice of stealing memories unnerved me, what bothered me most was their ability to place thoughts into someone’s head and create memories of things that had never happened. And now I enabled their lies.
When I didn’t say more, Lauren continued. “I just thought…well, that guy who walked us back to the car. Does Charles know him?”
“I don’t think so,” I lied.
“Too bad. I wouldn’t mind him taking me out to dinner sometime.”
That’s what you think. “If I see him around, I’ll be sure to tell him. So, really, you’re okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Nothing. Look, I gotta go. Work. Catch you later?”
“You bet,” she said.
I should’ve been relieved she didn’t remember anything, but I was too busy stressing over lying to my best friend.
***
ALL THROUGH WORK, I couldn’t stop thinking about Charles. What was life like for him? He harbored secrets for fear of judgment, something that should have brought us closer together but instead placed a whole world between us. He trusted me with the knowledge of his dual nature, while I would never be able to tell him of the whispering voices that occupied my mind.
I simply could not risk him responding the way Ivory had.
When my shift ended, I found him outside, sitting on the hood of my Jeep. He wore an olive-green, button-down shirt left open to a white tee. No jacket, of course. Charles never wore a jacket. Not even in sub-degree weather.
My heart sped, but I managed to keep my voice smooth. “I thought we were meeting later?”
He grinned, hopping down. “I wanted to see you in that sexy work uniform.”