Nightwalker
Page 41

“Oh, I already got some!” she said with a bright smile. “Marissa took me to this huge closet—they have it stocked with all kinds of things in every size you can dream of. She said it was the ‘just in case’ closet. She said it gets a lot of use. Anyway, I found some jeans and a pretty blouse. I got panties and a bra too.” She sighed. “It was very kind of her.”
“Marissa and Jackson are very kind and considerate people. You will find a lot of people like that here. They should all treat you very well. However, they may not treat you as well if you let it be known we are…intimate with one another.”
“Why not?” she asked as she moved into the sitting room and found the clothes she had folded neatly on the coffee table. She slid on the panties without taking off her towel, but dropped it a second later to put on the bra. It was a matching set, a dark lavender purple with provocative black lace at its edges.
“People here do not trust me.”
“Why not?” she asked as she pulled on her jeans and zipped and buttoned them.
And here it was. The perfect opportunity to tell her the truth. The entire truth. And he had sworn to her that he would not lie to her. But he would not have this conversation naked.
“Finish dressing. I will tell you about it when we are both done.”
“All right,” she said as she reached for her blouse.
He went back into the bedroom and over to his dresser drawers. He opened them and decided to follow her example and wear a pair of jeans. They were pressed and free of any tears, but they were jeans. He was not normally a casual dresser. He was not a casual man. But he wore the jeans anyway because they were durable and comfortable. He went to his closet and fetched a button-down shirt.
When he was finished, he returned to the sitting room and found her putting on lipstick using a compact mirror. She had already applied eye shadow and a light touch of rouge.
“Let me guess, the magic closet had makeup too.”
She smiled at him. “It does. Along with all the other toiletries. Including a toothbrush, which I used before getting in the shower with you.”
“I thought you tasted minty,” he said with a small smile.
“So did you.”
“All right, now that we are agreed we are followers of proper hygiene, we need to have a very serious discussion.”
She pouted a little, her newly pink lips looking plump and delectable. He had to shake himself to keep on point.
“I don’t know if I like the sound of this,” she said as she closed the compact with a snap.
She may very well not hear anything she liked for quite some time, he thought.
“There are things about me you need to know. Things…I’m afraid will more than likely turn your opinion of me upside down. Things that may have you looking for a new place to sleep tonight and I would not blame you in the least if you felt it necessary to do that. As it is I have been very unkind to you by not telling you these things from the outset. However, I’ve been quite swept away by you. I wasn’t expecting you, nor the way you make me lose control of my common senses.”
“I wasn’t expecting you either. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, right?”
He began to pace, a nervous habit he was not prone to. But this conversation was sitting very ill on him. Still, he must face up to the truth. He must tell her everything.
“It is bad because you went into this uninformed. Had you known better, you probably would not have been swept away.”
She smiled at him, the expression making her pretty features seem all the sweeter to him.
“I highly doubt that. Now, tell me what it is that’s so bad about you. I can see it’s upsetting you.”
It was upsetting him. More than he would have thought possible. He was normally so calm, so matter-of-fact about the good and the bad things that happened in life. But this…this was hard. Hard on him…hard on her.
“What do you know of the Templars?” he asked her.
“Very little. All the Wraiths know is that your people are embroiled in a civil war. The Politic versus the Templars.”
“And it has been thus ever since the first Gargoyles were freed from slavery. And that is one of my crimes. I have created many Gargoyles. One of whom I believe you have met. Ahnvil. I kidnapped him as a mortal man and forged him into a Gargoyle without his permission. I forged him for the express purpose of serving me and my needs.”
“I know this. I was told yesterday,” she said.
That took him by surprise. “And it does not bother you? That I would do such a thing?”
“It would bother me if you were still doing it. But clearly you are not. I doubt the Politic would allow you to live here if you were.”
“There is more…”
“Go on. You won’t upset me. I can see you are worried that you will.”
“I had a man living under this roof tortured by a psychopath.”
This seemed to give her pause, to make her uneasy.
“Why did you do that?”
“Does it matter why? It will not change the doing of it.”
“No. But I would like to know just the same.”
“It was vengeance,” Kamen said. “I felt he had done me a wrong…done someone I loved a wrong. He had hurt her, nearly killed her. Put her in a comatose state.”
“Why did he do that?”
“Because she tried to kill someone close to him.”
“Who was it?”
“His name is Leo,” he said.
“Oh, I met him yesterday. He’s human.”
“Yes, he is. And he was tormented at my command in a way that would have broken most people. I am quite certain it haunts him even now.”
“But he is living under the same roof as you. How did that come to be?”
“Let’s say I used him as a peace offering. I rescued him from the torture I inflicted upon him in order to gain access to this house and the body Politic.”
“And why did you do that?” she asked.
Here it was. The moment of truth. Kamen swallowed, his mouth and throat dry.
“Because when I tried to rouse Odjit from her comatose state, I inadvertently resurrected the god Apep who now resides within her body. This situation we find ourselves in is my fault. It is of my doing. My selfish desires to see my mistress whole again resulted in loosing hell upon this earth.”