Chapter 15

“Yes. It’s why I left America. Oh, we don’t have the epic battles of our legends. The only way to kill Us is to burn our bodies to a charred husk. A lot of it these days looks like arson, electrical fires, that sort of thing. My departed life-mate, Alexandra, was killed in a vehicle accident. It was the Others.”

“How do you know?”

“She was hit by a gasoline tank truck. It rammed her car, half ran over it. Gas was pouring out of the belly of the tanker all over the wreckage my life-mate was pinned in. There were sparks. When it was over, there wasn’t much of her to bury.”

“Oh, John, I’m so sorry!” Azelia cried.

“Witnesses said the truck came out of nowhere, which was probably accurate. No remains were found in the cab. It was unmanned. There was an investigation, and they eventually said the driver bailed and ran, but I knew. She knew. She told me as she died.”

“Oh God, John! You were there?”

“No, my love, no. I was thirty miles away in a recording studio. Life-mates learn to understand how each other thinks, just like mortal couples do after a while. We just take it a lot further. Many life-mates can talk to each other freely from half a globe away. All we have to do is listen. I heard her panic in my mind. She knew what was going to happen as soon as she saw the truck. She saw the cab was empty. There were some Others standing on the sidewalk, watching the fuel pour through the torn roof of her car. Then, I heard her agony.”

“What did you do?”

I looked at my new life-mate and saw the tears in her eyes, much like in my own. “I grieved. For a while, I tried to convince myself that it was a bad dream, or that I had lost my mind. I guess I may have, for a time. Then, I wanted revenge. I contacted some old friends and asked for their help. I got what I wanted. When it was over, I rested. I toured the country, knowing I might need to leave. Soon, the signs were there. Some Others were looking for me. That’s why I’m here.”

“Could they have followed you?” Azelia asked.

“They will, at some point, I imagine. That is one of the reasons I want to meet with the Duke.”

The waiter returned with our drinks. Azelia wrinkled her nose when he spoke to her. “For you, my lovely lady,” he crooned. “And my good sir, do you want black pepper in your drink?”

“No, I’ll grind it. I know how he likes it. You’re busy. It’s fine,” Azelia said, grabbing the pepper-mill possessively and shooing the waiter away.

I stifled my laughter until he was gone. “You little minx! You were about to tell him you wouldn’t suck his half-dead dick for all the tea in China, weren’t you?”

“He was repulsive. He was trying to glamorize me, for fuck’s sake! Yes, that’s exactly what I was going ... Wait! You read my mind?” Azelia asked.