Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 70779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
“Because I want to know,” I said simply. “And because we need to get to know each other.”
“No we don’t,” she said flatly. “I’ll be fine—I’ve dealt with Carlo before. Go on with your story—what happened to your other, er, Mistress?”
I took a deep breath—this was a hard story to tell.
“One day her husband came storming into her bedchamber,” I said. He began to hit her—to beat her. I couldn’t hit him or kill him but I could stand between them so that was what I did—I stepped between Alandra and her husband to take the blows that were meant for her. Meanwhile, she ran out onto the landing, trying to escape.
“Her husband got around me, though I did my best to stop him,” I spoke quickly, trying not to relive the bad memory as I spoke. “I followed him out of the bedchamber to put myself between them again. We were on the second floor of the house and there was a steep staircase. Alandra was there, at the head of the stairs—I feared that she would fall. I tried again to stop her husband from hitting her but I wasn’t able to touch him—the binding that keeps me from hurting my key-holder was too strong. In my rage, I allowed the Wrath to overcome me and I changed forms.”
“To your gargoyle form, you mean?” Willow’s eyes widened. “That’s pretty terrifying—I have to admit.”
“It is my demonic form,” I told her. “The ugliness of my betrayal of the Almighty manifested in physical form.”
She nodded.
“I see. So what happened?”
I closed my eyes tightly. This was the hardest thing to speak of—the worst thing of all. But my Mistress had asked me a question and I wanted to answer her truthfully and fully.
“Alandra had never seen anything but my angelic form—this form.” I nodded down at myself. “When she saw me in my demonic form, she shrieked in terror and lost her balance. I reached out to catch her but…” I swallowed hard. Why wouldn’t the lump go down? “But she pulled away from me. She wanted nothing to do with me in my other form—not even if it meant saving her life.”
“So… she fell down the stairs and, er…?” Willow looked up at me uncertainly.
“She broke her neck,” I said in a low voice. “My only consolation is that her husband fell down after her. He broke both legs and died of blood clots that traveled to his lungs in the day following. A most agonizing and painful death, I believe. Which is no more than he deserved—the bastard.”
Of course, I’d had the option to heal him—but he didn’t know that and I hadn’t offered the information. I wanted him dead and then I wanted to be turned back to stone so that I wouldn’t have to feel the pain of lost love so sharply. Flesh always feels more deeply than stone.
“So Alandra was gone, barely a year from when I first started guarding her,” I said, completing my story. “Gone because she feared me too much to let me save her. Her death was my fault. Even in my submission to the Almighty’s punishment, I cannot seem to stop hurting those I love.”
“What happened was awful for you,” Willow said softly and I looked up to see that her eyes were filled with pain. “But it’s not your fault.”
“Yes, it is,” I said fiercely. I squeezed the wineglass in my hand convulsively and it shattered suddenly. I let the shards pierce my fingers and felt the sharp pain as the alcohol seeped into my wounds—physical pain is always better than emotional pain. It’s so much cleaner.
But my actions upset my new Mistress.
“Oh—look what you’ve done!” Willow exclaimed, her green eyes wide. “Come here—come in and let me get that glass out of your hand!”
She reached out and grabbed me by the wrist.
I felt a shock run through me—an instant tightening in my groin as my shaft got hard.
Willow must have felt it too because she gasped and for a moment she dropped my hand.
“What…what was that?” she asked uncertainly.
I shook my head.
“I don’t know. Some kind of magic?”
She frowned.
“Well, magic or not, you’re dripping blood. Come on.”
She grabbed my wrist again and this time I felt nothing but her soft fingers on my flesh. Tugging me with her, she pulled me into the kitchen of the cottage.
“Are you sure you want me in here with you?” I asked, looking around at the interior, which was very cozy. “I thought you feared me.”
“That was before you hurt yourself. Come over here to the sink.”
Willow was all business. She plucked the glass shards carefully out of my hand, leaving them in a blood-smeared pile on the side of the sink. When she was sure she’d gotten all of them out, she turned on the water and let the cooling flow pour over my injured hand.