“What feeling?” Cole asks.
“Being a short shit,” I remark. “They didn’t have six-inch heels back in the day.”
Cole laughs. “Is that why you refuse to wear flats now?”
“That would be a big, fat yes. Centuries of no choice but flat shoes.” I shudder.
“Why don’t you just…you know…make yourself taller?” he asks, genuinely confused.
“Because then she would not be herself,” CK answers for me.
“That is not a bad thing,” Devon points out.
“Elizabeth is taller?” Cole leaps on the chance to ask about Devon’s true sire.
“By about four inches,” Devon replies warily, not liking where this is heading.
“Enough about the various forms of me,” I say, bringing this conversation back to safer ground, to which Devon shoots me a grateful glance. I turn to my sire. “So, what are we doing here exactly?” I ask.
“I want to know exactly how close to Gladius Infernus I can get without it killing me,” he says.
“So why in here in these clothes?” I gesture at us.
He looks slightly flustered as he says huffily, “I didn’t want to potentially ruin a handmade suit, if that’s all right with you.”
I huff back at him. “Christ, CK, I’m not worried about your fucking suit. What about you?”
“I’ll be okay, just don’t get too close with that thing,” he says, his normal composure returned.
“Fine. Here goes.” I draw on the virtual armory and pull out my trusty G.I. All three Vampires and one human step back as the flames lick the air with what I can only assume is a searing heat. Not having much to go on, I turn to Nico. He is watching me with that expression again that resembles desire, but I can never tell as the shutters always close too quickly. “What do you feel?” I ask him.
He appears startled to be asked his opinion and he hesitates before answering, “An intense heat. But more than that, it feels like nothing I have felt before. Evil almost.”
Evil, huh? Well, I suppose it is made from the fires of Hell.
“You two. What do you feel?” I say, spinning to Cole and Devon. They retreat further away from me and my flaming sword.
“I can feel the heat rolling off it. It’s the strangest thing. I haven’t felt heat like that since you turned me,” Devon says. “It’s almost calling out for me to touch it.”
Cole nods in agreement.
“Well, don’t, it’s not for you,” I warn.
I turn back to my sire and he is staring at it intently. “And you?” I ask.
Bringing his eyes to mine, he says, “It makes me feel weaker and I know it wants to end me. Be careful with that thing,” he adds with a smirk.
I take a step closer and he retreats. “CK, you can’t step back, what’s the point of this exercise if you don’t let me get closer to you,” I say, exasperated. “Don’t you trust me, my love?” I add cockily.
“I trust you with my life, my sweet. That thing though has a will of its own,” he says pointing at it.
I look at it in my hand. “Really? Is that what you can feel?”
He nods but takes a step forward. “Be sure to keep it under your control,” he says.
I nod and grip the handle firmer. I start to get a feel for it as my wrist works it into a pattern of crisscross through the air, the swooshing sound the only noise to be heard.
“Pretty handy with a sword there, Liv,” Cole says a bit surprised.