A Grim Love: Can't Fight Time (13 page)

Man, Grim's family is weird,
Nina thought a second later before she realized what she'd thought. Grim was a reaper prince, about to be king, with a reaper princess as his fiancé and a human as his mistress. Nina mentally snorted.
Given everything, I still think I take the weird and crazy trophy.

Uri spoke first, relieving the awkward tension that had descended after Grim's parents appurtenances departures. "Our father suffers from old age. Living too long has caused him to lose his mind. And mother... She's always been like that." The gothic Shirley Temple lookalike murmured in understanding.

Nina sort of understood what Uri meant. His mother was, well, his mother. And Grim had lived through the Roman and Hittite empires, so she could only imagine how old his father was.

"Well!" The girl standing next to Uri clapped her hands excitedly, her crimson lips turning up in the fakest smile Nina had ever seen.

Apprehension raced down Nina's back and infused her blood. Instinctively, she took a step closer to him simultaneously relying on his strength and staking her claim. In that moment, Nina totally understood territorial animals.

It was irrational that she would have such mistrust, anger, and ever loathing for a girl that she'd never met before. It was even stranger that she felt so protective of Grim, no doubt her reaper beau could protect the both of them a million times over before Nina even saved him once.

Still, there was just something about the girl in front of her that rubbed Nina the wrong way. Thinking on it, she decided it might be that mysterious sixth sense people had,  the one that told you something was wrong before your brain could process it.

Whatever it was, it was ringing warning bells in her brain that she'd be an idiot to ignore.

“Felicia Castoff, First Princess to the Castoff Kingdom and fiancée to the Heir Apparent of the Bloodspurn Kingdom. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, human,” the gothic girl introduced herself with a curtsey that looked cute and deadly all at once.

Nina’s lips twitched as she mimicked the motion. “Nina Marie Strathmore, full time college student, coffee-holic, and driver of the struggle bus. And the pleasure is all mine, reaper.”

Nina's tone was just as uppity and obnoxious as the girl's across from her.
So this is Grim's fiancée?
Nina thought, taking a thorough look at the child in front of her. Her waist was maybe as wide as Nina's hand, and the girl was only a few inches shorter than her. Most of her height was just smooth legs encased in shimmery black nylons. Felicia's make-up was also done to a tee; while not overly dramatic, it made her cerulean eyes sparkle, her snow-white skin shimmer, her cheeks flush a delicate peach, and her lips glossy and kissable.

Biting her bottom lip, Nina tried not to look down at herself and critically examine her body and choice of wardrobe. She'd never been upset that she was a few pounds heavier, or that her skin was dark with slight imperfections. That was what being human meant, anyway. Not Felicia's airbrushed perfection, but hair that wasn't always manageable and an occasional zit or two.

Felicia's smile dimmed a bit, but did nothing to diminish her beauty. "Strange. I can't seem to read you, human," Felicia said her voice still sickeningly sweet.

Read?
Nina tried to remember where she'd heard that. "Is that like reading my mind?" she asked, not necessarily to Felicia, but the girl was happy enough to answer.

"Yes," she laughed lightly. "Did you not know that? It's a very common phrase." Her tone couldn't have been more condescending.

"Oh? Is it? Is looking like a pedophile's wet dream also common here?" Nina's voice was saccharine sweet as she tapped her chin and looked like she was contemplating.

If steam could have shot out of the princess’s ears, it would have. But then reapers didn't have steam--they had power. Felicia's power exploded from every pore in her body and began to saturate the room. Nina felt it aimed at her, as if the power was going to take her and drown her. But Felicia's power was different from anything else she'd felt, because while it felt dense and very nearly tangible, it held the taint of something else, something dark. Though that could've just been Nina's overactive imagination coupled with paranoia telling her that.

A part of Nina that she'd thought she'd buried slowly began to leak to the surface of her consciousness. That part of her that, at ten years old, she'd shoved deep and banished. The part that had taken over and beaten a girl within an inch of her life; the other girl had had to recuperate in a hospital for nearly three months with internal bleeding, several broken bones, and a serious concussion. It had been a bad time in her childhood, when she'd been extremely violent, uncontrollable, and had nearly been sent to a juvenile detention. Fun times. Fun times.

"Beautiful and lovely princess, are you really going to fight with a human?" Uri interjected, smoothly stepping in front of Nina as Grim pulled her back and into his arms.

Felicia's power slowly dissipated from the room, and the red haze of violence once again buried itself deep inside of Nina. Never had she felt such bloodlust and rage against another person. It had felt so encompassing, like she could do anything and be anyone. Her rage had felt right and good, and Nina realized that that was its purpose. It felt good to be angry, to feel the endorphins and testosterone flooding your system. Otherwise, why would there be so much violence in the world? It was fun, it was dangerous, and most importantly, it was power.

Laughter greeted Uri's words, as the princess sighed softly. "Of course you are right, Prince Uriel." Felicia plucked at a curl and delicately scratched at her collar. "I cannot believe I was almost sucked into
its
irrational behavior."

Anger arched through Nina with the "it" comment. It was only Grim's cool hand at her waist that kept her from launching herself at Felicia and ripping the bitch in half.

In the back of her mind, Nina realized that the girl was trying to antagonize her, goad her into doing or saying something she'd regret. A part of her realized that, and Nina thanked her lucky stars that that part of her had enough common sense to keep her silent and still.

Calmly drawing in a breath, Nina turned and looked at Grim, momentarily forgetting that he was in the cloak and bones get up. She was so used to Grim that no matter what form he took, she still felt safe with him. He was her rock, her anchor.

"I want to leave, Grim," Nina whispered furiously.

Starting something with the princess of a neighboring kingdom who Grim was going to marry would not be many things, not appropriate being one of them. And even if Grim might consider her his ex-fiancée, it was quite obvious that the princess didn't consider their business finished until a ring was on her finger with a marriage certificate in her hand.

"Give me a second,
Amica
." Grim's voice was once again that whistling bone sound, but it didn't bother Nina nearly as much as it had before.

"Felicia," Grim's voice was authoritative, and filed with power.

Felicia turned to him and clasped her hands, giving him a wide smile. "Yes, my future king."

"You seem to have forgotten the conversation from just a few moments ago." Grim's voice was deadly calm. "I remember explaining to you that plans have changed and I can’t marry you. I am no longer your fiancée, Felicia."

The girl's smile turned into a moue. "I thought you were joking, Grim. You cannot break off our engagement only weeks before the date. I have plans."

"I will compensate you, but my decision is final. Now, Uriel will escort you to your room. Please stay as long as you like, but understand that you are a guest and nothing more." Ice would have taken notes from Grim's tone.

Yet Felicia seemed oddly unfazed. She just smiled and flipped her hair back, fingers scratching against the high collar of her dress. "I will stay for as long as I must, Grim."

Nina didn't get to hear any more as Grim wrapped her in his cloak and pulled her into the shelter of his body, er, bones. Nina felt the smoothness of his ribs under her fingertips seconds before they were flying from the room.

The feeling of resting against Grim’s bones should have frightened her and freaked her out worse than any horror film, but it didn’t. Nothing about Grim really scared her anymore, but she hadn’t exactly been frightened at the beginning either.

Nina really only got pissed at him, and that was only when he was being a jerk. Aside from that, all she felt was an overwhelming feeling of trust, security, and maybe something else, something almost... peaceful.

Closing her eye as the world rushed by around them, Nina tried to think of something else. Affection was good and well, but anything deeper could destroy her. Humanity was the crutch that reapers saw, but that Nina appreciated. From what she’d seen of the Underworld, eternity was plenty of time to either turn completely nuts, or into complete jackasses.

Nina could only count about three reapers who didn’t fit that category, and she’d had interactions with over a hundred reapers to date. Even though human lives were short and perhaps wasted on a few, they were still crammed full of, well, life! It was because humans knew that any given point they could die. Reapers didn’t have that same sense of urgency, because they were infinite.

“What are you thinking about,
Amica
?” Grim whispered low into her ear, and strangely enough it sounded erotic.

How could ivory bones and an encompassing black cloak look hot as hell?
Nina wondered as she mentally shook her head and chastised herself. Somehow Grim pulled everything off, while Nina was just rocking the flesh suit. Not that he’d complained, but still, it made more sense for him to be with Felicia.

Even as Nina wanted to stab her brain for even thinking about that gothic Lolita bitch, she knew it had to be done. Stupid time was running out, and in a few weeks she’d be facing Grim’s wedding, her death, and an eternity of whatever was on the other side.

As much as she hated to admit it, letting Grim marry Felicia would be for the best. She didn’t doubt for a second that it was an arranged marriage for some kind of political power. She might have been brainwashed with princes and happily-ever-after when she was a kid, but as a jaded college student Nina  knew better. People didn’t really marry for love, they married for security, companionship, and sometimes power. She didn’t think reapers were much different.

“Nina?” Grim said softly again, before she heard a door open and slam shut. A second later she was backed into the wall, cold stones cutting into her flesh.

There wasn’t much she could say to him. They’d had this discussion time and time again. And even now, it wouldn’t change. “You should marry her. It would be the…” Nina searched for the word that wouldn’t destroy her to say, but decided against it. It had to be said, no matter what the cost to her emotions were “... right choice.”

Nina felt something slithering around her ankles and looked down to see a thick fog climbing up Grim’s form. She blinked in surprise and the fog was suddenly gone, along with the cloak and bones, leaving a hard man in jeans and a dark blue fisherman’s sweater. Grim had never looked hotter.

“You want me to marry another woman, and what? Let you die?” Grim’s deep and angry baritone asked.

Nina reached up a hand and traced a finger down his cheek. His skin was so like Felicia’s, that brilliant and flawless diamond like quality, except his held a hint of something spicy and Mediterranean; just like his birthmother.

“Marrying her would be good for the kingdom, right? Political power and all that. If you marry me, Grim, you get more headaches. I’m not worth that.” Nina said with a voice that said she knew her worth, and that she wasn’t worth a kingdom.

Nina wouldn’t flatter herself in thinking she had some magical powers that made her the hottest thing since smartphones. She was a human, which almost all reapers disliked, and whether or not Grim accepted that, it was the truth.

Grim’s blue-diamond eyes sparked with too many emotions for Nina to count, and some she really didn’t want to. “I have enough power for the both of us. And they will not start a war over this, Nina. Things may be a bit strained at first, but it will all settle.”