Blood Stained Tranquility (14 page)

Meh.
It wasn’t the first time.

Eve crossed her arms, awaiting an answer.

Dimithinia’s lips stretched into an amused smirk. “No. I did not. But, I did try.” She shrugged, still smirking. “He was an attractive male I cared for and I was desperate. Alas, he was too faithful to his position and would not betray his king to help me.”

Dimithinia had been desperate to get pregnant so that her ex-husband would stop abusing her. Evesse had spent enough time asking Ismini questions before they were killed to know that part at least.

“Fine. Question number two.”

“I believe that would be question number three. Unless my English counting is off.”

Evesse tried her damnedest not to be amused by Dimithinia’s cheeky response.

“Evesse, can you just drop it?
Before
I hit you?”

Evesse waved her best friend away. Ismini was clearly not pleased with her interrogation of her new friend. Well, tough shit. Eve wasn’t done.

“Is it true you killed dozens of girls before dying?”

Dimithinia’s expression went flat, but Evesse knew deep, penetrating horror when she saw it. There were some things that stayed etched into a person’s tissues and organs. Things that burned like acid long after they were over.

That look in Dimithinia’s eyes? Evesse had seen it staring back at her in the mirror many times over the last five years. “You know what? Forget it. You don’t have to—”

“I killed thousands, not dozens . . .
thousands
.”

Ismini’s sharp gasp ricocheted up and down the hall.

Clearly, not even she had known that part of the story.

Dimithinia lowered her eyes, but not before Eve caught another glimpse of that lingering horror. “I changed the laws shortly after my husband’s disappearance so that I . . . would have the power to sacrifice those females. I—I drained them of their blood, then
bathed
in it. And to this day, I cannot tell you the reason why.”

Evesse swallowed heavily, feeling as if her brain was retching and trying to expel the images stuck inside it.

“They say you did it because you loved Dyletri, and you went crazy because of him.”

Dimithinia’s eyes snapped back up. “There is no . . . doubt that I went mad. But I do not care what my tale says, for it is false in that aspect. I do not know why I did what I did, but I can swear to you that it was not because of Dyletri.” A resolute expression hardened Dimithinia’s face. “If you wish to judge me, you are within your right to do so. But, if you must, then judge me for what I did to those females. This, I ask of you.”

Yeah, well, there was just one problem with that request. As much as Evesse wanted to judge the woman before her, she just couldn’t. It wasn’t in her. Dimithinia didn’t deserve her judgment. The feeling made no sense considering what Eve had just heard, but the conviction was too strong to ignore.

“Are you fucking done?” Ismini snapped.

“Chill out, bitch,” Evesse snapped right back. “I’m only looking out for you.”

Dimithinia tilted her head. “You love Ismini very much.”

Eve gave her a sharp nod.

Dimithinia returned her nod. “That is . . . understandable. There is much to fall in love with.”

Evesse softened. There was no other word for what happened inside her.

Ismini stared at Dimithinia with a smile and sparkle in her eye that let Evesse know she wasn’t alone in her reaction.

“I’ve fallen in love with you, too, Dimi. Now you.” She raised an eyebrow at Evesse. “As much as I love the fuck outta you, you better be done with this shit.”

Aw, hell. After what she had just witnessed?

“Yeah . . . yeah, I’m done. We’re . . . yeah, we’re cool.”

The smile Dimithinia gave Eve nearly blinded her. She raised her fist up rather awkwardly and wiggled it in Eve’s direction. “Give me a . . . a . . .” Gone was the proud, tormented ex-queen. In her place was now a confused, young woman. Dimithinia looked at Ismini imploringly. “Ismini, please supply me with the term. This one keeps escaping me.”

“A pound. You’re asking her to ‘pound it’.”

Dimithinia nodded eagerly at Evesse. “That is the custom, yes? Pound it.”

Eve didn’t even try to stop herself from smiling. Dimithinia was too freaking cute.

Right as Eve raised her fist and touched it to the ex-queen’s, Dimithinia’s head swiveled in Ismini’s direction. “Wait. But a pound is a unit of measure, is it not?”

Ismini and Evesse laughed, and that was the moment Eve got it. She could spend her time trying to propagate feelings of ill will toward Dimithinia, but it would be a waste of time. It just wasn’t happening.

And—Evesse realized as she and the other two women made their way down the short stairs leading to the east courtyard—considering her current state, well, time might be the last thing she had. The words “soon to be
Fieren
” kept flashing across her mind.

“How do you know so much about being immortal? You were just human, right?” Evesse asked Dimithinia when they got outside.

Before Dimithinia could answer, Dyletri materialized right onto the platform of one of the statues in the courtyard.

Ismini stared up at her mate with a mock-exasperated look. “Baby, I thought I told you to go find something else to do for a while. Doesn’t Ianthen need help tracking down Enteax?”

Dyletri made himself good and comfortable, stretching out on that platform and crossing his arms behind his head.

“Nope. He’s good. And since I can’t do
you
, my
R’ma,
the least I get to do is watch.” He smirked lasciviously at Ismini, looking like sex incarnate.

Evesse looked away before Ismini caught the expression on her face and guessed at her thoughts.

Dimithinia rolled her eyes. “I am telling you, Ismini. You have made him more insatiable than all the females in his history combined.”

“Damn straight,” Dyletri mumbled, his eyes slowly tracing his mate’s legs.

Ismini beamed. She fucking
beamed.
“See? This is why I love you. Keep the good shit coming, Dimi.”

“Oh my god, if you two start doing it right here, I’ll hurt someone. I’ll hurt
him,
Iss.” She glanced at Dimithinia and her face told Evesse that her fear wasn’t completely unfounded. “Oh, fuck. They didn’t. In front of you?”

Dimithinia nodded solemnly. “And Soleria. And the twins. And Cyake, who seemed abnormally happy that he got to witness the beginning of this . . .
event
.”

“I’ve lost any and all respect I ever had for you,” Evesse informed Ismini.

Ismini shoved her middle finger in Evesse’s face. “Both of you shut the hell up and let’s move forward. Dimithinia knows what it’s like to be human, and she also understands immortals. So can we get on to why we’re here?”

Evesse couldn’t get the image of her friend going at it with her mate—in front of
everyone
—out of her head. But she sure as hell tried to brain bleach that shit.

“To understand what you are now, you must first understand what gods really are.”

Evesse lasered in on Dimithinia’s voice.
Focus on that, Eve. Focus.

“Humans now have an . . . idea about gods that is not fully accurate. You think of them as these spiritual beings out of myth. All beings are spiritual. All beings have souls. Even the human that does not believe . . .” Dimithinia paused and Eve realized that the pauses in her sentences occurred whenever Dimithinia forgot how to say a word in English.

“Atheists.”

Dimithinia nodded gratefully at Eve. “Yes, even an atheist is a spiritual being in a flesh and blood body. Even if they do not know, or believe. In my kingdom, what you call gods and the immortals lived and walked amongst our streets every day. The ‘gods’; we worshipped them for what they were. Not these higher spiritual beings. Just higher. More, physically. They . . .
we
are now more. In order to learn to . . . work these new bodies you have been given, you must let go of any lingering old beliefs.”

“You’re saying that, in order to gain control over them, we have to think of our bodies as what they are. Scientifically speaking, we are still flesh and blood. But we’re now a different species, one similar to humans, yet thousands of times more powerful.”

Dimithinia smiled and turned to Eve. “Yes. Such a simple concept, but so hard to truly understand, yes?”

Yeah. And it made perfect freaking sense.

“I have one question, though. I was able to materialize a phone out of thin air, and no one told me how. Yet, when I tried to dematerialize before, it was hard as hell to aim myself properly.”

“I’m still having issues with the aiming thing,” Ismini said.

“When you materialized the phone, you materialized an inanimate object,” Dyletri interjected from his perch on the pedestal. “Dematerializing ourselves, or other living creatures, or even erasing memories . . . anything that has to do with a living organism is ten times more complicated.”

Dimithinia seemed grateful that Dyletri had saved her from having to explain.

“My phone has moving, technical parts you know.”

Dyletri laughed and shook his head. “And this is exactly why Dimithinia says the concept is so hard to grab. You’re phone has no organic matter. No soul-like energy. No free will to get in the way.”

Evesse rubbed her hands together, ready to go. She might be dying, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t learn some new shit before heading out the door. Besides, this was much better than what she’d been doing. This distracted her a bit.

“Okay. We let go of the old belief. Then what?”

“You focus. As you tried before, I am sure. Just this time, try to . . . scientifically—that is the word you used before, correct?” Ismini and Eve nodded, and Dimithinia continued. “Try to
scientifically
imagine what is happening. Imagine the bits of you breaking apart, imagine them swarming together like a swarm of bees. Then, you must aim that swarm where you wish it to go. Ismini, you first. Dematerialize to the other side of the courtyard.”

Ismini inhaled sharply. “I can do that. But if you mean go straight ahead, you might not get that, Dimi.”

“Just try.”

“Alrighty.”

Ismini crouched down just low enough to seem like she was about to take off running. Dyletri raised his head, his silver and blue swirling eyes locked on Ismini’s ass. Evesse could almost guess what he was thinking.

And, yup, the moment Ismini’s molecules broke apart and started swerving in the direction Dimithinia had told her to go to, Dyletri sat straight up.

Eve was almost too distracted by the fact that she could now
see
Ismini’s molecules moving at warp speed toward their destination. She almost didn’t catch what the God of Fertility was up to.

Then, just like that, Ismini’s molecules got pulled in his direction, like a shot barreling out of cannon. Her friend rematerialized right over her
R’mann’s
lap. Dyletri grabbed Ismini’s hips and yanked her down onto him.

“Dyletri! Let me go.”

“Nope.” Dyletri bit his lip, his incisors elongated, his expression straight-up carnal.

“I . . . I have to practice!” Ismini cried feebly, her hungry stare already locked on his mouth.

“And I am in need. Let’s go.” Dyletri dematerialized, taking Ismini with him, and Eve had no doubt that the infernal sounds of them fucking would soon reach her poor ears.

Again.
“I can’t believe this shit. Have they been like this the whole time?”

“Worse. Much worse. He is the God of Fertility and he has not copulated in millennia. I am assuming it is to be expected now that he is mated.”

Evesse studied Dimithinia’s expression. “And you truly don’t care.”

“Nope,” Dimithinia said, surprising Eve when she popped the ‘p’ and smiled.

Eve couldn’t help but ask. “If it was Crius, would you care?”

Dimithinia’s expression turned one hundred percent, pure, grade A vicious. “Once more, I say to you,
nope.
He is an unfeeling bastard who has not spoken a word to me since I took him the invitation to Ismini’s
Ziaphrite
more than a week past. He can rot in his hell.”

“How long were you down there with him, before you were reincarnated, I mean?”

“Almost eleven thousand years.”

Fucking hell. “And you were aware of it?”

“Each and every moment.”

“You spent time with him inside your glowing orb thingy?”

“Each and every moment.”

Well, hell. “You’re right. He is an unfeeling bastard. And first chance I get, I will cause him as much agony as possible. I promise you this.” As far as peace offerings went, Eve supposed that was a real good one, because Dimithinia gave her that blinding smile again.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, and I’m willing to learn. Care to teach me?”

Dimithinia’s smile grew even wider. “It would be my pleasure, Evesse. And, afterward, perhaps you can explain to me what ideas you have for Crius’s suffering?”

Gee-freaking-whiz. Eve might as well throw up that white flag. ‘Cause she knew, she just knew, that she was gonna fall in love with that female as much as her friends had. She’d had the same exact feeling when she’d met Soleria and Ismini. Fighting it would be utterly futile.