Strange day…Miles and Lexi…part 14

KiKi rolled over, stretched, and bit Lexi in the calf.

“Time to go,” she said, shoving Miles off the bed.  “We have guests.”

Miles pulled on his clothes and shoved the gun Lexi handed him in the back of his jeans.

“Do you know how to use that?” she asked.  “I don’t want you to shoot off anything important.”

“You aim and pull the trigger, right?” he laughed.  “Yes, I know who to use it.”

“Blades?” she asked, arming herself.

“Two.”

“Sword?”

“No thanks.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“KiKi, are you ready?” asked Lexi, bending down to kiss her between her ears.  KiKi hissed and lashed out with her claws.  “She’s good to go.  So, when I open the door, if you can stop time for a few seconds, that would be helpful.  I can clear out the hallway and then we can hit the street and kill whoever’s waiting for us down there.”

“I can do a few seconds,” he stammered.  “Do it fast.”

“No worries.  KiKi, you go low.  Miles, you zap them.  On the count of three.”   Lexi held up her hand and held up one finger, then another and when she got to the third one, she pulled open the door and leapt into the air.

Miles stopped time for about three seconds but that was all the time Lexi needed.  She stabbed, shot and beheaded thirty Leaders and about twenty Watchers, then turned to Miles and smiled.  She wiped the gore off her blades on the clothes of the nearest dead guy and said,  “You told me you could stop time for five minutes.”

“Sure, when I’m by myself,” he muttered.  “It’s different when I’m fighting.  My concentration kind of wavers.”

“You might have mentioned that a little sooner.”

“Sorry.  You did great though and KiKi is amazing.  She goes for the hamstrings and rips off their faces.  I never saw a cat fight the way she does.”  KiKi rubbed against his legs and he bent down to pet her.

Lexi grabbed his arm.  “Don’t,” she said.  “She’s hyper and wants to fight.  When she’s like this, sometimes she doesn’t care who her next victim is.  Besides there are a lot of bad guys in the street.  Actually, they’re surrounding the hotel.  I can feel them, so can she.”

“Maybe we should go to the roof.”

“What will we do there?” asked Lexi.

“Look at the view?”  he said.  “Maybe I can fly us out of here.”

“Both of us? she asked, looking at KiKi.”

“Sure.”

“They’ll just follow us.”

“They’ll have to find us.”

“Okay, priorities,” said Lexi. “Stay alive, kill the bad guys, find a way to let humans die and make a plan.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Seriously?” she said.  “You ate a thousand dollars worth of room service.”

“That thousand was just for the bottle of pop and a bag of nuts,” he laughed.

“I’m glad you still have your sense of humor,” she snorted.  “And they always find us….”

“Ah.”

“Go back in the room and take off all your clothes.”

“Way better than going downstairs,” he said, tearing off his shirt.

Once undressed, Lexi ran her hands over every inch of his body.  Then she pulled a small black jeweler’s glass out of her bag and did it again, this time, pressing the glass against his skin.  “There it is,” she said, tapping the back of his right thigh. There’s a tracking device implanted right here,” she muttered,  digging her nails into his leg.  He yelped and jumped away from her, leaving her with bloody fingers and a tiny silver chip.  “Can’t believe I didn’t think of this in the beginning.  You’re very distracting, you know.”

“OW!” he said, hands on his hips.

“Don’t be such a baby.  Even if my hands are dirty, you’re Death, it’s not like you’ll get sick or anything.”

“Fine, but you could have told me what you were going to do.”

“Whatever.”

“I’m going to fight this time.”

“Good.”

“You were having so much fun, I thought I would let you have as many as you wanted but I want a piece of the action.”

“Have at it,” she said, watching the wound on his leg close.  “Maybe you should put your clothes on, because we really don’t have any time to….”

KiKi clawed Miles on the knee.

“Right,” he said, pushing the cat away as gently as he possibly could.  “Let’s do this.”

 

Strange day…Miles and Lexi…part 13

“I can’t find my shoe,” said Lexi, looking under the bed.

“I think it’s on the dresser.”

“Thanks.  I knew I threw it somewhere.”

“They will be waiting for us and there will be more of them, now that you killed a Leader.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I think you need to take this more seriously,” he said, pulling on his t-shirt.  “They won’t stop until I’m dead. Well, now it’s until we are dead, since there’s no way they can let you live.”

“Wow, thanks for the uplifting pep talk,” she laughed.

“I’m serious.”

“I know you are.  Now tell me what powers you have.”

“Powers?”

“What can you do?”

“Do?”

“Why do you keep repeating every thing I say?”

“I don’t think I have any powers.”

“Of course you do.  Your a supernatural being, you have to have powers.  It says so, in the Supernatural Manual.

“There’s a manual?”

“OMG, of course not.  Now snap out of it and think about what you can do.”

“I’m fast, strong and I don’t get tired.  That’s how I survived my training.”

“What else?”

“I’m good with darkness.  I can call up the night.”

“Interesting.  What else?”

“I can stop time and I can…”

“What?”

“I can stop time.”

“For how long?”

“How long do you need?”

“Five minutes.”

“No problem.”

Lexi jumped across the bed and smashed him into the wall.  Her legs wrapped around his waist and she bit his shoulder.  She tore off the shirt he just put on, then pushed off the wall and they fell onto the bed.  “Maybe we can kill them a little latter,” she said.

“Just remember they have powers too and they are exper….”

KiKi curled into a ball at the bottom of the bed and put her tail over her nose.  It was getting cold in the room but no one seemed to notice but her.  She could always bite one of them, if the things outside started to move.  She tightened her position and thought of the fight to come.  She purred in satisfaction.  She was ready.  She was always ready to fight.  She sharpened her claws on the bedspread underneath her paws and tore it to shreds in happy anticipation.  Then she gathered her strength around her like a heavy cloak and fell asleep.

Strange Day…Miles and Lexi…part 12

“That was delicious,” said Miles, dabbing at his mouth with his napkin.

“I told you,” smiled Lexi.  “I know all the best places to eat.”

“Do you want to walk to the Eiffel Tower?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” she said, taking his hand.

“There’s nothing in the world like Paris.”

“I want to live here,” she sighed. “In the center of the city, so I can be part of everything, everyday.”

“Hospitals are running out of pain medication.”

“What are you going to do?”

“If I do anything, I’ll never get away again.”

“How long before there’s a new Death?”

Miles shrugged.  “No clue.”

Lexi stopped walking.  “Let’s see the Eiffel Tower and then go back to the hotel.”

“We can see the Tower some other time,” he laughed, running his hands down her back.

KiKi sat down next to Lexi, licked her paw, and waited for them to choose a direction.

“Do all the Watchers look like the ones you described?”

“Yes.  I guess you could call them the ground forces.  The Leaders are different.  They stand upright, have stunted wings and are around four feet tall.  Their teeth are razor sharp and their eyes are yellow, like their skin.  Why?”

“That’s what looking at us from across the street.”

KiKi hissed and fluffed out her tail.

“They don’t usually send Leaders on missions.  I must be important,” he laughed.

“What are we going to do?” asked Lexi, staring at the Leader.

“Kill it,” said Miles.  “No other choice.”

“Can I do it?”  she asked, bouncing up and down.  “Please, please, please.”

“It’s going to take both of us and even then, we’ll be lucky if….”

Lexi took off running, leapt over a moving car, while pulling a blade from a sheath strapped to her back, twirled in the air and cut off the Leader’s head before he could rake at her with his claws.  The body fell onto the sidewalk, and the head rolled into the street. Lexi bent over and wiped off her sword on the Leader’s cape.  “They smell terrible,” she said wrinkling her nose.

“I…”

“Warrior, remember?” she said, before he could say anything else.

“That was amazing.”

“Thanks, but he died.  So, why aren’t people able to die?”

“He wasn’t human.”

“So you only deal with humans?”

“I deal with animal life specific to this planet.”

“Isn’t this guy supposed to disintegrate, or something?” she asked, pushing the body with her toe.

“You’re thinking of vampires.”

“Nah uh.”

“You look…wonderful,” he said, his voice suddenly deep and husky.  “You look different.”

“I’m just pumped up and with only one guy to kill, I have a lot of excess…”

He kissed her. Lexi clung to him. KiKi stood guard.

 

Strange day…Miles and Lexi, part 11

“You look completely human,” said Miles, staring at her.

“Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving, remember?”

“Sometimes,” he agreed.

“You look human too,” she smiled.

“Really?”

“Sure, except for your pointy ears and your impossible beauty, grace and…”

“So, that would be no, on me looking human.”

“Pretty much.  You’re too pretty, it’s that simple.”

“All the Fae look like me,” he said.  “You’re part Fae.”

“Right,” laughed Lexi. “Not enough Fae to look like you.”

How did you and KiKi partner up?”

“We met at The Pit.”

“The Pit?”

“You know, the place where they taught me to stab, decapitate, slice, dice, shoot, strangle and pretty much kill anything that comes at me.”

“Nice.”

“Hey, you were trained, so why are you surprised that I was?”

“Mine was more like being constantly tortured,” he said.

“So was mine, unless you don’t think being beaten, cut, hit, slapped, bruised, tossed and broken, on a daily basis, isn’t the same thing.”

“The one difference is that your instructors were trying to teach you, not kill you.”

“That’s true, even if it didn’t always seem that way,” agreed Lexi.  “The surgeries were a bitch, but if you want to be faster and stronger than whatever’s trying to kill you, that’s the price you pay.”

“What did they do to you?”

“Not important,” she said, dismissively.  “What we need to do is get our priorities straight.  We have to figure out how to let people die, now that you’re gone.   We have to find the Watchers and figure out how to kill them and after we finish with those two things, we need to figure out what’s going on between us.”

“There’s an us?” he asked surprised.

KiKi rolled her eyes and walked away shaking her head.

“So where do the Watchers come from?  Where do they hang out?”

“They live in the Darkness on the Other Side of Midnight.”

“Wow, great book, or song title,” said Lexi.  “So what is the Darkness and how do we get there?”

“Get there?  Are you insane?”

“Insanity is relative.  Who do they work for?  Do they sleep? What do they eat?  What skills do they have, besides being fast and able to climb anything?  Other than the back of their necks, where are they vulnerable?  Are claws their only weapon? Do they bite?  If I go through heir eye, swill I hit their brain?  Does iron burn them?  Fire?  Because I have the best flamethrower EVER!  Do their appendages grow back if they are cut off?”

“I’m not sure insanity is relative,” he said.  And they work for a god named Pitch, as in Pitch Black.”

“Seriously?”  she asked, grinning.  “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.   Pitch?  When I kill him, I’ll tell him that if he reincarnates to pick a better name.”

“I think you are failing to see how deadly and dangerous she is?

“She?  Oh, even better.”

“Pitch wasn’t always evil.  She had a litter and another god ate them, when she wouldn’t give up her territory.  She went made with grief.  No one could help her.  She captured the god who did it.  She kept him for a quite some time, torturing him everyday.  Carving pictures of her children onto his flesh.  Covering him with hungry insects, you know, the usual thing.  Then she killed him and wiped out his entire race. ”

“She did the right thing,”  said Lexi.

“After she killed everyone, she trained her army to Watch others, so no one would ever be able to harm her children again.”

“That’s what mothers do.”

“Still want to kill her?”

“If I have too, I will.”

“Maybe insanity really is relative,” he sighed, rubbing his face with his hands.  “I’m hungry.”

“Me too.”

“Where do you want to go?” he asked.

“Paris,” she said immediately.  “I want to eat at this little cafe I know.”

“Get KiKi and let’s get out of this dimension and into another one.”

“You know that Paris is the City of Love, don’t you?”

“All the more reason to go,” he whispered, putting his arm around her.   Food and love before the battle.  It’s the only way to die.”

“I told you that I might not have to killer her,” said Lexi.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant.”

 

 

Strange day…Miles and Lexi…part 10

“You danced with me,” said Miles, suddenly staring at her.

“So?”

“You never faltered, tripped or missed a step?  I should have realized it then.”

“I’m a good dancer.”

“No one is that good.  No human can dance with a faerie.  Humans are clumsy and…what are you?”

“Is this another pocket dimension?” she asked, putting KiKi on the floor.

“Yes.  What are you?”

“How many of them are there?”

“A lot.  What are you?”

“I’m a woman on an adventure with her cat.”

“Not good enough.”

“Why do they want you so badly?”

“I’ll tell you after you answer my question.  What are you?”

“Why does it matter?”

“Talk.”

“Fine,” she snapped.   “I’m a regular person.  When I met you I thought you were interesting and cool, in a rough and strange kind of way.  I didn’t know you were on the run.”

“I wasn’t.  Not until I met you,” he said softly.

“See, the thing is,” she said, sighing loudly, “I’m part, warrior, part Nature Spirit and part human.  KiKi is my partner.  None of that has anything to do with how I feel about you.   No one hired me to protect you.  I just saw you walking down the street and wanted to get to know you, that’s all.  So, I can kick ass, grow flowers and be human, all at the same time. KiKi can kick ass and be a cat.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” she said, staring at her feet.

“Any faerie blood running through your veins?”

Lexi shrugged.  “A little, maybe.  On my father’s side.”

“So you’re a Nature Spirit on your mother’s side and a Faerie on your father’s side?”

“And I’m part human,” she sighed.  “A few great-great-great-great grandfather’s ago, one of them had a thing with a human.  Two children were born.  KiKi is almost entire feline, if that makes you feel any better.”

“Almost?”

“She’s had some work done and it’s possible that a few of her relatives may have been from somewhere else, but she has a lot of earth cat in her, right baby?” she asked, looking at KiKi who was dozing next to her.  The cat unsheathed her needle sharp claws and rolled over.

“They’re after me because they love power and control over others.  They despise freedom, in any form.  They hate contentment, joy, happiness…all those things and they will kill anything, or anyone, they see as a threat to the status quo.”

“Do you want to say anything about what I just told you?”

“I’m still thinking about it,” he said frowning.

“What about the people on earth who should be dying?”

“Still alive, I guess.”

“That’s horrible,” said Lexi, rubbing her arms to stop shivering.

“I can’t do it anymore,” he sighed.

“The hospitals will be overflowing.”

“Humans are resourceful.  They’ll fix things.”

“How?”

“Not my problem,” he said.  “I CAN’T do it any longer.”

“Okay,” said Lexi, putting her arms around his neck, kissing him.  “I believe you. And don’t worry about the bad guys.  Piece of cake.  ”

 

 

 

 

 

Strange day…Miles and Lexi…part 9

“Where are we?” asked Lexi.

“The In-between.”

“In-between what?”

“It’s a pocket dimension.” he said, snapping his fingers.   A beach and palm trees appeared and a gentle surf washed over the white sand.

KiKi clung to Lexi, hissing and purring in turns.   “Can they find us here?” Lexi asked.

“No.”

“Hologram?”

“Yes, but better.”

“I can actually feel the breeze on my face and I just saw a fish jump out of the water.”

“Told you it was better,” said Miles, smiling.

“What do the Watchers look like?”

“Insect like, size of a big raccoon, black, with a hard, shiny carapace.  Face, a blend of humanoid and insect.  Tuft of brown fur on the back of their necks, where it meets their bodies.  They run on all four thin, spider-like legs and they have two eyes.  They’re fast and can climb anything.”

“Do they burn,” asked Lexi.

“Yes, but the temperature has to be about as hot as the sun and they have to be kept in the flames for a long time.”

“Decapitation?”

“If you can get close enough and you’re only fighting one.”

“Sound?”

“What?”

“Frequency. Sound in a certain pitch.  One that may destroy them.”

“As far as I know, it’s never been tried.”

“Are we staying here?”

“Not for long.  I’m sorry I got you mixed up in this,” said Miles, taking her hand.

“Not a problem,” she said.  “KiKi and I were bored anyway, right KiKi?”

The cat glared at her and walked toward the water’s edge.

“You’re taking all of this very well,” said Miles, watching the cat out of the corner of his eye.  “A little too well.”

“How can someone take something too well?” she laughed.

KiKi dove into the water and disappeared.  She surfaced a minute later and came out dragging something long and half dead to the shore.  She shook it several times, then bit it once or twice, for good measure.

“You’re cat is fantastic,” he said, staring at her.

“What IS that thing?” asked Lexi.  “It smells terrible.”

“It’s a scout.”

“One of the bad guys?”

“Yes.”

“How did they find this place?”

“I have no idea,” said Miles. “Grab KiKI, were leaving.

“Fine, but we need to talk,” said Lexi, reaching for her cat.

“I agree.”

 

 

Strange day…Miles and Lexi…Part 8

Fluffed out to twice her size, KiKi hit the window liked a battering ram. She climbed up one side of the drapes and hung there hissing and clawing at the glass.

Lexi let go of Miles and ran to her.  “KiKi, what’s the matter?” she shouted, trying to grab the hysterical cat.

“They’re searching for me,” said Miles.  “She probably saw one of them looking through the pane.

“Who’s searching for you?” asked Lexi, prying the cat’s claws off the drape and pulling them closed.

“The Watchers.  There are Watchers who watch everything.  They keep things as they are, so no matter how hard anyone, or anything tries, they can never change what is.  They watch me to make sure that I never escape.  They watch humans to make sure they are never free or truly happy.  If I’m gone too long they come looking for me.  If humans get too happy they start a war, or a plague, anything that will make them more miserable and afraid.”

“How is that possible?” asked Lexi.

“What do you mean?”

“Can’t someone get rid of them?”

“A lot of species have tried.  Those species are now extinct.”

“No.”

“No?”

“There has to be a way to get rid of them,” said Lexi, angrily.

“Let me know when you come up with something.”

“Your tattoos are moving,” she said, running her hands down his arms.

“They’re gearing up for a fight.”

“As long as it’s not with me,” she smiled and kissed him lightly.  “What are you going to do about the people who are waiting to die?”

“I’m retiring.”

“Will there be a party?  A gold watch?”

“More like imprisonment and cold iron.”

“But Faeries are allergic to cold iron.  It burns them and causes horrific pain.”

“That’s why they’ll do it,” he said.  “And how do you know things like that?”

“I read.”

“It’s more than that.”

“I extrapolate from what I read.”

“Keep going.”

“If you insist,” she said, kissing the palm of his hand, then licking her way up to his shoulder.  “You taste like cotton candy,” she snickered.  “The pink kind.”

“I’ve never had cotton candy,” he whispered, putting his arm around her shoulders.  “Don’t look toward the window, just grab KiKi and hold on to me.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strange day…Miles and Lexi…part 7

“Cats,” said Lexi, tearing long sheets off a roll of paper towels.

“Do you need any help?” he asked.

“No thank you.  I’m quite good at cleaning up fur balls,” she said, staring at KiKi, who was busy washing her face with her right paw.

“While I’m with you, no one in the world is dying.”

“What?”

“I’m out of the office.”

“But people have to die.”

“They don’t actually, it’s just that a lot of them don’t want to live any longer.”

“If they don’t die there will be an enormous amount of suffering.”

“But that’s what people come here to do, right?   Humans believe suffering makes them stronger, even better.”

“That’s just what they tell themselves so they can get through the day.  You can’t just quit your job.  People depend on you to help them.”

“I’m tired,” he said.

“Who isn’t?”

“This is the first day I’ve ever ever taken off,” he said, looking at the tattoos on his hands.

“That’s because people never stop dying.”

“No kidding,” he chuckled.

“How long have you been doing this?”

“Way before your species came onto the scene.”

“No wonder your tired.”

“Believe it.”

“Do you ever visit Faerie?”

“I’ve dropped in once or twice.”

“And?”

“And nothing.  I don’t belong there.  I don’t belong anywhere.”

“You belong right here,” she said, softly.

He laughed because she sounded so sure of herself.  “It doesn’t work that way.”

“It can work anyway we want it to work.”

“You can’t possibly believe that,” he said, looking at her.

“I liked kissing a lot better than talking about this stuff.”

“Me too,” he said, his eyes turning bright silver.

“What about all the people who want to die?”

“They’ll just have to wait,” he said, moving toward her, holding out his hand.  “Dance with me.”

The minute their bodies touched they both let out a sigh.  Lost in the music and each other, they didn’t noticed what was staring at them through the living room window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strange day…Miles and Lexi…part 6

“Can’t we just relax and have a quiet evening?” he asked, sitting down next to her.  “Why do we have to talk?”

“Because I want to know everything about you.  I want to understand your tattoos.  I want to know why you are considered to be a Dark Fae, I want to know it all.”

“All I want to do is kiss you.”

“Okay, let’s do that,” she laughed, jumping onto his lap.  “Just one or two kisses because I want some answers.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?” she asked, staring at him.

“I don’t know anything about you either.”

“There’s not much to know.  I’m not interesting.”

“I disagree.”

“Let’s do the kissing and then the talking.”

“Works for me,” he said, touching her lips with his finger.  “Just two?”

“Yes, just two,” she sighed.

“How about one more?” he asked hopefully, as she pulled away from him.

“Nope.  Although we can fit more in after we talk for a bit.  How’s that?”

“How long do we have to talk before the kissing thing?”

“Want some water,” she snickered, going to the fridge.

“Sure.”

“Okay,” she said.  “Tell me why you’re a Dark Fae?”

“I do dark things.”

“Dark is a color and has absolutely no intent, so try again.”

“Fine.  When I was young I was stolen from my mother’s arms by a band of Dark Fae.  They came out of the blackest thunder clouds, on black horses, whose hoofs never touched the ground.”

“You made that up.”

“No I didn’t,” he said indigently.  “Do you want to hear my story or not?”

“Continue,” she said, touching his arm.  “But I have to tell you, this sounds like the Wild Hunt to me.”

“It has nothing at all to do with the Wild Hunt,” he said, obviously insulted.  “Death had disappeared and they thought I would be a good replacement, since I was the first one they saw when they came through the clouds.”

“So it was a random choice.”

“Completely.  They grabbed me, hit my mother, so she would stop fighting them, and took me away.  That’s more of a problem that you may think, since pure Fae children are hard to come by.  It’s a rare event when one is born.  They searched for me for years.”

“That’s terrible,” I said, sitting up straight, staring at him.  “Then what happened?”

“I was brought to a temple-like structure, in mountains shrouded by clouds.  The Dark Fae were paid and I was left with, well, I can’t really call them teachers but I guess that’s what they were.”

“Were they nice to you?”

“No.”

“What did you do there?”

“When I got old enough I killed all of them. That’s how I got to be Death but, of course, I didn’t know that at the time.  If I would have let them live, things might have turned out differently.  Apparently, killing them is part of the tradition and ritual.  Who knew?”

“How many were there?”

“It varied.  Usually around twenty-four.”

“I think you did the right thing.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“Because I know you,” she said, kissing his shoulder.  “What did they do to you?”

“They gave me these, for one thing,”  he said, showing her his tattoos.

“A form of torture?”

“Yes,” he said, rubbing his hands together.  “I’d kill all of them again, if I could.”

“I would help you,”  she whispered into his ear.  “I’m a bit of a badass myself.”

He reached for her just as KiKi decided to hack up a gigantic fur ball.

 

 

 

 

Strange Day…Miles and Lexi…5

“Are your ears pointy?” asked Lexi?

“A little.  Why?”

“I was just wondering.”

“Are you Winter or Summer Fae?”

“Neither,” he answered.

“I thought you had to be one or the other.”

“Those things don’t apply to Death.”

“Can I see your ears and what color are your eyes?”

“No and gray,” he sighed loudly.

“Look, you can see me,” she said, holding out her arms.  “If we’re going to be friends, I should at least know what you look like.”

“I can’t see all of you,” he snickered.

“Oh COME on.  All I can see are your long bony fingers and your tattered robe, which KiKi is currently shredding, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I have noticed and ‘long bony fingers?”

“Hey, if the metacarpal fits,” she said.

“If I show you what I look like will you promise not to tell anyone?”

“Why?  Will it ruin your image?” she laughed.

“It will.”

“I promise.”

He started undoing hidden buckles and hooks, one at a time.

“Wait,” shouted Lexi.   “Music, we need music.”

“No, we do not,” he said loudly, but she could hear the laughter in his voice, as music poured from the speakers.  “You don’t get out much, do you?” he asked, continuing to unwrap himself.

“Actually, I get out all the time. Maybe even a little too much.”

“Ready?” he asked, dropping his hooded robe to the floor.

“OMG,” sputtered Lexi.  “Not what I expected.”

“What does that mean? What did you expect?” he asked, frowning.

“Definitely not this,” she said, staring at his pitch black, shoulder length hair and his light gray eyes.  His slender body, was covered with tattoos, that were constantly moving.  He was beautiful.  “Do you work out twenty hours a day?”

“I don’t work out at all. Why?  Should I?” he said, looking down at himself.  “What’s wrong?”

“I’ll have as many of your children as you like,” she mumbled.  “Whenever you’re ready, of course.  Even if you don’t want them right away, we can practice, so that when you are….”

KiKi bit Lexi on the foot and glared at her in a definite, snap out of it, you’re acting like an idiot,  kind of way.  Then she dragged the robe to her bed, clawed it, for a second or two, turned her back on both of them and went to sleep..

Miles started laughing.  “Oh, you LIKE what you see,” he said, relieved.

“Understatement,” she said, at once.  “You’re skull ring is fabulous and, well, your jeans, low riders, are they?”

“They are, actually.”

“I have one more question,” she said, tying not to stare at him.

“Good, because there are only one or two more thing that I can show you,” he said, grinning.

“What makes you a Dark Faerie?”