[Caliban Leandros Series]: Cherish
“Robin’s not here,” I said, even though I guess she was probably looking for Promise, but I was still pissed at her, for bringing more trouble down on our heads when that was the last thing we needed and for, you know, the whole puta thing. And I wanted her to know I knew she was there. “When’d you slip out?”
I hadn’t seen her go, and Xolo was still here so she hadn’t gone far. But what the hell, if she thought I was watching her so much the better. And all right, it was a little satisfying to see her jump. Petty, sure, but I’m not too concerned about that.
“Caliban,” she said, turning and flashing her pearly whites at me. She smiled a lot more than Promise. It bothered me. Never liked people that smile that much. Except Goodfellow, but he’s an exception in a lot of ways. “I thought you were asleep.”
“Obviously. Weren’t planning on saying hello?” I didn’t really feel too much like sleeping. Definitely more fun to annoy Cherish.
“I didn’t want to interrupt your repose.”
“I’m nocturnal.” I sat up, indicating that she couldn’t just go. “Niko’d tell you that. Creatures of the night and all that.”
Cherish frowned, slightly, then she came over and sat down. Grace and beauty, that’s vampires. They could probably make falling down look intentional. Or at least, Cherish and Promise could. I didn’t say anything and just waited for her to talk.
She examined me like a curiosity. “Is that part of being Auphe?” It was light and careless and curious enough that it sounded innocuous. I kind of wanted to strangle her.
“No, it’s part of being twenty, or so they tell me. Homo sapiens teenagericus or something.”
“Does it make any particular difference? Your heritage?” God. What a bitch. Of course, maybe she was just asking. Didn’t really matter to me, though; if she was stupid enough to ask she was stupid enough to get an answer.
I gave her my best Auphe-grin. “Hardly at all. ‘Cept for the occasional desire to rip someone’s head off with my bare hands and cart it around town, it’s not inconvenient at all.”
I had to acknowledge that she was good. She blinked, but that was it. Really, her expression was almost thoughtful. Shit. Look what you’re doing now, Caliban, giving the vampire ideas. While she was distracted, I put my head against the back of the couch and looked up at the ceiling. The light from outside even through the curtains made shadows and I decided they looked kind of like a dog. If that dog were Cujo.
She stood up, silently, so I tilted my head just enough to watch her. “Caliban,” she said, in this kind of weird silky voice, and she said my name with her slight Spanish accent too. Too bad there weren’t any dramatic r’s to roll. “I confess that I was…quite admiring of your handling of the monsters.”
“That’s me,” I drawled, “Cally, Monster Slayer. Even got the vampire sidekick, right?” I could have told her Niko was better, but she knew that, and it’d be bragging and stating the obvious besides.
She laughed, and it didn’t even sound that strained. “Would that be me? I have not been anyone’s ‘sidekick,’ I should warn you.” I could see her eyes gleam in the middle of her face. Nice thing about vampires: even in the dark you never lose sight of them. Their skin glows even more than a computer nerd caught outside after dark.
The grin I gave her was a little more sincere this time. “Yeah, sure, but gotta have one. And I bet you learn fast.”
She came back over and sat down on the couch, next to me. I thought about telling her to get off my couch, but decided it wasn’t really worth it. “Such a flatterer must be popular with the ladies.” She leaned toward me a little and smiled without her teeth this time, just a little curve of her lips, and laid her palm against my face. “Am I right?”
“What,” I started to say, and went to move her hand off, because seriously, that’s a little weird. And she kissed me.
So for the first, oh, ten seconds I was just kind of confused, because seriously, what the fuck, and after that…I’ve figured out by now that girls kiss differently, I’m not that much of a virgin. And it’s not like Cherish was bad. She was pretty damn good, actually, from what I could tell. But damn she wasn’t sweet about it at all. She pushed me back a little and didn’t wait too long before putting her tongue in my mouth, and it was about then before the part of my brain that was kind of freaking out over the freaking girl on me that I started trying to shove her off.
I say ‘trying’ because I started to think a punch to the shortribs would be the only thing to work in removing her. Absurdly I remembered something Niko’d said once about some kind of Japanese soul-suckers and wondered if that was what Cherish was after.
(If so, had to wish her good luck with that, as I doubted she’d get anything edible out of me.)
Eventually she broke away, though, flushed, and I decided that standing was a good idea. Perhaps unfortunately, the first thing that made it out of my mouth was, “What the fuck?”
Cherish leaned back against the couch and smiled at me, hair hardly mussed at all for all that she’d just about suffocated me. Sort of. I tried to ignore how much of her cleavage that snug black dress showed off. Everything else aside, she was Promise’s daughter, and that was just fucking weird. “Caliban, I wouldn’t expect you to be coy.” She actually looked me up and down here. And I couldn’t do anything but gape, which I guess she took as agreement because then she got up and glided over and put her hand on my chest. Right over the scar Sawney’d left taking a chunk out of me. Wasn’t that just the loveliest juxtaposition?
“I shouldn’t think you would be so surprised.”
And god, I felt like such an idiot for saying it, but I wasn’t really controlling my mouth, apparently. “You called my mother a whore. Which she was, but that doesn’t mean you had to say it.”
“I was irritated.” Her fingers kind of flexed on my chest. Jesus Christ. “Surely you can understand that my emotions were somewhat…undone at the time.”
I tried to step back. “Think something else is undone now,” I couldn’t help but say, but somehow she’d gotten a hand around the back of my neck.
I didn’t really want to hurt her, but the hair on the back of my neck was climbing or trying to climb and if it’d been up to me I would have bolted. At least, I hope so. “I’m not interested,” I told her, which was kind of a lie, and she was polite enough only to laugh at me a little before kissing me again.
Fucking hell.
It was harder to get her off this time and I’m not sure it was exactly my idea. You know they always talk about predatory smiles, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you see a vampire doing it. It would have been nice to at least have my head screwed on at this point, but no.
She tilted her head a little, and apparently her fingertips were sensitive enough to feel the indentation in my chest, and she raised her eyebrows. “What’s this?”
“I got eaten,” I said blankly, and took a step back, and then the light flicked on. Niko stood in the hallway, katana out and tense. I hadn’t even smelled him over Cherish’s perfume. He looked from me to her and back.
“I thought I heard something.” He directed it at me. “Is everything okay?”
I could have told him that I was being sexually harassed by his girlfriend’s daughter. But aside from the embarrassing factor and the fact that I wasn’t sure it counted as harassment if you were kind of enjoying it, it would probably make things awkward for Niko if he had to chastise Cherish.
I shook my head. “S’all good, Nik. We’re just talking.”
I knew he didn’t believe me, but he let it go and looked at Cherish. “Your mother wants to talk to you.” She smiled, half at him but mostly at me, and inclined her head. “Thank you,” she murmured, and slipped graceful as a shadow down the hallway to where Promise was sleeping.
Niko looked at me and I tried to look innocent. Eventually he shook his head and sheathed his sword. “Go back into the spare room, Cal,” he said, quietly, “I’ll keep watch.”
I decided to take his word for it and went back, hoping no more persistent vampires interrupted me in at least trying to sleep. And trying not to think about Sawney’s teeth in my chest.
That part didn’t go nearly so well as the first one.