Page 2 of Swamp Kings 1

“I think you missed a spot,” she whispered, going on the offense, and kissing him back with fat, loud smacks that brought a smile to his beautiful mouth.

“My kitten is pouncy,” he mused.

His fingers tightened in her hair hard enough to draw a sharp gasp. “Except she’s not your kitten. She’s mine.”

Celeste jerked back at the sharp change in tone, struggling to get out of his arms.

“Leaving so soon?”

“What…Kaphas,” she gasped, watching his brows raise and head barely shake.

“Did you miss me?”

Handy!

Oh God!

Oh no!

She covered her mouth with a hand. Oh God!

“She’s speechless,” he muttered, finally releasing her, and stepping back with a cocked look on her.

“What’s….what’s happening?” The frail, gaspy words flew from her mouth.

“You want to tell her, or will I?”

Celeste watched his eyes close and face strain before his breath rushedfrom him. “Handy wants you.”

She covered her mouth with a hand again, then remembered. “But…youareHandy.”

“I am not,” he forced, a flash of light sparking in his gold eyes.

“He’s Kaphas,” the other voice informed with a hand over his chest before bowing slightly with a one-sided grin. “I’m Handy.” He fluttered his fingers, waving at her. “His... better half.”

“Why are you doing this?”

The question came from the same mouth, but it was Kaphas. Confused Kaphas, distraught Kaphas.

“No,boy. That’s thewrongquestion. The question is why not? You forget who this body belongs to, who orchestrated your very existence, who holds your fucking breath in my very own hands.” He raised all ten fingers, staring at them. “Hands plural, I have two now, not just one. So very… Handy.”

Images of Kaphas flashed through her mind, his body, dead on a table, his fear of being alone, his need for her, his agony. “I chose Kaphas!” she cried out, her chest heaving.

Those golden eyes slowly turned up and leveled right on her. The power in them shook her breath as she held on with both hands to the only truth there was, that could ever be.

“I chose Kaphas,” she repeated, boldly moving closer. “And I am not sorry that I did. I am… only sorry that I had to choose at all, but I will surely never be sorry that I chose him! What is happening?” Her head shook. “I thought… I know you said you weren’t the same, but… I thought…”

“It was metaphorical,” the Handy voice answered. It wasn’t soft like she thought. It was exactly measured and controlled.

She nodded. And swallowed. And whispered, “Yes.”

“What a human.”

The disgust in his tone reminded her of things she’d forgotten. Namely what Kaphas was. Not human.

A bucket load of fear poured in at what that meant, what it could mean. Was he malfunctioning?

“Well… that’s a problem,” Handy said. No, warned.

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