Page 28 of Necromancers Don't Raise

He pulled out the chair and sat down, then picked up a pair of chopsticks and snagged a sushi roll skillfully. “I will pay and then send her a bill for five times as much for stealing my prisoner. This table is heavily warded against eavesdropping.” He waved the air with a slightly pinched look on his face. “She used too much magic. She always does these days. She has no reserve, not in anything.”

“You sound like you know her well. Did the two of you date before she was married?”

He raised a brow then held his chopsticks towards me, holding a sushi roll. “No. I was her father’s enemy, so it’s her husband that introduced us once she’d left Crown’s care. She was already deep under her husband’s spell.”

I hesitated because I’d never had sushi, but he wanted me to eat it, and I couldn’t refuse him, not when he’d let me kiss him in public. I opened my mouth, then chewed and swallowed quickly so I wouldn’t taste it, but it wasn’t bad at all. “You use the word ‘care’ lightly.”

“Naturally. You know dark sorcerers.”

“I do. At least now I know sorcerers. Before today, I only knew sorcerer, and I have to admit that it didn’t inform me about any habitual carelessness. She also cares about you, says that I might break your heart, but that makes no sense. You told me that I couldn’t hurt you, didn’t you? Doesn’t that include your heart?”

“She thinks my heart is delicate.”

I peered at his chest, sadly covered by a thick black shirt and buttoned all the way up. “Do you have a heart? Don’t sorcerers put them in jars or magical objects?”

“That is a different kind of sorcerer. I like my heart where it is, locked in my chest.”

“Sounds very secure. You should tell her that you’re in no danger.”

“Or I could tell everyone that I’m desperately in love with you. The latter would be more amusing.”

For some reason, my heart plummeted. I didn’t like him joking about that. The memory of the kiss was still haunting me, and here he was, right in front of me, joking about being in love with me. “Would it? In what way?”

“Novelty. I’ve never told everyone that I’m desperately in love. I have told everyone, repeatedly, that I am in absolutely no danger of compromising my heart.”

I nodded. “You don’t need to take your heart out of your chest to protect it. You’re lucky.”

“I am. Here.” He held out another sushi, and I obediently ate it. The next time my mouth was empty, he had another roll for me, and another, and another, until I started feeling self-conscious. It’s just that when he held it out to me, I leaned forward, and he leaned forward, and I saw the silver in his eyes and remembered the fire in his kiss, but remembered that I was hideously ugly and possibly demonic. Probably. I’d have to be something spectacularly abnormal to come back from the dead. That just didn’t happen to humans without serious intervention.

By the time the sushi was gone, I was feeling awkward from the stares of people who noticed my white-haired stubble, or maybe they noticed that I was with a notorious bachelor and looked like his date. It wasn’t a high-class place by any means, but the food was good, and the atmosphere was unique. And the way he looked into my eyes was so startlingly intense. Like hesaw me for so much more than what I looked like on the outside. And not the demonic part. Or maybe that was a perk. Blood rituals and all that.

Shudder.

I pulled away and fiddled with my napkin. Was I actually accepting something so ludicrous as that I was a demon? Why didn’t Mercury tell me? Did he not know? Would he despise me if he knew? What about the fact that he’d been obsessed with Clarissa Clarence? And the kiss.

For the first time with him, I kept my mouth closed and didn’t say anything at all.

When we’d finished eating, he dropped some large bills on the table and then helped me with my chair before offering his arm. I didn’t need to hold onto him for physical or emotional stability, but it would be rude to refuse him, and holding him was like snuggling a teddy bear on a stormy night. Was I actually demonic? Where in the world had I gotten my blood, goblin and demon? My parents had always talked about how precious human blood was, and how it had to be preserved, which is why it was so essential that I marry someone without tainted blood, like me. And now I had demonic blood? The source of all taint?

“Are you all right?” Mercury asked me.

I looked up at him, startled. “Yes, I was just wondering…Can you be infected by demonic blood?”

He raised a brow as we hesitated at the door. “I don’t believe any human could absorb demonic blood. Bites from demons don’t infect humans, either. Why do you ask?”

I didn’t want to tell him, but I needed to make sure I wasn’t putting his safety at risk, and I wasn’t talking about his heart. “She just mentioned that I rejuvenate because I’m demonic.” I tried to sound upbeat and look cheerful as I pushed through the door. As I went, I brushed shoulders with a guy coming in.

He glanced up at me, only for a second, but I knew those violet eyes. I grabbed my arm and then felt the pain. He’d pricked me with a needle, like the last time I’d seen him. I whirled around, but as I touched his coat, he melted away into nothing, leaving his beige trench in my hand. He knew who I was. The last time I saw him, I’d noticed the prick in my arm a few minutes later and asked my mother about it. She’d told me it was nothing, then promptly tripled my bodyguards.

“Nova?” Mercury growled, taking the coat and inhaled its scent before he raised his dark, dangerous eyes to me. “Who was that?”

“Someone who wanted to sample my blood. I should have worn the armored shirt today.” I looked down at my vest and my bare arm. I hadn’t meant to go anywhere, but I’d been kidnapped. And someone had taken my blood. Like before, when my mother… She knew about my tainted blood. She must, so why had she insisted on me living the lie of a perfect human when she knew I had so much darkness lurking beneath the surface? She’d taught me to be honest. Polite, tactful, but honest. And all that time she’d been lying to me?

Mercury put a hand on my lower back and then escorted me outside, where Bones waited with the car. Mercury helped me in the backseat and then leaned down to give me a tense smile.

“Miss Nova, I will try to follow the creature and bring back your blood. Bones, take our lady home.”

“Yes, Master.” Bones took off immediately, and so did Mercury, vanishing along with the coat.

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