Page 50 of Which Witch Is Wicked?
Don't show him that he hurt you.
"I came out here to butt-fuck Egypt because you promised me information. I'm not leaving without it." She'd process the feeling of her guts spilling onto the ground later. Right now, she had shit to handle. "If you're finished being a dick tease, then tell me what you found out about the undead."
He turned to her, his dark brows drawn down to shadow his pale blue eyes. "In order to be a dick tease, wouldn't you have to have a—"
"It's a fucking expression. Just tell me what the fuck with the zombies, Julian, so I don't have to look at you anymore."
His jaw clenched and he glanced at the ground as though summoning his immortal patience. "You are cruel when you are hurt," he accused.
"If you think I'm the cruel one here, you are sadly mistaken," she all but snarled. "Now do you actually know anything or did you lure me out here just to be an ass?"
"You should not call a man's honor into question so lightly, Aerin," he warned.
"Then cough up what you promised me, Julian," she volleyed back. "I was attacked by one of those squirrely motherfuckers today and even chopping off his head didn't stop him."
Julian took a step forward and put his hand out before he stopped.
"Are you... all right? He didn't hurt you?"
"Don't pretend you care," she said coldly.
"I do care," he gritted through clenched teeth, his voice low and soft as though he didn't want them overheard. "I justcan't.You don't know what I'm up against, Aerin. Or withwhomI am dealing."
"Well at the moment, you're dealing with me, so keep your end of the bargain."
Regarding her from beneath his lashes, he took a deep breath, seeming to come to a decision. She could feel how conflicted he was. How aroused and aching. And beneath all that, she could sense something else. Something that distracted her from her ire. Fear.
What in the world would an immortal like Julian Roarke be afraid of?
"From what I read, the rules of necromancy are surprisingly simple," he began. "There are two kinds of undead, the astral kind and the physical kind. Essentially, they're a body or a soul that is ripped away from each other, but remains on this plane bereft of its other half."
Aerin tried to think past her pounding heart and her throbbing nethers. God she was going to hate him for this, for a good long time. She was going to hold a grudge that would make the Hatfields and the
McCoys proud. "So, these zombies are just bodies without souls?"
"Correct."
“And so if it's just a soul without a body, they're like... ghosts?"
"Essentially, as you mortals understand them, yes."
Aerin thought for a moment, trying to ignore the way his pale, muscled chest gleamed in the moonlight. Her fingers twitched and she turned away to stare out at the cold, lonely ocean.
"So all we would have to do is reunite the body with the soul and the problem would be solved," she mused.
"That’s quite impossible." he said.
"Why?"
"Because their souls have moved on. Bane has delivered them to their eternal reward. When the fifth seal broke, they rose to take their vengeance, but it is not the power of the seal that keeps them animated. It is something else." He caught her eyes, regret and powerful meaning flashing in their fathomless, sea-colored depths. "Someoneelse."
"Who?"
"Icannotsay." He lifted a brow at her. "But I learned how they can regain a soul, and a second chance at mortality which is why they are after you."
He paused, looking off into the trees in the distance, as though searching through the shadows there.
"Don't leave me hanging."
