I stood up straight. I had about a head of height on him. I looked down and folded my arms across my chest.
“Well, we know all that already, don’t we?”
“And Ash likes me,” he said with a proud look on his face.
“You like her?” I asked, waiting for him to deny it.
“Yeah, even soulless have feelings, for a time anyway. Or maybe they are only the urges. I cannot tell anymore.” He shrugged. Another lie, but I would pretend to buy it.
“True, and how old of a soulless are you? You must be coming to your time soon; do you mark it like some of the others have? Will you curse my name as your eyes grow entirely black?”
“I do not keep track—so I am not sure—I was changed a week after Kara.”
“Kara, do you know her? I mean, did you know her before you came to live with me?”
“Kara? No. I had no one—I was alone. If you hadn't found me when you did, who knows where I would be.”
Perfect answers to all of my questions, able to keep eye contact, no fluctuating mood swings, no bleeding. Aiden, indeed, was not soulless, which again puzzled me. Oh, I knew he, of course, did know Kara before. That whole thing about having no one was an utter and complete lie. I wondered if, perhaps, Kara could give me the answers that Aiden did not wish to share. If her mind was even hers anymore, of course.
“Well, get to class—we don't need the humans here asking for a parent-teacher conference—I would not make a good father.” I raised my brow.
He nodded and walked away.
I had a soulless girl to speak with.
“Kara!” My voice echoed through my house as I waited for her response. She came up the stairs—seemingly having just woken up. Her dark, almost black, hair was tied behind her back with a few stray strands curled messily around her face. Her eyes wereso dark black—with such irritation in them. I assumed that it was because I had interrupted her slumber.
“I am here; you don't have to yell so loud,” she said, leaning one hip against the doorframe from the basement entrance.
“How are you doing?”
She looked at me, anger and annoyance radiating from her.
I smirked.
“How am I doing? You haven't spoken to me once since you brought me here, and now you want to shoot the breeze?” She rubbed her eyes and trailed her hands over her face.
“You don't have much time, Kara, do you?”
“Maybe two months. I am still young, okay—not like those old ones you had—some of them were alive for six months after they became soulless.”
“Okay, good to hear,” I said, again unable to hold back a smile.
“Can I go to bed now?”
“No,” I answered, walking over to her and lifting her chin so that I could look directly into her eyes. The whites of her eyes were still there; she didn't have the blood loss yet, just the mood swings, and most likely, a personality change. She pulled away from me and shoved at my chest. Or maybe she was always that standoffish, hard to know.
“Now, now—no need to be so aggressive.” I held up a finger as if scolding a child.
She glared at me.
I laughed. It was entertaining to annoy her.
“What do you want—you already ruined my life.”
“Iruinedyourlife? You did that all on your own, sweetheart.”
“Really? Oh, I didn't remember that part, where I tookmyownsoul.”
