Page 21 of Too Cursed To Kiss
“Start talking. Who’s after me? I mean, you?”
“Us,” he said. “They are after us now. They knew you had the ring, and now you’ve been seen with me. They will use you to get to me and to get to the ring.”
“Who is after us, and what do they want? Who does this vehicle belong to? And who just died in there?”
His jacket creaked as he crossed his arms. “You want that name, but it will mean nothing. The Grigores are the hunters of the giants. Their hunt for our kind is ancient but recently renewed.”
My brain twisted. “Giants? I mean you’re tall but not that tall, and why are they hunting me? I’m not a giant.”
“They are looking for family artifacts. If they gather them all, they would get control of our kind and change the order of things.”
“What the hell does that have to do with me? I need you to tell me the whole story—and don’t leave anything out. But first, are your eyes yellow and glowy?” I gritted my teeth saying the words, but I was rambling.
“They are looking for the ring right now because you wore it, and I prefer golden,” he said, taking off his sunglasses. He looked at me with his glowing yellow eyes and grabbed the steering wheel as I swerved across lanes.
“Holy crap, then I didn’t imagine it. Your eyes literally glow. Why do your eyes glow?”
“Because I can’t change them now. Call it a curse.” He winced.
“So, you’re some kind of were-thing?” I asked as if were-things were a box you checked on a government form.
“Not a were-thing. You should listen more closely to the answers when you ask questions.” He gave me that maddening half smile.
“Stop stalling.”
“Keep your eyes on the road then, and I’ll tell youa story.” He pointed at the windshield.
I pinned my attention to the line and gripped the steering wheel as if it could save me.
His voice was honey smooth and soothing. “Long before recorded history, stories were passed down by word of mouth. In ours, a great race was set upon the world from the heavens.”
“Oh my God, you’re an angel?” I braked to cut the speed.My heart racing had made the car go faster, or my foot leaden, whichever way you wanted to look at it.
“No, not of the sort of thing you are thinking, no wings or feathers. An old race, older than humans. The Eim. My ancestors came from another place and time.”
“You’re an alien?” My heart pounded, and I swerved out of the lane.
“You promised,” he taunted, waving at the windshield.
“Fine. But keep talking.” I slowed down a little and glued my attention to the road.
“Eim is the old word for the race we all descended from. The humans called them giants, but they were really more like what you called angels, or fallen angels, depending on your perspective. They were what created the giant race that we are descended from.”
“And what? Eims mated with the humans to blend?”
His low chuckle bristled over me. I liked it as much as it infuriated me. Basically, he was telling me he wasn’t human. That wasn’t possible. He totally looked human, even if he was tall and super pale and had glowing eyes. Okay so maybe not human.
“As I already said, our people originated before your recorded time. When humans evolved and became more prominent, we were forced to interact with them to keep hidden. That experiment was a failure. We were seen by other tribes of that time as evil, and by then, the Grigores had found us.”
It was hard to focus on the road while I was using the steering wheel as a tether to sanity. “What the fuck is a Grigores?”
“They too are from the Eim, but they walked a different path. Their interactions with humans are more limited. They are still very focused on returning to the plane theywere expelled from and will do anything it takes to get there.
“Okay, so ruthless non-humans wanting what exactly?”
“Artifacts which will let them buy their way back into the planes we came from. Like the ring you found.”
My brain caught up. “Holy fuck. The ring is an artifact. They want the ring. The same artifact that Gentry demanded in the letter.” Gentry was dead because of the damned ring.
