Page 67 of The Magic of Revenge
"Now that is one cool ass dude," Faris said in awe and shook his head. "Listen. There's something in this store that smells divine. We gotta find it."
"Do you even eat food?" I asked, because I didn't think I'd seen him eat a thing.
"Not sure. But whatever that smell is... I wanna eat that." He bounced on the balls of his feet and I found myself laughing. I was having a lot of fun considering this was just grocery shopping.
We made our way through each aisle, and I added to the cart while he crossed items off the list. Several things made it into the cart that weren't on the list because Faris helped himself to "samples" as he called them. I explained that you couldn't just eat whatever you wanted in the store, it just wasn't done, but he wouldn't hear it.
"Oh, wait. What is this?" Faris grabbed a bag of flour and tore it open with his fangs before I could stop him. He stuck his face into the bag and must have exhaled forcefully, because he reeled back when a large poof of flour rose up and hit him right in the face.
"Slime on a snail, give me that," I chuckled, removing the bag from his hands. Faris blinked at me, flour coating his dark lashes and eyebrows. He looked so ridiculous. "Here, hold still." I gently blew on his face to get the excess off and then used my hands to get most of the rest of it.
"I don't like that white stuff," he grumbled, wincing as I licked my thumb and wiped a few more spots clean.
"Well, it's used for baking. It's not something that's eaten raw and I don't think it's supposed to be used for snorting either." I pulled back and Faris stared up at me with those big dark eyes. I had no idea what he was thinking.
"You're one of the best smelling things in this whole damn store," he whispered, running his tongue across his bottom lip. My stomach swooped and I wasn't sure why. Maybe fear of what it would be like to let him feed on me? Would it hurt? Goldie had seemed to enjoy herself...
"Come on, weirdo. We need to finish grabbing the items from the list. No more just ripping open things. Now we have to buy this bag of flour," I told him, placing it carefully into the cart so it didn't make more of a mess.
Faris sniffed the air and took off down the aisle. Great.Why do I even speak?
"If you can't listen, I will put your ass in the cart!" I threatened as he laughed and rounded the corner. How much trouble could he really get into in a grocery store? Probably best not to chance it... I’d promised Goldie we wouldn't get into trouble. Faris was turning out to be nothing but trouble, and I was leaving his ass at home the next time I needed to go to the store. He touched everything in sight, constantly proclaiming, "I want this" and then tossing whatever it was into the cart. When he turned around, I'd take that shit out and put it back on the shelf.
If the guy wanted to get some stuff, fine. But I didn't think we really needed a ten pack of superglue or leopard print duct tape. When he saw the set of mini kitchen utensils, he almost had a fit over how precious they were. I left those in the cart. They were kind of cute. And less than ten bucks.
As I rounded the corner to the next aisle, I froze. Midway down, Faris was plopped on the ground, a container of EasyMac clutched in his hands.
"Faris?" I asked hesitantly, because for some reason it really looked like the man was having a moment here.
"Oh thank the stars, it's you. I found it. The delicious smelling thing," he exclaimed, holding up his treasure.
"Instant mac and cheese? Really? Of all the things in the store, this is the best smelling?"
He cupped the container and ran his cheek against the side of it, a little moan slipping from his mouth. By the stars...
"I don't make the rules, Bram. I'm going to try this now," he announced, and before I could protest, he peeled the lid back and peered into the little bowl, his mouth dropping open. "What in creation..."
I watched in amusement as he plucked a little noodle from the box and held it up, analyzing it. "Interesting..." he muttered, putting the noodle back and picked up the little white foil pack that held the cheese powder. He ripped the top off and tossed it onto the ground. There was something about watching him experience things for the first time that was... special in a way. And funny as fuck.
"So, the noodles are the vessel for the orange dust?" he asked without looking up.
"Yeah. Noodles and cheese together are kind of a staple in this part of the world," I explained and he wiggled with excitement. “Don’t you know this stuff? I mean, surely you experienced these things when you were inside of Fischer?”
His gaze snapped up to mine. “Okay, never say it like that again. The man is my brother and that gives me the ickies. The truth is, over the years, my dear brother got very skilled at keeping me under wraps. And by that, I mean I wasn’t present for a lot of our life. I was like a genie in a bottle and when I did get glimpses of the real world, it was usually during interrogations. That didn’t last long either because that fucking pyromaniac was always there to make sure I got tucked back into my bottle nice and tight,” Faris growled, rage simmering in his eyes at the thought of Sloane. I probably should keep an eye on that before he did something crazy, like kill him.
“So like, earlier in the car? You didn’t know what that would feel like?” I asked, trying to direct the conversation away from Sloane.
His cheeks turned red with embarrassment and I squatted down next to him. I had this desire to assure him that his feelings were valid. Why? I had no fucking clue. There was just an innocence to him that contrasted with his stabby desires.
“Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I remember the first time I rode a rollercoaster. I screamed like a fuckin’ banshee. Between you and me, I may have had a skid mark in my skivvies when I exited the ride.”
Faris roared with laughter at my admission. “So not only do you scream like a girl, you’re telling me you have a loose butthole? Wow. I can’t—”
“Excuse me, what?” I snapped. “My butthole is not loose.”
“You literally just said you shat yourself,” he said slowly like he was talking to a dumbass.
“That isn’t what—”
