Page 45 of Amaros
Grace snickered and she joined her.“I guess my talents will come in handier than knowing how to bake,” the teen figured.
“No doubt,” Zoe agreed, then offered her the container.She took a cookie and they continued their search.
They loaded up a couple of bags with tins of food and other items they could use.Amaros would be furious if they endangered themselves by scouting the other houses.No one had looted this suburb yet, but roaming bands of desperate, starving humans would soon be picking every house clean.
“Do you like to read?”Grace asked when they returned to the living room.A tall bookcase stood against a wall.It was crammed full of books across a variety of genres.
“I’ve only ever been allowed to read the bible and other religious books,” Zoe said without bothering to hide her bitterness.
“You’re pissed at being left behind,” Grace noted as she wandered over to the bookcase.
“I spent twenty-five years doing the right thing and obeying the ten commandments and it still wasn’t enough,” Zoe said in frustration.
“Maybe it doesn’t matter how good we tried to be,” Grace mused.“What if just being a cambion is enough to condemn us?”
That thought had crossed Zoe’s mind.“You think we’re tainted by our fathers?”she asked.
“Pretty much,” the teen confirmed.“Amaros said they’re all evil.That means we’re half evil.Thanks to my mom, I’m one hundred percent evil.”
Zoe gave her a stern frown.“You’re not evil.I can feel what people are like.You were forced to do bad things, but you didn’t enjoy it.”
Grace looked away from her and grabbed one of the books.“That’s not true,” she refuted quietly in a shameful tone.“I do enjoy it.I like stealing stuff and breaking into places.”
“What do you do with the things you steal?”Zoe reminded her.
“I use them to feed and clothe myself,” she said.“I only take what I need and I don’t sell any of it for profit.”
“You did what you had to do,” Zoe said.“We’ll both need to break into places and take what we need now.Your skills will definitely come in a lot handier than baking cookies.”
“These are pretty tasty cookies, though,” the kid said with a smirk, taking her seat again.
“My mom’s were better,” Zoe said in staunch defense of her mother’s baking skills.
“So, Amaros’ friend, Camriel,” Grace said to change the topic.
“What about him?”Zoe said.
Grace’s expression was speculative.“Do you think he’s bigger than Amaros everywhere?”
Zoe’s face began to flame.“I don’t even want to know,” she said honestly.
“If he is, I pity the poor women he sleeps with,” the teen said solemnly.
They burst into quiet laughter, smothering the noise with their hands.“Amaros seems to think women like big men,” Zoe whispered even though he was long gone by now.“Do you think that’s true?”
Grace gave her a slightly pitying look at her lack of carnal knowledge.“You really did live a sheltered life,” she marveled.Her tone turned lecturing as she gave Zoe the facts as she knew them.“A lot of women think bigger is better, but it depends on the man.Size really isn’t a factor if they know what they’re doing.”
Zoe’s one and only naked encounter with a member of the opposite sex had been fast, fumbling and easily forgettable.“Don’t they just kind of poke us a few times with their dong, then it’s all over?”she asked.
The look Grace gave her was both horrified and incredulous.She brayed laughter and had to use a cushion to smother it.Tears started rolling down her face.Zoe got up and stomped out of the room in a huff, wishing she hadn’t said anything.
