"I cannot now. Later," he promised. "You can run for me."
She smiled. "Alright. I will."
He sidled away. Deidre watched him leave. She wiped her face then dressed, too distracted to feel the warmth of a certain deity as he appeared.
"How is my little fruit bat doing?"
She turned. Fate lit up the corner in which he stood brighter than the black fire could her room. He wore jeans and a t-shirt that outlined his lean frame.
"I don't know," she said, a familiar tremor of uncertainty fluttering through her. "I'm trying to figure out how I can want to be with him but not stomach what he does as the Dark One. Why are these Immortals and deities so messed up?"
"Imagine all the baggage a human has after one lifetime and multiply that by a few thousand," Fate replied. His multi-colored eyes swept over her. "You wouldn't believe the amount of repressed anger most Immortals have."
"I suppose. Why am I stuck in the middle?"
Fate glanced at her, amused. "Do you really want to be elsewhere?"
No. As much as it didn't make sense, as much as his day job terrified her … She wanted Darkyn, more so now that she knew he had a side - however tiny - that was capable of caring for her and only her.
She shook her head.
"By the way, I'm mad at you," she warned him. "You tricked me! Completely, totally, irrevocably tricked me into staying here to further your agenda and then lied about how I was safe when I had the demon marking."
"No, I tricked you into staying alive to further my agenda," he corrected her. "If Darkyn didn't want you, he never would've let that mark form on you. His mark is inconsequential."
"Then why not tell me that?" she asked.
He shrugged.
"You play with people's lives every day. But this is my life, and I'm sick of it!" Her face felt hot at his nonchalance. She approached him, glaring up at him.
"You can hit me." Fate gazed down at her, smiling. He opened his arms wide. "I don't mind. It's impossible to be angry at a seductress."
She planted her hands on her hips, tempted but not about to do it, now the she knew he wanted her to.
Fate laughed.
"You are the soul to a creature who had none," he said. "It's the only deal I ever lost that I didn't mind losing."
Deidre's anger deflated at the confirmation of Darkyn's thaw.
"You people have such a warped sense of … everything," she said.
"You're one of us now."