"Short sword, axe, and knife. These are Elisian, made for the fairy warriors who are about your size." Jared held up each one as he spoke before placing it in its respective sheath. "You're in luck, cupcake. There are a few dead dealers in the bathing chamber waiting for you to practice."
He wore his own collection of weapons, much larger than hers. Sheathing the last, he pushed her towards the bathing room.
"So barbaric," she complained. Past-Death stepped over rivulets of blood, disappointed by the amount of blood that tainted the hot springs pink. "It'll take a lot of work to get the blood out of there."
"The Elisian metal is light enough for someone as weak as you."
She glared at him.
"We've got a few bodies. Try chopping off arms or something," Jared suggested.
"Really? This is your plan?"
"Listen, cupcake, it's easier to do when someone is already dead-dead. You can make mistakes here. You can't when they're alive." He drew a dagger as he spoke and bent down, slicing off the ear of a dead dealer. "Lots of skeletons. Whatever did it works fast."
"I noticed that, too." Past-Death took in the death. "Ten skeletons, four other. Only one looks like a demon did it. These three look like they just fell over dead."
"A demoness learning her magic. She can kill with a touch. This one was personal," he assessed, standing over the dealer with the ravaged body. "Maybe this skeleton-maker was in danger."
Past-Death wasn't certain how to explain it. Until she saw Deidre again, she wasn't about to assume the sweet girl could do anything like this.
"Me, however …" She gazed down at the body at her feet. "I think I can." Death was second nature to her. She understood it differently as a human and had the compelling need not to cause too much pain. She'd never understood the difference between a quick and slow death or why so many begged her for a quick one, when she was a deity.
It was because humans and Immortals were blessed with the ability to feel the softness of clothing, the warmth of sunlight. Their bodies were sensitive and delicate, the sensations so deliciously intense, like the way Gabriel smelled or how his hands felt skimming down her naked skin.
Having been attacked by a demon, it made sense to her now that pain was as powerful as pleasure to creatures so sensitive to their environments.
"Elisian weapons are specially designed … to require less … effort," Jared explained, gnawing on the ear he'd chopped free.
"You're disgusting," she muttered.
"Better his ear than yours."