"Well, that's not the only area with you that has to change. There can't be any more planning to undress me as I sleep or bursting in on my shower and ogling me. Or even calling me those sexist pet names."
"You mean my endearments? What's wrong with them?"
"They're belittling to women."
He shook his head firmly. "None doing. It's just habit. This is the way males used to talk to females. And the endearments are female specific."
"Like how?"
"Like pet or poppet? I only call females I like by those." Only females he really liked. Pet was proprietary and poppet indicated affection. In other words, he'd never used those terms before. "If I'm not interested in a female, I'll call her sweet, sweetheart, or dove."
"Should I feel moved by this revelation? Honored to be deemed poppet?"
"I was going for charmed. But you're a hard one, pet."
"I'd be more inclined to be charmed if you had any respect for my privacy."
"We're going to be stuck together for at least a couple of weeks. Maintaining privacy would take too much effort, and would be futile anyway."
She pursed her lips, as if she couldn't argue with that. "Well, what about your cursing? Must you be so foulmouthed around me?"
"I've been using those words since before humans decided they were foul." He began to set out food from the bag.
"Those kinds of terms are very jarring to people who were raised to avoid them…." She trailed off. "Are those oatmeal pancakes?"
"They are."
"With honey?"
"Of course."
He knew her mouth was watering. "There wasn't any orange juice?"
"Oh, there was."
He dug into another bag and produced individually packaged cereals, a plastic spoon still in its wrapper, a sealed carton of milk and one of orange juice.
She narrowed her eyes. "All prepackaged. Exactly how long have you been watching me, Cadeon?"
"Long enough to know what you like to eat, and what you will eat…"
14
I guess I wasn't that hungry anyway." Holly pushed her plate away after finishing only half of her breakfast.
"It's the change," Cadeon said. "Valkyrie don't eat."
"How is that even possible?"
"Dunno. How's it possible for shifters to change form, or witches to move things with their minds?"
After she threw the breakfast trash away, fatigue set in. It didn't help when he turned on a low lamp and pulled the heavier layer of drapes closed.
She sank down on the edge of the bed. Her body was exhausted, but her senses felt alive, humming. Hypersensitivity? She believed it. And now she was in a darkened hotel room, alone with a demon she'd had not-so-subtle dreams about.
Though she'd have thought his horns would be off-putting—not to mention his boorish behavior—she was actually feeling an inexplicable attraction to the demon. And she'd already had trouble controlling her urges.
Holly had experienced a variety of fears and idiosyncrasies and had been medicated for them. Now without her medicine…what would she do?
Somehow, she had to get her refills, not only to stifle these compulsions—but also to slow this progression.
Progression? Could she possibly get worse?
She recalled her parents taking her to Pompous Shrink, the "best in the state." He'd droned on and on about her fragile mental health to her poor parents….
"This is a classic case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. An OCD patient experiences a constant fear of transformation," he'd said. "She'll dread losing her sense of self, often experiencing impulses to act out of character. As these impulses can cause a great deal of anxiety, the patient will begin performing compulsive acts in order to suppress them. The stronger the urge, the more compulsive the behavior."
Oh, and there were chemical imbalances, too. "Most likely inherited from her mystery parents," he'd said with a resigned sigh, as if he'd seen this all before. "And exacerbated by Holly's insecurities over being adopted."
She'd never had insecurities about that. Her parents had been incredible—patient, encouraging, and loving. But they'd begun blaming themselves for her unusual behavior, looking for some fault in her upbringing, something they'd needed to provide for her but hadn't.
Her mom had apologized to Holly before she'd died….
At that memory, she dropped her head into her hands.
"Whoa, halfling!" Cade quickly sat beside her. "What's the matter?" When she didn't answer, he said, "I'm not the type of male who's good at this sort of thing, this…comforting. But maybe…do you, uh, want to talk to me about what's going on in that head of yours?"
At length, she said, "It's all so bewildering. I mean, just last night, I was drugged and kidnapped, and then…" She trailed off.
"And then what? Tell me what happened to you."
Her voice had turned to a whisper. "It was horrifying. I woke up, and I was…naked, stripped for some kind of ritual. There were all these men watching me. I tried to reason with them, to beg them to let me go, but they just laughed and ignored me. Then, when it was about to begin, I shrieked."
"Valkyrie shriek."
She nodded. "Louder than anything I've ever heard. And the glass dome above broke. Then lightning struck me directly in the chest, and it went on and on. I don't remember much after that. I just recall feeling this rage, this uncontrollable need to do violence."
When had his hand rested on her back? It was big and warm, and he used it to gently rub up and down. "You've been through a lot. It's normal to react like this."
"Normal for a Valkyrie or for a human?" she asked, sniffling. "I don't quite have a grasp on either, since I've never been fully one or the other."
The truth of that sunk in at that moment. This meant Holly had to reevaluate everything. What was her personality truly like? She didn't recognize herself.
Just as Nïx had said.
And Holly knew that in the absence of a constant against which to measure, the introduction of new variables was a recipe for chaos. "I don't like my routine interrupted. I don't like surprises. On the best of days, I-I don't handle them well."
"Maybe you don't handle them well because you haven't had any practice with them."
"No, I have a condition—"
"So you like to arrange stuff. Where's the harm?"
She frowned. Holly had heard her dad say the same thing when he'd spoken to her mom about the drugs Pompous Shrink had wanted to put her on.
Holly shook her head. "You make it sound so negligible. But there were times when I couldn't leave my house for fear I would run out into a storm or get mesmerized by a shiny jewel. And now I have no idea how I'll react. Cadeon, what's normal for a Valkyrie cannot be normal for me." She knew she was being superficial, but she couldn't help adding, "And I don't want fangs and pointed ears!"
"Not that this will change how you feel, but I happen to love pointed ears."
She gave him a dubious expression.
"No, honestly. To a male from the Lore, they signal either fey or Valkyrie, and either species is renowned for its stunning females."
"Even if they didn't look freakish to me, they could prevent me from going about among humans."
"None doing. You'll just cover them with all this pretty hair of yours. I've seen Valkyrie plait braids over their ears or wear head bands over them. I've even seen them go with them uncovered and proclaim themselves extras on a movie set still 'in makeup.'"
Nïx hadn't seemed concerned about hers at all. "And the fangs?"