Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

love."
    Lily launched herself across the room. One step, two, pivot, body bending, foot angled to strike with the side, not the toes -
    A wall slammed against the side of her head, knocking her to the floor in a sudden, awkward heap.
    Now her head was really pounding. And her jaw. She moved it carefully, then felt it with her fingertips. Probably not broken.
    "Did you forget? Or did S'n not tell you? We are allowed to protect ourselves, Johnny and I." The voice was light, amused. "Just as you may try to protect yourself."
    Lily blinked swimming eyes. The Chimei stood over her, smiling. Johnny-boy still sat on the bunk, his hands on his knees, leaning forward as if watching the ninth-inning-with-two-men-out ball game.
    He looked delighted. But then, his team was winning at the moment, wasn't it? "She packs a punch, doesn't she?" he asked cheerily.
    "Yeah." Lily had been aiming for the sorcerer, thinking he was the Chimei's weakness. She'd caught a glimpse of white in the corner of her eye as she went into the kick, but she hadn't really seen anything.
    And that was a clue. She eased herself into sitting up, rubbing her jaw. "Good trick. You went fuzzy so you could move faster, didn't you? Must be handy. But it cost you something, I'm guessing."
    The Chimei was amused. "There is a cost, but not so much of one as you are paying. You cannot sustain many of my blows, human, while I can offer them for hours and hours, if I wish. I... What is the phrase? I pulled my punch so as not to injure you permanently." She gestured at the bunk. "Return to your place, unless you wish me to put you there. I assure you I am strong enough to do so easily, without allowing you to damage me."
    Lily did not like doing anything Kun Nu wanted, but she didn't want to be handled, either. She rose to her feet slowly, trying not to jar her head - and had to stop and swallow back the bile. She managed not to stagger to get to the bunk. "You may not have achieved that aim. I'm pretty sure I'm injured."
    "Not seriously." The Chimei returned to her place beside her lover. She tipped her head to one side. "You are afraid a little, but not as much as I expected. Why not?"
    "You aren't allowed to hurt me."
    "I'm not allowed to harm your body, save in self-defense. Do you believe the only harm is that which damages you physically?" She gave a little trill of a chuckle. "Oh, there. Now you fear. Do you enjoy it?"
    "No." Lily licked her lip and tasted blood. It was puffing up, too. "So your only goal is fear?"
    "I have other goals. The happiness of my beloved... " She stroked Johnny's arm fondly. "That is precious to me. And the suffering of your grandmother. That is necessary. I will eat her power, and you will help me."
    "I could have sworn that wasn't allowed - you harming her, I mean, and eating her power would surely harm her. I notice you didn't mention children. Offspring. Or becoming, uh, wholly physical."
    "Children." The voice was still light and pure. But something vast and powerful moved behind those human-seeming eyes, darkening them. They changed even as Lily watched, turning alien and black. Wholly black, with no whites at all. "You touch on what you should not, human."
    Lily's heartbeat kicked up. Saliva pooled in her mouth, forcing her to swallow. "I'm a pushy bitch. Sue me."
    Abruptly the black faded back to gray. She laughed. "I think not, but I will either eat you or make you wish you had died. Perhaps I can do both. As for becoming wholly physical... you choose one word correctly, no doubt by accident, for you grope after that which you cannot understand. I am, as you see, physical now, but this form is costly to maintain without my Becoming. I am very close now. Your grandmother will provide the last of my needs so I may Become." She folded her long-fingered hands in her lap. "It is just that she do so."
    "You want revenge. She killed someone you cared about."
    "I lost him." That was grief, surely, wild and unsated, in the stormy pools of her eyes. "She stole him from me, and caused me to unBecome. She must atone."
    "What about all the people who lose someone because of you? Do they get a shot at making you atone?"
    Her eyes were clear gray now, and breathtakingly indifferent. "Humans die. It is your nature, as it is mine to live. Why fling your anger at me? I did not cause you to be as you are."
    Lily's jaw clenched - which hurt like hell, so she made herself relax those muscles. "I saw bodies tonight. Bodies of people who didn't