New chapter!! Yay!! And hopefully I'll get the rest of them in order soon.
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Her mouth stung, and a hand quickly raised to her lip came back wet with blood. She winced slightly, not so much at the pain but at the fact she was leaking again. A quick glance at Knives showed that he was lost in thought and not paying much attention to her.
Bad move, plant boy.
She spent a moment trying to think of what she could do to him. Her eyes narrowed as she searched for something, anything that would take him out of that musing mental state. She didn't want to let him think too long on germ warfare; there were too many things he could try that she couldn't counteract. Plus, it got dirty quickly, as the germs decided to evolve in ways you didn't predict. Hopefully he would see that on his own, but if he didn't, she'd be sure to point it out.
Just attacking him wasn't a good idea. For one thing, when you are trying to teach someone that violence isn't always the answer… you shouldn't use violence to get your point across. For another, she wasn't entirely sure that she could take him right now. That slap had set her ears ringing, and she was having trouble focusing her eyes. She wiped at the blood by her mouth again and got an idea. In an instant, the idea blossomed into a plan, that turned into action.
She wiped at the blood on her face with the index finger of her right hand, worrying at the wound until her hand was slick with her blood. Then, she looked up, waiting for the right moment to pounce. Knives had turned off to the side a bit, looking off into the desert as he pondered new ideas, dismissing her as a threat. Her eyes narrowed more as she tried to focus. When his head was turned away, just enough, she jumped to her feet and pounced on his back.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and snaked her left arm around his neck. His mouth opened, in shock or to cry out. She didn't care, but was pleased that he had made things easy on her. Her hand grabbed his jaw and held it open as she jammed the bloody fingers of her right hand in. He gagged, a reflex motion as her fingers reached the back of his throat. He twisted, trying to throw her off, but couldn't; he tried to close his mouth but her grip on his jaw was too tight to allow much motion.
She made sure to get her blood all over his mouth, under the tongue that futilely tried to force out the intrusion, up on the roof of his mouth, and scraped behind his teeth. Then she let go and jumped back. The force of her dismount pushed him forward onto the sand, where he gagged and spat, trying to get the hot copper taste out of his mouth and failing.
After a few moments of this, he turned and glared at her. She was still laying where she fell, blinking into the suns and trying to put her head back together.
"What the hell was that?" he demanded, somehow managing to stalk as he covered the few feet between them. He loomed over her, blocking the light. She was finally able to make her eyes focus again, and she stared at him as calmly as she could.
"You like the pain of others. I thought you would like a taste of what you dish out."
"That was disgusting." Scorn dripped from the words. Idly, she wondered if he practiced that tone, or if it was native talent.
"Hmm? It's not like you haven't tasted my blood before. Last time, you seemed to like it."
He paused to think a moment. "Last time I did it to annoy you. And to mess with your head."
"And this time I did it to annoy you. And to mess with your head. Dammit, you hit me! And for what, calling you a name? Is that worth violence?"
His eyes stayed cold. "Obviously."
"Is that what you want to teach Ace?" she asked, motioning behind him.
His eyes widened slightly as he turned. The child was standing in the shadow of one of the spires, staring at him, eyes full of hurt and anger. He took a step towards her, but she stepped back. He stopped, unsure of what to do, then turned back towards Kiley.
"Bad example?" he asked sheepishly.
She blinked, both from a bit of shock, and because he had stopped blocking the sun.
"You might think that," she said calmly, recovering quickly. "This is hopefully where you learn that violence isn't the answer to your problems," she said somewhat hopefully, but mostly in jest.
"You use violence all the time," he pointed out as he stepped back and offered her a hand up.
"As a tool, yes. As an answer, no. Violence… it's a scary thing to use too much of it, because it gets quick results. That makes it addictive, and easy to confuse with power. But it's not an answer, only a process, and if you lose sight of that you get into trouble." She grabbed his hand with her right and let him help her up. She knew it was stupid, but she couldn't stop herself from enjoying the feel of his hand on hers, the strength that he used to haul her to her feet.
He let go and stepped back a pace, face shuttered. She wondered if she had said something wrong, but then he looked at his hand distastefully. She saw that some of her blood had gotten on him. He stared at it for a moment and then shook his head and wandered off to find something to wipe it clean.
She stared after him and wondered what was going through his head. But mostly, she was thankful that he hadn't gone and licked her blood off his hand. That sort of thing creeped her out.