Gem rocks back and forth on her heels, blood still pounding in her ears. It’s funny, because she’d sort of thought it would go away when the curse did, but nope! The bloodlust and hunger’s just part of being red, which is pretty neat. Gives her a good excuse for whatever she does next.
Impulse is humming something next to her. It’s a little annoying, but also really sweet. It’s very Impulse of him, right? And—
“You know, I’ve never done the whole ‘throwing my lot in with a red name’ thing before,” he says idly.
“Oh? What do you mean?” Gem asks.
“Well, see, Third Life, I was sort of—I mean, I wasn’t on any side to throw my lot into with, that time,” Impulse plainly lies, and Gem notes that in her head as another question to ask later. “But the red name I definitely wasn’t on a real side with. I was the traitor there, right? So that doesn’t count, and that’s when people were really doing this whole arrangement. In Last Life it wasn’t allowed, in Double Life most people largely stuck to their soulmates, and Limited Life was too chaotic to really feel like it was, you know, throwing your lot in with much other than death.”
“Oh, that sounds fun!” Gem says.
“You would say that,” Impulse says.
“Although, I wasn’t there for any of that! I didn’t know there was a history to sticking with red names, a history to bloodthirsty monsters. Thats so cool!”
Impulse’s face flickers through an expression Gem’s not sure she wants to read. “You phrase things so unsettlingly sometimes,” he says. “A history to bloodthirsty monsters?”
“I mean, why else would you choose to be on the killing team?” Gem asks.
“Love, Gem. And loyalty. And a lot of other things I’m really good at just not getting, apparently.”
Gem rocks back on her feet.
“Oh,” she says quietly. “I didn’t mean—Impulse—”
Impulse’s face softens. “I know. Just don’t be the one to kill me in the end, okay?” he says. “Don’t know how much more of that I can take.”
“Okay,” Gem says. “I haven’t—you know I haven’t done this before.”
“I know. You’re doing pretty good though,” Impulse says.
“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment.”
Impulse pats her arm and goes back to humming. Gem feels that fun bloodlust rushing in her ears and suddenly, with horrible clarity, knows it won’t be fun for much longer. She doesn’t know what to think about that.
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