Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)(50)

“Continue. Please.”

“There were these girls in the bathroom talking about you, and for some reason, I don’t know why, it upset me, and I told them... thatyouhadanSTD.”

I covered my face in shame and he burst into laughter. I thought he might drive off the road.

Well, it was kind of funny in an ironic way, because he couldn’t keep a disease anyhow, even if he had gotten one. I found myself beginning to giggle, too, mostly out of relief that he wasn’t offended.

“I wondered if you were ever going to tell me!” he said through spurts of hilarity.

Duh! Of course he’d been listening! My giggles increased, and it felt so nice that we kept going until we were cracking up. It was the good kind of laughter: the soul-cleansing, ab-crunching, lose-control-of-yourself kind.

We started catching our breath again a few minutes later, only to break into another round of merriment.

“Do you forgive me, then?” I asked when we finally settled down and I wiped my eyes.

“Yes, yes. I’ve had worse said about me.”

We passed a billboard advertising gin. It made me think of Jay.

“Hey, remember when you said the Dukes have power to persuade people?” I asked. “Do we have those powers, too?”

“We call it the influence,” he said. “And no, it’s only the Dukes. Why?”

“There were a few times when it seemed like I mentally persuaded Jay not to drink, but I guess not.”

“No. Dukes have the ability to put an urge into a person by speaking a command out loud or even silently. But just like the whisperers, they can’t force it. The influence doesn’t work if the human is really strong and adamant against what the Duke tells them to do. It works best if the person is already inclined to go in that direction, but they’re sort of teetering on the edge of a decision.”

We watched the road now. I looked at Kaidan’s hand on the steering wheel, and just for fun I said in my mind, Tap your finger on the wheel.

Tap, tap. Oh, my gosh! He did it! I tried it again, and this time when he tapped the wheel I tittered. He didn’t even notice he was doing it.

“What’s up with you?” he asked.

“Are you sure it’s not possible for a Nephilim to have the influence?”

“I’ve never heard of anyone having it except a Duke, and trust me, I’ve tried. It doesn’t work.”

For twenty minutes Kaidan would periodically chuckle under his breath and shake his head. I kept grinning, too.

We were less than two hours away now.

“I know we’re going to be there soon, but I really need to go to the bathroom,” I said.

“Oh, all right. Loo stop.” He took the next exit and we both went into a convenience store. When I came out I saw the back of Kaidan as he was walking to the exit doors. I had a sudden urge to try my power of influence again.

Spin around! I willed to his back. And to my utter disbelief, he spun midstride and then put his hand on the door handle to open it. He paused there for a moment, and then turned and looked at me with an incredulous, wide-eyed expression. I darted into the candy aisle and bent over laughing.

“Oooh, so not funny,” I heard him say as the bell chimed his exit.

I couldn’t stand straight as I made my way back to his car, holding my sides and cracking up, no matter how hard I tried to keep a straight face. He gave me a fake glare and shook his head when I climbed in.

“How did you do that?” he demanded.

“I don’t know. Just like you said, I gave you a silent command and willed it to happen. You weren’t really thinking about it, so I guess you went with it.”

He continued to shake his head.

“I can’t believe it. Maybe you’re more powerful because you’ve got the double-angel parentage. That’s completely unfair.”

“Ha, ha,” I teased.

On our way back onto the interstate we passed a long row of stores and shops, and a giant tattoo parlor.

“I had a tattoo once,” said Kaidan. “Last year, just before we left England.”

“What do you mean, you had one ‘once’?”

“Bloody thing was gone by the morning!” His voice was indignant. “Sheets were black with ink. I put myself through all of that for hours, and my body just pushed it back out!”

And once again we were both in a fit of hysterics, sharing the world’s best inside joke. We were doubled over, unable to breathe, and I accidentally snorted. Kaidan pointed at me and laughed harder, clutching his stomach.

“What was your tattoo?” I managed to push the words out.

“You had to ask. It was a deadly-looking pair of black wings on my shoulder blades.”

Kaidan and I started roaring again, muscles clenching from the exertion.

We had no way of knowing it would be our last reason to laugh for a very long time.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE GREAT PURGE

We made our way through the dry hills and valleys of Southern California, passing neighborhoods of homes with rounded red tiles on the roofs, and manicured lawns. By nightfall we were outside of Los Angeles. I kept checking Kaidan’s phone for calls from the convent, but there was nothing.

“It’s still early,” Kaidan said. “Let’s drive through L.A. or Hollywood. We’re close enough.”