A Dash of Demise

Ch 32: Death in a Bottle

Red POV:

Zander and I sat in the Parlor playing cards.

It was... odd considering that minutes ago his hands were all over my body.

"Red..." he rumbled, "I can't tell if you are bluffing your hand or if you are thinking about me."

"I am thinking of the ways you may die."

"And that arouses you?"

"...perhaps."

He chuckled, "strangely I find it rousing as well."

I just blinked.

"Fighting with you would be akin to foreplay to my inner wolf."

"..oh."

He grinned rakishly at me, "we really must spar together sometime."

Not going to happen, "I do not risk ruining my dresses training."

He hummed "you are telling me that you do not train?"

I nearly rolled my eyes, "no. I wear trousers."

He nearly choked on the vile bit of scotch he was drinking, "you wear trousers?"

I sniffed in indignation, "I am not some barbarian who will train naked."

"Pity."

I shot him a sharp look, "Zander."

"Pardon my vulgarity. I am truly sorry."

He is truly not sorry.

Zander looked me over, "I cannot picture you in trousers over your little frilly dresses and stockings." He paused, "and those knife toting garters you seem to have in every color imaginable. What do you match them to anyways? Your dress or..." he trailed off smirking.

Fool was trying to make me blush.

How dare he underestimate me. "Both. Everything matches."

His eyes grew dark, "oh. Everything?"

I nodded once not trusting myself not to sound like some twit if i attempted to look into his eyes and give a response.

He changed the subject back to my trousers, "and where do your knives go when training."

"Two sheaths sewn into the outer thighs, my poisons go on a belt over my hips as always."

The wolf was quiet for a moment, "as always?"

"Well some of them. When im not training they r there as well as hidden in various places on my person, only the deadliest of toxins go on my belt."

"What belt?"

"The one I always wear. I never leave my home without at least 20 vials of toxins on my person. 12 of which on my belt. All of them deadly."

"Yo have a belt on under there?"

I huffed, "honestly, i am surprised you did not notice."

"I wasn't all that concerned with anything but you while my hands were up your petticoats Red. Plus I didn't stray up your hips."

I just stared at him blankly, "perverse dog."

"So all 12 in the belt are deadly."

"Without antidote yes. 5 a guaranteed to kill you within ten minutes though, one of which there is no antidote for."

He gave a wiry smile, "lovely. But Red.."

"Hmm?"

"From my understanding you dont carry the antidotes on you...what if someone uses these against you?"

What sort if ridiculous question is he asking me, "it would not be cute to die from my own poisons so as they are created i feed them to myself in small doses growing larger. One of my poisons that will take ten minutes to kill will take about and hour to kill me. Unfortunately I would die if I tried to build further tolerance to them."

Zander just stared at me, "...you poison yourself?"

"Starting in small doses, if i am unsure of my science I poison other people first as not to kill myself. I am better service to the crown if I am not only able to manufacture death in a bottle but if I can withstand my own concoctions." I paused "plus lots of people dislike me. It would not be the first time having my creations used against me."

"You don't drink. But you will poison yourself?"

I huffed pouting at his obviously disapproving tone, "only on my days off."

"Red!" He practically growled "you cannot poison yourself!"

I cocked my head to the side, "why? It has not lessened my cuteness."

He did growl this time, "because you could die!"

"I would have already had i not built immunity and tolerance." I set my cards down, "if you would like to assess for yourself how the process works, we can build you and immunity or resistance to one. I have the perfect poison."

Just just gawked at me.

"You wish us to be a couple yes? I am told couples do things together." Clapping my hands once I smiled up at him, truly excited to test this on a wolf person as well, "I have yet to start my tolerance training on my newest poison I will bring it next time. It isn't too terrible. We will not even bleed from our eyeballs not even a little."

The tall man just shook his head, running a hand through his inky hair, "you want me to drink poison with you?"

"This one is absorbed through the skin. Not ingested."

"Red..."

I continued to beam at him. "You will do it wont you? I will not even make a genuine pass at your life I promise."

He grumbled a bit. "I cannot do that Red."

I deflated a bit, "i see."

"The meeting with the alphas is coming up I cannot risk showing weakness and I would much rather not have to think about you getting sick or hurt during their visit."

I chewed lightly on my lower lip, "when they leave then!"

"I cannot have you sick somewhere when I am unsure I will be able to come to your aid. No."

I may just poison him anyways maybe through skin contact, he will be too distracted to smell it perhaps.

Looking at him and from past experiences I knew he would not let me near him is i had a drop on my skin.

"What if I stayed with you while we were suffering the effects, I would be remiss not to study the effects it has on my subject."

He rose a brow.

"It would possibly be remiss not to prevent you from dying without finishing my study as well."

"No. And you will not poison yourself either."

"I shall. Think about it."

"No."

"I may spar with you if you agree to allow me to experiment building tolerance in wolf kin on you."

He scowled, "Red. If i say I will consider it, will you let it go and go back to our game?"

"For now."

He nodded, "fine. Ill consider it."

I pouted but returned to the game.

I truly had wanted to compare our illness.