Dream Warrior by Sherrilyn Kenyon

how?”
    He tightened his grip. “I swear to you if you’re trying to seduce me to your side, I will kill you. And it’ll take a lot more than fake tears to sway me.”
    She snatched her hand away from his hold. “Are you really that cynical that you don’t think anyone could feel bad for the way you were treated?”
    He didn’t answer.
    Delphine was aghast at him and his inability to understand compassion. Dear gods, with the lack of emotions he had, he should have been an Oneroi himself. “Fine, then. I’ll be a total bitch since that’s all you can take.” She flipped her menu open and started reading.
    Jericho wanted to be angry and offended, yet he somehow felt …
    Wrong.
    He actually had to bite back an apology.
    For what? He’d spoken the truth. He didn’t want faked emotions that were designed to weaken him.
    What if they weren’t?
    What if she was being honest and they were real?
    Don’t go there, fool. You know better. The very person who birthed you couldn’t feel pity or compassion for you. How could a stranger?
    It was true. He was nothing to her, and she was …
    His reason for suffering.
    He glanced at the menu, then looked back at her. Her brow was furrowed as she read and a lock of blond hair fell into her eyes. Her gaze was completely focused on the food. For some reason he couldn’t fathom, he had a desire to brush that stray piece of hair back into place.
    What is wrong with me?
    â€œHow did you grow up?” he asked before he could stop himself.
    Her scowl made a deep impression on her forehead. “Pardon?”
    â€œYour family. What were they like?”
    Delphine started to tell him it was none of his business, but the sincerity in his eye kept her from it. He seemed to be genuinely curious, and she didn’t want to anger him again. She actually liked their more calm discussions. Few though they were.
    â€œI knew nothing of my real father.” It was something she’d never really talked about before. Mostly because no one ever asked or cared. “Arikos said my father was one of the Skoti who seduced my mother in her sleep.” And a part of her still wished he’d come forward to claim her once she’d joined their ranks. That was the human side of her that at least wanted a face to put with her mysterious procreator. It would have been nice to have known which of the thousands of them had fathered her.
    But she didn’t want to dwell on that. “My mother was a gentle woman. Lovely.” A tiny smile played at the edges of her lips as she remembered the beauty of her mother’s face and the tenderness of her touch. She’d truly loved her mother, who had never once raised her voice to anyone. It didn’t mean her mother didn’t stand up to people. She just did it in a calm, sweet way that Delphine had always admired.
    â€œShe used to make these honey cakes that were so good they would melt before you could even swallow them.” She closed her eyes as her throat tightened with the part of her heart that still ached over the fact that her mother was no longer with her. “I asked her once what her special trick was to make them like that. She told me it was the love she had for me that she put into them.” Delphine blinked away tears at the thought.
    How could she still miss a woman she hadn’t seen in centuries? And yet there would always be a part of her that missed her mother and her mother’s kind heart and gentle soul.
    â€œDid you have a stepfather?”
    She nodded. “He was a good man. A blacksmith. I used to take drinks to him while he worked, and he would make up funny stories to entertain me.” She even had the crude silver heart he’d made for her when she was a girl that bore his smith’s mark. She kept it in a small box in her room on the Vanishing Isle. Even with muted emotions, she had loved them greatly, and that