He glanced away. “I think the bloodsucker was headed here when I dug him up. Why? He went to all that trouble to fake his death in that fire two hundred years ago. He never contacted Taurin in all that time. Now he’s resurrecting himself from the dead. Gotta be something important.” Ganymede’s expression said he hoped the reason involved death and destruction.

“I wonder what kind of sex life Cinn has?”

Mede blinked at the sudden change of subject.

“Oh, I know it shouldn’t matter to the new me, but I just… wonder.” Sparkle was having a tough time suppressing the meddling instincts she’d honed to a razor’s edge over the centuries. “Not that it’s important.” She forced her thoughts elsewhere. “I can’t wait to explore possibilities with her plants. I bet I can guide her research in all kinds of interesting directions.” She hurried to correct any false impressions. “Not sexual. Umm, maybe her plants could help to foster world peace.”

Mede snorted.

“Just saying.” She shrugged.

Mede had evidently had enough. He leaped from the iron maiden and padded to the door. He paused before leaving. “Give it up, babe. Look at you, you’re miserable. You weren’t meant to have character depth. You’re the freaking cosmic troublemaker in charge of causing sexual chaos in the universe. You can’t escape your destiny.”

“But I—”

“And if you’re doing it for me, forget it. I liked the old you. I miss the whining over a chipped nail, the rush you got from a sale at the mall, the constant nattering about sex.” He looked mournful. “I really liked the sex talk. And I long for my old playful sweetie who loved finding two people who were completely wrong for each other, exciting them into a sexual frenzy for each other, and then tearing them apart. You were fun back then.”

If she hadn’t known better, Sparkle could almost believe that it was overflowing emotion making his eyes glisten. But Mede didn’t believe in tears.

“Forget character. I have the character of a gnat. It’s just not an important quality for a cosmic troublemaker to have.” He ended with a heartrending plea: “I want my evil woman back so we can live the wicked life together again. It’s lonely being bad alone.”

Sparkle stood staring at the doorway long after he’d padded away. She had nothing against tears, at least not nowadays. She hadn’t cried for thousands of years, and now she couldn’t seem to stop. She swiped at her eyes. Good thing she hadn’t given up waterproof mascara.