Read Bliss (The Custos) for Free Online Page B

O'Conner but you call me Preacher."
     
                  "Preacher?" I asked my voice full of gravel caused by deep sleep.
     
                  "Yup, in the flesh but not a beatin' heart." He said the words and tapped his hand over his heart.
     
                  "So you’re a mind reader too then?" I asked thinking that this one smelled like sage and smoke and kinda reminded me of my younger days smoking weed.
     
                  "Not a mind reader Cookie comes by not knowin' me it'll go away soon as will the infatuation but I thought Cash took care of that?"
     
                  I was confused, by sleep and my surroundings. Was he asking me? And who the hell was Cash and why was he calling me Cookie? But as if on cue the good Vampire before me answered without my asking.
     
                  "Soddin' Vampire didn’t even tell you his name." Preacher said but I think he was talking to himself more than me. He caught that too because he looked at me and smiled. "Sorry luv, yes Cacius is the gentleman who brought you here."
     
                  "Ok, and who are you, I mean I know Preacher but who are you to him?"
     
                  "Well his best friend o' course, he idolizes me actually, taught im' everything he knows."
     
                  The way he said it made me smile because I knew he was full of shit. He knew I knew it too because his deep laugh filled the room and actually...calmed me.
     
                  "I’m glad it calmed you Cookie." He said with a smile. "I actually learned it all from him, though you wouldn’t guess it by his manners."
     
                  "Why do they call you Preacher?"
     
                  He looked at me, a look of sadness maybe? I wasn’t sure but there was longing there. I expected him to say something about my thoughts but he stayed silent. "Well it is what I am, now and while I was still alive. I became a member of the Unbeatin' Hearts club in 1923."
     
                  There was only one question I had and I waited to see if he would answer me without asking but like before he was silent. "Why don’t you read my mind?"
     
                  His smile was kind and he sat at the foot of the bed before answering me. "Privacy is yours and yours alone. I don’t read minds but I do hear your thoughts and they are private." He looked over the room as if it was hard to look at me as he spoke. "I don’t have the right to know your secrets London, and I’m sorry about the fact that I do but I swear they will burn to dust when I do."
     
                  I felt the tears that finally came, after everything I was finally crying but not for a reason I thought would break me. "Thank you Preacher. Thank you for saying sorry even though you can’t control it."
     
                  He looked at me and I could tell he heard my thoughts from before so I asked. "Are you?"
     
                  He sighed and looked at me. "Going to kill you?"
     
                  When I nodded yes he spoke again. "No London, we have no intention o' killing you. I know what Cash said and he is capable of it, but I think he would struggle with you." Knowing I wondered why at that he continued. "I just think he feels for you in this ....situation."
     
                  "Are you going to help him find out why my Father wants me dead?" Speaking those words was like drinking acid, it burned and hurt but duh its acid what did I expect? My Father never cared for me so what did I expect? My thoughts must have caught Preacher because a look of shock on his face was priceless.
     
                  "Trust me Preacher, he does not care for me in the slightest, all of this." I motioned around the room of unknown. "All of this screams 'I hate you London.'"
     
                  "Trust me when I say