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I submerge my entire body into the tub. Water splashing, but barely so. Benefits of being a ghost. She likely can barely feel me straddling her lap. However, she’ll feel when I locate two of hercarotid arteries on either side of her neck and pierce through them.

“How is this happening?” I finish her question for her. “Well, you see, I’ve been naughty.”

Harlan, now behind me, settles his chin on my shoulder. “Yeah, she has.” He spanks my ass and again the water barely even ripples. Scaring Tori Beth more.

“Since I believe infatum enim eligimus.Choosing my own fate. I’ve decided that death isn’t it for me. I’m not ready to be completely lost in the abyss. There’s still so much I can do in this form. But I think the real question is. How can you see me?”

“Us” Harlan corrects.

I scoff. “Yes, us.” I turn my head to look at him. “Which, by the way, we aren’t a thing.” I remind him.

Finding Harlan was about healing, not about love. Not feeding the Ferryman was always about using the freedom death has granted us and putting it to good use. Some, of course, would argue that existing in a perpetual purgatory isn’t good use or wise, but those who say such things haven’t had the privilege of experiencing it. I have.I am,and I don’t want to let this go. Not yet.

Harlan juts his chin to the bone in my hand. “You keep telling yourself that, but your dead cunt sure likes my ‘stale cock’, as you like to put it. It was weeping all over it just this morning.”

“Oh, please. You’re a good fuck, but that’s where it starts and ends.”

He clicks his split tongue. “I’m also a good partner…”

“In crime,” I finish for him. “Only.”

A grin expands on his chiseled face. “You keep telling yourself that.”

Ah, yawn. Clingy ex-virgin.

Turning my focus back on a very cold, very frightened Tori, I continue. “Don’t mind him. I let him fuck me once. While he was sleeping no less, and here we are. He’s still clingy as ever for what he never wanted from you. Now, don’t feel too special. You are just a check off the list of people who have wronged us and willpay. But I did, however, want you to be my first.” I grin, playful and seductive.

I lean forward, pressing my lips against hers. Even hanging in the balance of fear, and the sedatives working, her lips still manage to purse to kiss mine back.

My mouth remains near hers, but I move far enough back. “No, not that kind of first. I’ve been with girls before. But I wanted you to be my first kill in my new form. My free, lifeless, happy form.” I press one last kiss to her trembling mouth as I lift both hands up at either side of her neck.

My hands hang in the balance, making her sweat it out.

“Oh, by the way, I made that deadline you were so worried about. Had it hand delivered to the publisher myself, since I knew you’d bebusy. Oh, and I decided to change the title and publish under my real name.”

Her gaze skates from side to side, terrified of both my clenched fists.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue? Too scared to recite the Lord’s prayer? Afraid he won’t be the one you see when I do this.” I don’t give her an opportunity to answer—not like she could—or fight it. With precise force I plunge the sharp bones down, crashing into either side of her neck. Her skin breaks on impact, and blood pools around the bone, staining it as I stare into her eyes, watching the life fade from them. I wonder what she’ll see when her soul escapes her body. The construct she hopes for or the reality of what she fears. Either way, that’s her problem, not mine.

Red fills the tub, diluting as it hits the water’s edge. I skim my fingers in the mixture, trying to gather as much as I can.

A familiar song fills my head as I rub the crimson between my thumb and index finger.

Blood for blood. Eye for an eye.

The more the melody repeats, the more I want to do what it says. I hum it over again as I turn to face Harlan. His arms areslumped over the tub and he stares at me with a wide grin on his face.

“You gonna share or what?” His gaze falls to the blood on my fingers.

“Come and get it.” I entice him with my dripping fingers, curling for him to move closer.

Water splashes as he lunges forward, capturing my hand in his. He sucks my fingers into his mouth, feasting on the fresh blood.

“Revenge tastes good, doesn’t it?”

Harlan nods as the suction of his mouth loosens on around my fingers. His split tongue sloppily licking it up. He’s so eager to please me, now that I am in the same lifeless boat as him.

“Tell me, brother. When you took my book, what did you see?”