Page 11

That night, I had my first nightmare. Well, my first nightmare about a past life.

In it, I was kneeling in a makeshift church, my knees aching and my teeth clenched.

That part was real or had been. The rest—not so much.

Fog billowed around me, full of things with claws and teeth.

They snapped at me. Howled. Then a face penetrated the mist.

A hound's face.

I woke up screaming.

Hand to my chest, heart racing, I stared into the darkness.

Talk about your past and future colliding.

The nuns should have been the monsters in my dream, but instead, it was them.

The Hounds. The men I was excited to accept.

Except that maybe I wasn't. You can't lie to yourself in a dream, can you?

That Cyrus-collision had thrown me in so many ways.

I thought I was ready for a commitment. It was with three men, for fuck's sake.

The best commitment deal ever. I had three times less of a chance of getting bored.

And I . . . yeah, let's admit it . . . I wanted to be loved.

I wanted a love that I'd never question.

Never fear or worry about. Men who were completely true to me.

With a Cerberus, their betrayal would never cross my mind.

In my book, that was a miracle. No, not just a miracle —it was impossible.

A Cerberus was also a unicorn. A magical, mythical unicorn in the shape of three shapeshifting men.

Or so I'd thought.

“Am I that fucking broken?!” I growled into the darkness.

All that answered me was the drone of the A/C.

I huddled in on myself. I'd been alone for so long.

The closest I'd come to real love was when I possessed a woman.

How fucked up was that? I couldn't remember what love felt like.

Not romantic love. Not with all those memories circling my mind like water down a drain, reminding me that no one ever stuck around for long after they stuck their dicks in you.

Coarse? Oh, yeah. But that was men in my mind.

That was my experience of them. All they understood was coarseness.

Brutality. Base desire. That's why I had spoken to that hound as I had.

And maybe I regretted that.

I rubbed at my tired eyes. “What the fuck?!” I held up my hand and my fingers glistened in the moonlight. “Tears? Seriously?” With a huff, I fell back onto my pillow. “It's done. I've made a deal with a god. A fucking Olympian. There's no reneging on that.”

I blinked in epiphany.

“That's it. That's why I'm freaking out!

There's no choice. I don't like that. It kind of goes against everything I stand for.” I shook my head.

“What have I done?” Then I looked around and snorted.

“Oh, buck up, buttercup! You whiny bitch.

You've got everything you've ever wanted and you're fucking complaining?” I rolled my eyes.

“What a bunch of fantasy heroine bullshit.

'Oh, no! You've made me immortal? I'll be young and beautiful forever?

No, I don't want this!'” I snorted. “Let's not be that girl, Salina.

And let's not talk to ourselves in the third person.

That's even dumber than being that girl.”

In my defense, Salina felt like a separate person to me.

It would take some time for me to adjust to this new body.

For the time being, I saw a stranger when I looked in the mirror.

As a professional ghost, I knew I could adjust. I may be a whiny bitch, but I was also a strong one.

I'd survive. Hell, I'd run this town in a week. Speaking of which . . .

“I can get social now. No hiding or being careful because I'm possessing someone!” I grinned to myself. “I need to do some research into New Orleans society.”

In Wren, we'd kept a low profile. It was hard sometimes to act normal and then there was the whole hiding from the Hounds of Hades thing.

So, Wren didn't have friends. I mean, I didn't have friends.

Not female ones, at least. I had escaped the Underworld—an incredible feat that I don't get nearly enough credit for—only to put myself in a smaller cage.

Not anymore. And if those hounds thought they were gonna collar me and keep me at home, all to themselves, they'd have another think coming.

And they could think with my foot up their asses.

Oh, yeah. I wasn't just going to run this town. I'd run their pack. The New Orleans Cerberus wouldn't know what hit them.