Page 13

Chapter Thirteen

Asha

E mily sat across from me at our bar-style table, her chin on her hands and a devious grin splitting her face. “I knew this would be a thing.”

“Shut it,” I hissed, looking over at Thanatos cooking dinner for the three of us.

He’d insisted, and after two weeks of nothing but out-of-this-world sex, I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him. I was tired. I’d barely slept. Even my dreams were filled with him. I’d never had so much sex in my whole damn life, in or out of dreams. Places I didn't even know existed ached, and I could barely keep up at work these days. Clearly, the asshole cooking us another five-star meal certainly didn’t need to get any shut-eye. He looked perfect and ready for the day every time I caught sight of him.

Must be nice.

Thanatos had stayed over every day since our little chat with Mark. Two weeks had passed where he showed up at the office and bewitched every woman in the building. Despite my worries, he was incredibly knowledgeable about what we did and put on a very convincing performance as the hired consultant.

I’d quickly become a source of salacious gossip on day one because Thanatos rarely left my side. Other women didn’t exist to him. His eyes were always fastened onto me wherever I was in the room, especially since he’d updated my wardrobe without my consent—expensive outfits I couldn’t explain to anyone and were rumored to be gifts from a very rich consultant who’d shown up the day I started to wear them. It didn’t take much for the girls at the office to connect the dots. Now, I wore dresses that never hid anything. I walked around like I spent my days playing arm candy for our resident hottie. But since the asshole got rid of everything I owned, I didn’t have a choice.

Whenever I chose to work at my desk, he’d roll a seat over to oversee everything I did. If he had to be in his office, I was expected to be in there with him. More than once, he’d used the office as a place to steal kisses and slip his hand under the clothes he shamelessly forced me to wear. Unfortunately, I’d had the best orgasms of my life sitting on that desk, or in his lap, or pinned to the door, always a room away from discovery. I didn’t think I was much for the thrill of being caught, but I couldn’t get enough of it. Neither could he.

And for a little while, I forgot he was Death. To me, he was the guy who continued to rock my world. I only remembered that he was a supernatural beast capable of stealing souls when a raven would tap on his office window, and he’d proceed to have a full-blown conversation with it like it was totally normal. Or whenever his shadows would wrap around my body and pin me to whatever surface I was pressed up against.

Without those two things, Thanatos was just…Thanatos.

I hadn’t figured out why he’d chosen me. I tried, but it always ended with me pinned underneath him, his monster-sized cock thrusting in and out while his shadows wrapped around my body, imprisoning and teasing in place of his hands and tongue. It wasn’t a secret that he used sex as a distraction, but holy fuck did it work every time. I’d never felt more like an animal until my legs were wrapped around his waist, fingers in his hair and our mouths clashing at different angles, succumbing for the millionth time that day.

I didn’t like how quickly I fell for his charms; how easily he coaxed me into fucking wherever we were—a couple of teenagers in the throes of our first sexual relationship. It was absolutely crazy how many things we’d done that could put me in jail, or at least make me lose my job.

But if there was a trick to saying no to Thanatos, I hadn’t figured it out yet. Doubt Emily would, either. She’d tell me to enjoy it, fuck the consequences. A little part of me had used that as an excuse to ignore my head’s departure from sense since I met the mythical, soul-stealing monster posing as a man.

Today was different, though. He’d taken a weird call earlier, and I couldn’t figure out why he was so on edge since it. He seemed to be in his head more than usual. Several ravens had shown up over the course of the day, popping a squat on the branches outside our apartment window—the beginning of The Birds movie, I noted. They didn’t rap on the glass like they did at the office. Guess they knew better, but I’d seen him leave a couple of times to talk to them.

It was silly when I thought about how a terrifying looking man just stood outside my house, talking to a few birds in a tree, and no one cared to notice it. If Emily hadn’t been following him around all day with her eyes glued to his form, I’d be convinced he was invisible to everyone else but me. But obviously, he wasn’t.

After setting our plates down, Thanatos retrieved his buzzing phone from his back pocket. He clicked his tongue the second the screen flashed on. Emily watched him curiously as he bent down, stole a quick kiss from me, and whispered in my ear. “Stay,” was all he said before leaving the two of us in the kitchen and exiting the house.

Emily made eyes at me, taking a little bite of her food and moaning. “I don’t care what you have to do to keep that man, but do it. I can’t go back to our shitty mealtimes after this, and you can’t go back to your shapeless outfits. You’ve looked hot as fuck every damn day since he showed up. I didn’t want to say anything because, you know, fuck men and what they think about how we look and what we choose to wear, but he’s got a knack for dressing you, chick. And it shows how sexy you feel. You walk around like a goddess visiting the mortal realm. If I weren’t so afraid of ruining our friendship, I’d tap that.”

Emily rarely held back, but I was surprised. I hadn’t thought the outfits made that much of a difference. It might’ve been the world-shattering sex too, but I’d only mentioned how it was the best I’d ever had. I couldn’t exactly tell my best friend that I was being fucked by a monster who controlled ravens and shadows— oh, and who could steal our souls if he wanted to. So, I stuck with the simple things. The sex was amazing, because it was, and he was insatiable, because he was.

I glanced over my shoulder to eye the door the devastatingly gorgeous man left through. “Shut up…but, um, really?”

“ Whatever you have to do, girl. That man is a Grade-A everything. Dial up the charm and sink your claws in. For both of our sakes.”

Licking my lips, I leveled tired eyes on my hungry hippo of a best friend, who was currently devouring her steak like they didn’t feed her at that fancy job of hers. We both knew that they did nothing but lunches and dinners. “You don’t even know him. It’s been barely two weeks, Ems.”

“Two weeks where the two of you have been attached at the hip. Just get married already. There’s always divorce if things don’t work out. Just think about all the money you’ll get by ditching his gorgeous ass once you’re done with him,” she proclaimed with bits of food flying out of her mouth.

Gross.

“How romantic of you.”

“I’m just keeping it real. I’ll even get you in touch with a great lawyer who’ll secure most of the money in the split. That chick’s a goddamn shark. I’d never want to be on the other side of her in a courtroom, that’s for damn sure.” She waved her fork around, still gobbling up her steak like she never ate and wasn’t all of twenty pounds.

I opened my mouth to argue that I never wanted to get married and was an independent woman capable of making my own damn money when there was a thump, thump, thump at the door. My body went rigid. I almost didn’t think Emily heard it until she gestured to the door with her fork.

“Since you insist on not eating this decadent meal fit for the gods, why don’t you go and answer the door? It’s probably your boyfriend, anyway. I don’t mind if you give him a key. Actually, do it. Gives more credibility to your relationship. Just another step in the wedding bells direction.”

“Have I ever told you that you have issues?”

“Plenty of times.”

“Well, now I’m confident you’re a sociopath.”

“Takes one to know one, babes.”

My lips thinned, and I got to my feet. “And he’s not my boyfriend.”

“He’s been here since that night at the club, Ash. He cooks all your meals. He kisses you any chance he gets. His eyes follow you everywhere you go. It’s honestly gross how into you he is. So, pray tell, oh bitchiest one, what else would you call him?” The twinkle in her eyes told me that I’d be stupid to argue with her. She’d made enough points that it’d be silly to think I could make a case to the contrary.

Sneaky little bitch.

Turning on my heel, I stomped my way over to the door to take out my frustration on the stranger who thought it was a great idea to bother two single women at nearly eight at night. But when the door swung open, my jaw dropped in surprise. Leaning up against the wall was a man just as impossible as the one who’d kissed me only moments ago.

Two words: Beautiful and dangerous.

Everything within sight was pierced. Not in an unattractive way but definitely in a way that made it clear he liked the way it hurt. He was in a black tank top that exposed all his tattoos. Full, shoulder-to-hand sleeves of tribal ink outlined his beautiful musculature. Not too thin, but not grossly large either. Singer of a band vibes. Still, he’d be someone I’d outright avoid if I saw him on the street. Nothing but bad news central. The dude screamed toxic bad boy, and not in a fun fictional boyfriend kind of way. In a way that had any woman within reach starring in the next murder documentary.

Put simply, this bro was a hundred percent Emily’s type, but only because she liked to make his kind beg. Something about taking down a “superior breed” got my friend with too many issues to count all hot and bothered. She’d explained it once, but I’d barely listened because I was almost certain that out of the two of us, she needed the most therapy.

The stranger’s short and styled vibrant red hair was a similar color to mine, completely unnatural, but his neon-yellow irises were what took me off kilter for a second. Contacts? Wait…

“Demon,” I spat out loud.

“Rude. Those bottom dwellers have nothing on me, bird. My friends call me Z, but you…” His unsettling eyes took a very pointed path down my body. “You can call me whatever you like.”

I couldn’t immediately narrow down his accent, but he was probably from somewhere in the United Kingdom. It wasn’t strong, but it was there.

The stranger tilted his head, trying to look past me, and I prickled with alarm. Something in my gut told me I didn’t want whoever this asshole was to see Emily. I couldn’t explain it, but the urge to protect her was so powerful it led me to walking right out of the safety of my own home and straight into the belly of the beast.

I shut the door behind me, on guard. “What can I do for you, sir?”

His eerie-colored eyes danced with delight, and he licked his lips in an overtly sexual way. Something told me he was used to getting any woman he wanted. The dude was annoyingly pretty. Of course, they always were. But he’d never dealt with someone like me—a girl who could ignore a pretty face when the rest of him was screaming serial killer.

Well, up until Thanatos, at least.

“Sir? I like that.” Leaning in, Mr. Pretty and Pierced reached out, but I was quick to get one of his fingers into a hold that put the asshole in his place before he could do any nonconsensual touching. “Cheeky. Z likes. To answer your question, love, you and I have a friend in common. One who seems to have revealed a few things to you already. Interesting. So, tell me, is my good ol’ buddy Thanatos hiding in there by any chance?”

I released his finger begrudgingly. “You just missed him, actually. Too bad, so sad. Well, later!”

He caught my wrist before I could make an escape. “Not so fast, bird. I think he’ll come looking if I take a pretty little thing like you with—”

Before he could finish his sentence, the lights flickered ominously. The hallway was suddenly drenched in darkness, and the hand that had been wrapped around my wrist was gone. I took a step back, a sudden wind chill slamming into my body. A loud thud shook the space, and birds cawed outside the stairwell window.

“Hello, Dead,” I heard the stranger greet in a sultry whisper. “Looks to me like you found what you were looking for. Sort of funny how you failed to mention it to anyone else…”

I blinked at the two figures outlined by the light coming through the window. Thanatos had the stranger pinned to the wall he’d been previously leaned up against. But something about his face was off. Black, inky veins grew like electricity over the skin around his white, moon-colored eyes. It was the first time since the night he killed the five men who attacked me that he looked like the monster he supposedly was.

“Pest. I think you’ve forgotten that I don’t owe you a fucking thing. Why are you here?” Thanatos didn’t look over at me. His eyes stayed with the stranger the entire time as if he was worried what would happen should he look away. It was the most hostile I’d seen him since the first night.

Pest?

“Aww, Dead. Is that how you greet your mate? So, she knows who you are but not why you’re here, is my guess?” The thundering growl Thanatos released only made the pierced bad boy grin. “Thought so. Oh, this is way more fun now.” The redhead cut his glowing yellow eyes over to me, then laughed a little to himself. “I always thought it was weird nothing ever got to you, but I guess it was only a matter of time, aye, Dead?”

Thanatos let the man go, and the shadows around him moved in agitation, creeping closer to the arrogant nuisance. “That’s where you’re wrong, Pest. You think simply finding them is all that’s needed?” Thanatos had blocked my view of the other man by standing in front of me, so I could only hear the exchange, but I barely understood any of it, anyway. “How juvenile. Patience and careful execution are key, and that's why you haven’t found yours. You couldn’t possibly do something you don’t first try to understand, and that’s why you never will. Don’t interfere again, Zelus. It’ll be the last time you do.”

Death’s threat hung in the air before the lights flickered back to life, and the stranger was gone.

Why did the pierced bad boy’s name feel important? What were they even talking about? Find yours? Yours, what?

But before I could spend any more time thinking about it, Thanatos had turned and grabbed my face. “Did he touch you?”

Blinking in confusion, I stared at him. “Touch me?”

“Yes, Ash. This is important. Did he touch you?” he asked again, his voice bottoming out. I looked down at my wrist, and his eyes followed. Inky veins encircled the spot the asshole had grabbed. “Fuck.” Lifting my hand, he inspected my wrist. “I fucking knew it wouldn’t be that simple.”

“Who was he?”

Thanatos pushed his loose black hair back and his jaw clenched. “Someone I’d hoped to avoid for as long as possible, but this complicates everything. What he’s done can’t be undone without help, and to get that help, I’d have to…” He didn’t finish, just cursed again.

“Who is he?” I demanded again.

The supernatural killer’s eyes lifted from my wrist. I didn’t expect him to answer. He’d kept everything to himself all this time, so why would he start telling me things now? But then his thumb brushed over my wrist, and he sighed loudly. “One of the Four Horsemen. Humans call him Pestilence.”

What the fuck?!