Page 9

Chapter Nine

Asha

H ow did someone process all that I was asked to in a matter of a day? They didn’t. So I wouldn’t.

I’d escaped to my room, knowing that if he wanted to come find me, he would. But he didn’t. After what felt like hours, I peeked my head out of the door and waited for Thanatos to manifest out of the shadows right in front of me like the demon he claimed he wasn’t. But he didn’t. Instead, the apartment was quiet.

Slowly, I walked to the kitchen, still not convinced. Nothing. Three plates were still on the table where they’d been left—and honestly, where I’d devoured the best eggs and hash concoction I’d ever tasted, convinced it was poisoned or roofied but too hungry to care. The pan he’d used was washed and fully dry on our over-encumbered drying basket.

But still, he wasn’t there.

My phone went off, and I nearly jumped five feet into the air in my fright. It was a text from Emily. She’d be out for the rest of the weekend. Guess the necessary prep she’d put off for the deposition later that week was no longer procrastination-okay. I sensed Emily’s frustration with her boss based purely on the long string of emojis she used about his refusal to let her come home until they could move forward with what she had.

Whatever that meant.

I wasn’t a lawyer, and most of the stuff she told me went right over my head. But she was a powerhouse, so she’d knock their socks off, and they’d forgive her like always. No matter how many times they tried to beat her down and put her in her place with their blatant sexism, she swooped in to save the day and proved they’d drown without her.

I couldn’t do it. Guys like that made me see red. The urge to throat-punch and deal with the consequences later were irresistible in a day-to-day setting. I’d only kept it together with Big Asshat Boss because he rarely deigned a reason to come into the office. He much preferred to be out galivanting and taking credit for everything the other girls and I did for him to Daddy Warbucks. But Emily found a way to channel her rage for the partners at her law firm into the nightly victims she hand-picked to tie down to her bed.

After another few minutes of looking around the deserted kitchen, I grabbed my purse and decided that I’d hit the office today so I could unravel into a screaming, rambling mess tomorrow.

Note to self: Get Rocky Road ice cream and several bottles of whipped cream.

I was probably still in shock. I mean, it wasn’t every day that a girl met Death and lived to tell the tale. I didn’t want to have a mental breakdown at work tomorrow, and definitely not when I didn’t have Emily to come home to.

Checking my purse, I made sure to have the office key. Mark gave it to me after the fifth time he asked me to come in on a weekend, which was so long ago I couldn’t even remember when it was. I’d attached a poop-emoji keychain to the spare, so it always gave me a good chuckle when I used it because Mark served as the entire inspiration for why I went out of my way to get it.

I left the apartment and walked like I always did. I didn’t own a car. Emily did, but I didn’t see a reason to bother with one. Everything, including work, was within walking distance. And if not, Emily could always ditch work for a minute to take me somewhere if I needed her to. Not that I ever did. But the benefits of a powerful friend who called the shots at her nine-to-five job were endless.

It wasn’t late, only a quarter past two, but the sun was hidden behind a dark stretch of thundering clouds, threatening to drop rain at any moment. I cursed when I realized I’d left my umbrella back home. Picking up the pace, I decided to leave it. I was only minutes from the office, and it’d take me just as long to go back home. If it was raining when I finished the bullshit documents Mark forgot to do, then I’d bug Emily this one time.

Seconds after deciding to take my chances, the heavens opened and a heavy downpour soaked my clothes all the way through in no time at all. Fucking figures. I hurried along, taking a shortcut I didn’t always like because it was dark and out of eyeline of anyone nosy enough to look, but it’d shave a few minutes from the walk and offer short moments of cover.

Except, alarm was ringing through my head again. It felt too much like the other night. Another unlit and out-of-the-way path. Another street where I could become some asshole’s victim. Hadn’t I learned my lesson when I played witness to a five-person homicide? Guess not. The fact that I was already soaked all the way to my underwear trumped any common sense I might still have today.

A smarter person would’ve gone back home, changed, grabbed an umbrella, and taken the path most traveled to work. A smarter person would’ve at least hesitated for a minute before going deeper into the side street. But as it turns out, I wasn’t, in fact, a smarter person; I was a stubborn-as-shit person who thought fighting in clothes that were five-pounds heavier thanks to the sudden downpour would be no trouble at all.

Ignoring my instincts, I walked faster. Rain continued to pelt every surface left open to it, falling in heavy sheets and completely obscuring the path ahead. But I was hopeful it’d let up in a few minutes. It never lasted long. I just needed to push through and I’d be rudely leaving water for the janitor to find at my office in a few minutes.

The sky flashed, and I could’ve sworn I saw a humanoid shape before it was gone. Slowing a little, I peered behind me. I got the oddest sensation that someone—maybe even something —was following me. No one. But my fighter instincts were screaming that I was about to be in the thick of it, and I stopped altogether.

When I looked ahead again, the shape was there. It moved toward me, black as night with glowing red and orange eyes. Like nothing I’d ever seen. What the fuck was it?

Before I could blink, Thanatos was in front of me. Ravens landed all around us, cawing angrily. It didn’t make sense so many birds were out in the rain, but it also didn’t make sense that there was some humanoid figure with red and orange eyes either, so the birds were the least of my problems. Shadows danced across the walls and asphalt, moving like they had the night before.

Totally on their own.

I opened my mouth in confusion, water pouring over my face and making it difficult to see or speak.

The man who’d haunted me all day ran a hand over his dark hair to push it back. His shoulders moved under a form-fitted leather jacket with raven wings painted across the back. His biker boots were several inches deep into water, but he didn’t move out of the puddle. And like the night before, he towered, so tall it felt impossible. But when you considered he was supposed to be Death, I guess it made sense he’d be tall. Couldn’t really strike fear in the hearts of the dying if you were just some dude in a jacket.

Water saturated his body the same way it did mine, but something about him wasn’t human. I couldn’t explain it, but it was as if he wasn’t solid. Like he was made of the same shadows moving and reaching across the stone and asphalt for the thing at the other side of the street.

“Fucking bold of you to attack what’s mine, demon.” His voice bottomed out, carrying a tone that expressed nothing but violence.

I’d never heard it on him before. Of course, he hadn’t talked much if I thought over the last day we’d spent together. Most of what Mr. Killer had said was limited to this morning and little comments he made when we…

A shiver shot down my spine. Even in this weird thunderstorm stand-off, I couldn’t stop the otherworldly sex from turning the heat up in my body.

“You’d be na?ve to think we’d let you have her when we’d lose everything the minute you did. This is our fucking playground, Death. I’m not alone, so you’d better just take those ravens and shadows of yours and go. You might not know this, but we do. Her soul makes you weak. By the time you make it back after we’ve dragged you to Hell, she’ll be dead and gone.”

A clap of thunder hit, shaking the ground underfoot. It was so loud I barely heard a word the thing said. I only got pieces. Lose everything? Her soul? Dead and gone? What in the supernatural Mortal Kombat was happening right now? More importantly, how did one fight a demon? Would kicks and punches work the same way they did with human assholes, or would nothing I did stop them from killing me?

Two brushes with death—pun intended!—in just barely a day and piles of work still left to do for Major Asshat Mark? What a fucking class-act this week was turning out to be. Where were the Ghostbusters when you needed them?

Thanatos turned his head, the haunting grey-white irises replacing the earlier light blue ones. His hand stretched out, calling me over. Like earlier, I went over to him without a thought. When I slid my hand into his, he held it gently before his eyes cut a deadly line over to the figures looming ahead. Not one but several. I couldn’t count how many, but enough sets of glowing red-and-orange eyes to figure it was at least a dozen or so that blocked our way both directions.

“Do you want to know a secret, little raven?” His ethereal moon eyes were back on me.

I hardly thought this was a great time to have one of our twenty question sessions, but I answered anyway, “What’s that, Mr. Killer?”

His lips twitched upwards, and the haunting eyes started to glow and swirl. “Even at my weakest, they won’t come close to defeating me. Not here, not anywhere. Death can’t die, little raven, so trust that whether it’s human, demon, angel, or otherwise, I’ll keep you safe.”

Did he just say angels? Wait…but why? I wanted to ask, but for some reason, I didn’t. I just shrugged as if I wasn’t surrounded by the holy-shits of supernatural problems and replied, “Guess there are perks to being friends with Death, huh?”

I didn’t expect him to laugh. Definitely not when we were surrounded by demons waiting to kill us. Well, me at least since, apparently, Death couldn’t die. Must be nice. But Thanatos threw his head back and laughed like I’d told the funniest joke he’d ever heard. I called bullshit. He was easily a bazillion years old, so I couldn’t be the first comedian he’d encountered.

Then his paranormal grey gaze returned, excited by something I couldn’t even pretend to know. “That’s right. So many perks. But have it my way, not the friend kind.”

I couldn’t keep up. Everything seemed to be moving both unbelievably fast and excruciatingly slow at the same time. Were all supernatural men like this, or was it just Death? The way he purred the last bit was another jolt and electric sensation down my body, straight to the thirsty-as-fuck snatch between my legs.

Oh, god. I can’t be turned on right now with so many reasons to be scared.

I was starting to think that the only fear I’d ever experience with this impossible man was sexual, and fuck, I’d never worried about pouncing on someone while being afraid I’d die at any second at the hands of a goddamn demon.

Large hands eclipsed my jaw before Thanatos dipped down and stole a kiss. His tongue slipped into my mouth, devouring me hungrily before he pulled away, smirking. “You heard the lady. Send all of Hell a message they can’t ignore. No one touches what’s mine,” he called out to no one in particular.

The shadows came alive around us, writhing and stretching. The ravens perched along the building and on the railings shot down, attacking the figures closing in on us.