Page 11 of Devil Bound

I picked out something that would do for a night out and followed him.Carrying all those shoes, it was really only a matter of time before he fainted.

When I walked up behind him at the register, he looked at me over his shoulder.

“Hey,” I said.

“Are you fucking following me?”

I raised a brow.I didn’t know how to look innocent, seeing as how I wasn’t, but I gave it my best shot.“I’m simply buying shoes, Nelly.But I’m really glad you recognized me just now.And know my name?”

He rolled his eyes, mumbling a few more fucks.Hearing the word from his lips did things to me.Maybe he hadn’t been out in the rain long enough.I needed him to faint, and fast.

The shoe seller came over and started on Nelly’s shoes.“Do you need a bag?”

“Just for the boots.I’m going to put the other ones on.”

The seller clicked his tongue.“You can’t return them after wearing them.”

“Yeah, thanks, I wasn’t planning to.”

Nelly either lacked social graces or his cold was getting to him.I was hoping it was the latter.

I waited patiently, but the interaction really didn’t take that long.Nelly had his wallet with him this time around, and in under a minute, he was ready to leave.

I held out my arm to stop him.“My name, Nelly.I just want to make sure you’re not—”

“I’m not suffering from fucking amnesia.Lucy, okay?You’re Lucy.”

“I am,” I purred, watching color rise to his cheeks while he hurried to a chair to put his new shoes on.

Getting him to say my name, to acknowledge me, was the smallest of victories, but I had to work with what I had.He was stubborn for a necromancer.

I bought the shoes and managed to catch up with Nelly just as he hurriedly grabbed the sock things that looked like the tiny coffins of big dreams.

“You’ll get blisters if you break in those shoes without wearing socks.”

His grip tightened on the socks.It sounded like the fabric was cracking under the strain.

“I’ll be fine.I’m on my way home.I just pulled an all-nighter, and all I want is sleep.”

He left the store and headed for a trash can to get rid of the socks.I followed.

“Resting is probably a good idea if you’re feeling under the weather.Maybe I should put you to bed.”

The socks dropped into the trash can with an echoey noise.He froze, then stared up at me.

“I’m not sick.I don’t have fucking amnesia, and I’m not sick, okay?All I want is sleep.”

I smiled.“Well, in that case, would you like to see my bed?”

I’d not meant to stoop so low, but seeing as Nelly wasn’t being at all accommodating—

“Oh, fuck off.”

And he walked away from me, just like that.I could tell his new shoes were chafing against his heels, and he’d be bleeding by the time he got home if he kept this up.He was being quite unreasonable.

I had longer legs and therefore no trouble catching up with him.

“Have you considered surrounding yourself with a few undead things?Like the zombie I found you under, but imbued with your own power?I’d like to see all the things you can do with a small force of the walking dead around you.”