|
*Warning - Unedited :-)
Click here to get old chapters if you are missing any.
Chapter Eight
“I’m a freaking fae?!” I shouted.
He nodded. “If I’d known earlier, I never would have tried it. I almost destroyed a perfectly good body and blasted your soul into oblivion.”
“I… I can’t be fae… half ass witch maybe but not fae.”
Asher shook his head vigorously. “No, listen to me. You are. That light show was your fae soul fighting my magic. I can’t bind vampire, fae or any other type of supernatural soul to a human body. Only human or witch can be reanimated like that.”
Shit! I started to sob. Not tears obviously, but sobbing sounds came from my chest and Asher started to back up as if a chick losing her shit made him super uncomfortable.
“If only Silas hadn’t stolen my damn serpent resurrection skull!” I growled.
Asher stilled. “You had a resurrection skull?”
I just nodded. Maybe I should call the grim reaper and just tell him to get me now.
“If you get that skull, I could definitely bring you back. A resurrection skull gives a necromancer the power to raise anything from the dead, including a fae.”
Great. Fabulous.
“My asshole ex-boyfriend has it!” I tried to kick over a bottle but my foot passed through.
“Your boyfriend is Silas the vampire? The dude who runs most of the black market?”
“Yeah. Was my boyfriend.”
“Well, you were right about the asshole part, because that guy is a dick.”
“You’re telling me.” I pointed to Nimsy. “And him. The second I died Silas sent him to the pound!” Fresh rage flooded through me at the memory.
“Ah.” Understanding lit in Asher’s eyes. “And I bet you’ve got two goals now. Find a way back to the living and get revenge on the ex.”
“Yeah. How can you tell?”
He pointed to me. “You’ve got a whole lot of rage.”
I shrugged. “Wouldn’t you?”
He glanced at Muerte, and for the briefest second, I thought I saw the sexy bastard’s eyes soften. The look was gone in an instant, but his voice was just slightly gruff. “Yeah. Yeah, I would. Especially now that he’s got your resurrection skull.”
I stepped closer to him. “We’ve got to get it back. I know where he lives. Where he works. We can do this.”
“We?” Asher arched an eyebrow.
“Yeah, we. I need your help.”
Obviously.
He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. My gaze roved down to the muscles that tugged at the sleeves of his shirt. Down girl. This guy—no matter how hot he looked—was the answer to my problems and also the biggest pain in my ass second to Silas. Wanting to wrap myself around him like hormonal teenager was so not going to be useful.
“You may need me, but I don’t need you.” Asher shrugged. “Stealing from Silas is a way bigger deal than simply bringing you back from the dead. That’s all your fifty k covered, by the way.”
Fuck. “Well, I’ll—”
“Save your threats, you already did your best earlier.”
“And it worked.”
“But it won’t work for this.” He pinned me with a glare.
“Scared?”
He just laughed, and it was clear he wasn’t even close to scared. Not of me, at least.
Dammit!
“Then why won’t you help me?” I pleaded.
“Like I said, I’m busy. The kind of job you’re proposing—tracking and stealing from basically the entire Portland vampire coven—is going to taking planning, prep work, and probably a little blood. I don’t have time for it.”
Shit, shit, shit. “You don’t have time? I don’t have time. I have hours left to live man.”
“Not my problem.”
God, I hated him. I looked at Nimsy, who was glaring at Asher with daggers basically shooting out of his eyes. “I can haunt you after she’s gone, you know.” Nimsy stated.
“You’re her familiar,” Asher said. “When she’s fully gone, you’re gone too.”
Nimsy’s little jaw dropped. “Wait, what?”
“Exactly what I said. You’re linked to her. It’s a magical bond that can’t be broken. A fae and a witch thing. When she crosses over to the other side, you do too.”
Worry twisted in my chest, tightening my lungs until I almost couldn’t breathe. “He didn’t die when I croaked the first time.”
“That’s because you didn’t cross over. The reaper snagged your soul. But when you do cross—and honey, it’s looking like you’re going to—he will too.”
No. Not Nimsy. I’d been dumb enough to get myself killed—somehow—but he didn’t deserve to go with me. Desperation pulsed within me, making me feel hot and cold all at once. I drifted toward Asher. I wasn’t one for begging—not normally. But this was for Nimsy. For my freaking soul.
“Please, Asher.” I stopped in front of him. “Look at me.”
He kept his gaze slightly left of my face, and I realized he’d made a habit of not looking straight at me. He always looked around me or past me—making it appear is if he were looking at me, but in reality, he wasn’t.
Probably a coping mechanism. He was a dick, but not a truly bad guy. It had to be hard having hundreds of dead people asking you for help you couldn’t provide. Magic was finite, after all. The ingredients, the power. Hell, time was finite and there were more dead people than he could manage. He couldn’t help everyone. So he’d learned not to really look at us, not to truly care.
Maybe that was wishful thinking on my part. Armchair psychologist and all that shit. But damn it, I needed something. And it was the only theory I had.
I reached up and grabbed his jaw, shivering at the contact. I jerked his face so that he was forced to stare right into my eyes. So far, he was he only person I could touch and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it felt good. “Look at me, Asher. I’m a real person. I’ve only been a ghost for like a day. I had twenty-two years as a human before this, and as far as I’m concerned, I still am one.”
His jaw twitched, but his eyes locked on mine. He didn’t even remove my hand, which I’d expected him to do. Forcefully.
“Please. I need your help. I still have yet to truly fall in love with a decent guy, go to Paris, have kids and all of that. Please. I’ll do anything.”
“Anything?” His voice turned husky, and he arched a brow.
Heat traveled down my chest and pooled between my legs, something I didn’t think was possible. I frowned at him. The hint was clear, and hell, I should be offended. Instead, I was ready to lunge forward and scream “I volunteer!” like Katniss had. I was no hooker, but hell yes I’d sleep with a hot dude to ensure that me and my cat stayed alive. Once I got a body of course.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” he said. “I’m not talking about that.”
I scowled at him as heat crept up my neck. “You totally were.”
He grinned and shrugged, a devastatingly sexy badboy maneuver, and slipped out of my grasp. “I’ll make you a deal.”
“Yeah?”
Please include sleeping together in that deal.
“You work for me—for free—for a year and I’ll help you get the skull and use it. I’m low on powerful supernaturals and I need them to keep my two businesses running. ”
Well, it was no roll in the hay but it didn’t sound so bad. “When I’m human again I’ll need to eat and sleep.” I hiked a thumb at Nimsy. “Him too. How will we do that if I’m not paid?”
He gestured to another part of the house. “I’ve got a spare room. It needs remodeling but it’ll do. And I’ll feed you and the cat. In return, you use that fae magic of yours to do some free work for me.”
I didn’t really know how to use the fae magic. So far, I’d just done a couple little things when I was scared senseless that I was now realizing might have been my fae magic. But I was no dummy, so I kept that to myself and just nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Boss,” Muerte squeaked. “If she just learned she was fae, she doesn’t know how to use her magic.”
I nearly hissed at the little dog. “You’re kind of a shit sometimes, you know that?”
“But I’m cute.” He wagged his tail.
Damn it, he was cute.
“I’m aware that she’s basically powerless.” Asher said. “Her powers were bound. In a new body they won’t be.”
Bound? Whoa.
“Now.” I looked at him. “I might not know how to use my magic, but I’m hella strong. I blasted through your ward, remember?”
I needed to talk myself up to this guy, get him to see me as a catch.
“And that’s why I’m giving you this chance. You’ve got something special about you, and you can use that to help me. Once we get the skull from Silas and get the reaper off your back.”
Asher had called me special.
“Don’t forget the soul suckers.” The memory of the one who was now hunting me made me shiver.
“How could I? You brought one to my house.”
“Right. Yeah. Sorry.” I smiled. “He’s gone now, though.”
“He’ll be back.” He frowned and circled me like a shark. “And before he shows up, we need to figure out this magic of yours. Not just for the soul sucker, but for when we go after Silas. You’re going to need some firepower if his coven tries to stop us from stealing from him.”
Shit, he was right. We’d barely made it out alive last time.
Ha. Bad pun.
I cracked my knuckles and wiggled my shoulders like a fighter going into the ring. “Okay, time to figure out this magic. I’m a bad ass, I just gotta access it.” I gave Asher a hopeful look. “Any chance you know how to do this?”
I’d always existed on the outskirts of the magical world. A human with a bit of witch blood who knew about the existence of supernaturals, unlike most other humans. But I’d never been part of the club. Never understood the intricacies of magic.
“As a matter of fact, I have a bit of experience.”
“So you’ll train me in magic?”
“A bit.” He shrugged. “You can be my apprentice, and the things you learn, you use to help me and me only. I’m going to make you sign a one year non-compete clause.”
Hah! He acted as if I had a line of other magical people wanting my services.
“It’s a deal.” And when my year was up maybe I’d be some badass necromancer fae apprentice. Ohh, maybe I could get a real magical job, stop stealing.
“Before we head to Silas’, you need to get a handle on some offensive or defensive magic. At least one of the two.”
“So I’m not a sitting duck.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay then, how do you want to do this? I’ve got two skills—I can blast through wards and shoot electric energy.” Because I had done that back at Silas’ little vampire coven right? Now that I had sort of accepted I was fae, or part fae, maybe that would explain some of the weirdness lately.
“Yeah, neither of those things is going to happen in here.” He gestured to his workspace, which was full of valuable necromancer shit.
“Fair enough. Where then?”
“Come on.” He gestured for me to follow as a stone sank into my ghosty stomach.
***
Leia will send out chapter nine next week! If you aren't already on her newsletter, sign up here to make sure you get it!
|
