Page 10 of Shadow of Death

Yep, as predictable as ever.

I wasn’t sure if she was screwing with me or if she didn’t view time the same way I did. If you’d existed forever, what was a few months? A few years or even a few centuries?Soonmight be my next lifetime.

“Can you at least tell me where I’m going?”

She smiled and disappeared. It was okay. That was what I wanted most: her gone and to be alone.

I’d barely closed my eyes when I felt Death’s presence standing over me, looming at the foot of my bed. I didn’t want to look, knowing what she was here for.

The time had come.Soonhadn’t even been a day.

She could’ve at least let me sleep through the night. Why she had to decide while I was sleeping was probably just another one of her quirky yet annoying traits.

She wasn’t going to leave, so I opened my eyes, sitting up in bed. Somehow seeing her in the dark was even creepier than in the daylight, not that it really made a difference.

“It’s time?” I asked, a part of me refusing to accept that I’d have to leave this place and go on a killing mission. I’d known this was coming, but every day that had gone by had given me a glimmer of delusion that maybe she’d change her mind, move on, stop caring.

Yes,she said.

“Where am I going?”

Scotland.

It seemed random until I remembered that Zetti had called Scotland “the old country.” Was that where this all started? A group of shifters over there who hated humans? Hated them so much that they’d been willing to drive the human race to near extinction, even with the loss of huge numbers of their own?

I sat up, knowing sleep wouldn’t be coming again tonight, or maybe tomorrow either.

“How long will I be gone for?”

Undetermined.

“Who am I killing?”

You will know when the time comes,she said.

So I was going to Scotland for an unknown amount of time to kill an unknown person, or several people.

I guessed the details didn’t matter so much anyway. She wanted to be mysterious with the names? What did I care? I’d come to terms with doling out justice to the people behind Death Day. What did a name matter if they killed ninety percent of humans in the blink of an eye?

“How will I get there?” It wasn’t as if I could go online and book a flight out tomorrow.

I don’t think your human husk would survive the trip if I brought you. You’ll have to figure out a way on your own.

“You realize the state of transportation these days, right?”A trip to Scotland alone might be enough to kill me. I couldn’t fly a plane. I didn’t have one to fly anyway. Nor did I have a boat or know how to sail.

You’ll find a way,she said, clearly not concerned with the details.

“You realize I have to cross an ocean, right?” She was Death. Maybe she didn’t fathom what geography meant to humans.

She didn’t respond, but she was trying to raise a brow. It was a recent addition to her facial expressions and as unpleasantas the rest of them. Her attempts at human mannerisms never failed to make my skin crawl. The more she attempted to appear human, the moreothershe proved she was.

“I’ll do what I can do. If you wanted it quick, you should’ve outsourced it to someone on the same continent.” She wasn’t going to like that little reminder that I was all she had. I averted my eyes, just in case she tried to emote some other human nuance. I’d take it on a hunch I was correct.

Just get it done.

Get it done? I had no name, or even a town of residence. I didn’t bother pressing for more information. It made no difference to me. Whoever had done this most likely deserved death, no matter who they were. I didn’t particularly feel like going there and doling out the death, but I guessed someone had to.

She was gone again, along with any chance of sleep. I looked at the clock. It was only ten, but Charlie was usually asleep by nine and me shortly after. I used to like the night, but that was before I realized all the monsters were real. Now I was early to bed.

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