Page 22 of Shadow of Death

“I don’t always have control of it, okay?” I shot back, a bit more defensively than I intended.

He kept his gaze down, as if he were avoiding eye contact. I definitely was, as I tried to stare over his shoulder while he finished.

As I did, I saw a flash of fur. Had it been a dream at all?

I breathed in deeply, seeing if I could catch its scent, but there was nothing.

Kicks looked up. “What’s wrong? Did you smell something?”

“Nothing. I just… I thought I saw a wolf in the woods.”

“No.” He breathed in deeply. “I don’t smell one, and there aren’t any wolves in this area.”

“I’m starting to think I’m imagining things from my dreams.”

“Why? You’re dreaming of wolves?”

“One wolf, many times. I keep seeing it in my dreams.”

“What happens in these dreams?”

“Nothing much. They’re just dreams. I see the wolf and that’s about it. Once Widow Herbert was there too, pointing it out, but like I said, it’s just dreams.”

“Shifters don’t believe dreams are just dreams. We believe that the dead come back to visit in dreams. I wouldn’t write it off so quickly.” There was a final tug on the cast. “There you go. It’s off.”

I knelt by the stream, relishing in the fact that I was minus one cast. I splashed my face, trying to get some of the grime from the trip off me.

When I sat back on my haunches, I froze. Death was here.

She appeared without warning, like she often did. Her form loomed over me, and I felt a shiver race down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold water.

Who healed you?she asked.

So ithadn’tbeen her. I hadn’t been sure. Had I done it myself somehow? Either way, she didn’t seem too happy about it.

I looked up at her. “I have no idea how it happened. I woke up and was fine. I thought maybe it had been you. Maybe the powers you gave me did it?”

Her head twisted at an unnatural angle, the movement so wrong that it made me nauseated just looking at her. It was like watching something from a nightmare, which was fitting when you thought about it. Her expressions were never quite human, always just off enough to remind me what she was—or wasn’t. But there was something in the way her brows pulled together, something almost—confused?

Had I stumped Death?

“Are you saying you don’t know either?” Oh, this was good. No, beyond good. It was gratifying to the depths of my bones. For once, she was on the back foot.

Just like that, she was gone. For the first time in days, I felt like laughing.

Chapter Ten

“This is the place,”Kicks said as he parked the bike.

It was a shack of a building with a pier that went out a good five hundred feet into the bay. There were several boats tied off, but one stood out: a large yacht bouncing on the water. Had to be a fifty- or sixty-footer. It was just big enough that I could imagine crossing the Atlantic on it and not be terrified we’d capsize at the first wave. In that boat, we had a shot of making it. After Death had refused to fix my leg, she wasn’t as reliable. How dilapidated would she let me get before pitching in? She might leave me clinging to a log for a week before helping out.

“Are you taking the lead?” I asked as we stood in front of the building.

“It’s probably for the best, at least until we feel them out. Some men are starting to regress, as far as women are concerned.”

“Go for it.” It didn’t bother me a bit. If they pushed me too hard, they might end up dead, and I wasn’t sure who would do it.

Last time we’d gone into a negotiation and I was threatened, Kicks had literally ripped the enemy apart limb by limb. I’d never forget stepping over a spaghetti pile of guts, muscles, and ligaments.

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