Page 59 of Shadow of Death

Chapter Twenty-Five

Kicks had left,off on some other job that would take him away from the estate for the day. Every morning when he left, I felt as if I couldn’t breathe until he returned, knowing that the people he was out with could stab him in the back at any moment. But it was better to get moving and keep myself busy than sit there and worry.

Before I turned, I could sense Death’s appearance in the room.

I couldn’t feel you for a while yesterday. Where did you go?

Had Charon taken me to a plane of existence she couldn’t sense? I tried to keep myself calm, my heartbeat even. Luckily, I was always slightly agitated when she was around, so as long as I was somewhat normal, it was believable.

“How would I know why you couldn’t sense me? I don’t know how your magic works.” I threw my hands up, making a huffing noise. If she did notice a spike in my heartbeat, maybe she’d file it under annoyance.

Either way, I avoided the truth, never dipping into an outright lie in case that led to some sort of slip. Kicks could always sense if I lied, so it wasn’t a huge leap to think she might be able to as well. I couldn’t take any chances of her finding outabout Charon becoming a possible ally. That was if he didn’t kill me first.

How did you hide from me?She narrowed her eyes, stalking me as I walked to the other side of the room.

“You know I can’t leave this castle on my own. How am I supposed to explain something that is a mystery to me?” I almost wanted to pat myself on the back for that little piece of creativeness.

If I find out you’re playing games, you will pay.The temperature in the room dropped.

“I’m aware,” I said.

She gave me a last hard glare, the room becoming nearly freezing. Then she was gone as suddenly as she’d appeared and hadn’t said one word about my having sex with Kicks. Had she not sensed it? Had there been some sort of lag, where she’d been cut off from me for the day?

I hurried up, getting dressed and looking to get out of the room. Death seemed less likely to show up when there were others around. At the very least, she didn’t expect me to speak to her when they were around, and I’d take it.

I headed downstairs, going through my usual ruse of gathering cleaning props to walk around with as I cased the place. No one seemed to care what I did most of the time as long as they didn’t have to speak to me.

I’d only been pretending to clean for fifteen minutes when Varic’s men headed down the hall toward me. Their guns weren’t drawn but their hands were real twitchy. Looked like it was going to be another fun day. I’d been waiting for this. After all, Varic had said I only had a few days to get back to him after his last ultimatum. I’d thought I could draw it out longer, but it didn’t seem to be the case.

As I turned to fully face them, my wolf was suddenly beside me growling, not that they knew.

Samson, the blond-haired oaf who’d taken Dicon’s place, opened his mouth to speak. I didn’t give him the opportunity.

“I know. Varic wants to see me. Where is the charmer?”

“In his rooms.” Samson scowled, clearly unhappy that he wasn’t going to get the opportunity to boss me around a bit.

I turned and headed past them to the upstairs, catching a glimpse of his hand going to his gun. I wasn’t going through this shit again.

“You poke me and it won’t end well for you,” I said.

I wasn’t sure if he’d planned on replying because my wolf nipped the back of his leg. Samson turned around, giving his companion a glare. “What the fuck did you do that for?”

“I didn’t do shit.” The guy threw his hands up but squinted at Samson’s leg as if trying to figure out the situation himself.

“So my pants ripped on their own?” Samson said.

“I didn’tfuckingdo it,” his companion said with much more heat.

I continued upstairs while they continued to yell at each other. “I can handle it from here, boys. No bother to interrupt your bitch-fest.” I continued to walk down the hall toward Varic’s door, not sure if they realized I was gone.

“Come in,” Varic said as soon as I got to the door.

“You wanted to speak to me?” I asked as I walked in, my invisible wolf beside me. I shut the door, wanting to make it as awkward as possible for his goons to join. It was unclear how hard Varic would push this situation, so the lower the headcount, the better.

He leaned back behind his desk, smiling, his moves as orchestrated as usual. His constant need to put on an act might’ve been his worst trait, or at the least his most irritating.

His eyes ran over me. “I’ve always viewed humans as inferior, but I have to say, there’s something special about you. I can see why my brother is taken with you.”

---