Page 51 of Death Wish

She smiled before walking away.

I rolled my eyes. “You come here that much, huh?”

“More than an assassin probably should.”

The way he said it—so nonchalantly and no worry of being overheard by others—made my hair stand up on my arms.

He laughed. “We aren’t known for staying in one place for too long, if you can imagine why, but there’s just something about Fairport that always brings me back. I’m not sure why.”

I could relate to that. I loved this unexciting city. Not quite sure why, either.

Glancing around the diner again, I lowered my voice, unlike him. “Aren’t you not supposed to be in here? A demon in a church? Why aren’t you bursting into flames?”

“That’s a myth.” He waved the comment off. “Although, I’ve never seen a fully corrupted Halfling or a full-blooded demon in one, so I’m not sure how it works for them.” After a second, he added, “Although, I probably should say that I don’t visit many churches either. Besides this one, of course. So, who knows.”

I sputtered a laugh.

“What?” he said, smiling. “The idea of me burning to death a funny thought to you?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Ouch. And here I thought we were beginning to be friends.”

I paused, unsure how to respond. I wasn’t sure why, but the word ‘friends’ threw me for a loop. Maybe it was because the one friendship I had ended up in this mess. Not that I blamed myself for Kay’s attack, but I did feel like I could have done more to protect her from it.

Besides, Cole didn’t strike me as friendship material. More like “I’ll use you until I don’t need you anymore” type of person, and that was just from knowing him for a day. My assumptions could just be because of prejudices from his career choice, or even his bloodline. Or it could just be my gut telling me to beware. All were very possible.

“Speaking of friends…” he began slowly, calculating, as if he had set himself up this question all along. “I’ve been wondering why you’re doing all this for the Medium girl? This doesn’t have to do with you or the afterlife, really. So why get involved?”

I eyed him suspiciously. “As you said, she’s my friend.”

“Well, yeah, I got that, but I have friends I wouldn’t die for.”

“And I’m sure you have some you would.”

“She’s one of those, huh?”

I nodded.

He leaned back in the booth and crossed his arms, waiting for me to continue.

I sighed. “She was the first friend I made after my death. Even though interacting with the living is forbidden, and because of the censor, I couldn’t explain to her what I was but we clicked somehow. And when I was going through some real hard shit with my mind wipe and not knowing who I was in the beginning, she was there. She’s always been there.”

It was true. All of it. I had my fair share of breakdowns at the beginning of my reaper job. It had been hard for me to accept what had happened to me and what had been taken away, but having Kay to talk to had always been the lifeline I needed to keep me sane—that one thread, one remaining connection, I had to the living world. And I wasn’t ready to give that up yet. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready.

“She’s too nice for her own good, you know what I mean?” I said. Sometimes I even felt like I didn’t deserve her company.

“Oh yeah. I got that from her, too.”

“But in a good way,” I made sure to add. “You don’t find people like that every day.”

“I know what you mean.”

“We ended up making sort of an arrangement,” I said. “I help her get rid of any harassing haunts, and she helps me search for who I was when alive.”

“Why do you care so much about your life? That part is over with obviously. Might as well move on.”

Wow, he sounded a bit like Simon there for a second. He at least wouldn’t have been so blunt with his wording, but the idea was still the same.

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