Page 73 of Death Wish

I resisted the urge to vomit. Probably one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do in my afterlife.

“I expect payment up front,” he said and puckered his lips.

I hesitated. What if he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain? I mean, I wouldn’t be losing much if he did decide to leave after, right?

“I’m waiting,” he chastised, pursing his lips out farther. “Just a little kiss.”

Taking a deep breath, I told myself it would be over in seconds. It wasn’t like he was asking me for a limb. I needed to suck it up and do it. For Kay.

Closing my eyes, I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his.

A zap of energy surged between us, ricocheting from my head to the tips of my toes and back again. I leapt back, stunned, and when I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the hideous red eyes and gray face of the full-blooded demon, Mammon. Similar to Xaver, he had a protruding brow and pointed ears, but unlike him, Mammon had an oversized mouth jam-packed with sharp teeth.

I gasped, backpedaling. But as quick as the image appeared, it vanished, replaced by the suave and collected man I had been talking to all this time. He was staring at me with a puzzled look.

“What did you see?” he asked, intrigued.

It took me some time to find my voice again. My heart felt like it was stuck in my throat.

“You,” I whispered, and rubbed my lips together. They still tingled from the electric charge that had passed through me. “I saw you. The real you.”

“Interesting…” When he smiled again, I thought about the huge mouth with hundreds of pointy teeth—what really lay underneath the human façade. “I wonder if that’s because of what you are.”

“A reaper?”

To my surprise, Monnie laughed so hard, his head snapped back and his shoulders bounced. His laughter boomed loud enough to wake the dead.

“You’re joking, right?” he said. “You have to be joking.”

When I said nothing, his laughter died abruptly. “You’re not joking.”

“I’m not.”

“You don’t know what you are?”

“I’m a reaper,” I said, growing more and more skeptical about his intentions here.

“I can’t believe they didn’t tell you.”

Who was they? And tell me what?

“You bear the angel mark,” he said and pointed to the strange branding above my heart.

The what?

“This?” I pulled down my tank top a little, just enough to expose the symbol and not slip a nip. “This is just a tattoo. One I’m guessing I got when I was alive.”

His eyes widened in shock. “You really do have no idea.”

Now he was getting on my nerves. What did he know that I didn’t?

“Are you going to tell me or just keep dicking around?” I snapped. “Angel mark? What the heck is that?”

“Quite the opposite of heck actually. You’ve been touched by one of those halo-wearing freaks.” He gestured to the mark again. “There. They’ve branded you.”

Hadn’t Wyatt and Sean said something about seeing the mark in ancient texts? Some that talked about higher beings? Could Monnie be telling me the truth?

“What does that mean exactly? You said you knew what I was.” My heartbeat was speeding up now. “What am I?”

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