Page 11 of Deadly Deception
“There’s another possibility,” I said. “Necromancer.”
Franklin’s eyes narrowed, and he gave a single nod. “I considered that too.”
I swallowed hard. “Necromancer might make more sense, although I suppose it could be neither and simply a human getting creative naming their child.” That certainly wasn’t unheard of. Humans often picked names that harkened to an elevated being—someone they held in esteem and wished for their child to emulate. Some species believed names held power, so maybe humans weren’t so far off.
The lights on the plane dimmed and we began taxiing. The flight attendants stood in the aisle, ready to give their safety spiel. Franklin and I listened with half an ear. Hopefully, in a few hours, we’d have some answers. And along with that hope was the fragile one where Franklin’s family didn’t look at me with horror when the realized their son was dating a necromancer.
Chapter
Four
Franklin
One thing about living in northern Illinois I hadn’t missed was O’Hare International Airport. The place was huge, packed, and teeming with bodies hustling from one gate to another. Maybe that was one of the reasons I’d moved to southern Mississippi, to get away from the crush of sentient life. I’d come to appreciate a more sedate pace, and the scene surrounding Erasmus and me was anything but sedate.
“Oof.” Erasmus was yanked from my side as someone slammed into his shoulder, barely offering an apology before they jogged off, their wheeled suitcase screeching behind them. One of the wheels was janky and kept tipping the suitcase to the side.
“You okay?” I asked, pulling Erasmus a little closer.
“Yeah,” he answered while rubbing at his arm. “Might have a bruise later, but I’ll count myself lucky. I don’t think that guy had any idea I was even here.” There was a note of fascination in Erasmus’s voice. “I’m so used to people not wanting to touch me that I hadn’t even considered someone doing so by accident.” His wide eyes blinked up at me.
“Their loss,” I answered. “Selfishly, that just gives me more skin to claim as my own.” Damn the crowds. I stopped, leaned down, and kissed Erasmus. His lips were always warm, pliant, and more than eager. When I was finished, Erasmus’s lips were plump, damp, and rosy red. His cheeks matched the color.
“Hmm… I could definitely get used to that.”
“Good,” I answered while slinging an arm around Erasmus’s shoulders and cinching him next to my side. “Because I definitely enjoy kissing you.”
Erasmus remained quiet. Each of us had a small carry-on bag slung over our shoulder. The crowd thinned some as we made our way to baggage claim. I could only pray our bags had made it along with us.
Erasmus must have been thinking along similar lines because he said “Pops will throw a fit if my bag is lost. There’s a small fortune in charms tucked inside.”
Knowing Warlock Holland, I had little doubt regarding the validity of that statement. “Did you bring all of them?”
“At least one of everything and multiples of some.” With a hand in one of his many pockets, Boone rattled a few charms and said, “I’ve got plenty of pain charms.”
“I hope we don’t need them.”
“Me too, but as Momma always says, ‘Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.’”
“Wise words to live by. My nana says something similar.”
“Never doubt the wisdom of a seasoned woman,” Erasmus answered. “But next time you’re around Momma, don’t tell her I called herseasoned.”
“My lips are sealed,” I promised.
Erasmus and I waited for our bags to roll around and were relieved when each one poked through the opening and fell onto the conveyer belt. Luggage in hand, we headed for the car rentalkiosk, picked up the keys to our ride, and headed to the car lot. I stared at the small SUV and sighed.
“You want to go back in and ask for something larger?” Erasmus asked.
“No. This will work fine. At least it’s not a compact car. Thankfully this isn’t a busy time of year for travel. Give it a month and we’d be lucky to get something more than a moped.” Harvest Day was coming up soon, and it claimed top spot as the busiest travel time of the year.
I hit the key fob and unlocked the car, popping the hatch and loading our luggage inside. I’d just finished when my phone decided to wake up and give me the text message alerts it had repressed during airplane mode. I pulled the phone from my pocket before I got into the driver’s side of the SUV. Erasmus was already buckled in, his own phone in hand.
“I’m sending Momma and Pops a group text letting them know we landed okay and have already picked up our rental.”
I was still reading through my own texts and only listened to Erasmus with half an ear. My mind was tumbling over the latest text from Captain Tompkins. “You might want to tell them we’re on our way to Michigan City.”
Erasmus’s head popped up and he asked, “We’re going to Michigan?”
