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“We will deal with it, Mav,” said Stone. “We’ll find out whatever we need to stay out of their radar. But you had better hurry up and do whatever you’ve got to do with her, because you’ve been through this already. You know you can’t settle down with a mortal.”
Of course I couldn’t. I was a million miles from commitment. The first time I fell for a witch was a complete disaster, and I couldn’t risk it again. I just had to get her out of my system. I pointed at him with the bottle in my hand. “First of all, fuck you. I know what I can and can’t do. I’m not settling down. My dick wants her again, so it’s gonna happen. I’ll bring her back here till I’m satisfied and then move on. Happy?”
“Sounds like a plan, but don’t bring her here, dude.”
I rolled my eyes. Stone was such a prude, and my head felt stuffed with questions and no answers. Attachments weren’t my thing at all, not for hundreds of years, but I couldn’t imagine giving up on that delicious pussy.
And the way she literally lit up the room in a way only I could see.
That body. And that sassy mouth of hers.
She was scared of me, but it didn’t stop her from making all the barbed comments, trying to bloody my soul, and I wanted to use it as lube. I could snuff her out with the back of my hand, but I’d rather wait to see what she would say next, then fuck her face and shoot cum down her throat. See those hooded eyes just before spitting it back into my mouth.
I groaned. How was I going to wait a fucking week to get my dick in her again?
Stone and Lux’s snickering pulled me out of my thoughts. My cock was straining against my jeans right in front of them. “Unless one of you wants to get bent over this railing while I get my relief, I suggest you both shut the fuck up.”
“Try it, dude.” Stone held his hands out in the air, goading me.
Lux grinned, but a hint of something else flashed across his face. Like he knew I was struggling. “I suggest you busy yourself with hunting the hunter, man.”
“Yeah…” I knew he was right. I needed a distraction. Something to get sucked into since I couldn’t have her mouth just yet. I gritted my teeth; it would have to be dangerous, with planning and action required. That might get my mind off of her; either that or me drained and stuck in stasis for a few weeks. But no, that wouldn’t happen—hunting the hunters was exactly the rabbit hole I needed to jump into. “I’ll do that.” I gulped down the rest of my beer and strode off. “Good chat, assholes.”
They laughed at me again, but there was a tinge of concern emanating from them both, an underlying tension I had to ignore.
If I stared into the abyss, it would backslap me into oblivion—a lesson I’d learned enough times.
Listen to your gut and keep moving forward—it was the only way to survive this life.
A bloody brawl with my brothers was always better under the stars. And not until the threat was long gone, so we could go into stasis safely.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Whispers of Tomorrow
Tess
Throughout the week, Isaw Maverick across the street from the shop, amongst crowds, and generally wandering randomly around the area, wherever I happened to be.
I wiped down the tattoo station, unable to shake the sinking feeling gnawing at my gut. Ivan’s ghost was like a storm brewing, but it was all in my head. He’d always been a dark force in the world, but now he was morphing into something worse, the memory of him haunting meeverywhere I went.
Maverick sauntered past the shop across the street, his face turned away, then veered into the bookshop two doors down. I didn’t know what his game was, but I didn’t like it. I found myself warring with competing instincts about him, both allured and afraid of letting him have his fun with me.
On the one hand, as Oscar had insisted, I deserved a chance to enjoy myself for a while, but on the other, I knew keeping an emotional distance was the smart thing to do. It felt too good being the object of his attention not to get attached, but his reputation was clear. He did not get attached.
Ivan’s voice in my head interrupted my train of thought:I walked through the mall, and as long as I made eye contact with people, they fed me with so much delicious fear that I was full in half an hour.
I glanced over at the appointment book, empty under his name, its pristine pages mocking me with their blankness. No clients. Just Ivan, lurking in the corner of my head like a specter, his brooding presence still suffocating me. I expected to return with bustling creativity, but there were only Ivan’s tales of torment on an endless loop.
I continued setting up for the day and then turned to his empty chair to relay the day’s appointments. Two for me and none for him.
Because he was dead.
That evening, I thought I saw Maverick in the crowd up ahead as I strolled home from work, but then he disappeared. In the morning, I caught his gaze while he sipped coffee in the window of a cafe on my way to work. He didn’t acknowledge me, but I smirked and shook my head.
Was Reaper obsessed with me? I didn’t know how to feel about that thought.
On the way home from work the next night, I got that eerie feeling someone was following me. It was ten PM, so it was pretty darkout, and I’d had a long session inking a client’s back, so I was exhausted. I turned around, but the two people behind me talking to each other weren’t moving toward me or paying any attention to me.
“Maverick, if that’s you, quit it. I’m not in the mood.” I made the declaration loudly, hoping he’d hear me if he was skulking around somewhere.
