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“No!” I finally managed. “NO, don’t do that!”
I closed the distance between us in just a few strides, my boots eating up the shoreline beneath me. She tumbled backward on the old dock, and I rushed forward to catch her before she hit the river. Styx, Lethe, whatever you wanted to call it—the river of the dead wasn’t something you ever wanted to immerse yourself in.
“Stop!” I yelled, stepping forward rapidly. My heavy boots seemed too loud with each step, and she probably thought I was lunging or charging at her.
“WHO ARE YOU? DID YOU DO THIS?” she screamed, then cupped her hands around her mouth. “HELP! HELP!” Eventually, her screams went from actual words to just noise. It was clear she was trying to call attention to us and get help… but that was the last thing either of us needed right now.
“Hey, HEY!” I shouted, clapping my hands in front of her face.
In hindsight, that wasn’t the best way to calm down a screaming woman. In my defense, I hadn’t dealt with one in a while. When I moved my hands quickly, her eyes got even wider, which seemed impossible, given the way she was already staring. She flinched a little when I clapped like I might hit her or something. That made my heart hurt, and I felt it like a shard of wood right in my chest. I might have done a lot of unsavory things, but I would never hurt a woman.
“GO AWAY!” she shrieked, clocking me with a decent hit to the side of the head.
I scowled and rocked back on my heels just as she slipped on the gritty shoreline and plopped back down on her shapely ass.
“Easy, easy!” I said with a wince as I touched the side of my head. Just because I was dead didn’t mean that didn’t hurt like a sonofabitch. Topside, I was little more than a ghost, but in my own realm, I was as corporeal as the living. That also meant I could be walloped in the side of the head like a human. I was going to have a mean goose egg from her panicked blow.
“I’m sorry. Shit, I’m sorry,” she said, her breath heaving. “I guess I assumed… Who are you? We should… we should start over.”
Some sort of calm steadied her features, though calm wasn’t quite the right word. I could tell she was still thrown for one mighty big loop, but she was doing her best to get a grip on reason again.
Behind her, the water rippled, and she shot back up to her feet.
“Nope, I don’t know what that thing is, but I don’t want to be anywhere near this water anymore,” she muttered.
She looked down at her clothes and shivered. I wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or the shock of the situation entirely. It could have been either. I’d forgotten that this place wasn’t climate-controlled for something so warm-blooded.
I raked a hand through my hair, stalling for a moment to even figure out what to say next. “Listen, just… just calm down.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Never once in the history of ever did telling a woman to ‘calm down’ go well for a man.”
“That’s fair, darlin’, but—” I began.
“Don’t… don’t call me darling,” she snapped. Her voice dripped with attitude, but it didn’t quite match the fear in her eyes or her unsure body language. She was trying to use her attitude like a shield.
“Look,” I gestured toward the water, which had rippled again. “You’re right to want to get away from the river. Can we at least… can we at least get away from the shore and go somewhere to talk?”
“Why am I here? What is this place? What’s in the water?” she fired off. “Why are you the welcoming committee?”
“Jesus, take a breath,” I muttered. “I—I can’t answer it all this second… Just come away from the shore, and—”
“Your… your face,” she said, interrupting me again. “It’s… Why does it look like that?”
“Didn’t your mama ever tell you a question like that was rude?” I shot back. “Call it a condition of my parole. Take it or leave it.”
I looked down at the water, seeing what she saw. My face used to be my best feature, a blessing and a curse all on its own. Now, it was just a curse. Lysandra had made sure everyone would see me for what I really was. As long as the bargain we’d struck was in place, my soul would be hers.
And my face would be, too.
It was almost impressive, though. The way the paint obscured me made me into a walking skeleton. Even though I wasn’t actually reduced to bone, the harsh contrast of black and white on my features made me more than a little frightening. My eyes were painted black like sockets, as were the hollows of my cheeks and the tip of my nose. Gray shadows expertly showed the illusion of dips and valleys in the “bone,” making it look even more realistic. My lips were painted black and then detailed to look like a grinning, leering set of teeth. It was like a permanent smile.
At least my hair looked good. It had always been one of my best features.
“I meant what I said. We gotta boogie,” I said. “Someone’s gonna come by here. We’re makin’ a hell of a lot of noise.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” she spat out, wrapping her arms tighter around herself.
I shrugged off my coat and handed it to her. She looked up at me defiantly, but I stuck my coat out even more, my intention clear. Truthfully, she’d be doing me a favor. She wasn’t wearing a bra under her shirt, which was baggy in all the right places and tight in others. It revealed one creamy shoulder, and the pinpricks of her nipples were evident under the fabric. When she moved, her breasts swayed a bit, and it took everything in me not to stare. I kept seeing the weight of them under her shirt and kept wondering how they might feel in my hands.
