As someone who's had to feel the pain of anyone I healed for most of my life until I woke up without a curse, I know secondhand feelings can be rough as hell. Having to experience the freaky-ass Amato quintet's over-the-top emotions just by being around them? I can’t even imagine.
“Not to mention, my quintet and I will be a little…occupied, for a while,” he adds.
“Gross.”
He rolls his eyes. “Not like that. One of those sleepers from under the citadel is on the loose and presumed dangerous. We’re going to be hunting him down once Maven returns.”
“Hunting shit is my specialty,” I point out. “Just send me for that.”
Everett shakes his head. “You already know I think you got back into mercenary work way too fucking soon for being in a coma so recently. Besides, I’d rather have you protecting my sister from any more possible harm.”
“How long would you want me to guard her?" I ask.
"Until things settle down. A couple of months, possibly."
I make a face, still irked by the idea of a twenty-two-year-old female version of the legacy in front of me. "Yeah, I'm gonna pass. A couple of months guarding some spoiled, bratty elite legacy as she prances around Everbound? I'd rather take another bullet to the head."
Everett finally pushes away from his desk to sit in his office chair. "She's not spoiled, not even close to bratty, and she's not at Everbound. She's been blending in with humans for the last several years, living a peaceful life like one of them. At least she was before the fae elders took that option away from her," he adds, murder briefly flashing across his cold features. "They've turned Heidi into a big story for the entire godsdamned world to gawk at and speculate about—and don't even get me started on the people out there who hate anyone connected to the Frost name. Now that they know Heidi exists, it's just a matter of time before they try to ransom her or worse. Just another reason I need you to make sure no one else hurts her."
I rub my arms to warm them back up as I think.
He's offering me a shit-ton of money just to keep an eye on some little deer shifter.
I'm no Frost businessman or trust fund baby, but I could've retired comfortably years ago from what bounty hunting has gotten me. I just never really stopped. The hunt is the part I like, and extra money is nice as hell. My little, broken family never had it when I was a kid, so maybe hoarding it subconsciously makes me feel better now.
But as much as I like combat, taking down targets, and adding a few more zeroes to my bank account…Everett’s not wrong. The subtle ache left in my head and the soreness in my body remind me that in a lot of ways, I'm still recovering from that damn coma.
A low-key job could be a good change of pace, at least for a bit.
It'd give my bounty hunter comrades a chance to catch up on some targets without me hogging all the good ones.
I sigh heavily, wondering if I'm going to regret this. "Ah, fuck it. Why not?"
Everett's exhausted face fills with stark relief for an instant before he gets a hold of himself. "Great. Then you'll start?—"
"Yeah, yeah. Tomorrow. I'm on it. The reindeer will be safe with me."
"Deer," he corrects.
"Whatever."
15
IAN
I heaveup more blood into the toilet just as someone knocks on the door to the rural gas station's unisex public bathroom.
"Hello? Sir, are you okay in there?" a woman's voice calls.
Let's see. Am I okay?
No heartbeat. No money on hand. No cell phone or identification, since I faked my own legal death long before that motherfucking vampyr turned me into a mindless puppet. Nothing but vague, dim, excruciating memories of the last fourteen months.
And then there's the bloodlust.
Oh my fucking gods, I can't stopfeeding.
I've had to dispose of five bodies across six states already, and it hasn't even been eight hours since I was freed from the monster who turned me into this. The agonizing, mind-numbing thirst hasn't let up for a second—not even now, when I've overfed to the point that my body is rejecting the blood, screaming with hunger and painful fullness all at once.
