Sebbie smiled back at me. The urge to grab him for a kiss was strong, but I knew that wasn’t even remotely appropriate. He bit his bottom lip between his teeth, which only made the urge to pull him across the counter even stronger.
“Oh my god, you two,” the nurse said, fanning herself with a clipboard. “Get out of here before you set the place on fire!”
Sebbie laughed, and I smiled at the joy in it. He obviously liked this coworker. I gave him one last look and turned to head out of the wing.
I contemplated the cafeteria for about three seconds, but then I decided I had better things to do. Sebbie worked here, after all. Might as well explore a bit. I headed to the elevator, figuring I’d start on the first floor and work my way back up.
Hellhounds had differing abilities in hunting hellbound souls. Dexter, for example, could smell a rotten soul on a breeze from blocks away. He just went out and drove around to look for his prey. Liam’s specialty was computers; he could tell from a person’s digital footprint what their soul was like. Atlas and I were more intuitive—we got a sense of where we were needed. We tended to be more discerning in our victims, as well. We would dispatch any hellbound souls we happened upon, but we did prefer to hunt a certain type.
Now was not the time for discernment, though. I got off on the first floor, extending my senses out, looking for the rot that characterized someone truly evil. I didn’t have to work one floor at a time, but it was far easier to focus my senses that way as I looked and smelled for rotten souls.
I wanted to be sure that Sebbie was safe at his place of work.
Even as I had that thought, I realized the total absurdity of it.
Sebbie was a grim reaper and ferryman—he did not need protection. He could more than handle any hellbound souls he came across, as he’d proven in the past.
Still, I thought about him actuallydealingwith those hellbound souls. He liked when “nice people” appeared in his “dream,” and I had the idea that anyone he disposed of might end up in that place of his. Perhaps it was better if I dealt with any hellbound souls before he could. I would spare him the obvious distress it caused him when “not nice” people showed up.
I worked my way briskly around the first floor. I didn’t need to go everywhere—I just needed to get a general scope of the floor, senses open for rot. There was none, which was rather surprising since this floor housed the ER, and so there were a lot of people in and out of the building.
The second floor was also clear.
As was the third, the fourth, and the fifth. I skipped Sebbie’s floor—no rot there—and worked my way to the top of the hospital.
I was done in under thirty minutes. Because not a single hellbound soul was in the hospital.
Not one.
That should have been reassuring, but it wasn’t. Because hospitals inevitably contained hellbound souls. It was like going to a huge concert—you were going to have a rotten soul or two when you gathered hundreds or even thousands of people in one place.
Evil people got injured, too.
Only there were none here. I headed back to Sebbie’s floor, and while I was in the elevator, I got a text from him saying he was done.
My thrill at getting back to Sebbie was only slightly tempered by my current concern. Was itreallylikely that there wasn’t a single hellbound soul in the hospital, or had Sebbie inadvertently already taken care of them?
And if so, how would I talk my way into staying with him tonight? Because I didn’t want him alone if he had to deal with hellbound souls.
Chapter 18
Sebbie
“Oh my gosh,it issogood to see you,” I gushed when I met Corbin by the elevator.
Was it probably a little too soon to be all gushy? Eh, whatever. You only live once. Plus, Corbin and I had spent so much time together over the past week that I felt like I’d known him for ages.
He gathered me up into a hug, which made me feel like he totally agreed with the sentiment. When we pulled apart, he gave me a quick peck on the lips before taking my hand to head back into the elevator and down to the ground floor.
Gah, this man was so sweet.
“How was your day?” he asked.
“Oh my gosh, it was insane!” I answered, because I suddenly couldn’t wait to tell him all about it. Ithadbeen a crazy day.
“First of all, I ended up moving around a bit today, because I have a lot of experience, and it seemed everyone was short-staffed. It was kind of weird—things aren't usually done like that.” I shrugged. Who was I to question hospital decisions? I liked my department, but when the Director of Nursing begged you to be a floating nurse for at least half your shift, you said yes. Not because Samantha was a meanie who would get back at meif I said no, but because she was a kick-ass Director of Nursing, and I knew if she was asking it was needed.
“Did you enjoy floating, or did you miss your wing?” Corbin asked. The elevator was opening up on the ground floor, and he led me through the parking lot to the garage as I chattered about my day.
