“I take it you’re Selene?” I grumbled, sitting up with great effort. My throat was dry, and my tongue felt thick with the tastes of blood and green apple.
“Who else would I be?” Her voice was low, husky from years of smoking vaporleaf.
Actually, vaporleaf sounded pretty good right now. I took a roll out of my pocket, doing my best to reshape it from the flattened mess it had become by me sleeping on it, and then lit the end. I inhaled deeply, and left it between my teeth as I used my hands to help myself get up.
I hobbled slightly back to the bar, taking a seat on one of the stools. “She gone?”
Selene nodded. “Don’t know how you found her to begin with, but when Morgana didn’t check in, we figured you were the culprit.”
Smart. And annoying. But knowing that Morgana was still sleeping off her own potion in the basement of her house made me feel a little better about the situation.
“That’s quite the system you’ve got set up. You been working with Morgana for a while, then?”
She stopped drying, throwing the towel over her shoulder and putting away the glass. Then she leaned forward with both her hands on the bar. “Let’s just say I have alotof little sisters and brothers who come through here, if you catch my drift.”
“Sisters and brothers?”
She huffed. “Don’t be so thick.”
I inhaled the vaporleaf, and when the realization hit me, I really did feel like an idiot.
She meant victims.
“We don’t typically get bounty hunters, though. Didn’t know her ex was rich enough to hire one of you.”
I furrowed my brow. “My client isn’t her ex. What are you talking about?”
Selene shrugged and took the towel back off her shoulder, grabbing another wet glass from the tray. “Whatever, I don’t know her story. I never ask. I did see the scars, though. Andif you did, too, you’d rethink bringing her back to whoever’s looking for her.”
I did. I was. But I needed to find her anyway, and not just to satisfy my own insane curiosity—which one these days was bordering on obsession—but also because of my deal.
I tapped my finger on my horn. “No can do. I’ve never lost a bounty yet, and I can’t exactly afford to make a habit of it.”
“Well, why’s she gotta suffer for your bad decisions?” she snarled. “You think just because you sold your soul, you now got the right to send her to hell?” She clicked her tongue against her teeth. “And don’t even think about trying to possess me. I don’t ask any questions, period, meaning I don’t even know where she went.”
I could possess her to double-check, but I didn’t need to.
“You say all this like it’s the truth, but I’m not going to trust the word of a stranger that she’s worth dying for.” I said, getting up and digging my keys out of my pocket.
Selene shrugged. “How many days you got left on that contract?”
I did a quick calculation in my head, the fog of having been knocked out repeatedly and my lingering rut making math way harder than it should have been. “One and a half days,” I realized soberly.
That was including the time it would take to get to Noctis. I hated cutting it short.
“I can’t exactly wish you luck. I just hope you realize before it’s too late that you’re making a mistake.”
I walked out of the bar into the bright morning sun and cursed loudly to find all the tires on my Hellfire had been slashed.
“Fucking witches…” I grumbled, whipping out my phone. I barely had any battery left, and service out here was abysmal.
I pat my baby lovingly as I rang the closest mechanic I could find, which was still around thirty-five miles away.
“Ephraim’s Garage,” came a gruff voice.
“Hi, yeah, I’m atSelene’s Howl. I need a tow and four new tires.”
A loud, bellowing laugh had me pulling the phone from my ear. When he started to peter out, he barked, “Get fucked, demon.”
