Page 25 of Phantom’s Mate

“Well, what did you do, when you were alive? For a living?”

He was so used to not telling anyone the truth that it took him a minute to realize it didn’t matter anymore. “I was an undercover agent, infiltrating major criminal operations.”

“Wow,” she said. “For real?”

He gave a little huff of laughter. “Oddly, yes, it’s the truth, which I haven’t told anyone about my job in—well, ever. If I’d met you when I was alive, I would have had to lie—give you a cover story.”

She smiled. “So being dead made you honest?”

“I guess.” He’d never been honest with anyone, really. Not about the things that mattered to him. Maybe that was why he’d chosen the work he had—being able to hide his real self was a job requirement. “What about you? What did you do?”

“Nothing even half as exciting. I was a freelance researcher. I mostly worked for law firms, but sometimes for other companies or even authors. That was fun.”

“If you say so.”

“Rude.” She smacked him lightly. “Respect the research.”

“I yield,” he said. “I’m respecting. What was the most interesting thing you researched?”

She thought for a minute, then said, grinning, “I know! Background for an article on the history of divorce law. Did you know, in medieval England one of the only reasons a woman could divorce her husband was for impotence? But she had to prove it in court.”

She started giggling. “So there had to be witnesses—people who would inspect his dick and make him try to get it up, to make sure he couldn’t.”

Nick started laughing. “Get out. They had dick inspectors? You’re messing with me.”

“No, it’s true. I can show you my sources.” She stopped. “Or I could, if I were still alive.”

He hated to see her get sad. “I’ll take your word for it. What else do you want to know about me, before inspecting my dick again?”

That made her smile, and all was right in his world. She said, “Tell me about your family.”

He shrugged. “Don’t have any. Ran away from foster care when I was fourteen. I did not fit in.” Mostly because he was a shifter, but luckily he’d had enough control not to let any humans find out.

“I was in foster care too,” she said. “Only for a little while, though. After my mom…”

He traced his fingers over her heart. “She died?”

Brittany shook her head. “She… left. When I was little. My dad was… they weren’t married, I don’t know if he ever knew about me. She was a mess. Petty crime, drugs I guess.”

“That must have been hard.”

“It was at first. My grandparents didn’t know for a while what had happened, but when they found out my mom had abandoned me they came and got me. My gramma and gramps raised me. I was lucky.”

“Yeah. I’m glad.”

“My mom—” She stopped, frowning.

“What?”

“Something about my mom…”

Her eyes went unfocused, and he could feel a dark energy swirling between them, the same as he’d felt when he and Titan got sucked into her nightmare.

“Britt? Stay with me. Stay here.”

Slowly her eyes grew aware again.

“Did you think of something? About your mom? Is that what you’ve been trying to remember?”