Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Evading the grave was all well and good, but then the revenant had the issue of his flesh rotting on the bone and the inability to exist in modern society without some sort of magical cover to hide the funk of death and decay.
That was where Niamh had stepped in. For a sizable transaction fee, of course. A body didn’t do something for nothing. There was a reason she’d outlived most of her kind. It took more than brawn and balls to slip through the rapidly changing centuries.
“I am jealous of the male you sit with,” he mused, swinging his notice from Broken Sue’s empty place to the bartender at the other end of the bar, currently glancing back at him. It was anyone’s guess whether that bartender planned to budge from his location. Walking toward a nightmare wasn’t usually particularly motivating.
“And why is that?” Niamh asked.
“He seems to be crawling out of the grave as we speak…but he got to keep his skin. What I wouldn’t give for my former glory.”
“It was only his soul that died. Ye never had one of those. Besides, he won’t live forever. Ye certainly seem on that path, though. What are ye doin’ roaming around a city? Shouldn’t ye be off looking for a war or battle or some other sort of large, bloody skirmish? I assume ye still feed on the suffering and anguish of humans…”
“I do, of course. Not even magic can change the way a revenant gains sustenance. I’ve tried.”
Risk, meet reward.
The second she recognized his scent, she’d wondered what lengths he’d gone to over the years to function within modern society. He’d know, at the very least, how things worked in the magical world. His personality, carried over from life, would still contain that original drive—that need to be a power player and reside at the top of a business empire.
Based on what he’d just said, he’d been in communication with mages. That, or he’d had someone reach out for him. It meant he had at least one connection, hopefully more.
Given he was still wandering the streets, visiting dive bars full of wayward individuals, that meant he had not reclaimed any of his former glory. He was hungry.
He had a use, and she knew his motivation. She was suddenly very glad she’d made her presence known in this place.
“And yet ye feed from scraps within the rank city streets, existing within the crusty folds of a Dick society?” she asked before finishing her cider in a couple of needed gulps, holding up the glass, and then clanking the ice around inside for another. “I figured ye’d be after inhaling the great misery that came with wars. The Dicks always have one or more of those happening at any given time. A little traveling and voila, eat like a king.”
“If only that were the case. Now, they explode enemies from afar with fire and machines. It’s not at all the same as the good ol’ days. But luckily, there is plenty of sorrow and misery lining the curbs. I just need to wander by, and I soak up all that delicious sustenance.”
“Sounds like a treat. And why have ye come to see me?”
“It isn’t every day I smell an old friend in my neighborhood.”
“Ye don’t have any friends, Ezra.”
“Neither do you, so we might as well pretend. And it’s Volkan now.”
“Volkan?” She gave him a side-eye while she rattled her ice in her glass again. “Did ye get that from Star Trek or what?”
“What?”
“Exactly. It’s a stupid name. Pick another.”
Aurora
A bare bulb shone down yellowish light from a dirty fixture in the ceiling. The toilet was eternally running and toilet paper was littered all over the floor. A small, empty baggy, which had probably held cocaine, sat on the edge of the sink, and the space smelled strongly of stale urine.
If this wasn’t a fitting punishment for her cowardice a moment ago, she didn’t know what was.
What had she even been scared of? That thing was gross, sure, and its magic felt like a sticky film along her skin, but its actual power hadn’t somersaulted her like Auntie Jessie’s or Uncle Auzzie’s could have. And when Auntie Jessie let her magic surge, it was so powerful it threatened to drag Aurora down into the depths of subconscious.
But this thing?
She shivered.
It wasn’t its power that had scared her. And, honestly, at any other time, she wouldn’t have admitted to her fear. She’d been trained to keep all emotion behind a façade so that enemies couldn’t see her weaknesses. Except her dad had never told her about creatures that seemed to feel weakness. Or maybe smell it.
There were clearly worse things than challenges in the world, and some of them just turned up, willy-nilly, in dive bars.
Oh God, had that been one of Niamh’s concerns? Was this why she’d followed Aurora? Why Sue had warned her against going out on her own? She’d assumed they were trying to rein her in for the same reasons her father, or her mother, or the last beta had: Don’t go out on your own, Aurora. You don’t know who’s watching. Don’t relax too much. The pack has expectations.