Page 57 of Happily Undead in Dark River

Nico shook his head. “It's not my first severed head. He likes to leave a note, like a message in a bottle thrown out to sea.”

Catherine’s eyes narrow. “He?” she asks, but I can tell by the look in her eye that she already knows who he’s talking about.

“Lucius.”

X opens the note, reading silently as his eyebrows rise further and further toward his hairline. “Well, who needs messages in a bottle when you can send love notes in the skulls of your enemies?” He looks at me, a wild, vicious smirk on his face. “Have to say though, Love, I feel like there's only room for one psychopath in your group of admirers and I was here first.”

My feet freeze to the floor, and I turn rigid. My brain refused to comprehend what he was telling me. Walker grabbed the note, his brows doing the opposite of X’s and dipping low over his eyes in a frown as he read.

“What’s it say?” I whisper.

Walker shook his head, but X had no such qualms. It says, “I can’t get you out of my head, Raine Baxter. Speaking of heads, here is what will happen if anyone lays a finger on you again. I will lay them at your feet for judgment. Lucius.” X screwed up his nose. “Beautiful, right? But I think he might like to work on his courting game. Severed heads are so faux pas. Doesn’t he know its dick pics and Netflix and chill now?”

Every person in the vicinity stared down at X in something that looked a lot like bewildered horror. He seemed completely oblivious. I shook myself from my frozen state, picked up my purse and got out of my house as fast as possible. I’d had enough. I could take no more without suffering from a complete meltdown.

When I made it to the diner, it felt like I hadn’t been there in a month rather than a week. Beatrice’s face lit up with happiness as I walked in the door, the bell tinkling above my head. Then she noted my pasty, well pastier, complexion and ordered my usual from the kitchen, quickly making me a type-o float.

“Lass, you are a sight for sore eyes. It is good to see you back here, safe inside your town once again now all those Enforcers are gone, may they all get dickrot and die.” If we weren’t in a restaurant, I was pretty sure she would have spat on the ground. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that they weren’t really gone, just on a temporary sabbatical. I’d basically adopted two former Enforcers, and the most dangerous, most psychotic one of them all is now sending me severed heads and beautiful love notes.

I fell onto my type-o float like a starving woman and Beatrice gave me and my sudden paleness a hard look, like maybe Brody had been neglecting me. “It's been a rough year, Beatrice. Next year has to be better right? It's all going to be puppies and rainbows and unicorns and mind-blowing orgasms, right?”

Beatrice gave me a wan smile. “It's all you can hope for, Lass. Now, will any of your beaus be joining you for dinner tonight?”

I shrug, and I look over my shoulder as Tex strolls through the door. “Better make it a plus one.”

Beatrice gives me a motherly look that she somehow laces with pure sass, and points to a booth. “Take your usual booth. Unless the apocalypse has arrived, they will all find their way to you eventually. Even the shite-talking Brit.” She gives a fond grin when she speaks about X. I really have to ask how he wooed her over like that.

Tex grins in her general direction, and she smiles back at him, though a little frown appeared on her face when she realizes he can’t see her. It's easy to forget with my self-assured shifter. He leans forward and kisses me, finding my lips with such ease that I understand why people forget. “You okay?”

I sigh and nod, sucking down a fortifying slurp of my milkshake. Damn, I’d missed these. “I’m okay. What’s one more psycho trying to take my head?”

Tex frowns. “I don’t think he wants your head, Babe. I think there are other parts lower that he has his heart set on.” He looks like he wants to vomit at the thought. I can’t blame him really. I want to vomit as well.

Cheese fries and ice cream appear in front of me, and a burger appears in front of Tex. “Bert made them extra cheesy. I think he missed you too, Lass.”

I grin at her because I can’t help it. Even in the face of the shitshow that is apparently my life, I found that I was happy here.

The door opened, and the look on Beatrice’s face at whoever entered the diner had my heart pounding. I looked over my shoulder, and my heart flip-flops sadly at the sight of Angeline. She looked a little worse for wear, her eyes flat in a way they never were before, but I guess a week in Lucius’ tender care would do that to the most hardened of people. Her hair was a mess, and Cresta would have been horrified, if she wasn’t so relieved that Angeline wasn’t executed on the spot. I’m pretty sure she would be ecstatic even if Angeline had been shaved bald. I ran a hand over my head. Oh yeah.

I made a note to hit up Cresta for wigs or something. It was going to be a long century of looking like a neo-nazi otherwise. Beatrice was in front of Angeline, hugging her to her ample bosom like she was sure she was really a ghost and not our Angeline.

Her Angeline, I should say. I turned back around and tried my best to keep my promise to her. I was going to do my best to be invisible so I didn’t make her more miserable than she already was. Tex reached out, wrapping his hand in mine, our bond pulsing with love and just a touch of anger at the way Angeline had treated me. That made my lips curl in a shadow of a smile. I loved him so damn much.

When Angeline stopped in front of our table, my heart was thundering in my ears. I don’t know if I had it in me to take another emotional hit today. Squaring my shoulders and taking a deep breath to fortify my feelings, I looked up at Angeline.

Her eyes were flat, but I could see the pain in them, or maybe that was just a reflection of my own. She seemed a little more gaunt, a little paler, and when I looked at her hands, they trembled softly.

She seemed to be waiting for me to speak, but I didn’t know what to say. So, instead of letting the uncomfortable silence drag, I swallowed hard and whispered, “I’m glad you are okay.” She survived, and that was all anyone could ask for.

She nodded, her face still that weird, blank mask. “I am. Walker told me you insisted that they come and campaign for my freedom, that your Executioner was the one that managed to sway Titus, so I thank you.” Her words were robotic, but the world of pain that coated her words like oil still hurt my heart.

I just nodded once. I didn’t want her thanks or her gratitude. “You were my friend.”

She flinched like I’d struck her, and I guess even being my former friend must have been abhorrent to her now. She reached into her pocket and I tensed. Call it my life right now, but I suddenly had flashes of her pulling out a stake and driving it through my heart.

Instead, she dropped a bunch of keys on the table. I knew the keys of course. They were the keys to the Immortal Cupcake. I looked from her to the keys, and back again. She put her fingers on them almost reverently, then pushed them my way.

I just stare at them until she speaks. “I’m leaving. I’m giving you the store.”

---