Page 14 of Like Grim Death: Part One
I bring the cigarette to my mouth, turning as I face Dominus, his back pressed to the stone column opposite mine. He has his hands in the pockets of his beige jacket, his dark green eyes unfocused as he watches people in the courtyard at my back. We stand around the side entrance of Fren, obscure and thrown in shadow.
Elijah doesn’t look as if he just supervised the crude burial of a teenager’s corpse. Then again, I probably don’t either.
As I pull from my fix, the nicotine fills my lungs, but something else does too. Like guilt, and it’s not about the dead body. It’s the factI’m trying to quit smoking.
I drop the cigarette when I exhale from my nose, then extinguish the cherry with my black Chuck, the sound a scuff in the night. “I would’ve jumped all over that shit back then, but I’m taken now by a woman who plays with knives. Wouldn’t want to put those girls in any danger.”
“I would have thought thatwomanwould carve some sense into you. What you did tonight was foolish.” Despite his admonishment, he still doesn’t look at me. I know it’s not from any meekness on his part. He’s scanning the area, ensuring our relative privacy. His broad shoulders lack tension, but the way his eyes jump over every detail of my former campus, I know he’s on alert. “You have asked for something, I’ve promised to give it, and in exchange…” He trails off, waiting for me to supply the rest.
I obey.But I don’t say that. I don’t think I could ever force those words out of my mouth now. Maybe to my father, before I killed him. Before I had something greater than him to bow for. Thatsomethingis certainly not Elijah.
“You couldn’t have told me?” I keep my voice low, and I stare at the side of Fren as I speak. If anyone looked our way, they’d think we were merely strangers on some sort of prolonged smoke break, our heads turned in opposite directions.
“No.” The answer doesn’t waver. “You are to obey without question, and if Boaz had any hint you knew he was coming, you would arrive home to a family of corpses.”
I ignore the last part, so I don’t kill Dominus. Instead, I focus on the first.Boaz.“I don’t recall the term, or Rival’s Claw. And I don’t remember MikhailfuckingMalikov.” I also don’t mention the fact Cain knew of him from Callum and tried to warn me. I decide to keep that sliver of loyalty to myself.
Elijah sighs audibly. “Yes, but since I didn’t say his name, I assume one of your brothers did remember.”Oh.“It’s a good thing they have your back, Luce, where your memory is… faulty.” He says it the same way Mikhail said “incident.” It burns inside my brain. “Lamia tried to shield you from RC most of your life,” he speaks lowly.
At the mention of my mother’s name, I feel as if the world is falling away. Brown hair, light eyes, gentleness. That’s all I can recall of her.
I tense, my hands pushed into my hoodie pocket, my body rigid. But I clench and unclench my jaw several times before I react. “What’s next?” I blink, trying to clear the vivid vision of Mikhail Malikov’s blood splattering the stone wall of the English building. That would solve many of my problems. “And why else is he here? Is it for Edith? What happened with her? Who took those photos of Sid?”
A muscle in Elijah’s neck jumps but he does not look at me.Yeah, doesn’t feel so hot when someone is after your fucking wife, huh?“It’s likely Jeremiah, or someone connected to him, had a hand in both those things.” I do my best not to scream when I hear my fucking half-brother’s name. It feels as if I can never escape it. “Boaz is only here to confirm, and to look into what happened to the governor.”
Phil Cooper was attacked inside his own mansion, then placed in a private hospital forweeks.
“How’s Phil doing, by the way?” I ask casually. I don’t know who did it, but I have a fucking hunch. And due to the darkened rumors I’ve heard about him, I don’t feel any type of pity for his assault.
Elijah sighs. “Don’t get so giddy. Sometimes the mighty have to stay in place to appease the status quo. You want something Phil would be very helpful in giving. A person with morals takes his place and it’s hard to get an in, you understand?”
I roll my eyes, but I don’t speak.
“And as for you and your task, Mikhail has decided it’s easier this way, with your refusal. The initiate will heal,briefly,the ceremonies will continue, then… he stays with you.”
“No.” Forgoing protocol, I drag my gaze to Elijah. “I thought you heard me the first time.”
I can see the tension in his forehead, a vein threatening to burst, even as he continues to face away from me. He’s under his own pressure, dealing with his familial messes. But I don’t care. I won’t have a stranger in my home.
“Two things will happen when you refuse.” Elijah’s words are remarkably calm, his gaze flickering around AU. “You can forget your request to me, and…” He cuts his eyes to mine. “You can forget the safety of your family.”
“If he’s in my home, I think I’m already forgoing that, don’t you?” I speak coldly, but it’s hot anger in my chest. I’ve jumped through a lot of fucking hoops for my wife and my son. Theydeserveto be protected. And I will give upeverythingfor that.
“Don’t act like a child,” Elijah snarls, his gaze narrowing. “The initiate is a wounded, confusedmess—”
“Those are the most dangerous.”I would know.
“He does not want to go back to where he came from, and he will not risk his own reward.”
I tilt my head, scanning my eyes up and down Dominus. He’s formidable, expensive, put together. He ranks very high in my world and in the greater world too. But he does not intimidate me. After everything I’ve been through, only Sid could do that. “Which is what? His reward?”
“I couldn’t tell you even if I knew.” And I can’t figure out if he truly does know or not. His body language doesn’t change with his words. “You bring him home, you teach him, and you, Sid,andyour son are secure.”
I run my tongue over my teeth. I don’t like when he speaks my fucking wife’s name. “How long?” I haven’t agreed, but I’m not stupid enough to tempt the 6. Not right now.
“Halloween.”
It’s like my heart skips a beat. October thirty-first is wrapped in knives, blood, and something like love for me, ever since the night I met my wife. “Where does he go? After that?”
