“Most normal people just get a puppy or a cat.”
“We’ve already established I’m not normal, Jude.”
“If you had given in like I suggested, maybe she’d be happy with her dog and not be seeking out pets in the alley.”
“Not every dog is like Hades. They’re work and I work too much to care for one.”
He chuckles. “Sorry about your situation. You’ll figure it out, kid. Make sure James doesn’t get his ass killed.”
“Would it really be a shame if he died?” I mutter.
“He’s a great recruiter.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll keep him alive. Get me some juice on bats, though, or we’re going to have one extremely upset little girl on our hands.”
“I’ll call around. Give Mercy a kiss from Uncle Jude.”
“I owe you.”
“You always say that.”
“Because I always do.”
“Not everything requires repayment, Casti.”
“No, but family looks out after each other.”
It’s the first time I’ve verbally acknowledged what he means to me. His lips purse together like he’s pissed off, but that’s just Jude. He’s not so great at showing his emotions either.
“Be nice to my baby boy over there,” I state as I stand. Hades barks. “See you soon.”
“Bye, kiddo.”
Castilla
“If we get in there and you can’t handle yourself,” James says as we stalk through the rain toward our destination, “I’m leaving you behind.”
I roll my eyes. “A noble gentleman, I see.”
“The only thing noble about me is my dick, sweetheart, and sorry to break your teenage heart, it’s only into mature women with hair between their thighs.”
Fucking gag.
I hate douchebags like him.
Like Griffin.
A shudder trembles through me, but I ignore it. I won’t allow Griff to get inside my head. Not while at work. He does enough of that all the other times of the day. As we walk, I pat my leather, fitted vest to make sure my ruby stakes are secure and ready to use.
These two stakes are the only thing I have left of him.
Laurent.
I nearly died when I was five years old. Not from being a vampire snack. No, I nearly starved to death. By the time the landlord realized the rent check wasn’t getting paid, they let themselves in to discover the bodies of my baby brother and mother.
He murdered them, they said.
Locked me in a trunk because he couldn’t bear to kill me too, they said.
I was a miracle, they said.
Because while the bodies of my family rotted for fifteen whole days, I lived. Doctors and scientists poked and prodded for far too long, pondering over that mystery. The entire event traumatized my five-year-old self into silence. I couldn’t retell what had happened, not because I couldn’t remember, but because it was too painful.
Now that I work for Jude and have seen all kinds of weird, paranormal shit, I know it was the trunk that nourished me. Whenever I was on the brink of dehydration or starvation, the wood would glow with pretty gold etchings. It brightened my dark hell for those few moments. The hunger pains would fade. I’d no longer be dizzy. Just more time cramped in the confined space with a tiny crack of air to breathe from.
It wasn’t until I’d moved into the foster home that the two ruby stakes that had long since been confiscated by the police, appeared like magic on my pillow. I’ve kept them hidden and in my possession ever since, knowing they were the only tie I had left to my past. Jude looked into it once when I asked him about it to see how they came to appear, but he came up empty-handed.
When in my grip, though, they glow with the same markings I now know to be the Northern European Elder Futhark Runes. Like the trunk did, the stakes seem to strengthen and invigorate me. Jude did reveal to me what the markings meant.
Uruz. Life force, health, vigor, strength.
Algiz. Protection, healing, spirituality, higher self.
Tiwaz. Victory, justice, balance, sacrifice, fairness.
Somehow, they connected themselves to me. They found their way to me. The ruby stakes belong to me. One of Jude’s contacts, a historian from another realm, explained that the stakes were comprised of ruby infused with the blood of Christ and splinters of the cross He died upon. It pleases me to be a vessel for a higher being to destroy the evil on this earth.
Mercy be thy way.
I trip over a crack in the sidewalk, earning a snort from James. It’s jolting and reminds me I can reminisce later tonight in bed. Now’s the time to focus.
“Right there,” I say, pointing to a flickering white neon cue ball. “Stay behind me.”
“Please, girl, don’t insult me. I’ve beheaded men for less.”
I grab his bicep. He snarls at me, his dark eyes flashing with fury.
“Behead me later, douchebag. Just let me go first.” I release him and frown. “We don’t have to be enemies.”
“I’m not going to fuck—”