How to be Death (22 page)

“It’s why I like you, too, you know.”

I turned around to find Daniel standing in the doorway that led to the kitchen.

“It’s why you
liked
me,” I corrected. “Past tense.”

Daniel opened his mouth to reply, but I cut him off.

“C’mon, Runt,” I called, waking the sleeping dog up. “Time to go back to the room.”

She made a cute little yipping-yawn noise and stood up, stretching as she padded out from her spot underneath the table.

“You have ten minutes,” I called over my shoulder as I strode toward the exit. “Starting now.”

And for the record, I didn’t care if he followed me or not.

I’m a notoriously fast walker, and that evening, trying to outpace Daniel, I was at my fast walking best. At first, he kept up with me, but when he realized I wasn’t going to slow down and that talking was going to be at a minimum, he gave up, dropping his own gait to a saunter so that after a few seconds I’d far outstripped him. Runt, who was much faster than me on a bad day, had no problem keeping up.

As the path stretched out ahead of us like a grayscale version of the yellow brick road, I started to feel guilty about leaving Daniel in my dust. I didn’t know what he wanted to talk to me about, maybe it was important business stuff, and here I was, acting like a spoiled baby and totally blowing him off.

In my heart I knew I was just rationalizing my need for attention from Daniel: bad, good, or business—I would take any of it. I was in denial about my true feelings, so I was going to allow my unconscious need for contact to override any feelings of anger I might have. Slowing my pace, I looked behind me to see if Daniel was still following. He was, but he was so far down the path it was gonna take him all night to catch up. I took a deep breath, exhaling through my nose, and then I headed back the way I’d come.

As I approached him, Daniel was ambling along the path,
checking out the statuary illuminated in the rich amber glow of the outdoor lights that dotted the landscape.

“Okay,” I said when I was five feet away. “What do you want?”

Daniel grinned at me. He knew he’d won that hand, and I knew that he knew that I knew.

“Nice of you to join me.”

I crossed the last few feet remaining between us and stood directly in front of him, arms crossed over my chest.

“I hope you know that it’s cold and I’m tired and Runt’s tired—”

“No, I’m not,” the pup said, looking up at me.

“Yes, you are,” I shot back, giving her a warning look. She gave a short yip that let me know she thought I was being a pain in the ass then she trotted a ways down the path to give me and Daniel a little privacy—something I didn’t want.

“Look, I’m not trying to keep you out in the cold any longer than I have to, but there are a few things we need to talk about,” Daniel said, pulling his own coat off and holding it out to me.

“I don’t want it,” I said, gesturing at the coat with my chin, my arms still folded across my chest. “But I do want you to say whatever you have to say and be done with it. By the way, if you try anything weird, there’s a human bodyguard shadowing my every move. So consider yourself warned.”

“Okay, I will consider myself warned,” he said, trying not to laugh. I guess he thought the idea of him doing anything untoward to me was some kind of joke.

“It’s not funny,” I said, annoyed because this was supposed to be quick and painless and now Daniel was purposely dragging it out to make me feel bad.

“That you would think I’d do anything bad to you,” Daniel said, shaking his head. “That’s absurd.”

“Just forget it,” I growled, turning away, but Daniel grabbed my arm, pulling me back.

“Cal,” Daniel said, his breath hot on my cheek. “Just relax.”

We stood there, both of us breathing hard, then he let me go. I took a step back, putting some much-needed distance between us, and smoothed the short skirt of my yellow maid’s uniform down so it wasn’t riding up my thighs.

“I liked your other dress better,” he said, his voice low and gravelly as he stared at me, those ice blue eyes piercing my very soul. “The way it pushed your breasts up was very … sexy.”

I swallowed hard, my body turning on against the better judgment of my brain. I took another step away from him, hoping the cold air would cool me off before I got too heated up down below.

“Thanks,” I said, working hard to keep my voice even. “I liked it, too. But it was either loan it to Kali, or stare at her nipples during dinner.”

Daniel snorted, not expecting the word “nipple” to pop out of my mouth.

“What are you talking about?”

I shrugged my shoulders, goose bumps taking over my skin.

“She got sprayed by a skunk and it ruined her sari. There wasn’t time or reinforcements to get her an outfit from my room, so I picked this from one of the closets—” I indicated the maid’s uniform. “But she said she’d go nude before she’d wear it. So, trading with her was the only option.”

“How do you always end up in these ridiculous situations?” Daniel asked, amusement dancing in his eyes—and I had to physically restrain myself from reaching out and touching his cheek.

It was the kind of thing I’d done a thousand times before when we were together, touching his face or stroking his hair. I never even thought about it, I just did it. Now, touching him was an off-limits experience, something I didn’t have permission to do anymore.

“I guess it’s just a habit,” I said, falling into the easy banter we’d enjoyed as a couple. “Something I was born to do.”

“You’re freezing,” Daniel said, holding out his coat again.

This time I took it, ashamed that I’d been so rude before. He’d been trying to do something nice and I’d thrown it in his face. I slid the jacket over my shoulders, engulfing myself in Daniel’s scent—a spicy, masculine smell I knew better than my own perfume. I inhaled deeply, letting the warmth from the jacket, and the familiarity of his musk, envelope me.

There was just something about Daniel that made me giddy with happiness one moment and ready to deck him the next. I
didn’t know if that connoted love, but I had a feeling no one else in the whole universe could make me as happy as Daniel could—and me, the idiot, had to go and screw the whole bloody thing up. I wanted to scream at myself for being such a numbskull, for letting someone as wonderful as Daniel slip away—but instead I shoved all the feelings welling up inside me back down and out of sight.

“Your girlfriend is really pretty,” I said, tucking an errant strand of hair behind my ear. “Took me a little while to realize she was a Goddess.”

Daniel started to say something then shook his head and closed his mouth again.

“What?” I asked.

“Let’s just …” he said. “Let’s talk about something else.”

I nodded, trying to act like those words didn’t break my heart into tiny pieces, but it was useless. A big, fat tear slipped out and rolled down my cheek.

“No,” Daniel said, his face stricken. “Please don’t cry. Please, Cal.”

He reached out and brushed the tear away. My mouth crumpled and I looked down at my feet, fighting back the cascade of tears trying to escape, my resolve quickly deteriorating.

“I hate it when you cry,” he continued, looking kind of teary-eyed himself.

“I can’t help it,” I hiccupped, my throat constricting so I could hardly get the words out.
“I miss
you.”

I wasn’t imagining things; Daniel’s eyes were as misty as my own. He sniffed and shook his head, trying to shake off the emotion he was feeling, too.

“I can’t talk about this right now, Cal,” he said, brushing away the wetness on his cheek with the back of his hand. “I want to talk about it, but not tonight. Please.”

I nodded, not really understanding what he meant, but just so goddamned happy to be connecting with him again.

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “We can talk later.”

“Thanks, Cal,” he said, smiling at me. “I do need to talk about something else, though. Is that all right?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding again. “You can talk to me about anything.”

Daniel bit his lip, his face twisting into a grimace of pain.

“Why does everything you say just hit me right here?” he said, indicating the place where his heart was hidden beneath sinew and rib bone.

I shrugged, but I was secretly pleased I was affecting him so much.

“I don’t know. I guess we just have simpatico. Whatever the hell that means.”

“Ha!” Daniel said. “
That
we don’t have—because sometimes I just want to put a muzzle on you, you drive me so damn crazy.”

I knew the feeling. Daniel was a master at making me so mad I wanted to punch him.

“Whatcha want to talk about?” I asked finally, after we’d stood there kind of grinning at each other for a while. Whatever feelings my question called up inside Daniel, it made him instantly tense up, his jaw tightening like a screw.

“The Ender of Death, I mean, Marcel—”

“What about him?” I interrupted.

Daniel ran a hand through his hair, making the cowlick at the crown of his head stick up.

“Well, let’s just say I was really pleased to hear that Jarvis had taken some precautions.”

“What? You mean the bodyguards?”

Daniel nodded.

“And Runt, of course. She’s a better watchdog than any human bodyguard.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, looking across the yard where Runt was sprawled underneath the moonlit shadow of an Egyptian obelisk.

“What do you think hellhounds do, Cal?” Daniel said, scrunching his eyes together with curiosity.

“I don’t know,” I stammered. “They hang out in Hell … I don’t know. Tell me.”

Daniel laughed—and his entire face lit up.

“They’re the greatest guard dogs in the universe. Why else do you think the Devil had Cerberus guarding one of the Gates of Hell?”

I’d actually never stopped to think about it before, but what Daniel said made sense. Runt had been guarding me in some capacity or other from the very first day we met. Without her,
I’d have been mincemeat many times over. She must’ve realized we were talking about her because she sat up and started thumping her tail.

“She’s a really great and powerful supernatural creature, Cal,” Daniel continued. “And she’s chosen to stay on Earth and look after you.”

There was something underneath what Daniel was saying, something I was in the dark about.

“What else could she be doing … if she weren’t, you know, looking after me like you just said?”

“She would be in Hell with her family, helping us clean the place up again after—” Daniel said, but I cut him off.

“You said she’d be with her family,” I blurted out. “Don’t you just mean her dad?”

Daniel looked at my quizzically.

“Runt has a whole family down in Hell—brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins. She’s part of a very large hellhound tribe.”

I was shocked. No one had ever told me that Runt came from a whole tribe of hellhounds, all of whom probably missed the crap out of her. I felt terrible. I’d unwittingly forced her into staying on Earth when, of course, she’d no doubt want to be back in Hell with her family if she’d been given her druthers.

“I had no idea,” I said, the positive vibe I’d been grooving on quickly dissipating. “No one ever said anything to me before.”

Daniel reached over and squeezed my arm—but it felt like an empty gesture, something you did when the other person was too wrapped up in themselves to see reality.

“She wants to be here with you,” he said.

I shrugged his hand away then took off his jacket and handed it back to him. He seemed confused by my abrupt mood change.

“Cal, what did I say?”

“Nothing.” I shrugged, my tone flat. “Go on with what you were saying about the Ender of Death.”