How to Break an Undead Heart

by Hailey Edwards

  “Hi there. Oslo, right?”

  “You must be… No clue. Linus keeps his private life private.”

  “I’m Grier.” His candor made me laugh. “I’m a friend of his from Savannah.”

  “Visiting the big city?” His grin widened. “How does it compare?”

  For me, it didn’t. “I won’t be packing up and moving here anytime soon, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Eh. It’s not for everyone.”

  Keeping it polite, I smiled. “I’m sure the same could be said for my hometown.”

  “I would rather donate my eyes to science today than give this up.” His mouth flattened. “But I’m sure it’s great. There’s got to be something decent there to keep Linus’s attention.” He wiped a hand across his mouth. “I’m going to stop there. Trust me, it’s for the best.”

  A booming feminine voice rang out from the back, and a woman who appeared to be in her late fifties power-walked into the office I had vacated. A well-preserved sixty-seven indeed. She waved Linus and me in, then shut the door in Oslo’s face before he could join us.

  “This is her?” she demanded. “You can’t be serious, Doodlebug. Sneeze, and she’ll blow away.”

  “Why is it open season on my weight?” I folded my jacket over my chest and the boobs that required no bra to fight gravity. “Trust me. I miss my curves. I’m working hard to get them back.”

  “Curves don’t vanish,” she scoffed, indicating her rounded hips. “Trust me. I’ve fad dieted off and on for four hundred years.”

  “Maybe you should try prison.” Chin up, I sank into the chair across from hers. “It worked wonders on me.”

  “Shit,” Mary Alice snarled at Linus. “This isn’t just—” she made air quotes, “—a friend who needs help.”

  “I never said—” he began.

  “This is Grier Motherfucking Woolworth.” She shoved him hard in the chest. “Do you know what a hot-ticket item she is right now? Word on the street is there’s a bounty on her head that would buy me this whole block.”

  Dizziness settled around me as the blood drained from my head. “Since when?”

  “Yesterday.” Her frown sliced through me. “I had no idea Doodlebug brought you here. I’m guessing that’s the only reason you’re still alive. Not many would square off with the potentate in his own city. All bets are off once you leave, though. I hope you’ve got someplace safe to go.”

  “Can you get us transportation?” Linus pressed. “Nothing fancy. A van or SUV if you’ve got one.”

  Huffing out a sigh like he’d asked for her firstborn grandchild, she snagged a pair of keys off a hook by the door. “Take my ride. There are spare plates in the trunk. Folks might be looking for an Atlanta tag.”

  “Thanks.” He bent and kissed her cheek as he accepted the keys. “I’ll have it returned to you Monday.”

  “You do that.” She straightened his collar. “You sure this girl’s worth the trouble?”

  “I’m sitting right here.” I waved at her in case her eyes had gone bad. “Can you not talk over me?”

  Mary Alice continued ignoring me. “Well? Is she?”

  “Yes,” he said without hesitation.

  “All guys think that right before the truth smacks them between the eyes.” She flicked a dismissive glance my way. “That wraithlike waistline won’t last forever. The looks won’t keep either. There’s no good reason for a kid your age to settle down. Let alone with this one. She’s going to get you killed or end up dead herself. Still think she’s worth it?”

  My gaze clashed with his, black and endless, and held longer than a simple yes or no required.

  “Yes,” he told her, his voice raw in a way I had never heard from him.

  “She gets it, okay?” Mary Alice plonked down behind her desk. “You’re willing to sacrifice your life for hers. Blah, blah, romantic sentiments, blah, blah, death wish, blah. We got it.” Her scowl carved her wrinkles even deeper. “Take care of yourself. Don’t make me give up your chair, okay?”

  “I earned that chair.” Lips twitching, he cut his eyes to her. “I don’t want anyone else using it until I get back.”

  Mary Alice grunted and settled in to start filing her nails. “Every day it sits empty is a day I lose money.”

  Linus studied the ceiling like he might find patience there. “We’ll talk about my return later.”

  “If there is a later,” she grumbled, dismissing us.

  Linus helped me to my feet then showed me through the emergency exit into the alley that ran behind the building. The air stank of old cigarettes, and I wondered why no one had suggested Mary Alice switch to vaping since the hookah-smoking caterpillar was an iconic Alice character.

  We started walking toward a parking deck a block down, our footsteps the only sounds. The booth was unmanned at this hour, our trek up the incline to the second level uncontested. Flickering lights gave the concrete tomb an eerie effect, and I stuck close to Linus as we searched the short row of marked spaces labeled for Tatter employees.

  A throaty rumble echoed through the deck, reverberating in my bones, and my ankle buckled. Tiny hairs lifted down my nape in a warning prickle, the skin between my shoulder blades itching as I regained my balance. “You heard that too, right?”

  “Keep walking,” he said, soft and calm. “Pretend nothing is wrong.”

  Clicking sounds, like claws on concrete, came from all directions.

  “Where’s Cletus?” I scanned the cavernous space for wisps of black more alert than all the rest.

  “The garage is warded.” Linus held his laser focus. “I can break them, but it takes time we don’t have. I keep them muted while I’m home, but I didn’t bother for such a short trip.”

  “Okay.” So, we were on our own.

  “Mary Alice drives a silver Dodge Grand Caravan,” Linus said, attempting to distract me. “There are stickers all over the back from her grandkids’ schools and activities.”

  “Okay.” The row assigned to Tatter employees wasn’t that long, and I wasn’t seeing any van, but I was hearing steady panting. “Any local warg packs?”

  “Yes.” Reaching back, he took my hand and hauled me behind him. “Three, actually.”

  “Okay.” Me and my big mouth. “New topic.”

  He cast a glance back at me, an unreadable expression sharpening his features, but then he set his jaw.

  Woof.

  The single huff got picked up into a song that echoed all around, converging on our location.

  “We’re not going to make it,” I said, jerking on his hand. There was no point in pretending. “We need to lock ourselves in a warded circle and find out what we’re up against.”

  “We don’t have time for that.” Linus scowled at the rows of vehicles fanning in all directions, none of them the silver van we had been promised. “They’ll be on us the second we stop moving.”

  “I used a protective sigil on Oscar that night aboard the Cora Ann. It held the dybbuk at bay. Would that work?” I started fishing in my bag for my pen. “We could swipe those on and then risk stopping to draw a circle?”

  “It’s worth a try.” He angled us toward a covered stairwell. “This ought to hold them long enough to give us a fighting chance.”

  No hands meant they either had to shift to open the door or smash it down with brute strength.

  Three heartbeats later, Linus and I stood on the third-floor landing, and the dull thud of flesh against metal told us which option our pursuers had chosen. I wasted no time drawing the rune on top of his hand. Once I finished with him, I did the same for myself.

  The wards we’d used to trap the dybbuk had been his work, and I wasn’t certain I could replicate those from memory, but I had a brush and ink. I could follow his lead. We could tag team again. He could start the wards while I acted as a distraction.

  “Keep moving.” He led me out into the parking deck once more. “We don’t want to get trapped in the stairwell if they break through before we can f
inish.” He froze when I pressed my ink pot, made with Maud’s blood, and a brush into his hands. “What are you—?”

  “You need time. Find an out-of-the-way corner and start working. I’ll jog around the first two rows and lay a false scent trail to distract them when they get up here.”

  Linus strained forward, the urge to snatch me back to him twitching in his fingers, but he forced a nod, his knuckles tightening around the supplies I’d given him. “Be quick, and be careful.”

  “I will.” I had no intentions of becoming a chew toy for whatever hunted us.

  Clearing the first row winded me, and I was already flagging, but adrenaline gave me a healthy boost when I heard the padded echo of my movements. Not daring to hold still long enough to find out if these creatures could retract their claws to hunt silently, I pumped my thighs harder.

  An all-too-familiar baying noise ricocheted off the concrete pylons in response to my burst of speed.

  I would never forget that sound for as long as I lived, or the needlelike teeth that went along with it.

  “This can’t be good,” I panted. The watchmen were contracted to the Faraday. Why the heck were they hounding me? I was the guest of a resident, and the resident himself was busy drawing a barrier to keep us safe from our would-be protectors. After skidding around the corner, I started running flat out for the spot where Linus knelt. “Incoming.”

  Hot breath fanned the back of my left thigh, and a cold nose brushed the bend of my knee as teeth closed over the hem of my coat. The beast behind me skidded to a halt, yanking me back with such force I hit the ground on my tailbone. Impact shot a burst of lightning zigzagging up my spine, and I cried out in pain.

  Noticing my abraded palms, sliced open when I braced for the fall, I used my own blood as ink. Instinct guided me to finger-paint protective sigils down my exposed legs, and I kept repeating the pattern until my wounds clotted on me.

  Magic, old and rich, snapped into place around me, locking me in a bubble I couldn’t see but sensed in the way air moved slower through the barrier.

  A yelp resounded behind me, and I turned to find a massive dog-lizard thing pushing off the ruined fender of a nearby truck where the punch of energy had flung it away from me.

  “Linus.” I twisted toward him. “Raise your circle. Now.”

  Agony pinched his eyes as he obeyed. A shiver rode my skin in response to his magic, and I thanked the goddess we were both safe and sound. For now. The way the beast snarled his upper lip had me questioning how long our good fortune might last.

  “What do you want?” I yelled at it. “What have we ever done to you?”

  In response, it tipped its head back and howled a message I had no doubt went something like Soup’s on!

  Before long, answering calls alerted me to the presence of two more of the things.

  Just how many watchmen were there? I had only ever seen Hood. Had that been by design?

  Unsure how much they understood in this form, I tried again. “What’s your deal? Why are you chasing us? Did we forget to get our parking validated or something?”

  The other two closed in on the one in the middle, sniffing and licking until content it was mostly unharmed. With a huff, it liquefied into a reddish puddle before spraying several feet in the air like a geyser that poured into a humanlike form. The curtain of magic dripped away until a petite woman with sleek blue hair and sharp green eyes stood before me dressed in workout clothes like she had just left the gym. Or enjoyed a wicked sense of humor about how she got her cardio.

  “Grier Woolworth.”

  “That’s me.” No point in denying it when they’d tracked us this far. They had our scents in their noses.

  “I’m Lethe Kinase.” She sighed when the larger of the two remaining beasts stalked toward me. “Hood you know.” The third creature padded over to her and leaned its head against her thigh. “This is my brother, Midas.”

  “Nice to meet you.” I poured enough sugar into my voice to sweeten a family reunion’s worth of iced tea. “Thanks for the introduction. It’s always good to know your enemies by name.” When Hood nosed closer, I hissed at him. “Traitor.”

  The soft whine in his throat made me feel like I was the one who had betrayed him. How, when he was the one chasing me around like an M&M rolling across a counter, I had no idea.

  “We owe you a boon.” Her fingers curled in Midas’s ruff. “No one has successfully infiltrated the Faraday in the history of its operation until tonight. How it was accomplished is still under investigation, though I imagine we’ll discover a resident missing a keycard at best. A resident with malicious intent at worst. Neither scenario changes the fact we were remiss in our duties, and you almost died as a result.”

  The sweet edge of relief threatened to swamp me, but my luck wasn’t this good. “It’s no problem. Really. You guys can go back to whatever you were doing, and we’ll get back to whatever we’re doing. No hard feelings.”

  Red magic splashed against my barrier as Hood shifted forms. “You are what we’re doing.”

  “Hard pass.” I pulled my coat tighter around me. “I’m not that adventurous.”

  Lethe’s husky laughter brought my attention swinging back to her, but she was eyeing Hood like he was listed as a prime cut on a menu only she had been handed. “I’m glad you feel that way.” Her lips quirked as their eyes met. “He’s mine, and I don’t share.”

  “Oh” seemed like the best answer, so I stuck with that.

  The third dog-lizard thing dissolved and reformed into a gilded version of Lethe that made me wonder if his spun-gold hair had earned him his name. From a distance, he was heartbreakingly beautiful, his features hewn from granite, his skin kissed by the sun. But upon closer inspection, he was too gaunt, with scars crosshatching his forearms, and his eyes, a rich aquamarine, held an edge of sorrow that was as likely to slit his throat as yours.

  “It’s an honor debt,” Midas informed me, his voice rasping like speech hurt. “You were attacked on our watch, and that means we’re in your service until the threat has passed.”

  “What about the Faraday?” Please let there be a non-compete clause. “I don’t want to cost you your jobs.”

  “Our pack will see that the Faraday is well protected,” Midas assured me. “This was our mistake, and we will see our honor restored.”

  That sounded an awful lot like he wasn’t willing to take no for an answer.

  “I’m going home. To Savannah.” I shrugged apologetically. “You’ll have to restore your honor another way.”

  “We’ll come with you,” Hood decided after exchanging looks with the other two.

  “That’s really not necessary.” I shot Linus a panicky glance. “Right?”

  “The watchmen seldom offer their services to individuals and never for free.” Linus stood within his circle, arms crossed. “Hood has shown marked interest in Grier from the moment she arrived. There’s more to this than you claim.”

  “Her scent reminds me of a young woman to whom I owe a blood debt.” Hood bowed his head. “I couldn’t save her, but perhaps this might help me balance the scales.”

  There was more, I could tell the story didn’t end there, but I understood too well how much easier it was not to talk about the past. “How about you come with us then? Just you.”

  The fewer, the merrier, I always say. When it comes to slavering dog-lizard things.

  “We are kindred.” Midas shook blond hair into his eyes. “His debt is ours.”

  “Our bond doesn’t allow for separation,” Lethe explained. Leaving her brother, she approached us, pausing in front of Hood. “I almost lost him once. I won’t risk him again.”

  “I was a pup then.” Hood cradled her face in his palm. “I’m not so breakable now.”

  “Still.” She leaned into the touch. “We go with you. Always.”

  Hood smiled, all teeth, and brought her in for a bruising kiss. “Always.”

  Turning away, I resisted the urge to fan myse
lf. At least someone had their relationship all figured out.

  “You own enough property to give them room to run,” Linus said thoughtfully. “They sleep outdoors, so Woolly’s wards won’t be an issue.” His smile was calculating, far too amused, when he said, “Boaz did suggest you hire full-time security.”

  But he meant handpicking Elite loyal to him, not adopting dog-lizards who would answer only to me.

  Hmm.

  Maybe Hecate did listen to our prayers. This unexpected boon would certainly answer one of mine.

  “You think this is wise?” So far I had an undead parakeet, a dybbuk-possessed bestie, and a ghost child living under my roof. The roof belonging to a sentient house. And Linus lived next door. Those things I could handle. But adding three watchmen into the mix? Even if they kept me from relying on sentinels? “How certain are you on a scale of one to ten?”

  “An eight.” He shrugged. “I subtracted two points for the cost of feeding them and the maintenance required to clean up after them.”

  I palmed my forehead. “Are you really telling me I have to buy sides of beef and shovel-sized pooper scoopers to make this work?”

  A smile quirked his lips, and the others laughed like I had told the best joke ever.

  “We’ll only follow you if you don’t agree,” Lethe confessed at last. “Hood’s peace of mind is worth more to us than your permission.”

  Thinking of ninety percent of the people in my life, I sighed. “Then you’ll fit right in.” The trio shared a triumphant howl that made me nervous coming from human-looking throats. “You’re not going to eat me if I erase my wards, right?”

  “That would be counterproductive,” Hood said, amused.

  “Still, it’s been a long weekend.” Growing longer by the minute. “Humor me.”

  “I vow we won’t bite you.” Hood grinned at me. “We won’t even nibble.”

  Midas joined the others, and Lethe hooked her arms around their waists. “You won’t notice we’re there.”

  “Okay. Fine.” I erased my sigil, and the protective barrier dissipated. “Do you want to ride with us?”

  “Nah.” Lethe’s eyes sparkled as she rested her head on Hood’s shoulder. “Race you?”