2. Chapter 2 #2
Noah stilled, his entire body rigid apart from the slight tremble in his fingers where they rested in his lap. His pulse thrummed, his heart fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings, and a swell of heat rushed up his neck and into his face.
Ever since high school, he had been pretty casual about relationships. As such, he had never dated anyone for more than a few weeks, and mostly, he liked to hang out in the friends-with-benefits zone.
Finn had been the first person he’d ever met in both his life and his afterlife that made him seriously contemplate something more serious. Maybe not forever . That word still made him feel itchy. Besides, he’d probably be terrible at it.
Still, something about Finn made him want to try, and lately, his reactions to the cowboy had only intensified.
“So, what brings you here?” Finn leaned back in the makeshift booth, his boots scraping against the wood floor, and stretched his arm along the back of the bench.
“A new soul just arrived.” He glanced at Orrin as he spoke, trying to gauge his reaction. As the Guardian of Lost Souls, the elf would know better than most how to handle the situation. “She’s a vampire.”
Finn straightened again, his expression more alert. While Orrin’s reaction was subtler—just a slight flare of his eyes—he, too, looked interested in the information.
Naturally, they didn’t get many immortal souls in the Underworld, especially not those who chose to stay in the village. Not a lot of dead vampires, fae, or dragon shifters taking up residency in apartments at the Tower.
“I don’t know her story,” he continued. “Bane thinks we should keep an eye on her, though.”
Orrin nodded, his brow lined and his expression thoughtful. Finn, however, stiffened, his angular jaw jutting at a defensive angle.
“Who is Bane?”
“Reaper.” Noah shrugged. “Kind of an asshole.”
For whatever reason, the description seemed to appease him, and he settled against the back of the booth again. Weird.
“What did he say exactly?”
“Not much. Just that she’s a new vampire and crazy, but he didn’t say why he thinks that.” Linking his fingers together atop the table, Noah leaned forward on his elbows and tilted his head. “There is something off about her, though.”
“How so?”
“Nothing solid. I just get a bad vibe from her.” He stared down at his hands while he searched for the right words. “Intense, I guess. I tried to talk to her, but she didn’t react at all. Then she just took off.”
“She’s in the village?”
Noah met the prince’s gaze and dipped his head. “I don’t know where, but yeah. She’s fast, too.”
“I’ll find her,” Finn offered.
Orrin hesitated, fussing with his robes and tossing his silvery hair over his shoulder. “Maybe that’s not a good idea.”
Technically a fledgling himself, Finn still struggled with impulse control, especially in situations that involved heightened emotions. At the same time, even if he went feral, it wasn’t like souls could die again.
Apart from taking a plunge into the Acheron, or pissing off Hades himself, the dead just regenerated like video game characters. Granted, while he had never experienced it firsthand, he’d heard it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience.
Apparently, it hurt like the ten shades of hell and took weeks to fully recover from.
Finn typically had a pretty laid-back personality with an easy smile and kind eyes. He spoke slowly, moved with purpose, and never used his size to intimidate. When things went wrong, though, they went really wrong, and it happened fast.
As such, he understood Orrin’s concern, but Finn had been doing much better in recent weeks.
“I’ll go with him.”
He wouldn’t be able to stop the cowboy physically, but he might be able to reason with him. Or run for help. Whatever.
“Finn is probably the only one who can catch her,” he reasoned when the prince still looked unconvinced.
Sure, Orrin had magic, and he could teleport, but this mission felt a little below his paygrade. So far, the female hadn’t become a safety concern—that he knew of. They just needed to find her.
“Okay,” Orrin relented after another tense moment. “Hopefully, this is all a misunderstanding, but I’d like to speak to her.”
“We’ll bring her to you.” He glanced sideways for confirmation from Finn.
“I’ll find her,” the cowboy promised. “And I won’t rip her head off.”
Despite his easy smile, a hint of defensiveness threaded his tone. Not that Noah blamed him. It must be exhausting to always be treated like a ticking time bomb.
Sensing the tension simmering beneath Finn’s steady exterior, Noah gave him a reassuring nod and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Let’s do this.”
Outside, they fell into step together, Noah slowing to match the deliberate rhythm of Finn’s boots against the weathered stones.
Circles of orange light bled together to illuminate the street, courtesy of lanterns hung from splintered posts.
He appreciated the aesthetics, but honestly, they did little to combat the perpetual twilight.
“Where should we start?” he asked.
“There aren’t too many places for her to go,” Finn reasoned. “Unless she’s tying one on at the tavern, my guess is that she probably went back to the river.”
“Tying what on?”
“Drinking.”
“Got it.” He ducked his head to hide his grin. “Why do you think she’d go back to the river, though?”
Finn shrugged, the movement stretching the white cotton of his tee across his broad chest. “Where else is she going to go?”
It seemed unlikely, but since he couldn’t argue with the logic, he simply nodded and followed Finn past the bakery and down the narrow alley.
“That her?”
Noah shook his head, a surprised chuckle puffing from his lips. “Yeah, that’s her.”
Standing at the edge of the embankment, her hair flowing down her back like some wild river goddess, the female vampire stared out over the water. Just the way she had the first time he’d seen her, and that eerie stillness about her still unnerved him.
Finn didn’t respond. He didn’t move either. Instead, he seemed frozen, rooted to the sand, his eyes narrowed as they stared into the distance. Tension gathered in his shoulders, and something in the way he carried himself shifted.
“Everything okay?” he asked, his gaze going back and forth between the vampires. “Do you know her?”
“I don’t reckon so.” His brow furrowed, and his nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply through his nose. “There’s something familiar about her, though.”
“Familiar how?”
Finn hesitated before shaking his head. “Just a feeling.”
Okay, this was getting weird. Maybe they should have brought Orrin along after all.
Before he could suggest they turn around and head back to the diner, however, he found himself face to face with a petite baby vamp.
One second, she had been standing by the water.
The next, she was directly in front of them, staring up at Finn with the biggest blue eyes he had ever seen.
The color of polished sapphire, they dominated her pixie-like face, sparking with pure mania.
Bane really hadn’t been lying. This close, she really did look crazy.
“Finn,” she breathed, an entire world of longing in that one syllable.
“Ma’am,” Finn responded, tipping an invisible hat at her. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“Finn,” she repeated, stepping closer to crowd against him. “I finally found you.”